Just like the garage computer explosion of the 70’s through the 80’s, which brought us such things as Apple, pong, Bill Gate’s hair, and the proliferation of personal computers, the maker movement is the new garage hardware explosion. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement.
Enthusiasts who want to build the products they want, from shortwave radios to personal computers, and to tweak products they’ve bought to make them even better, have long been a part of the electronics industry. By all measures, garage-style innovation remains alive and well today, as “makers” as they are called continue to turn out contemporary gadgets, including 3D printers, drones, and embedded electronics devices.
Making is about individual Do-It-Yourselfers being able to design and create with tools that were, as of a decade or two ago, only available to large, cash-rich corporations: CAD tools, CNC mills, 3D printers, low-quantity PCB manufacturing, open hardware such as Arduinos and similar inexpensive development boards – all items that have made it easier and relatively cheap to make whatever we imagine. For individuals, maker tools can change how someone views their home or their hobbies. The world is ours to make. Humans are genetically wired to be makers. The maker movement is simply the result of making powerful building and communication tools accessible to the masses. There are plenty of projects from makers that show good engineering: Take this Arduino board with tremendous potential, developed by a young maker, as example.
The maker movement is a catalyst to democratize entrepreneurship as these do-it-yourself electronics are proving to be hot sellers: In the past year, unit sales for 3D printing related products; Arduino units, parts and supplies; Raspberry Pi boards; drones and quadcopters; and robotics goods are all on a growth curve in terms of eBay sales. There are many Kickstarter maker projects going on. The Pebble E-Paper Watch raises $10 million. The LIFX smartphone-controlled LED bulb raises $1.3 million. What do these products have in common? They both secured funding through Kickstarter, a crowd-funding website that is changing the game for entrepreneurs. Both products were created by makers who seek to commercialize their inventions. These “startup makers” iterate on prototypes with high-end tools at professional makerspaces.
For companies to remain competitive, they need to embrace the maker movement or leave themselves open for disruption. Researchers found that 96 percent of business leaders believe new technologies have forever changed the rules of business by democratizing information and rewiring customer expectations. - You’ve got to figure out agile innovation. Maybe history is repeating itself as the types of products being sold reminded us of the computer tinkering that used to be happening in the 1970s to 1990s – similar in terms of demographics, tending to be young people, and low budget. Now the do-it-yourself category is deeply intertwined with the electronics industry. Open hardware is in the center in maker movement – we need open hardware designs! How can you publish your designs and still do business with it? Open source ecosystem markets behave differently and therefore require a very different playbook than traditional tech company: the differentiation is not in the technology you build; it is in the process and expertise that you slowly amass over an extended period of time.
By democratizing the product development process, helping these developments get to market, and transforming the way we educate the next generation of innovators, we will usher in the next industrial revolution. The world is ours to make. Earlier the PC created a new generation of software developers who could innovate in the digital world without the limitations of the physical world (virtually no marginal cost, software has become the great equalizer for innovation. Now advances in 3D printing and low-cost microcontrollers as well as the ubiquity of advanced sensors are enabling makers to bridge software with the physical world. Furthermore, the proliferation of wireless connectivity and cloud computing is helping makers contribute to the Internet of Things (IoT). We’re even beginning to see maker designs and devices entering those markets once thought to be off-limits, like medical.
Image source: The world is ours to make: The impact of the maker movement – EDN Magazine
In fact, many parents have engaged in the maker movement with their kids because they know that the education system is not adequately preparing their children for the 21st century. There is a strong movement to spread this DIY idea widely. The Maker Faire, which launched in the Bay Area in California in 2006, underlined the popularity of the movement by drawing a record 215,000 people combined in the Bay Area and New York events in 2014. There’s Maker Media, MakerCon, MakerShed, Make: magazine and 131 Maker Faire events that take place throughout the world. Now the founders of all these Makers want a way to connect what they refer to as the “maker movement” online. So Maker Media created a social network called MakerSpace, a Facebook-like social network that connects participants of Maker Faire in one online community. The new site will allow participants of the event to display their work online. There are many other similar sites that allow yout to present yout work fron Hackaday to your own blog. Today, 135 million adults in the United States alone are involved in the maker movement—although makers can be found everywhere in the world.
6,826 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenCT2
An open source low-resolution desktop CT scanner
https://hackaday.io/project/5946-openct2
Harness the power of the atom to scan inside objects with this nuclear powered desktop volumetric computed tomography (CT) scanner!
The OpenCT2 is my attempt to move the design much closer to the tomographic systems in use today, and make a complete third generation desktop CT scanner that uses a large parallel array of detectors. This should decrease the acquisition time substantially, acquiring low-resolution images on the order of an hour, and tomographic scan times on the order of a day.
