We just finished a holiday “text to sing” program for Yahoo! Messenger where I work, Colle+McVoy, in Minneapolis. Here’s an open source themed maker’s carol for you all. If you want to create text-to-speech music yourself, check out the Festival project. It includes a singing mode which uses XML to describe the pitch and duration […]
Instructables user action_owl created this fun keyless entry system using a classic NES, an Arduino, Processing, and a spare CD-ROM. Once activated NoKES (NintendO Keyless Entry System) will be blinking letting you know that it is alert and keeping guard. Once the Start button is pressed on the controller, the arduino starts recording what buttons […]
The Zeptotools blog posted this demo of an iPhone application they are hoping to release. I haven’t used the application or seen it outside of this video, but I like the idea of adding whiteboard features to the iPhone by sending screen data to a nearby laptop with an attached projector. What would really be […]
Using the undocumented MPTVOutWindow class and iPod A/V cables, it’s possible to program an iPhone to have television output. What’s cool about this is that since the iPhone be both the game platform and a controller, since it contains Wiimote-like accelerometer features. Using the MPTVOutWindow class, the makers of Moto Chaser were able to tweak […]
The inverse square root function (1/sqrt(x)) is used heavily during a game engine’s draw loop to normalize vectors into “unit” vectors with a length of 1. Normalized vectors are important because when you take the dot product of two of them (Ax*Bx + Ay*By + Az*Bz), the result is the cosine of the angle between […]
HE Zhao wrote in to tell us about an open source Wii peripheral drum-kit project he’s been working on: I have recently developed Wii Drum High, a software integrates Wiimote, Nunchuk and Wii Balance Board to stimulate a complete drum set. Different gestures and joystick buttons result in correspondent drum sounds. I recorded some videos […]
When I look for gifts for a lot of my friends, the most important thing on my mind is finding things that are hackable. Is the gift modifiable, open source, and fuel for future projects? Does it teach you something? These are essential qualities in a hacker gift. In this guide, you’ll find a collection […]
