arduino sonar buzzer php twitter thingy
Tags: arduino, buzzer, sonar, twitter
i haven’t posted in a while, but that doesn’t mean i haven’t been doing cool stuff in what little spare time i have. i thought i’d finally record one cool project i finished.
i’m not sure what to call it other than “dynamic awareness”. in a nutshell, i interface a Maxbotix LV-EZ2 ultrasonic range-finder to my arduino diecimilia, along with a generic buzzer.
using serproxy, i channeled serial data running through my computer to network traffic. on my machine running a wamp server, i wrote a few php scripts to read the values and with ajax (using jquery) change the color of the screen to green (the farther you are) to red (the closer you are). also, the closer you get, the smaller you get.
and of course, what would a project be like these days without something twittering. you can see what this project twitters here. basically, i operated under the assumption that the closest thing to a realistic use of this system would be twitter whether or not you are at your desk.
so what does this thing do again?
arduino & sonar returns your distance away from the computer and it is displayed on the screen. the farther away you are from the computer the larger the text and the greener the screen. the closer you are, the smaller the text and the redder the screen. get within 5 inches and a buzzer alarms. distance is twittered.
how did i do the color changing?
i just used jquery to dynamically tweak the background rgb values based on the % change in distance from the screen. rgb(red,green,blue)
where’s the source?
you can download it here. any questions, shoot me a comment or twitter: joshuamc
watch the video of how it works
arduino sonar buzzer php twitter from Joshua McGinnis on Vimeo.
19 Comments, Comment or Ping
PlastBox
I just have to say, this is pretty cool! But then I love anything that includes some cool hardware, custom software, php and ajax/jquery! ^^,
Mar 27th, 2009
Daniel Friedman
I did a similar thing with an ir sensor with my mac, and used it to change songs on itunes, or the volume depending on how close you placed your hand to the sensor
Mar 29th, 2009
RR
I think you have a realistic use case for the system right there on that video. Just replace that text with a stream of tweets or something else you want to follow, then you can see it comfortably from anywhere in the room. If you need to see more content, just come have a closer look at it.
Comfortably browsing at the desk or sitting on a couch 10 feet away. I would like that very much.
Mar 29th, 2009
JB
This could have a variety of uses. Its not nearly as useless as it looks. if you can get it to detect from a long range (i’m not sure it can) then it can change font size or zoom in any program according to distance, keeping it constant. As Daniel said, volume could work with this too. It could automatically log on/wake up/un-screensaver(is there a word for this?) as you approached your computer, welcome voices (“Hello Master Joshua”), and anything else you could think of.
Mar 29th, 2009
morsey
interesting. another feedback loop for the computer itself so the user can interact with it, and it can interact with the users space.
it’s small things like this that become huge steps forward
Mar 30th, 2009
cnawan
Ooh, that’s nice – I was daydreaming something similar a while ago, but more from a wearable computer standpoint.
Some possible use cases:
* Put one or two of these on your hands and use them to modulate a sound – everything could be your theremin.
* Maybe you’re an urban explorer and you’re afraid of hitting your head on a low ceiling – attach it to your head and you’ll get a ‘beep’ when you’re about to hit the roof.
Mar 30th, 2009
troy nall
i was wondering what it would cost to get you to manufacture one of these for my paranormal group ? we could easily implement this into our investigations and Im sure I can modify the PHP could to write to a file as a log.
could you subsitute a aurdino clone(Product #CGBBB Bare Bones Board Arduino Clone Kit) in place of your arduino decimilia ?
troy nall
troyleenall@gmail.com
Jun 29th, 2009
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