Merry Christmas from BW Science Labs

Merry Christmas everyone. It sounds like a lot of people have gotten the Vivus the Robot kit for Christmas and are enjoying it.

I'm working on redoing the BW Science Labs website, and will be moving from Blogger to the Wordpress platform to integrate the store and blog. Unfortunately this also involves the less fun search for a good web host, artist, and so on. However, once the site is done it'll be really cool.

Thinking in Multiple Dimensions

I've survived the first day of final exams, 2 down and 4 more to go!

Here's an interesting project called The Lumen, a 3D display that adds depth to 2D images. The neatest part is how they get each little pixel up and down; they use a wires made of "shape memory allow" that expand when heated and shrink when cooled.


[or watch this video here]


Good look to everyone taking final exams!

I have a dream...

As a young, somewhat lost, soon-to-be-engineer I loved watching Bre Petis's weekend project video series on MAKE, where a DIY project would be made into a simple video tutorial so even the most lost engineers could follow. As you might imagine, the day Bre's videos stopped was a sad one.

Bre Petis later had his own show on the history channel called History Hackers, and he is now one of the founders of a company called MakerBot. What does MakerBot do? They make my dream machine.


[or watch this video here]

One day I'd like to get one of these awesome little tabletop factories. I could print out parts for robots, housings for kits, little action figures of me (wait, what?), and just about anything else I can imagine, which is a lot. Unfortunately (or fortunately compared to other rapid prototyping machines) the MakerBot's price range is between $750 and $950 which if I run my numbers in 3 seconds correctly means that it may not pay for its self for a long while. While the BW Science Labs Store is finally pulling its weight (and quite a bit more if I do say so myself) I simply can't invest $1000 in a RPM, least for now.

Ah, the bitter smell of exams

This weekend I began development of the next BW Science Labs kit, a robot that would have far greater functionality and awareness than Vivus. I can't say I've ever had a single flawless prototyping experience. I always seems to destroy one invaluable component or another. This was no exception.

I wound up over applying 1/2 too many volts to the microcontroller, causing it to fry almost instantly. Of course, there was no way for me to know this at the time, I'd used a 6v power supply of other chips that are nearly identical with no issue. So when I couldn't get the chip to interface with my PC to run a test program, I assumed the chip may have been a dud and hooked up my back-up, and wound up frying that one too. I have replacements coming, and should be in by the end of the week. Sadly however, I may have little time to work on BW Science Labs for a few weeks. Rest assured there will still be some posts, but I have exam-prep this week, exams next week (counting up to 1/2 my grade depending on the class), and then break.

Have a good week, now go fry a robot brain.

How to get funding for projects

Here's the situation: You have the most massive idea ever. You just drank 3 red bulls and you're convinced that your laser sunglasses will sell like one of Apple's computers that come out every other day. The problem: you have $3 in your Paypal account after buying some nun chucks and X-Ray vision goggles. So, how do you get funding for prototyping?

1) Get an investor!

Easier said than done, the investor's security blanket is a fat packet of Excel spreadsheets, so you will be expected to have every cost calculated and scrutinized.


What do you mean you're not funding my Star Trek PEZ collection?! They're crucial to marketing. Duh.

Or if you're a student, you could always make a family member an "investor".

Hey dad, I have a really cool EDUCATIONAL idea that is crucial to my future success...

2) Ebay.

It may sound dumb, but ebay is my favorite way to pay for projects. I get to trade that really ugly messenger bag I have for a prototype. I'm serious, I'm actually selling a really ugly messenger bag on ebay, and someone is bidding on it!

I'm not a fan of long get-rich-quick ideas that litter the web like old socks, so I'll stop here. Get an investor, sell some stuff on ebay, and that's all you should need to build your laser sunglasses.

Coming soon: T-Shirts to be Envied

Writing after a break is always tough, I take the "slowly get back into the swing" method.

For the last few weeks I've been exchanging emails with an out of country graphic design firm. I had hired them to make the new BW Science Labs logo. It's been a frustrating last few weeks.

That's what I get for outsourcing, I guess. In the end I gave up trying to get the designer to do what I had asked, after about 5 or so attempts. I'm still happy with the final product, though I was shooting for something more like MIT's logo.

Once I get the high-res image sent to me I'll begin ordering T-Shirts, its about time we are able to wear our pride.

Happy Thanksgiving from BW Science Labs

Ah, Thanksgiving, the time when families are thankful for one another and turkeys are wishing they had opposable thumbs to escape their cages. For those of you outside of the US, Thanksgiving is when Americans celebrate obesity each other and what we are thankful for.

Come to think of it I should have made a roboturkey or something to celebrate, maybe next year.

New 3D Scanning Software and (a little) BWSL News

Global

A Cambridge student named Qui Pan has built a fantastic program that lets the user scan any desktop object with only a webcam. The computer generates a 3D model in real time, all you have to do is move the object in 360 degrees on your desk. This gets me really excited as this would be the perfect way to get 3D models into Unity games. Rather than paying $20 for a 3D model of a water bottle to use as a prop in a game, I could go out and buy a real bottle for $1, scan it, and import it into my game- no $1,000 laser scanner required.


[or watch this video here]

Micro

I've been able to spend a little more time this week coding my 3D game, but only for about 30 minutes, which is about 3 minutes in "coding time". I was able to spend about 3 hours this weekend working with an Arduino microcontroller, and hopefully I'll get on to more advanced Arduino projects later, but for now I only did enough to get the basics down.

It's been a pretty good week for the BW Science Labs Store, the Vivus the Robot kit has sold really well, and sales are going up with Christmas coming 'round the corner.

With only 2 days left in school until Thanksgiving break, teachers feel the need to give us loads of exams so we can earn our freedom through hours of grueling tests.

Playing Sound With the Arduino

One of the great things about going to an awesome school is the teachers, especially those who will let you borrow microprocessors.

I've been wondering for several months now if I should buy an Arduino, the relatively low cost microcontroller that has hobby engineers going wild (seriously, wild. You would not believe how much someone can love a computer chip until you've seen the die hard Arduino fans). Fortunately, my school's ASR (Applied Science Research) teacher let me borrow an Arduino for the weekend. I've only had a couple hours to tinker with it, but so far I've been very impressed by both the Atmega 328 (the chip) and the design of the board. I've had the chance to sift through some of the documentation on the Arduino site, and my favorite tutorial so far has been the Melody tutorial.

Setup was quick and easy, once you get the hang on which pins do what, and yielded a pretty annoying little song (but still pretty cool).

I've gotten a lot of feedback that there should be more videos on BW Science Labs, so here's one I shot of my borrowed Arduino playing "Marry Had a Little Lamb".


I only recorded this once, even though it plays in a loop. After about two or three times of playing "Marry Had a Little Lamb" you start to lose your mind.

And for those of you too lazy to click on the link above, here's the code I used to make this happen:

int speakerPin = 9;

int length = 15; // the number of notes
char notes[] = "ccggaagffeeddc "; // a space represents a rest
int beats[] = { 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 4 };
int tempo = 300;

void playTone(int tone, int duration) {
for (long i = 0; i < duration * 1000L; i += tone * 2) {
digitalWrite(speakerPin, HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(tone);
digitalWrite(speakerPin, LOW);
delayMicroseconds(tone);
}
}

void playNote(char note, int duration) {
char names[] = { 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'a', 'b', 'C' };
int tones[] = { 1915, 1700, 1519, 1432, 1275, 1136, 1014, 956 };

// play the tone corresponding to the note name
for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
if (names[i] == note) {
playTone(tones[i], duration);
}
}
}

void setup() {
pinMode(speakerPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
if (notes[i] == ' ') {
delay(beats[i] * tempo); // rest
} else {
playNote(notes[i], beats[i] * tempo);
}

// pause between notes
delay(tempo / 2);
}
}

Technology and its Effects on Young People

A little while ago, I was contacted by a book publisher who was interested in my work. He asked me to write a short essay on technology from the perspective of a 15 year old. The essay will be published in a book hopefully sometime this year.

