The Spy Gear Night Vision Goggles generated quite a lot of interest in the wearable community since it’s basically a very low cost (~$50 USD) eyetap / wearable display. Here are some technical details on the Googles, which are basically a low cost camera and display. Great low cost way to make yourself more cyborganic. Link.
Make your own LED tank top “84 LEDs, a microcontroller and battery were sewn onto a tank top with conductive thread to create a wearable LED matrix display…the shirt is initialized with a glider on the back of the shirt and a blinker on the front. Periodically, a new glider is added to the back of the shirt. The tank top “board” for the Game of Life is a torus; the cells on the top row of the tank top are neighbors to the cells on the bottom row and vice versa.” Link.
Seth’s Atari meets Xbox 360 mod on Informit.com “The Xbox 360 represents a significant step forward in gaming and home media integration. The Atari 2600 was major step in gaming and home entertainment, so it seems appropriate that Seth Fogie modded his Xbox 360 to fit inside a 2600 case to create the Atari-Xbox 3600. This article shows you how he did it.” [via] Link.
This is a handy little maker-friendly list of construction tips from Eric – “Everybody has their own way of doing things. Here are a few of my favorite construction methods. Choosing Solder, Using Altoids Tins, Manhattan-Style Islands, Manhattan-Style with IC’s, PCB Enclosures, Kynar Wirewrap Wire.” Link.
Ian’s new Instructable looks great for Nixie tube hackers, but be careful this one requires a lot of care. He writes “This SMPS boosts low voltage (5-20 volts) to the high voltage needed to drive nixie tubes (170-200 volts). Be warned: even though this small circuit can be operated on batteries/low voltage wall-worts, the output is more than enough to kill you!” Link.
Sans writes “The cheapest way to remotely control a device within a visible range is via Infra-Red light. Almost all audio and video equipment can be controlled this way nowadays. Due to this wide spread use the required components are quite cheap, thus making it ideal for us hobbyists to use IR control for our own projects. This part of my knowledge base will explain the theory of operation of IR remote control, and some of the protocols that are in use in consumer electronics.” Link.
Brian writes in with the best and only resource I’ve seen that has most of the Head Mounted Displays / VR-Helmets in the market – “No instructions on how to make your own, but if you were going to make your own, you’d probably want to start here…” Link. See our previous use our previous us of VR glasses with the iPod VR.
