While this project doesn’t directly take advantage of ambient technology, it does show you a great method for generating a simple color-changing LED that can be integrated into any number of projects. By combining the open-source Arduino microcontroller circuit board with a “smart” LED called BlinkM, you can build a simple mood cube that randomly generates a spectrum of sumptuous colors.
A Smart Ambient LED: [Via]
Want your Arduino to check email? How about sending a twitter (which can then be easily forwarded to a phone via SMS)? Or grabbing data from a website? There are so many possibilites for projects that connect to the Internet to get data, now there’s an easy way to do it with an Arduino.
This shield allows you to add and use an XPort or XPort direct(+) Ethernet module (they cost only US$30-$50) using any 4 pins. All of the TCP/IP stack awfulness is done for you in the module so its super easy to just connect to any server.
Arduino Ethernet (XPort) shield kit: [Link]
The author writes:
I developed this infrared remote control decoder for Arduino on my Arduino-compatible STK500 evaluation board for Atmel’s AVRs. The sketch is pretty much standard C code so porting to non-arduino dev systems is almost immediate.
Infrared remote control receiver for Arduino: [Link]
The author writes:
The brain of the system is really on the arduino or the web page the phone requests. . . The phone just passes any data it sees back and forth. . .For the phone app to run, it needs the URL of a server and the path to a web page. Once that information has been made available by the arduino board, the phone will request that web page anytime it sees a # on its serial port. . . Additionally, any results from the web page requested are sent back to the arduino via the serial port. So, if you just need to request data from the web at a set time frame, the arduino sketch needs only to send a # from time to time and wait for the result. If you need to pass variables to a website, the arduino must pass a string with those variables and end the string with a #.
Arduino mobile processing: [Link]
This is a project you don’t see every day. Could it be more practical and more cooler than it is ? probably not. I mean I want it, i know you will too. I think they should mass produce these things. Now for those of you who don’t get the ideea, this is a cube with a light inside, you hook it to your computer and when there is new mail the cube lights up green.
If you don’t happen to have a glowing cube lying around, you can modify this to work with almost any output device you could think of, from a simple LED, or a buzzer, to something far more clever like moving a servo. The interface between the cube and your computer its done via an Arduino board. The Arduino talks with your computer over a serial connection, which runs over the normal USB cable you use to communicate with your Arduino. This is quite simple to do, and fully documented on project page so follow the links if you decide to build this project.
Gmail Light Cube - New Email Notifier: [Link]