Here's what I wrote:

"Technology is anything released after you are born." - I first heard something like this a few years ago. At the time the Apple computer was obese, PCs were in style, and kids spent their days playing dodge ball instead of Call of Duty 4. What is technology to my parents is nothing like what technology is to me. When my dad was a kid he and his friends immersed themselves in sports, arguing over who could throw a baseball faster. When I was in Kindergarten, we spent our recesses playing a Dr. Zeus adventure game, arguing over who could finish the maze faster while gaining the most points.
My first real experience with a computer was when I was in third grade. As usual, the teacher aid was freaking out over a non-obedient computer that locked her out. I can remember sitting in front of the monitor, staring up at the glowing screen while the aid was panting, taking a break from ripping the hair from her scalp and throwing an I-hate-technology tantrum. I slowly tapped out the word “admin”, key by key, in the password box. I confidently pushed enter, and the computer sprang to life. The teacher aid swayed back in fourth in shock, and stared down at me with a look of terror streaked across her face. Before that moment she knew me only as the loud, somewhat obnoxious yet innocent third grader who cowered in power shortages and wailed uncontrollably at knee scrapes. From that point on, in her eyes I was a malicious computer hacker, unbound by library pass codes and login prompts. I was unknown, and I was horrifying.
Six years later computers are small, sleek, and powerful. Instead of kids pretending to play Army with sticks, they chase each other with the iPhone Gun application. Html is a markup language taught to many along with their ABCs, in between snack time and recess. A couple years ago, I showed my 8 year old cousin some Python code I had written, and he nodded along as I explained if… else statements and for loops. Now, he’s building complete videogames with MIT’s Scratch program and knows more about computers than his parents ever will.
Technology has transformed the lives of every child in America. Each and every kid who owns a computer has access to literally everything they could ever want to know. Quantum Physics, English literature, World Economics, it’s all a click away and yet my generation’s thirst for knowledge seems to have been lost. This endless sea of information is littered with distractions and can snatch away what precious time we have. When I walk into a library, I’ve grown accustomed to seeing students on the computers playing “Buffy the Boy Scout Slayer” and “Zombie Wars.” If you ask the average American teen what his passion is, chances are he’ll shrug and say “videogames”.
Technology is neither good nor evil, it is just a tool. The key is how we use it and if we use it to better our lives or just to fill our time.

Control a Car With an iPhone

I've been following Waterloo Labs for a while now (they even commented on the lecture I gave on passion and science last year), and now it seems they're doing pretty darn well for themselves. They were recently on BBC radio and a variety of blogs (now this one). Their most recent project is a car that's controlled by an iPhone, which is probably the coolest youtube video of the year (yes, even better than the llama song).

Unityers gone Wild and Screenshots for Upcoming Game

Global
Unity 3D game companies are starting to pop up all over the internet radar. Once Unity made their Indie 2.6 game engine free, people started going Unity crazy, including me.

Micro

Speaking of Unity, I've been working on my own little project, and here are a few photos of the in game artwork.




The 3D city I have is pretty darn big and it's exciting to finally be working on a fully 3D project. This game is just a way for me to learn 3D programming by doing. I admit it really is just another first person shooter, but once I get the coding down I'll be able to work on some more creative projects.

I'm slowing store product development for now as I'm setting aside money to get a new BW Science Labs site. Once that's finished I expect to develop an explosion of awesome new products.

I've been getting some feedback from people who have bought the Vivus the Robot Kit from the BW Science Labs Store and aside from a little constructive criticism, the feedback has been really good. It's nice to know that people all over the world (and I really do mean all over) are putting together the kit and its not exploding it their faces. When people are putting together a robot you never know what will happen, they skip one step and it becomes aware, building armies of itself and setting its advanced mind on world domination. Well, actually that would be kinda cool, but you get the idea.

Has America Lost It's Creativity?

Masking mistakes can be terrifying, and Sir Ken Robinson says its destroying our young peoples' creativity.


[or watch this video here]

Robinson makes a lot of really good points, and it makes me wonder, is American education really extinguishing creativity?

I love school, its a place to learn from people who are smarter than you. However, it seems that all young people do at school is have information shoved into their minds. Even now at the best schools, there is less creativity and more facts, not because anyone really wants it to be this way, its just that we don't have much of a choice. To get that SAT score, that M.D. or PhD from that college, we go through a system that penalizes failure and has little value for creativity.

Now I wonder how we fix it...

Make Unique Unity Games (Not another zombie shooter!)

While searching for some sample Unity projects to look at, I came across Muse Games, a really small game company that uses Unity 3D, my new favorite tool, to create 3D games. While I'm hardly a gamer myself, I really enjoyed the unique gameplay though one of their Unity games, Guns of Icarus. This Unity project is really a refreshing piece, as there are absolutely no zombies. Seriously, a game with no zombies!


Where have I seen this before? Oh yeah, everywhere.

If you're interested in building a Unity 3D game, consider these questions:

1) What will the user get out of the game afterwards?

This is a rare question for coders to ask, as most projects involve the player mindlessly blasting wave after wave of zombies then looking up and realizing that its 8:00 PM on Sunday and they have exams on Monday. I plan of adding bits and pieces of fun info in future projects, even just using the word "microcontroller" is a robot game is a starting point.

2) Are there other games out their like yours?

Making something truly unique is the Indie developer's only chance to really compete with major game companies like Ubisoft.

3) Is there a component that actually makes the player think?

Think... What is this foreign word? Giving the player the chance to use their brain can really be a big plus to your game.

Sunday Status: Cyber Warfare and Some Less Interesting Updates

Global

In some earlier posts several months ago I discussed cyber warfare, something that just made big headlines. In tonight's 60 minutes, some interesting news has arisen. Apparently, Brazil has been attacked multiple times by cyber terrorists, and specialists say that America is a risk.

I have a hard time going without power for 3 hours, imagine what would happen if the entire west or east coast lost power for lord knows how long at a time. Fortunately, Obama is allocating more funds for cyber security, I hope that that's enough.


Micro

I've spent the week looking for a good web developer to help me redo the BW Science Labs website, but I haven't found anyone yet. In the meantime I've made some progress on Unity development, and I'm now comfortable with the scripting language. As always though, most of my time goes to school, which reminds me of a t shirt I saw labeled "Homework kills trees, stop the madness!". It would be fun to see the carbon footprint of one year of homework. I'll have to look into that.

Theoretical Thursday: Software- The end, or the beginning?

A couple years ago I met a college student who was creating an autonomous Unmanned Ariel Vehicle. The little plane would fly over a field and scan the ground using color sensors. Black lines drawn in the field told the plane not to fly past them, grey lines were landing strips, and so on. He told me not to waste my time with software, and that hardware was the future of innovation. He explained that soon our computers would have "hardware updates" instead of software updates where the computer would reconfigure a computer's transistors to better fit the needs of the computer. Soon, he claimed, this new hardware would be everywhere. That was three years ago.

