The Microsoft Kinect is the first consumer product that lets people control an interface using gesture and voice alone. An add-on for Microsoft's Xbox 360 video-game console, the sensor-packed device can determine your position and interpret vocal commands, all without requiring you to hold any special controllers or wear special clothing. At $150 retail, it is a relatively inexpensive way to try a next-generation interface. You might, for example, play Dance Central, a movement game made by Harmonix that teaches dance moves, watches how well you perform them, and tracks how many calories you burn during a play session.
A few weeks ago, we were talking internally about somehow celebrating some of our favorite makers from 2010. Of course, when we do that, our usual cast of amazing makers pop to mind: Mister Jalopy, Bill Gurstelle, Bre Pettis, Limor Fried, Lenore and Windell of Evil Mad Scientist Labs, the Instructables folks, etc. But we also wanted to cast our net a little wider. And don't get us wrong, we're not voting these folks as "the best makers" or anything. It's not a competition. But as Phil said about Mitch Altman, an already well-known maker who we decided to single out anyway (see below), they represent "the best of us." For all of these people, their seemingly boundless curiosity, resourcefulness, experimental approach to life, their not being afraid to fail, and their overall spirit of adventure and dedication to the joy of making, is what makes them representative of that better part of us all. So, from everyone here at MAKE, we'd like to thank all of you in this article, all of the other makers who contributed to Maker Media endeavors in 2010, and to all of you who are part of the greater maker community. You all inspire us and keep us going.
And we'd love to hear in the comments who you thought were some of the more inspired makers in 2010.
Mitch Altman — Anybody who's read MAKE, this website, has been to a Maker Faire, is part of a hackerspace, gone to a hacker con, or similar, probably knows Mitch Altman. He's certainly not newly arrived on the maker radar. But we thought he needed special commendation anyway. PT put it best in an email:
Mitch tirelessly travels the world to patiently teach thousands of people open source hardware, he's a developer/founder of a hackerspace (and champion of hackerspaces). He's a wonderful person, has a social cause -- if you've seen Mitch at a Maker Faire, he is a saint -- he is the best of us. —Phillip Torrone
He is indeed. So we award Mitch a special Maker Saint award for 2010. We love you, Mitch. Keep up the Great Work!
Jeri Ellsworth — Jeri is also likely no stranger to Make: Online readers, but we're endlessly inspired and entertained by her work. She's a geek's geek. Check out this recent video she did about her failures and what she's learned from them. We can't wait to see what sorts of trouble Jeri gets herself into in 2011. —Gareth
Chris Hackett — If you were at Maker Faire New York, you couldn't miss seeing (and hearing) the work of artist and fabricator Chris Hackett and the Madagascar Institute. They were a huge presence at the Faire, from the madcap chariot races around the metal sculpture in the center of the park to the gut-rumblingly-loud "Jet Ponies," basically two buzz bombs with saddles you could climb onto and ride. Good times! Hackett also just starred in a pilot for a Science Channel show, called Stuck with Hackett. Since airing, the show has been picked up for nine more episodes (to be filmed in 2011) and the show scored a New York Times mention. —Gareth
Getting iPhone push notifications from objects in your physical world is possible using an Arduino with an Ethernet Shield, a PHP-enabled web server and an iPhone app called Prowl. In this video, I show how to set up a mailbox so that it pings your phone when snail mail is delivered, but it's very easy to adapt this project to whatever suits your needs.
Prowl is an iPhone app with the sole purpose of delivering push notifications to you from your computer via Growl or from online services with the API. In order to connect the Arduino to Prowl's API, we need a PHPproxy server. This is because Prowl's API requires an SSL connection, which the Arduino isn't capable of making. Luckily, setting up the server is easy because all of the hard work has already been done by the fine people behind the ProwlPHP class. All you need to do is paste your Prowl API key into the example code and change the example text to the alert that you want to send. When your Arduino requests the URL of that example script from your web server, the alert is pushed to your phone almost instantaneously.
For the code on the Arduino, I simply adapted the WebClient example that's included with the Arduino IDE. I changed the server address, the URL, and the basic structure of the code so that it requested our ProwlPHP script's URL when it sensed a "high" signal from the switch. I also added serial output for debugging. You can check out the code I used for this project on Google Code or just download the Zip file.