Extremely low intensity source: Instead of using an x-ray tube, for safety the system is designed to use a low-intensity radioisotope source. The 10uCi Barium-133 source used with this system is the most intense radioisotope source that one can purchase without a license in the US. This constraint makes the design much safer than using an x-ray tube, but it’s also the major limiting factor in acquisition time — because the source is of such a low intensity, the acquisition times are essentially bound by the shot noise associated with photon counting.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Voice Recognition Typewriter
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/17/the-voice-recognition-typewriter/
Typewriters with voice recognition have existed for over one hundred years; they were called secretaries. Robots are taking all the jobs now, and finally dictation and typing is a job that can be handled by a computer. [Zip Zaps] used an old Smith Corona typewriter to automate the process of turning dictation into print. Like a secretary hunched over an anachronistic IBM Selectric in the first season of Mad Men, this robot will take dictation and accept the overt sexism of a 1960s Manhattan ad agency.
Instead of the machinations of a few biological actuators, this typewriter is controlled with an array of servos driven by Pololu Maestro servo controller.
While a robot that can use a typewriter is impressive, the real trick is getting it to take dictation. [Zip Zaps] used the built-in voice recognition found in Windows for this, streaming characters over a serial port to the Arduino-based electronics.
Does it work? Yes, surprisingly it does. Is it useful? Well
Automated Voice Recognition Typewriter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNSCL4YOd5E
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jeri Ellsworth, self-taught engineer, talks about her career
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLy0mVkoLio
Jeri Ellsworth, who keynoted at ESC Silicon Valley 2011, talks about her remarkable life and career and innovations with EE Times.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GuardBunny Active RFID Protection Going Open Hardware
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/18/guardbunny-active-rfid-protection-going-open-hardware/
There are two sides to every coin. Instead of swiping or using a chip reader with your credit card, some companies offer wireless cards that you hold up to a reader for just an instant. How convenient for you and for anyone who might what to read that data for their own use. The same goes for RFID enabled passports, and the now ubiquitous keycards used for door access at businesses and hotels. I’m sure you can opt-out of one of these credit cards, but Gerald in human resources isn’t going to issue you a metal key — you’re stuck hauling around that RFID card.
It is unlikely that someone surreptitiously reading your card will unlock your secrets. The contactless credit cards and the keylock cards are actually calculating a response based on a stored key pair. But you absolutely could be tracked by the unique IDs in your cards. Are you being logged when passing by an open reader? And other devices, like public transit cards, may have more information stored on them that could be harvested. It’s not entirely paranoid to want to silence these signals when you’re not using them.
One solution is to all of this is to protect your wallet from would-be RFID pirates. At this point all I’m sure everyone is thinking of a tin-foil card case. Sure, that might work unless the malicious reader is very powerful. But there’s a much more interesting way to protect against this: active RFID scrambling with a project called GuardBunny.
Mimicking Contactless Systems at 13.56 MHz
RFID is a catch-all word for Radio Frequency IDentification. In this case, we’re talking about any system that operates in the 13.56 MHz band, including NFC, MiFare, Smart Cards, and the like.
GuardBunny protects against unauthorized reads by activating in the same way any standards-compliant tag would. It uses a tuned antenna that activates a power supply when exposed to 13.56 MHz electromagnetic waves. This feeds a 4-bit counter IC whose output is connected to a modulator and limiter circuit. The result is a transmitted signal with the specifications the reader is listening for, but carrying a payload that is gibberish. As long as this is in the same path as the card you’re trying to protect, this gibberish will prevent the reader from getting an appropriate response from the real contactless card.
Files for GuardBunny, an RFID shield presented at Shmoocon 2016
https://github.com/kristinpaget/GuardBunny
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny USB Morse Code Beacon
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/18/tiny-usb-morse-code-beacon/
It is reasonably easy to make a microcontroller spit out some Morse code. What makes [pavlin’s] take on this project interesting is that it resides on a tiny USB board with an ARM processor. The design for the board is available with single-sided artwork suitable for production using simple methods like toner transfer.
The STM device has a built-in USB bootloader. It can also act as a serial port, which makes the project very simple. The only external parts are a speaker and an optoisolator.