I agree that there is a future for hardware, however we still have a long way to go coding-wise with what we've currently got. For instance, the UAV I mentioned above has some things that code needs to fix. When the plane is flying over a green field, wouldn't the sunlight reflect off of the grass and get picked up by the color sensor as a different color? I don't know of any color sensors that can correct this, though it is possible to fix through coding.

Another example, Artificial Intelligence. Let's face it, our AI coding needs work, making robots and software "smart" is one of the hardest things to do, because the coder has to teach the program to learn. There is far too much logic to code to be done in one fellow swoop (in fact, one such software company did try to code every piece of logic a child has, like water is wet, fire is hot, and so on. Many of their coders quit, one claimed that they were "working day and night to create a shadow of what we originally promised".). I won't be satisfied with our AI until we've got a working HAL 9000, complete with the drive to take us over.


AI is something I really want to work on, as there's still a lot of progress to make. I'm sure I'll be happy I chose to go into AI programming until the day I ask my computer:
Me: "Open the bay doors!"
Computer: "I'm afraid I can't do that, Brennon."

UV LED Flashlight Kit- Now Deployed

I finally managed to get the UV LED Flashlight kit up on the BW Science Labs Store website. I've already talked about this kit, so I won't overdo promotion. However, it really is nice to see more products being added to the Store.

Monday Status: Sparkfun vs. SPARC and New BW Science Labs Development

Yesterday I was rushed to say the least, so I didn't manage to get out a Sunday Status, however today I do have a Monday Status.

Global

I order my electronics components from all over, but one place in particular that I could not be without is Sparkfun. Also, having met some of the Sparkfun employees at the Maker Fair '09 its nice ordering from a small, friendly company with a face. Unfortunately, starting early this week, Sparkfun is being sued by SPARC International, a large company owned by Sun Microsystems that sells servers. Apparently, SPARC's legal department decided that Sparkfun sounded too much like SPARC, so legal warfare has begun. If Sun (SPARC) spent more of its time and money developing new technologies and less of it bullying smaller businesses, they would probably not be dying such a slow and painful death.

Micro

As I said its been a busy week. I've had a little time to look into Unity, but not much. So far so good.

Unity 3D is now free!

It really pays to read tech news. Today, I stumbled upon an article that claimed that Unity 3D, the powerful 3D game engine, was free at last. I thought it was too good to be true, so I investigated further.

For those of you who don't know, Unity 3D is a really powerful enviornment that allows developers to create interactive 3D content. It can be embedded in a web page like Flash, or made as a download for Mac or PC.

Unity 3D originally has been $199 for the Indie (independent developer, kind of like Lite), and the pro version has been $1499. There's also an iPhone and Wii tool available for an elevated cost. Now there's a few reasons why I did not buy this earlier:

1) cost

2) I already own Flash CS4

3) I'm really bad at art, so I'd need a 3D artist, preferably someone I could get away with paying really little (least I'm honest)

However, now that it's free, I might as well download it.



I haven't had more than a few minutes to play with it, but so far it seems pretty awesome. It seems like it has a pretty big learning curve, and I'm inept with 3D art by nature. I'll also need to be careful about investing my time in Unity, as I need to keep up with all my other favorite programming languages and projects.


I really do feel bad for the guy who downloaded this the day before it became free.

Download Unity 3D

The Picaxe 08- my favorite little chip

A few months ago I bought a 08 pin picaxe protoboard from Sparkfun. I soldered all the components in place and hooked it up to my PC to program. And of course, I got an error, because it would just be too easy if things worked the first time, wouldn't it? I spent a good long while resoldering all the leads and switching the chip out with other microcontrollers I had on hand to make sure it wasn't the chip's fault.

I recently bought a second protoboard to retry what I had previously failed. I soldered up the components for the new board, and 1/2 way through I realized what I had done wring the first time. I had soldered everything in correctly, but I had placed the chip in backwards! I find it annoyingly funny how I spent so much time redoing my solder joints (at least 2 or 3 times per lead) when the whole time I had just inserted the chip wrong.

Well, I learned from my mistake, and now I have not one, but two working prototyping boards. These chips are coded in BASIC, an infamously (in a bad way) old language, something like forty or fifty years I think, which translates to about 550 programming years. Be that as it may, coding in BASIC is really easy, as its just a bunch of barebones commands. I got a LED blinking demo working in about 2 minutes to test the chip.

The code looks like this:

do
high 2
low 1
pause 500
low 2
high 1
pause 500
loop


Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?


All I'm doing in this is directing current to the LED, making it turn on, pausing 1/2 of a second, turning off the LED, pauseing it for 1/2 of a second, and continue doing this until I unplug it, it runs out of batteries, or the universe implodes.

There's something oddly rewarding about programming hardware. Sure, writing security utilities in Python is fun, making games in ActionScript 3.0 is profitable (or at least for other programmers), and coding lord-knows-what in JAVA is interesting, but actually having a physical object that can do something cool in the real world is pretty unique. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an LED to watch blink...

Dual Power UV LED kit Ready for Sale!

Many LEDs and resistors selflessly gave their lives in the development of the BW Science Labs Store's newest kit, the Dual Power UV LED Flashlight kit. Their sacrifice has not been in vain...



While developing this kit I uncovered my true love for Ultra-violet LEDs. There just plain awesome! You can use them to detect counterfeit money, kill germs (now that's pretty impressive for a LED), authenticate drivers licenses (and passports?), and stun an assailant (*cough* *cough* shine it in their eyes). Not to mention Ultra-violet light produces a really neat effect on its environment, like making white objects eerily glow (there you go, another idea for Halloween).

I have some kits already neatly put together in packages, ready for sale. However, it may take a day or two for me to put it on the Store site as most of my time is wasted away studying for an endless barrage of Spanish tests, also known as "¡examines!". Interestingly enough, the exclamation points don't make me feel any better.

I'm really happy with how I balanced cost with awesomeness, as this little guy in relatively inexpensive (I intend to price the kit for around $11.99), and as you can see, it packs a pretty powerful punch.

Sunday Status: Flash 10.1's Mobile Debut and Some BWSL News

Global

At MAX 2009 Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch shows Flash 10.1 on a bunch of mobile devices.



Micro

I've spent the weekend working on the next BW Science Labs Store kits, including prototyping a mini UV LED kit and designing a line following robot.

I've also been able to work a bit more on my AS3 game, though not much. Apparently, the phrase, "4 day weekend" loosely translates into teacher as "4 times more homework".

UV LED kit- coming soon to the Store

I spent most of my day packaging Vivus the Robot kits, which involves unpacking lots of boxes, taking out the microcontroller, plugging them into my PC, and programming them one at a time. However, I did manage to find the time to continue working on BW Science Labs's next kit, a mini UV LED kit that can be used to sterilize your hands (and your prized action figure collection in the basement of your mom's house), detect counterfeit money (now hey, that's pretty darn cool), make your teeth glow white (the most useful of all) and a bunch of other really cool stuff.

I have a working prototype and I've got the right PCBs, resistors (that one took awhile, darn resistance calculator lies!), etc. However, I'm working on finding a better power source. The prototype currently uses a 9v via battery clip, which really stinks seeing that I'm trying to make things as small as possible. However, once that problem is solved the mini UV LED kit will be ready for purchase on the BW Science Labs Store.

SFXR- Free sound effects for Flash games!

Here's the thing, I love programming. I love the whole process of writing code and building a functional program by speaking a language the computer will understand. However, I really do not like painstakingly drawing art one little image at a time. On top of that, I have no idea how to generate sound effects for any of my programs. While I still have to brave out the whole art thing, at least I've solved the sound effects issue. A software engineer named Thomas Pettersson created a program called SFXR, which generates sound effects really easily.

