Instead of checking your plants every day to see if they need watering, let your plants tell you if they need some more H2O. This Arduino project from Botanicalls will allow your plant to send you a Tweet when it needs watering. By connecting moisture probes to your Arduino USB board and programming your Arduino with some ready-to-go code, you’ll be getting tweets like “Water me please!” or “You didn’t give me enough water,” from your plant.
What I need is some way to be constantly in touch with the world’s events as they unfold, alerted when something big happens, and to be made aware of it all faster than awareness itself!
…A way to get a glimpse of the collective human consciousness as an extension of my own. Something that I don’t have to continually check or poll, but instead, like a part of my body, it will tell me when it’s feeling pain or generally in need of my attention …leaving me time to get on with other things.
And so, I present: The World Mood in a Box!
The Arduino connects directly to any wireless network via the WiFly module, continually searches Twitter for tweets with emotional content, collates the tweets for each emotion, does some math, and then fades the color of the LED to reflect the current World Mood; Red for Anger, Yellow for Happy, Pink for Love, White for Fear, Green for Envy, Orange for Surprise, and Blue for Sadness.
If an unexpectedly high number of tweets of a particular emotion are found, then the LED will flash to alert us to the possibility of a world event that has caused this unusually strong emotional reaction.
Sending physical letters through the postal service is something of a lost art. Email and text messaging have taken over for most of our daily communications. Facebook, Twitter and other social networking services have made it unnecessary to fill acquaintances in on what we’ve been up to in a long letter. But in a playful new project that combines electronic communication and conventional letter writing, designers Rahul Mahtani and Yofred Moik are working to bring back the art of letters.
Google Maps Envelopes would let users write a letter in an electronic interface – just like email – then with the simple click of a button print an envelope that would feature a map with the origin and destination addresses. It’s a fun, attractive concept that marries the convenience of email with the charm of snail mail.
The humble computer mouse is something that most of us use every day, but few of us think about. Those of us who don’t use the traditional mouse usually use either a trackball or trackpad, both of which hold the hand in an unnatural position, similar to how it would be held if you were using a mouse. And it’s been this way since the mouse was introduced in the 80s, so not many of us think about it. But the way we do computer mice might be set to change for the better, and very soon.
Besides looking super futuristic, it might actually help you avoid repetitive stress injuries from constant mouse use. The wearable device only works as a mouse when your hand is in a flat, neutral position, so it encourages good hand posture and you can continue to wear the glove even when you’re typing. And because it’s wireless and can go up to a week between charges, you won’t be tethered to a cord.
These headphones scan your brain and play music to match your mood. mico – brainwave controlled headphones by neurowear
So cool colour pick ahha
The owner of the company ‘Pause’ (otherwise known as the human jukebox) decided to stretch the boundaries of publicity stunts to prove that his company had the world’s best sound systems. By swallowing a small music player and broadcasting sounds from the gut, the CEO managed to rise his company’s status astronomically.
A majority of the success of this stunt came from the amount of press coverage Pause received when letting journalists now what the CEO was up to. When it was time for the small gadget to be swallowed, thousands of people were watching and could even send requests for the organizers to play certain songs. After hooking up a digital stethoscope, people from around the world could here the exact song being played inside the CEO’s stomach. Hence, the human jukebox was formed and Pause gained worldwide attention.
If you’re a fan of experimental technology, Arduino hacking or post-modern music, this project is going to make you smile. Years is a piece by Bartholomäus Traubeck, and it consists of a record player that plays slices of wood. Yep, you read that right.
As you probably know, you can estimate how old a tree is by counting the rings across its trunk. This record player reads that “ring data” and translates it into music. More specifically, the tree’s year rings are analyzed for strength, thickness and growth rate. All of these details affect the final sound.
As you’ll see in the video below, Years utilizes a wooden disk created out of a finely sliced tree trunk. It is similar in thickness and shape to a traditional record. And instead of the typical needle you’d find on most record players, it’s been replaced by a hacked PS Eye Camera.
The resulting music is eerie and a bit whimsical. There’s a definite pattern present, and cracks or knots in the wood yield a particularly disruptive response.
Sam Stringleman’s design was inspired by the John Frusicante’s song ‘Dark/Light.’
DIGITAL WELLNESS 