Programmable CW Morse Keyer / beacon
http://e.pavlin.si/2016/02/16/programmable-cw-morse-keyer-for-beacon/
The code is available on GitHub.
https://github.com/s54mtb/stm32projects/tree/master/projects/f0-usb-beacon
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless mesh networked badges coming to ESC Boston
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4441407/Wireless-mesh-networked-badges-coming-to-ESC-Boston?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160218&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_weekly_20160218&elqTrackId=0c35dc3bf244441ebf180e32f4d74d84&elq=67b4966efe9f430b8e0133b911161c89&elqaid=30892&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27031
But the main reason to attend an event like ESC is the ability to network with one’s peers. It can be really advantageous to meet up with other engineers who are working in the same fields as oneself, just to have someone to bounce ideas off. It can also be advantageous to meet folks who specialize in other domains. I cannot tell you how often I run into a problem that’s outside my area of expertise, and then I think “Hang on, that guy Bob I met at ESC Boston last year was working on something like this — now, where did I put his business card?”
One teeny-weeny problem here is that — generally speaking, and I say this with love — engineers’ social and networking skills can best be described as “non-optimal.” In fact, I’m reminded of the old engineering joke:
Q: How can you tell if an engineer is an extrovert or an introvert?
A: If he’s an extrovert, he looks at your shoes when he’s talking to you!
All of which explains why we came up with the idea of the “Hello There!” badge with its 8 x ×8 matrix of LEDs that can be used to scroll text messages and play games. When you power-up these little beauties, they immediately link up with each other to form a low-power wireless mesh network. Using DIP switches, you inform your badge as to your area(s) of interest: ANALOG, DIGITAL, HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, STEM, and/or the IOT.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cambits: A Reconfigurable Camera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEFAc3e7Oz4
Computer Science Professor Shree Nayar and Makoto Odamaki, a visiting scientist from Ricoh Corporation, have developed Cambits, a modular imaging system that enables the user to create a wide range of computational cameras. Cambits comprises a set of colorful plastic blocks of five different types—sensors, light sources, actuators, lenses, and optical attachments. The blocks can easily be assembled to make a variety of cameras with different functionalities such as high dynamic range imaging, panoramic imaging, refocusing, light field imaging, depth imaging using stereo, kaleidoscopic imaging and even microscopy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The OpenR/C Project
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/19/the-openrc-project/
Daniel Norée] started the OpenR/C project back in 2012 when he bought a Thing-O-Matic. In search of a project to test out his new printer, he set his sights on a remote controlled car, which as he put it,”… seemed like the perfect candidate, as it presents a lot of challenges with somewhat intricate moving parts along with the need for a certain level of precision and durability.”
After releasing his second design, the OpenR/C Truggy, he realized a community was forming around this idea, and needed a place to communicate
OpenRC 1:10 4WD Truggy Concept RC Car
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:42198
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home-Made Solenoid Motor
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/19/home-made-solenoid-motor/
Want to really understand how something works? Make one yourself. That’s the approach that Reddit user [Oskarbjo] took with this neat electric motor build. He made the whole thing from scratch, using an Arduino, 3D printing, and ample quantities of wire to create a solenoid motor. This transforms the linear force of a solenoid, where a magnet is moved by a magnetic field, into rotary force. It’s rather like an internal combustion engine, but driven by electricity instead of explosions. Hopefully.
https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/46539i/i_made_an_arduino_controlled_electric_motor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Frackers: Inside the Mind of the Junk Hacker
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/25/frackers-inside-the-mind-of-the-junk-hacker/
A Fracker is Born
That was the night that we realized we all had something deeper in common: we were all “frackers”. If you’ve been around hackers long enough, you’ll have noticed this tendency, but maybe you’ve never put a name to it. Tearing something apart, even if you might break it in the process, isn’t a problem if you fished it out of the e-waste stream to begin with. If you’re able to turn it into something, so much the better. It’s all upside. Need practice de-soldering tricky ICs? Looking for a cheap target to learn reverse engineering on? Off to the trashcan! No hack is too dirty, no method too barbaric. It’s already junk, and you’re a fracker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Slew of Open-Source Synthesizers
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/23/a-slew-of-open-source-synthesizers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Worlds Collide: Hot Rodders and Hackers
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/23/worlds-collide-hot-rodders-and-hackers-needs-art/
When we think of the average hot rodder, we think of guys and gals that love anything on four wheels. They’re good with hand tools, fabrication and know the ins and outs of the internal combustion engine. Their tools of the trade are welders, grinders and boxed-end wrenches. But their knowledge of electric circuits doesn’t go beyond wiring up a 12 volt DC tail light. On the surface, the role of a hot rodder would seem quite different from that of a hardware hacker. But if you abstract what they do, you find that they take machines and modify their design to make them do something more than they were originally designed to do. When viewed in this light, hot rodders are hackers.