The program lets you fiddle around with the dials to create the sound you want, or better yet you can keep hitting the "random" button until you hear something you like.



As you can see, I resort to clicking the "explosion" button a million times until I'm satisfied. While it would be nice to know what "Phaser offset" (Star Trek reference of some sort?!) means, I'm completely content with my "random" button.

Click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click

Palm Pre Development? Meh.

I am a proud owner of the Palm Pre. It's slick, fast, and pretty cool. There are only 136 apps in the Pre's app store, compared to the iPhone app store's several thousand (or more), that's not much at all. So, naturally I was inclined to want to write some apps and sell them, hopefully making a nice return. If you don't already know, the iPhone Developer program has you pay a one time fee of $99 and you're free to post up your apps to the iTunes App store, and make a fantastic 70% of profit. I was hoping for something similar with the Palm dev program.

I went on their site to download the Mojo Software Development Kit, and found this:

Recognizing the value of the on-device catalog as a distribution channel and as a friction point to control the flow of apps into it, we’re going to charge $50 for each app you submit to this channel.

Really? To add friction? Seriously? A lot of the complaints that the Pre App store has gotten have been based around a lack of good apps, and Palm wants to add "friction" to this?


The SDK is just as annoying as the cartoon character.


I hate to say it, but I'm kind of disappointed with Palm, guess I'll stick with iPhone development.

Vivus the Robot Instructions Now Available

After much time and effort this weekend, I finally managed to put together the very detailed, hold-your-hand style instructions for the Vivus the Robot kit, being sold in the BW Science Labs Store.

You can also read the Vivus the Robot Instructable if you prefer that instead.

I had to take apart my own Vivus, and rebuild it from scratch to get all the images. It took a looooooong time, so enjoy every picture.

Happy robot building!

Sunday Status: MIT's New Toy and BW Science Labs Goes Global

Global

Those of you who know me, know how much I love MIT. Hey, who doesn't? The first Rapid Prototyping machines came from them, along with the first robots to learn like a human child, and having an on-campus nuclear reactor is pretty darn cool too. MIT unveiled their newest toy this week, a robot that can autonomously navigate through and map 3D terrain using lasers. Now this is the kind of work I want to be doing when I'm in college.


[or watch this video on MIT Tech TV]

Micro

This has been a fantastic week for BW Science Labs. The BW Science Labs Store visitor increase is up 1,884% this month, and BW Science Labs is up 99%. I've spent the weekend managing the flood of orders for the Vivus the Robot kit, and while I don't particularly enjoy being on the "service" end of "customer service" things are going pretty well.

This week, BW Science Labs was featured on Boing Boing Media and MAKE Magazine's blog.

I managed to make an LED explode (it was actually pretty cool) while prototyping the BWSL Store's next kit. I'll be sure to write more on it when I have something working.

Robotics for Beginners: words of wisdom from a hobbyist who's still alive

I've been burned, electrocuted, and attacked by a rampaging robot* enough time to know the basic "do"s and "don't"s of robotics.


I think we forgot to solder in the off switch...

I'm by no means an expert, but all the same I have a bit of advice for the beginner robotics hobbyist.

I recommend that if you go the book route you avoid most of the "Build a bot" titles. I got the most out of books and manuals on the microcontrollers I was using. The 3 picaxe manuals rock and are free (available at picaxe.co.uk) and I hear that there's a great Arduino book out, but I haven't had the chance to use any Arduinos yet (namely due to cost).

MAKE (makezine.com) has some great stuff on Arduinos in their blog and video series called "How-to Tuesdays".

Here's what I recommend: start with a cheap picaxe (don't forget the motor driver chip!) and figure out how to get the wheels to move with the online manuals. Then, add a bumper switch and move on from there!

If you feel to afraid to even do that, then you should probobably go with the "have your hand held" route and follow a tutorial or buy a kit. If you do buy a kit, please, for the love of all that is good, do not buy a Lego NXT. They are drastically overpriced and won't teach you nearly as much as others. I enjoyed my experience with VEX hardware, but their microcontroller ($50!) drove me absolutely crazy. You could, of course, get the brand-new ever-so-popular Vivus the Robot kit from the BW Science Labs Store.**



Footnotes:

*: called my brother
**: I really don't want to toot my own horn, but the reason why I'm selling this kit is because I've found its good for beginners.

Woot! Woot! I Won the Digital Open Competition!

This is usually the time where I'd post a Theoretical Thursday on my thoughts and ideas, however today something awesome happened that merits overwriting theories.

I won Sun Microsystems's and IFTF's international youth competition, the Digital Open. I won a laptop, a video camera, and a bunch of other cool things. The Boing Boing Media team came to my house and interviewed me about the win, and made a pretty cool video.


[or watch this video on YouTube]

Here's what they quoted me on in their post on my win:

"The BW Science Labs Store is an idea I've had for a while now, but it has taken a lot of work to get it up and running. There is currently 1 kit available, the Vivus the Robot kit. I"ve seen a lot of those really low-quality $20 robots where you clap your hands and they twitch, and I've seen $400 robots with a great deal of functionality. I wanted to make something in between, and that's exactly what Vivus is. During prototyping I wanted to make a "real robot", one that was autonomous and could truly act on its own, while trying to keep the cost down as well. "

A very special thanks to the folks at Sun Microsystems, Institute for the Future, and Digital Open for making this possible.

In Honor of Nerd Day: Some Crazy Math Problems.

Today was Nerd day at my school. For many, this day promotes new possibilities in wild apparel, and for others it presents no change. However, to honor the spirit of Nerd day, I thought I'd post some problems from this year's National Mathematics competition. I originally had a packet of problems from my school's math club (a.k.a. the Neighborhood), but of course I lost that packet after about a day. For those of you who do these things for fun, happy nerding. The rest of us can at least imagine what it would be like to solve these. Hey, imagination is more important than knowledge... right?





If you are cackling at your monitor right now, let us know, I'm curious to see how a mathematical mind would solve these.


Nerd warfare: more casualties than you might imagine.



The credit for these problems and image goes to UNL: where nerds plot our destruction.

Flash Catalyst: Programming without coding?

As a registered Flash developer, I get emails from Adobe here and there begging me to take one of their 1,000 surveys, promising that the 200 multiple choice questions will only take 2 minutes of my time. However, today (or rather 20 minutes ago) I was alerted of a new Adobe product called Flash Catalyst. Something caught my eye in the email, the phrase, "Without writing code." I was terrified, as the whole reason I love software is because of the awesome code behind it.

I downloaded the Beta testing version for free to see what it's like, and I've assessed that there are 2 possibilities:

1) Catalyst may be popular for a little while and then will die out quickly without any real applications, much like Carnegie Mellon's Alice program.

2) Catalyst will eclipse Flash and ActionScript 3.0 and put nearly every Flash programmer in the world out of a job. Fast food restaurants will be populated with millions of would-be programming geniuses, and the world will stop spinning as a result.


Call me old fashioned, but I'm rooting for scenario #1, were's the fun in programming without writing code?

Of course, there's a middle ground to this, maybe Catalyst will be only a little popular, and only a few hundred thousand programmers will lose their jobs.

You can download Catalyst off of Adobe's website for free, here's my impression after 10 minutes of using it.

Catalyst looks a lot like Flash CS4, its pretty clean cut and elegant, as with most Adobe products. The user draws or imports an object, much like in Flash, and selects what the object is (i.e. button), then chooses what role it plays (i.e. onClick), and finally decides what action it takes (i.e. play video). No code. At all.