There are a lot of great uses for this project. You could have push alerts delivered to your iPhone when you leave your garage door open, when someone opens your front gate, when the temperature drops below freezing, or when your home power usage exceeds a certain level. Whatever kind of switch or sensor you can hook up to your microprocessor can trigger a push alert. I'm eager to see how you decide to implement iPhone push alerts into your projects.
Everyone please give a warm welcome to Matt Richardson! He'll be making videos and posting here at Make: Online. Matt is a long-time sci-tech lover and maker. In his childhood, he wrote computer games in BASIC and then as a teenager he worked as a science demonstrator at The Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia. Currently, he works in New York City's television industry, but spends much of his free time tinkering with electronics and shooting photos and video. As an avid runner and swimmer, he has completed the New York City Marathon four times and competes in US Masters swim meets and open water swims. He can be found on Twitter at @MattRichardson or MattRichardson.com.
Matt auditioned for our open video maker call (still open, BTW) and now he's releasing project videos here on the site and through MAKE's YouTube channel with 190K subscribers. Welcome to the team, Matt!
Hi Makers! The Tag Your Green Contest ends tonight at 11:59 PST. Here's your last chance to get your entries in.
Do you have an innovative project that you think is "green" or one you've been thinking about starting? That word green gets tossed around a lot. It's slapped onto everything these days. What constitutes "green" can be a relative thing. Do you think others would find your project "environmentally-friendly," a worthwhile solution to today's environmental problems? Does it promote conservation? Appropriate use of technology? Let's find out. MAKE is running a green project contest, as part of GE's ecomagination.
Grab the code generated after you've registered your project. This is your "tag." Place this HTML code on the project page of your website, on your blog, wherever you want, and Tag Your Green!
Encourage your readers, family and friends, your social network to vote for your project. When they hit the Vote for My Green Project badge on your site, they'll be taken to your project page on MAKE where they can vote.
Post the link to your MAKE Green Project page to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks and encourage others to do the same.
Posts that get lots of votes, besides being eligible for prizes (see below), will also draw the attention of MAKE editors. We'll start doing blog posts, and maybe even articles in the magazine, about some of the more popular projects.
What You Win: The project that gets the most votes between now and December 31, 2010 (11:59pm PDT) will be the Grand Prize winner. After this top prize winner, those with the most votes in each category will win runners-up prize packages.
Grand Prize Winner -- Trip for two to Maker Faire 2011 (winners choice of Bay Area, Detroit, or New York). Travel, lodging, and event tickets covered (up to $1500). The opportunity to award five "Green Maker" ribbons at the Faire.
Grand Prize Winner and five Runners-up will receive: 1-year subscription to MAKE magazine, an autographed copy of Made by Hand by Mark Frauenfelder, a Maker's Notebook, a Sparkle Labs SunMod Kit (turns your remote control into a solar-powered device), and two adult day passes to the Maker Faire of choice.
Check out our series of videos on Maker Pioneers who are doing work we think is worthy of the tag "green."
Somewhere at the junction of modern open-source hardware and early 80's Russia lives a beautiful DIY kit from the Maker Shed called the Ice Tube Clock. The centerpiece of this old-meets-new clock is a Russian-made, 9-digit, vacuum florescent display (VFD). Included in the kit is everything you need to build a complete VFD clock.
Features:
Cool glowing blue tube with 8 digits, PM dot and alarm on/off indicator
Adjustable brightness
Alarm with volume adjust
Precision watch crystal keeps time with under 20ppm (0.002%) error (< 2 seconds a day)
Clear acrylic enclosure protects the clock from you, and you from the clock
Battery backup will let the clock keep the time for up to 2 weeks without power
Selectable 12h or 24h display
Displays day and date on button press
10 minute snooze
Integrated boost converter so it can run off of standard DC wall adapters, works in any country regardless of mains power
Great for desk or night table use, the clock measures 4.9" x 2.9" x 1.3" (12.5cm x 7.4cm x 3.3cm)
Completely open source hardware and software, ready to be hacked and modded!
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