Today’s cars and trucks use highly sophisticated electronic controls to keep them running at optimal performance. Without a solid background in computer electronics, a hot rodder will be faced with a near impossible challenge when trying to make any substantial modifications to a modern motor vehicle. This is one of the reasons why they stick with older vehicles. As a general rule, a hot rodder wants nothing to do with a car or truck made after the year 1980.
As time marches on and new generations of hot rodders fire up their first TIG welder, it is inevitable that they will begin to be lured into our world with the hope of hot rodding more modern cars
It’s important to recognize the relationship between the modern hot rodder and certain types of hackers. We are all aware of the car hacking movement that attempts to break security and crack protocols. The typical hot rodder is not interested in this approach. Their interest lies in modifying the motor vehicle for performance enhancements and to make it do that which the design engineer never intended it to do. An example of such a case was recently played out in a reality television show called Fast N’ Loud.
Fast N’ Loud is a popular TV series that has been running on the Discovery Channel since 2012.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mechatronic Cat Ears For The Rest Of Us
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/26/mechatronic-cat-ears-for-the-rest-of-us/
Just such a project is [Radomir Dopieralski’s] set of wearable mechatronic cat ears. A cosplay accessory that moves as you do. Very kawaii, but fun.
Mechatronic Ears
Wearable cat ears that move
https://hackaday.io/project/9769-mechatronic-ears
Cat ears are the ultimate cosplay accessory. There is even a version that reads the wearer’s brain waves and moves the ears according to the person’s mood
I want to make something simpler — ears that move according to the movements of the head.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacklet 97 – Camera Projects
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/26/hacklet-97-camera-projects/
Tomi Engdahl says:
WLAN routers no longer open for modifications?
FCC Locks Down Router Firmware
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/26/fcc-locks-down-router-firmware/
For years, we have been graced with consumer electronics that run some form of Linux, have a serial port on the circuit board somewhere, and are able to be upgraded through official and unofficial means. That digital picture frame you got for Christmas in 2007 and forgot to regift in 2008? That’s a computer, and it would make a wonderful Twitter feed display. Your old Linksys WRT54G router? You can make a robotic lawnmower out of that thing. The ability to modify the firmware of consumer electronics is the cornerstone of Hackaday’s editorial prerogative. Now that right we have all enjoyed is in jeopardy, thanks to regulations from the FCC and laziness from router manufacturers.
Several months ago, the FCC proposed a rule that governed the certification of RF equipment, specifically wireless routers. This regulation would require router manufacturers to implement security on the radio modules inside these routers. While these regulations only covered the U-NII bands – the portion of the spectrum used for 5GHz WiFi, and there was no expectation of implementing security on the CPU or operating system of these routers, there were concerns. Routers are built around a System on Chip, with the CPU and radio in a single package. The easiest way to prevent modification of the radio module would be to prevent modification to the entire router. Some would call it fear mongering, but there was an expectation these proposed FCC rules would inevitably lead to wireless routers being completely locked down.
These expectations have become reality. Libre Planet has received confirmation from a large router manufacturer that firmware is now being locked down thanks to FCC rule changes.
[Battlemesh] Chilling effect – Lockdown (FCC/EU)
http://ml.ninux.org/pipermail/battlemesh/2016-February/004379.html
Yes. Less than 24 hours ago I was given the following information from a
customer service rep from tplink:
Adam Longwill09:10:01 pm downgrading does not work
I get an 18005 errror
upon attempting to downgrade
I want to know if this is because of the FCC’s rules regarding broadcast
strength and DFS control. Has TP-Link complied with these rules and locked
down its firmware and if so, for what models
I need to know if I am going to continue purchasing devices from you.
Camille09:13:25 pm wait one moment please
Thanks for your waiting, right now only these products has limitation on
firmware: Archer C7 V2 Archer C1900 V1 Touch P5 V1 Archer C2600 V1 Archer
C3200 V1 Archer C2 V1 Archer C5 V2 Archer C8 V1 Archer C9 V1 TL-WR841N V11
TL-WDR3500 V1 TL-WR940N V3.0 TL-WR1043ND V3.0 TL-WR710N(USA) TL-WR841N V9.0
and all products will also limite firmware in the future.
Adam Longwill09:34:19 pm Thank you very much, Camille. You’ve been very
helpful
Sorry for the formatting, I’m on mobile.
I’m very interested in what we, as a community, can do to ensure we can
continue to build our networks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Ultimate 1:1 BB-8 Build Guide
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/24/the-ultimate-11-bb-8-build-guide/
BB-8 is not only a cute little droid but also presents dandy of a challenge for hackers ’round the globe to try and recreate in the garage. Nonfunctional models are a dime a dozen and the novelty has long worn off the Sphero toy. This brings us to a legit full-scale BB-8, seen in action in the video after the break.