I'm a bit worried, and annoyed after buying Flash CS4 which may become obsolete (worst case scenario) as a result of Catalyst.

DIY Laser: (almost) out of Star Wars

I could not keep my engineering side at bay for long, even with a malfunctioning soldering station I had to do something. I wound up using my very-sub-par Radioshack (of course) soldering iron until I can get my real station replaced. It was worth the pain of using a Radioshack product, as my most awesome laser yet was created.

I know it as the Uber-Laser, the rest of the world knows it from one too many Star Wars episodes as a Blaster, and isolated tribes in East Africa and my brother know it as, "That shiny thing."


Say hello to my little friend!

I started off with a 3-5 mw green laser pointer I got from Amazon for about $20. I spent a great deal of time taking the assembly off with my diamond cutter (seriously, they really don't want people taking apart their laser pointers), and got it down to just the laser diode and circuit board. I spent another few hours fiddling around with the circuit board until I found something that works, and I managed to get the power output from about ~3 mw to approximately a little less than 100 mw.

I don't really feel comfortable explaining what I did with the circuit board to make this thing shine, for fear of some child blinding himself with the info he got off BW Science Labs. However, I should say that what I DID NOT do is fry the "03" chip with my soldering iron as some crazy Youtube video suggests. I also had to bypass the embedded ON/OFF switch in the circuit board, which took a bit of careful soldering. I then used a 3v power supply, a ridiculously awesome looking switch, and an enclosure to build the rest of the laser module.

I was able to kill 2 birds with one stone (so to speak of course), as I used this laser in my Physics presentation today, where I discussed the National Ignition Facility and how it uses lasers to create a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. I couldn't tell if my teacher was amazed or terrified by my laser, however it seemed that my peers thought it was pretty darn cool.

At one point a student asked if it could burn anything or start a fire. I was careful to mention that I made this laser to output as much light as possible without actually being destructive enough to pose a danger. And while the pyromaniacs in this world may be disappointed, I still am pretty happy with how this laser functions. At the same time, I feel a bit guilty with the title promising something out of Star Wars, but that's why I put the "(almost)" there.

This laser is incredible at night, and it produces a very solid-looking beam straight out of, dare I say, Star Wars!


Reminder:

While I used phrases like, "fiddling around with the circuit board", I did have a pretty good idea of what I was doing. I also took the proper safety precautions while soldering, and I wore laser safety goggles during testing because I wasn't in the mood to go blind today. If you're not responsible, have little respect for safety (or your eyes), or simply don't know anything about lasers, please find someone smarter who does know what to do, if you try to do this at home. Consider this my disclaimer.

Sunday Status: Steve Jobs's Fiesta and Building the Uber Laser

Global

I'm not completely sure if this really counts for global, but this week Apple announced that their 2 billionth iPhone app had been downloaded. Wow, 2 BILLION iphone app downloads, that's a lot of Fart Applications...

I can picture Steve Jobs right now with a little party hat on, toasting his victory.


Don't even try getting into my party without muffins.

Micro

I spent all day today building what I lovingly call the Uber Laser*. I managed to reconfigure 5 mw green laser diode to output nearly 100 milliwatts, while that's not enough to do anything really cool, its still an impressive feat. I'll be sure to give it the full post it deserves** later this week.




Footnotes:

*: I know, I know, I'm pretty bad at naming things. "BW Science Labs", not my most creative name. Seriously though, if you have a better name for it then let me know.
**: We all know what happens when a science project feels like it doesn't get what it deserves... It becomes aware.

Teaching yourself ActionScript: Books I recommend

I've been using Flash and ActionScript (never forgetting JAVA, PYTHON, and all my other favorite languages of course) since late this summer, and I've been surprised as to how quickly I've learned it. It's a great feeling, knowing that you can achieve something without having to have someone hold your hand all the way through. Fortunately, ActionScript is a lot like JAVA, so having some experience there made AS3 a lot less difficult to learn(I actually find AS3 more convenient than JAVA). There are three books that gave me the Flash know-how:

1) ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University by Gary Rosenzweig:

Good reference book, though this would not be the book I recommend for a completely new programmer. Most of the book is just a collection of tutorials, making it a bit harder for the new guy to grasp all of the core concepts 1st. However, there is some great depth to this book and it touches on some fantastically deep topics like 3D racing, mapping, and so on.



2) Game design with Flash by Rex van der Spuy:

This is the 2nd Flash book I read, and I really wish it was the first. It is perfect for beginners, and the first 5 chapters laid out the basics of ActionScript really nicely. The rest of the book was still a good read, and touched on topics that other books missed like using trigonometry to find the angle of an object and use it to fire bullets, missiles, or glowing smiley faces.



3) Creating a Web Site with Flash CS4 by David Morris:

A good primer with Flash, this book is a fun, short, and easy read that a ferret could understand*. However, this book lacks the code power needed to run a truly good Flash site. For instance, Morris shows the reader how to make a form by dragging text boxes out from the side bar** and place them on the design. However, he ends the section abruptly saying, "To function properly and transfer data as intended, a form requires advanced ActionScript programming and connection to a database- complexity that is beyond the scope of this book." (122) Which is a really fancy way of saying, "I have no idea how to do this, but I can teach you how to draw a text box!"

Regardless, this book is sufficient for the beginning Flash designer, and I still got a lot out of it.






Footnotes:


*: Why hire people to build Flash sites anyway? Timone and Pumba will do it for half the cost.
**: Hey, don't laugh. Clicking and dragging is an art.

Theoretical Thursday: My Thoughts On Free Software

Imagine this:

Radio frequencies are scattered with the ever popular band Survivor, suspenders are still in style, and computer code is just waiting to be written. You explore the world of code and watch the debut of the internet as a way for scientists to share data and evolve from there. You consider a new way to communicate from computer to computer, like writing digital letters. What will you call it? Amail? Qmail? How about... Email? You figure your career is set, and millions will pay to use your low cost communication service. Then, 1996 rolls around and some guy from Stanford named Larry Page has an idea to create something called Google. You think "no big deal" and publish your Email program to the world.


It's no big deal.

However, soon Google creates their Email service, Gmail, and gives it away to everyone for free.

13 years later you're teaching hordes of rowdy high school gamers Java, reminiscing about the "good ol' days" as you tighten your suspenders and select "Eye of the Tiger" on your Walkman.


While this scenario is purely fictional, there is some truth to the idea behind it. Software is becoming completely free, namely thanks to Google. While the goals of the Free Software Foundation are noble, they tend to make life a bit harder for independent developers. As free software becomes more available, people expect everything to be free. Just look at the iTunes App store, reviewers seem angry and any developer who dares charge more than $0.99 for his months of coding. Worse yet, consumers become critical of free software. Look at the reviews on my first game ever with ActionScript 3.0. The user is getting the software for literally nothing, and yet yet they often are angry at the developer if it does not meet their standards.

While free software makes it nearly impossible for developers to take advantage of the consumer (no, only big companies are allowed to charge their users $999.99 for software. *cough* *cough* Adobe) it also makes it hard for the developer to earn enough to support himself.

I fear the day when everything is free, and the only money circulating through software is via advertising or worse, only goes to Microsoft, Apple, or Adobe.*


Footnotes:


*: Don't get me wrong, these are three great companies, they just make the indie developer's life a bit more interesting.

Robotic Cars: Taking over the world (right after they can move 20 ft without crashing)

Today, while driving home from school, I saw a car with some sort of spinning sensor on the top. I recognized the design from a NOVA episode I saw in 2007 about the yearly robot car races. From what I remember, the rotating block on top most likely uses sonar to rapidly send out sonar pings as the module rotates. The sonar waves bounce off of objects and return to the sensor. The elapsed time since the ping was sent out is calculated and determines the distance of the object. And of course, there is an on-board computer that gets the car from point A to point B.

The NOVA episode was quite entertaining as most cars had extreme difficulty moving around stacks of hay, much less driving on the open road. Kudos to the engineers who finally got one of these things to work.

I assume this isn't just a Halloween prank because it appeared that no one was touching a steering wheel (cruise control?). The sensor on top is pretty high-end. There were two extremely nerdy looking guys* in the front seats and only Target advertises for Halloween this early in the month.

And of course I was able to snap a couple pics of it before we passed them.**


It's only a matter of time before it becomes self-aware... and enslaves us all.


This is one of the big pluses to living in the Bay Area. Only in San Francisco will you see a robot driving people home.




Footnotes:



*: I mean this in the kindest of regards, meaning they're Not Even Remotely Dorky.
*: The robots may take our freedom, but they'll never take our highway!

Flash development for the iPhone?!

Today is one of days I am overjoyed that I read the MAKE Blog, as I found an incredible bit of news today. As I scrolled down MAKE's page I found an article that nearly made me explode with excitement (Not literally... that'd be pretty weird). Adobe recently announced that Flash and ActionScript 3 developers (like me) will soon be able to deploy their applications on the iPhone. Yes, the iPhone. You may now take a moment to wear a black turtleneck and hold your hands up in the air like Steve Jobs and declare "All this.... coming to the iPhone!" and get roars of approval from fans who have no idea what you're saying and will later dig through your trash to find a half-eaten banana with your precious DNA on it.


Worship me!!!

Is this too good to be true? Will Flash developers finally stretch beyond the limits of your PC's (or Mac's, make Steve Jobs proud) browser? Can I go right now and code for the iPhone to my heart's desire? Yes, yes, and NO.

As far as I know this isn't too good to be true, because there's a catch. Though yes, Flash developers will be able to bust their way out of your monitor's confines and leap onto your iPhone, it ain't gonna happen any time soon. Of course, typical Adobe, we have to wait and buy the Flash CS5 upgrade to build iPhone Apps, until then only the special developers will be able to build iPhone apps with Flash.


[or watch this video on youtube]

The beta test will be released this year (hopefully sooner than later), and will be (promptly?) followed by the actual release of CS5. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be a Beta Tester, as there are about 5 million* other developers slobbering over their keyboards trying to become one of the first to use it. Not to mention I haven't really made a name for myself in the Flash community other than my one sub-par game.

I personally think that to make things truly fair Adobe should put all 5 million of us Flash developers into one giant pit and have us fight for a single Beta copy of Flash CS5.



Footnotes:

*: I made up this number all by myself.

The Marshmallow Test

Today I stumbled upon this fantastic video of a psychology experiment called The Marshmallow Test, where kids had to decide if they would eat a marshmallow immediately or wait for a few minutes. In return for waiting, the kids would get a second marshmallow along with the first.

This experiment has several applications to the real world like the stock market and religion, but rather than go into it now let's just enjoy the video.



[or watch the Marshmallow Test on Youtube]

I found it interesting how kids would deviously pick off small pieces of the marshmallow after being told not to, and then lying about it to the woman afterwards. A book was published a little while ago (can't remember the title now unfortunately) where the author asked kids under age 10 questions like "what is marriage?" and "What is love?". The author's rational was that kids under age 10 could not lie. Apparently the author never thought to temp the all-knowing toddlers with a marshmallow.

Sunday Status: Water on the moon? and ActionScript Development Continues

Today marks the first ever Sunday Status post on BW Science Labs, with many to hopefully follow. In a Sunday Status I'll talk about science news on a global scale, and then a micro* scale at BW Science Labs.

Global

The other day I got an email from NASA that boasted new discoveries on water on the moon. I figured that it was probably another "on August 27th Mars will be as big as the moon!" hoax**, so I disregarded the message. However, sure enough word of water on the moon spread and turned out to actually have merit. The Apollo mission 40 years ago brought moon rocks back to earth for study, and though trace amounts of water were found researchers assumed that it was from contamination in the cargo crate.

One way water is detected on other planets or moons is by looking at the light that reflects off of one's surface. By looking at the wavelengths of the reflected light there were indications that hydrogen and oxygen had bonded, meaning either water or hydroxyl.

In actuality the craft that picked up the traces of water, Deep Impact, was the 3rd craft to have detected water/hydroxyl, the first being Chandrayaan-1 and later Cassini. Now that 3 separate crafts have detected water on the moon NASA scientists were sure that there was water.***


Micro

I've begun development of a new game that's being programmed in ActionScript 3.0 (a programming language similar to Java) featuring a little robot that has to save its base from armies of other robots. This may not be an award winning concept, but its proving to be a great learning experience. As of now I've only had a chance to work on it 20 minutes here and there, so I've only written a bit over 500 lines of code for it.



Above is some of the code I wrote for the built in store where the player can buy upgrades, health, and other fun stuff using the currency earned after defeating robots.

As of now the world is not yet ready for my terrible drawing skills, so I'm trying to convince someone else to do the game art, until then the place holder images look like they've been drawn by a three year old.



Footnotes:


*: and I do mean "micro". All of the BW Science Labs employee(s?) can attest to that.
**: I was so excited. Such as shame as I stood freezing outside on August 27th hopefully staring up at the empty night sky.
***: Apparently the first two times they detected it they forgot to email me. Oh yeah, and tell the rest of the country too.

Final Thoughts on Linux

I've been using computers for a while now, but always running Mac OSX or Windows. However, recently I've tested the Linux waters. I installed both OpenSolaris and Ubuntu to see what all the Linux hype was all about*.

OpenSolaris

Open Solaris is pretty cool looking. It has neatly structured top and bottom bars that are simple and avoid clutter. The workspaces are useful as the user can easily switch between 4 desktops. I especially like the idea of having a built-in software catalog which can be used to find all kinds of programs to download.

I have a strict policy on free things: never complain about something that costs you nothing. This is something that seems to have slipped the minds of a lot of free software users**. That said, OpenSolaris is not without flaws. When I was entering my information into the computer after I first turned it on OpenSolaris asked me for a username and password, which the computer said were optional. I decided to enter in a password later, so I left the text fields blank. Later when the computer restarted there was a prompt for a username and password, which did not exist. I reinstalled Open Solaris from a disk that I fortunately had on hand. When my computer was fully operational several errors popped up on the screen saying that it could not connect to the wireless network I had. I used Sun's tech support forum at opensolaris.org and this is the response I got:

Do you have security enabled on your wireless network (ie router or access-point)? Your driver may not be capable of security like I just found out with the iwh0 driver....

Alternatively are you using DHCP or static as you would need to turn off nwam if using static.

Or if go to console and su to root, then use ifconfig coupled with wificonfig to create a profile and setup auto-dhcp or plain dhcp for your adapter - that may help!

Just a few thoughts anyway :-)


Rather than go through all of the "coupling" and "ifconfiging" I decided to try out Ubuntu next.***

For the record, it seems that my case was an isolated incident as I found very few other reports with the same errors, all in all OpenSolaris isn't a bad Operating system.