Lucky for us, [Ed Zarick] has written up a blog post that’s as impressive as the build itself. [Ed] has drawn some inspiration and shared knowledge from several online groups focused around recreating the BB-8. He also provides some thorough Solidworks assemblies that look painfully detailed.
Ed’s BB-8 Build Guide
http://www.edsjunk.net/wordpress/eds-bb-8-build-guide/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Fracker Manifesto
So are you a fracker too? It’s not official until you’ve at least skimmed through our manifesto.
Take stuff out of the trash can!
Make it do something else.
Don’t worry about breaking it.
Fixing something is good — changing it is better.
Appreciate the design of the original, but don’t be limited by it.
Vintage hardware is beautiful.
Building something for $0 is inherently cool.
Let the constraints be a source of inspiration.
Fracking is much harder than buying modules on eBay, but that’s part of the point; you push yourself and you learn.
Source: http://hackaday.com/2016/02/25/frackers-inside-the-mind-of-the-junk-hacker/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Murgen
An open-source ultrasound imaging dev kit side project
https://hackaday.io/project/9281-murgen
This project is born from a fork from the echOpen project (which aims at providing a low cost, open source ultrasound tool for doctors),with a specific target of providing a technological kit to allow scientists, academics, hackers, makers or OSH fans to hack their way to ultrasound imaging.
Tomi Engdahl says:
hillhacks badge
An pcb badge for hillhacks.in
https://hackaday.io/project/9926-hillhacks-badge
this badge has an attiny85, it can be be programmed with either trinket or micronucleus bootloader to become USB programmable, or using VUSB code, it can be a custom USB device(maybe a serial device, or keyboard
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless mesh networked badges coming to ESC Boston
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4441407/Wireless-mesh-networked-badges-coming-to-ESC-Boston?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20160222&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_pcbdesigncenter_20160222&elqTrackId=2e469215b8194efda42527eb3c523cf7&elq=d432fd139dc541a385d9283877797c5c&elqaid=30960&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=27067
One of the questions I’m often asked is why embedded designers should attend events like the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) when so much information is available on the Internet. Well, one point is the technical portion of the conference. I know that I personally find it much easier to learn stuff when I have a live presenter in front of me, not the least that all sorts of wacky questions tend to pop into my mind and it’s nice to have someone who has a clue available to answer them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
7 Ambitious Automotive-Themed DIY Projects
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328521&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Boldport tribute to Bob Pease
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/01/boldport-tribute-to-bob-pease/
“My favorite programming language is solder”
We have lost something in PCB design over the last few decades. If you open up a piece of electronics from the 1960s you’ll see why. A PCB from that era is a thing of beauty, an organic mass of curving traces, an expression of the engineer’s art hand-crafted in black crêpe paper tape on transparent acetate. Now by comparison a PCB is a functional drawing of precise angles and parallel lines created in a CAD package, and though those of us who made PCBs in both eras welcome the ease of software design wholeheartedly we have to admit; PCBs just ain’t pretty any more.
It doesn’t have to be that way though. Notable among the rebels are Boldport, whose latest board, a tribute to the late linear IC design legend [Bob Pease], slipped out this month. They use their own PCBmodE design software to create beautiful boards as works of art with the flowing lines you’d expect from a PCB created the old-fashioned way.
Boldport Club project #1 — make sure one is yours!
http://www.boldport.com/blog/2016/2/21/boldport-club-project-1
PCBmodE
http://pcbmode.com/
PCBmodE is a printed circuit board design Python script that creates an SVG from JSON input files, and then creates Gerber and Excellon files for manufacturing.
PCBmodE gives the designer the freedome to place any arbitrary shape on any layer, as it is natively vector-based. Much of the design is done in a text editor — editing JSON — with viewing and some editing — routing mostly — done with Inkscape.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build Your Own Sensor Skin
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/29/build-your-own-sensor-skin/
Scientific research, especially in the area of robotics, often leverages cutting-edge technology. Labs filled with the latest measurement and fabrication gear are unleashed on the really tough problems, like how to simulate the exquisite sensing abilities of human skin. One lab doing work in this area has taken a different approach, though, by building multi-functional sensors arrays from paper.
A group from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, led by [Muhammad M. Hussain], has published a fascinating paper that’s a tour de force of getting a lot done with nothing. Common household items, like Post-It notes, kitchen sponges, tissue paper, and tin foil, are used to form the basis of what they call “paper skin”. Fabrication techniques – scissors and tape – are ridiculously simple and accessible to anyone who made it through kindergarten.
They do turn to a Circuit Scribe pen for some of their sensors
Paper Skin Multisensory Platform for Simultaneous Environmental Monitoring
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1002/admt.201600004/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Breaking Out The ATtiny10
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/01/breaking-out-the-attiny10/
Atmel’s ATtiny10 is the one microcontroller in their portfolio that earns its name. It doesn’t have a lot of Flash – only 1 kilobyte. It doesn’t have a lot of RAM – only thirty two bytes. It is, however, very, very small. Atmel stuffed this tiny microcontroller into an SOT-23 package, more commonly used for surface mount transistors. It’s small, and unless your ideal application is losing this chip in your carpet, you’re going to need a breakout board. [Dan] has just the solution. He could have made this breakout board smaller, but OSHpark has a minimum size limit. Yes, this chip is very, very small.
Because this chip is so small, it doesn’t use the normal in-system programming port of its larger brethren. The ATtiny10 uses the Tiny Programming Interface, or TPI, which only requires power, ground, data, clock, and a reset pin. Connecting these pins to the proper programming header is easy enough, and with a careful layout, [Dan] fit everything into a breakout board that’s a hair smaller than a normal 8-pin DIP.
The reason you use such a small microcontroller is to put a microcontroller into something really, really small like ridiculous LED cufflinks. A breakout board is much too large for a project like this, but SOT23 test adapters exist, and they’re only $25 or so.
ATtiny10 Mini Breakout Board
http://syncchannel.blogspot.fi/2016/02/attiny10-mini-breakout-board.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
iCufflinks
https://www.adafruit.com/icufflinks
Pop In, Screw On
Before your fancy event, just pop the battery in, screw the backing and your iCufflinks will gently pulsate for up to 24 hours.
Open Source Hardware
iCufflinks are completely open source. The source code, circuit board files, schematics and CAD files are posted on GitHub. Mod & Hack away!
Tomi Engdahl says:
World’s Smallest Cordless Power Tools, 3D Printed of Course
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/03/worlds-smallest-cordless-power-tools-3d-printed-of-course/
There isn’t much information we could find on this one (sorry, no source files that we know of), but this little hack is so playful and fun, we just had to share it with you. [Lance Abernethy] has built both a working cordless drill, and circular saw using nothing more than a 3D printer, what seems to be a pager-type vibration motor, a tactile switch and a coin cell battery – you can see them both working in the video after the break.
[Lance] used an Ultimaker 2, running a 0.25mm nozzle, and printing at a 0.04mm layer height in PLA. As you would expect, the 0.25mm nozzle is needed for such small parts – it’s also close to the limit of what extruder can still squeeze plastic through. it greatly increases the chance of blocked or clogged nozzles.
New Zealand Man 3D Prints the World’s Smallest Working Drill — Just 7.5mm Wide
http://3dprint.com/51677/3d-printed-smallest-drill/
idea was to create the world’s smallest working drill, and he would do this using his Ultimaker 2 3D printer. To start off, he used a CAD software package called Onshape 3D. He drew the outer shell of the drill, using his “normal” size drill as a reference
Once he had the design just the way he wanted it, he 3D printed it on his Ultimaker 2, using a 0.25mm nozzle and a 0.04mm layer height. He also set his printer to print very slowly, at just 10mm per second. Printed without any support, the 3-piece drill took about 25 minutes to completely print out. The drill consists of two halves plus a 3D printed chuck which is pressed onto the motor shaft. Abernethy uses a hearing aid battery for power, a small button, and a miniature motor. For wiring, he stripped out a headphone cable. While 3D printing was really quite easy, assembling the drill was another story.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Materials to Know: Acetal and Delrin
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/03/materials-to-know-acetal-and-delrin/
Delrin, Acetal, and its many trade names is a material properly known as Polyoxymethylene or POM. It is one of the strongest plastics and is a good go-to material when you want the best properties of plastic, and don’t need the full strength of a metal part. It was originally formulated to compete with Zinc and Aluminum castings after all.
The most popular property of POM is its ease of machining. While doing this research every single site I came across referred to it as the most machinable plastic.
POM also laser cuts extremely well.
POM in many ways behaves like brass than compared to other plastics. It’s naturally stronger and stiffer than other plastics. It has low thermal expansion. It doesn’t absorb a lot of water, and therefore stays dimensionally stable better than Nylon. POM is also very hard and abrasion resistant.
Surprisingly, Delrin != Acetal
I once got in an argument with someone about whether or not Delrin and Acetal were the same material. I thought they were the same, I ended up being quite wrong. Acetal refers to the pattern and shape of the molecule that makes up its building blocks. Delrin, is an acetal homopolymer unless otherwise specified by Dupont. When you buy acetal without a trade name attached, you are usually purchasing acetal copolymer.