Ubuntu

When I installed Ubuntu it connected to my wireless network with ease, and Firefox was neatly tucked in the top bar. The username and password prompt screen looked really cool, I almost felt like I was in 24****. For some reason my sound was not working on Ubuntu while it worked on other Operating Systems I tested. However, like OpenSolaris it has an easy to use software installer built in which I liked using, along with a built in internet radio and some kind of iTunes-like music software. Ubuntu is fun to use and very aesthetically pleasing, especially all of the super cool 3D sleep mode animations.

Linux is fantastic as it is free, and there are all kinds of open source variations out there. I'm glad to see that there are options extending beyond the world of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.



Footnotes:


*: Seriously, have you seen these Linux guys wearing their "Hacking is not a crime" T-Shirts?
**: Just look at all of the less-than-constructive criticism new game programmers get on the App Store and on Flash portals.
***: You may be chuckling at my wifi ignorance, but to me most of that message was like spanish to me (ask my spanish teacher and you'll know what that means).
****: Minus the dramatic sound effects and spinny chairs (I have to keep dreaming about a chair that can rotate a full 360 degrees).

Theoretical Thursday: My Idea Formula

BW Science Labs has been a great place, and a lot has been done throughout the past ~16 months, however there was a problem. Posts were diminishing as if all the good "scientificy" (a phrase I coined long ago) articles had been used up. I was often nervous to post an article that was not completely perfect, and as a result many great posts never saw the light of day. Should I post about something if its only an idea? What if the experiment failed miserably?

I believe I have solved this problem. Theoretical Thursdays are relaxed, and hopefully fun, articles on ideas and thoughts I've had over the past week that will be published every* Thursday.

Late the other night I was thinking of what new articles to write on BW Science Labs and what I was going to have for breakfast the next day when an idea storm** hit me. I got 6 new solid article ideas along with the idea for Theoretical Thursdays and perhaps a second type of post which you'll see on Sunday.

I have a weird way of coming up with ideas. My peak for brainstorming is at about 10:00 to 12:00 pm, which is about the time I'm supposed to be dreaming about a flying spanish tests or yet another oh-so-tempting Apple iTouch update that cleans out my wallet. However, with my totally accurate not at all made up Idea Formula*** I can utilize this time to figure out how to build my next robot or use RFID tags to track my brother****.


(Number of Awesome Ideas) = [(Hours Past Bedtime)² x (Liters of Caffeine)] / [(Homework) x (Number of Tests Tomorrow)²]


The original idea of BW Science Labs, Science Quarterly, and Sliced Bread***** was formulated through this equation.

On a more serious note I would like to say that Theoretical Thursdays are simply something to look forward to once a week, and I'll be sure to keep up the normal articles, hopefully at an accelerated rate.



Footnotes:


*: unless zombies are at my front door or I'm stuck in the middle of the wilderness hundreds of miles away from the nearest wi-fi hotspot.

**: Yeah, I coined that phrase too.

***: Use Einstein's Special Relativity equation E = mc² to find out how relatively accurate my equation is and then Émile Borel's probability equation to figure out if the above answer is probably true.

****: Currently under development.

*****: Did they have caffeine back then?



If you think Theoretical Thursdays are a good idea or a bad one please let me know by commenting below or emailing me.

NASA Hubble repair mission- meeting the "Repair man" of Hubble

During the school year time is scarce. It has to be hunted for and captured like an elusive animal. However, despite this crisis of time, I still managed to go to a three hour lecture given by astronaut John M. Grunsfeld at a local hotel. It was worth every second. Grunsfeld and his team had just returned from a mission to repair and re modify the Hubble space telescope, making this latest mission Grunsfeld's fifth time in space. Grunsfeld modestly calls himself "the repair man of Hubble", though I can't think of any other repair men who attended MIT and later Cal Tech.

I found Dark Matter to be the most interesting topic of discussion tonight, and it brought me back to the good old days of seventh grade me visiting the Stanford Astrophysics and Cosmology center, and spending the entire time talking with a freshman at Stanford about Dark Matter and Energy.

Grunsfeld's arm was in a sling, after his space suit pulled his arm when working on the Hubble recently. Essentially John Grunsfeld has achieved every supermarket shopper's goal: having the best answer to the question you're asked at the checkout line: "So, what happened to your arm?".

"Oh, you know, just pulled it while replacing CCD cameras on a space telescope the other day. No big deal."

Now Launching: The BW Science Labs Store

Today, after a great deal of work, a storefront for BW Science Labs has finally been created. The BW Science Labs Store currently has one product, the Vivus the Robot kit.

When I was prototyping possible kits, the question I asked myself was this: What kit do I wish I had when I was starting electronics? With the Vivus the Robot kit, I believe I've found the perfect solution, a robot that's great for beginners yet still advanced enough to provide a good educational and fun experience.



The store is in an early stage no doubt, but I hope to add more products to it soon.

Liam Nesson + Astrophysics = ??

Today I noticed the release of a new mini-documentary on Hulu, narrated by none other than Liam Neeson. Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity is a great little movie that provides a good basic introduction to black holes so the non-astrophysicist can understand the core concepts. I was happy to see that the producers included some information on wormholes and white holes as well, two important ideas that are sometimes overlooked. Its always interesting to me to see something on Einstein and his theories. His perception of spacetime (yes, one word) is incredible to say the least.

Seeing this documentary was perfectly timed for me, as I've just gotten around to finally reading Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is also a Nova host from time to time. If you find this interesting, check out Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe, the very book that sparked my interest in physics. What I really like about astrophysics is how little is really understood, and the universe is just waiting to be discovered.

DIY Navigation Robot

Seeing that this is the 100th post on BW Science labs I thought that merited a really cool post. BW Science Labs now has a mascot named Vivus the GoBot.

Vivus the GoBot has been under development for a long time. I chose to use the picaxe axe023 microcontroller board because it was low cost and small. The geared motors I used were very frustrating to assemble as it was made of lots of tiny pieces with little instruction on assembly. However, they had a good gear ratio and were very low cost considering the alternatives (pricing $15 for one little motor should be a crime!). I would have liked to use different bumper switches, but the Omerons were the only ones I could buy and were cheap, they actually ended up working really well. I used a 6v power supply which was heavy, but also great because I ended up not needing to solder in a voltage regulator. I would have liked to add two more wheels, but refrained from doing so because of the cost ($4.95 for 2 wheels?!). I used two tongue depressors as a chassis as they ended up being nearly the perfect size. I tried to accomplish this project without soldering because I don't have good ventilation and my respirator broke. However, this paid off big time as I would easily reconfigure wires in 1/3 of the time it would have taken me if I had soldered the joints.

Anyone who has ever attempted to build a robot from scratch know the challenges it presents, often time resulting in failure if one tiny thing goes wrong like using a different transistor than you should or accidently giving your bot one volt too many (Both of these mistakes I have made during other attempts). This is by far my best robot, and its nice to know that its possible after failing so many times.

By far the hardest part was coding Vivus. The picaxe microcontroller runs on BASIC code, which was created in the late 60's. I spent at least 4 hours testing tons of code bit by bit to get it to finally work.

And of course, every cool robot needs its own cool movie.



Or watch Vivus the GoBot DIY Robot directly on YouTube.

Orion Programming: A new Division of BW Science Labs

BW Science Labs has had a lot of behind-the-scenes work done lately, an while the actual blog may have seemed desolate and un-updated, much work was being done. One of many of these projects is Orion Programming, a new division of BW Science Labs. Orion will be my portal for all of the software I write, since this blog is currently incapable of hosting files and embedding Flash projects.

The Orion Programming site was built primarily in preporation for my first Flash and ActionScript 3 game ever, which will hopefully be released sometime this week. I haven't built a web-based game since my early days as a young(er) programmer using MIT's Scratch, and while its artwork is ugly at best, I'm very happy with the 700-800 lines of code that have gone into this project.