There is a mechanical difference between homopolymer (Delrin) and copolymer (Acetal). Delrin has a higher melting point, is a little stronger, and has a few other slightly more initially desirable properties. The homopolymer is less uniform throughout its cross section.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Half of inventions “arise unexpectedly” from serendipity—not direct research
Research institutions are the least likely inspirations for that spark of creativity.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/03/half-of-inventions-arise-unexpectedly-from-serendipity-not-direct-research/
If you’re smashing your face into the keyboard trying to come up with a brand-new invention, you need to stop and go for a walk. You could also try watching a movie about an unrelated topic. A new book on the process of invention, Inventology by Pagan Kennedy, reveals that roughly half of all inventions started as ideas or discoveries that people had while working on something else.
During a lecture in San Francisco last month, Kennedy emphasized that the process of invention has been “democratized.” Using crowdsourcing, maker spaces like TechShop, and services for building prototypes, inventors can create new devices without huge amounts of investment capital—or even employees. That said, it actually matters who is in the room when people brainstorm ideas for new inventions. She explained that the first over-the-counter pregnancy tests, designed by men in the 1960s, were all non-starters until a female product designer perfected a form of industrial design that would sell.
The PatVal study also underscores that the biggest source of inspiration for innovators comes from clients or users, people who will actually be using whatever the inventors create.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bullet-time Video Effect by Throwing Your Phone Around
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/07/bullet-time-video-effect-by-throwing-your-phone-around/
Ski areas are setting formal policies for drones left and right, but what happens when your drone isn’t a drone but is instead a tethered iPhone with wings swinging around you like a ball-and-chain flail as you careen down a mountain? [nicvuignier] decided to explore the possibility of capturing bullet-time video of his ski runs by essentially swinging his phone around him on a tether. The phone is attached to a winged carrier of his own design, 3D printed in PLA.
He has open sourced the design, which works for either iPhone or GoPro models, or it is available for preorder
Making of Centriphone by Nicolas Vuignier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d45oGNv8H98
I took a little while, but here it is! I received countless feedbacks asking for a making of explaining how I shot the Centriphone video. So here’s how I did it, I hope you like it
Tomi Engdahl says:
Welcome to Heathkit. ®
We invented DIY.
https://shop.heathkit.com/shop
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s Time the Software People and Mechanical People Sat Down and Had a Talk.
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/07/its-time-the-software-guys-and-mechanical-guys-sat-down-and-had-a-talk/
With the advances in rapid prototyping, there’s been a huge influx of people in the physical realm of hacking. While my overall view of this development is positive, I’ve noticed a schism forming in the community. I’m going to have to call a group out. I think it stems from a fundamental refusal of software folks to change their ways of thinking to some of the real aspects of working in the physical realm, so-to-speak. The problem, I think, comes down to three things: dismissal of cost, favoring modularity over understanding, and a resulting insistence that there’s nothing to learn.
Cost Models Don’t Translate
Software guys are always the ones in the comments spitting on cost and looking at people charging reasonable prices for good, well-made, well-supported, and well-designed hardware as charlatans and thieves. Then they go and buy cheap trash and have a bad time. It’s absolutely bizarre to me, but I have a theory as to why.
The only cost in computers is time. For a sufficiently large software operation capital costs are negligible. Development cost is measured purely in time. Computer time is measured in time. Shipping the product is instant. Even if you need more computers, these days you just call Google or AWS and order more time. Everything physical is free. There’s no cost to change. You can try out new ideas quickly. If you make a mistake you update the client’s software and the cost is negligible. Even the support cost is time. It’s a magical realm of pure abstraction.
Where this differs in mechanics (or electronics), is a sort of complex minimum cost. Things cost, and they cost a very determinable way. It really comes down to this: math says you can get rid of the wobble in this movement, but it will cost this much and it’s non-negotiable. Math says you can get these parts to fit together all of the time, or half the time. It will cost this much. Math says you can get 99% reliability or 93% and it will cost this much. If you want a case without a fan, you have to buy the more expensive capacitors or they will let the magic smoke out. Math says so.