Going slightly off topic, I am also working on a new robot whose aim is to be as low cost while still advanced as possible. Right now it doesn't look like much, but when it does I'll write up more about it.

It's good to be back in the normal flow of BWSL projects, as always let me know your thoughts and ideas via commenting on this post or pinging me via email.

Farewell for now...

I know, I know, the one thing people wanted more of from BW Science Labs was more articles, but well hey, we all need vacation some time.
In a few hours I will be on a bus to camp, and no, NOT science camp as everyone assumes (well, for a good reason I suppose). I am in fact going to a tech-free 1 month camp.

However, when I return some awesome projects will be unveiled.

Have a good summer and try to do at least 1 awesome thing!

Until we meet again,

Your fellow creator Brennon

Fusion FC logo competition

I am about to launch my Python server, Fusion From Scratch which will host many projects hopefully for years to come. Some of the applications I intend to use it for are iPhone games, Palm Pre applications, remote control of hardware (I'm working on an all-new security system that will feed data to Fusion FC), and hopefully many others. All the code for the server (not the projects/apps though) is finally finished! Here's where you come in: I think it would be cool to have a Fusion FC logo to display on its home page and to use as a link from sites like BW Science Labs. Because I don't have access to applications like Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, I need someone else to create the logo. Unfortunately I cannot pay you (Hey, I'm 14), but I will give you credit on BW Science Labs and the Fusion FC site when it's launched.

I'm not looking for anything too specific, you're free to use your creativity. Feel free to make it colorful, and perhaps a techy/sciencey/futuristic look would be interesting.

I plan on receiving multiple submissions, as I did with the BW Science Labs logo. Only one can win, so please don't feel bad if yours doesn't make it. :)

Email your submission in the highest resolution possible to brennonw at bwsciencelabs.com to enter.

Good luck!

Maker Faire 2009

Once a year, geeks, nerds, businessmen, gamers, weird-clown-looking-people, and the (very) occasional jock, gather unified in one place: The Maker Faire in San Mateo, California. Innovators and inventors gather here to share their work, freely and openly. It is at the Makers Faire that anyone can learn from and enjoy hourly Tesla Coil shows, wars between mini tanks, naval battles between 8 foot long ships that shoot 1/4 inch metal bullets at each other, and so much more. It is where science, technology and innovation are displayed and discussed in a hands-on forum.


May 30 and 31st are a couple of my absolute favorite days in the world! This year I was able to meet many people who I had read about, including inventor Mitch Altman, the guy from the Myth Busters Adam, and of course several MIT students. I was able to talk to one guy from the MIT Media lab, who gave me some great advice about getting into a school like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: “Don’t do stuff to put it on your application, do it because you are excited about it.” In addition, I met the award winning innovator who made a full oven that could boil water in minutes. This was remarkable because the oven was made of only cardboard, tin foil, and some paint.

I love the smell of solder in the morning, its the smell of victory*. Sparkfun Electronics held a small workshop. For the bargain price of 10 dollars, they give you a box of parts, and access to all of their tools and equipment. Best yet, they have experienced engineers walking around to help you build things. My piano teacher jokingly asked me to build a metronome to help me play. I was actually able to build my own at the Maker Faire. Those of you who know me know that I sometimes have a hard time with instructions, they seem to be slow and take all the fun of figuring out how the pieces fit together. I proudly made my metronome in record time, and was grinning as I placed the batteries inside. I flipped on the switch. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Horrified by my failure, I flagged down one of the “Sparkfun engineers” who quickly discovered that the microcontroller I soldered in was backwards. “You know,” he said, “it says right here in step one- to make sure that the notches align.” Whoops. The people at Sparkfun were kind enough to give me a replacement kit for free, which I am extremely grateful for considering that it was my fault for not reading the directions.

In addition to countless new innovations, there were the famous Coke and Mentos guys who repeated their show from last year. The success of their explosion formula has given these guys quite a following on Youtube. That said, there is no substitute for seeing their show in person.


Equally fascinating were the 3D printers that could literally print out flip-flops, hair combs, toothbrushes and just about anything else you could possibly think of. There were also plasma and laser cutters that I saw in action, along with a variety of holograms and 3D films. This is only scratching the surface of all of the amazing exhibits at the Maker Faire. The only real way to fully see everything is to be there!!

A challenge for youth programmers

I'm officially running a challenge through Digital Open for youth programmers.

Hopefully this is but the first of many Digital Open challenges.

Background:

I've started making my own text-based game in Python executed completely in the Python Shell (a part of IDLE that can be downloaded for free here). What I've discovered is how truly helpful it is to start building bare bones programs before diving into all of the Python modules like Pygame, OpenGL, etc. So, the game really isn't the point at all, but learning to code is.

The Idea:

Build a text based interactive program in Python that is executed only in the Python SHELL. Your game can be something like the old Advent game, or can take a completely different route, its completely up to you.

A Quick Note on Python:

I first got interested in programming when I was maybe 10 or 11, but I spent far too much time worrying about what language to go with. I contacted big-time programmers at large companies, and naturally each one told me to go with whatever language their company was working with. I kept dipping my toe into countless languages, and it took me far too long to learn this:

Python is the most powerful, easy to learn, cross-platform, fun programming language in the world.

Here's what it can do:

-It can create beautifully engineered games like EVE.

-It can work with all forms of math.

-It is by far the best way to network (servers, email parsing, etc.) that I know of.

-It can even work really well with wild things like encryption and codes (a while ago I build a simple encryption program that works with text-files).

-It can even be run off of hardware like microcontrollers, though because of the required interpreter it needs a relatively large one.

-And it can do just about anything else that could ever be done on a computer.

The only thing I know if that it can't do is build an operating system because of the interpreter, but that's fine because there are already lots of really great OSs out there, and to create your own would be unnecessary.

Also:

-Python is very popular, meaning it'll give you job opportunities in the future (NASA uses it, along with many others. In fact, MIT uses it a lot as well. Great thing for your college app, if you think of that kind of thing). This also means that there is a HUGE support group to help you out if you need at hand (there are awesome forums out there to help you like python-forum.org).

-Python is simple and elegant. Don't get me wrong, it's not insanely easy like Scratch (nothing against Scratch, I used to use it every day), but it is not a huge pain to learn like C and C++. The cool thing is that you can achieve in maybe 3 lines of Python code what would take perhaps 30 lines of C++ code just as easily, meaning you can spend more time building your program rather than typing away at endless lines of code like a C++ zombie.

-Python works pretty much everywhere. This is subject to change if you're using a very specific module, but 99.9% of the time your code can be run on Windows, Mac, Linux, and many others.

Start and stick with Python, its awesome.

The Rules:

-The game must be built in Python and executed on in the SHELL.

-You have to write the code all by yourself. No copy/pasting!

-You must be a Digital Open member (17 & under), sign up is free and safe.

Resources:

There are tons of books out there on Python, but if you don't feel like spending loads of money on 1,000 page books, then here are some great free resources I've used.

-Snake Wrangling for Kids is a free ebook in .pdf format on Python programming for kids.

-A Byte of Python is one of my favorites, and is also a free pdf.

-python.org has great overall info on the language.

-python-fourm.org is a great place to look for help.

End of challenge:

TBD.

Prize:

I personally cannot supply a prize, so if there is one then its up to Digital Open. :)

Submission:

Submit a project at Digital Open and tag it with: "Challenge: Text-based Python game".



Good luck!