We will never ever see a FDM 3D printer that’s just as good as the industrial ones for a hundredth of the price. Maybe a tenth. A 100 dollar FDM 3D printer will suck. There is no magical code optimization that will bring it down
Hardware development costs much more money, and the playing field is much more uneven. In hardware, capital wins. There is no real story where two guys in a garage made a hardware device that they got 3 million customers on, and then sold to some larger company for a boatload of money in a few months. I mean, just the screws used to hold the casing on 3 million of most products could fill a small garage from floor to ceiling and crack the concrete while they’re at it. When a hardware company gets funding, they don’t buy fancy chairs. They buy space and machinery.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Keynote: Beyond Makers: The Future of American Innovation
http://www.embeddedconf.com/boston/scheduler/session/keynote-beyond-makers-the-future-of-american-innovation
The modern Maker Movement may not be the “Next Industrial Revolution” everyone was hoping for, but there’s a lot to learn from the latest wave of DIY technology. Sophisticated products have never been easier to create and manufacture, thanks to the hard work and amazing technological advances developed by experienced engineers at large companies. Those advances might not give us the ability to 3D-print replacement car parts in the garage, fabricate a fully custom smartphone from scratch, or otherwise eliminate the need for established companies, but they are already reshaping how companies innovate, and what it takes to be an engineer of the future.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Materials To Know: Tooling and Modeling Board
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/09/materials-to-know-tooling-and-modeling-board/
I was in a fit of nerd glee the first time I used tooling board. I’d used MDF for similar purposes before, and I doubt I ever will again. Called Renshape, Precision Board Plus, or that green stuff people on another continent buy; it’s all the same extremely useful, unfortunately expensive, stuff. It’s hard to pin down exactly what tooling board is. Most of the blends are proprietary. It is usually a very dense polyurethane foam, sometimes by itself, sometimes with a fine fiber filler.
What makes tooling board so good is its absolute dimensional stability and its general apathy to normal temperature swings.
This stuff is really tops as far as machining goes. I got super precise molds out of a very basic CNC machine at the LVL1 hackerspace. Renshape cut easily at a high spindle speed, and put practically no load on the machine.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The future of American innovation
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4441610/The-future-of-American-innovation
When I was a young lad (circa the Late Jurassic), I used to eagerly await the arrival of my monthly electronics hobbyist magazine. As soon as it arrived, I jumped on a bus and headed out to the nearest electronics store to squander all of my meager allowance on the bits and pieces required to construct the beginner project of the month.
Those were the days when everyone seemed to be making things. In addition to the sheer fun of it, it was possible to buy a kit and build anything from a high-end audio amplifier to a color television for substantially less than you could purchase the equivalent product in a store.
By the time we reached the beginning of the new millennium, I was beginning to fear that making things in general, and hobby electronics in particular, were heading for extinction. Then, seemingly as if from nowhere, the Maker Movement appeared on the scene. No longer was I plodding along in the shadows on my ownsome. Suddenly (amazingly), it was cool to make things again.
The world is ours to make: The impact of the maker movement
http://www.edn.com/design/diy/4438686/The-world-is-ours-to-make–The-impact-of-the-maker-movement
Tomi Engdahl says:
Engineer Humanity’s Future: The 2016 Hackaday Prize
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/14/engineer-humanitys-future-the-2016-hackaday-prize/
Today we are proud to launch the 2016 Hackaday Prize. Build Something That Matters and you’ll contribute positively to humanity’s future by expand the frontiers of knowledge and engineering. You’ll also score recognition of your skills, and position yourself to land one of 105 cash prizes totaling over $300,000. Choose a technology issue facing humanity today and build a project that fixes, improves, or bypasses the problem.
https://hackaday.io/prize
Tomi Engdahl says:
EKG Business Card Warms Our Hearts
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/13/ekg-business-card-warms-our-hearts/
Giving out a paper business card is so 1960s. Giving out a PCB business card, well that gets you up to the early 2010s. If you really want to stand out these days, give them a fully-functional EKG in a business card. (Note: works best if you’re leading an open-source electrocardiography project.)
Looking through the schematics (PDF), there’s not much to the card. At the center of everything is an ADuC7061, which is an ARM microprocessor equipped with 24-bit ADCs that also has an internal DAC-driven voltage reference connected to one of the user’s thumbs. This, plus a little buffering circuitry, seems to be enough to translate the tiny voltage potential difference across your two hands into a beautiful signal on the included OLED display. Very nice!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacker Straightens Own Teeth
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/16/hacker-straightens-own-teeth/
So you say your wonky smile has you feeling a bit self-conscious? And that your parents didn’t sock away a king’s ransom for orthodontia? Well, if you have access to some fairly common fab-lab tools, and you have the guts to experiment on yourself, why not try hacking your smile with DIY braces?
First of all: just – don’t. Really. But if you’re curious about how [Amos Dudley] open-sourced his face, this is one to sink your teeth into. A little research showed [Amos] how conventional “invisible” braces work: a 3D model is made of your mouth, each tooth is isolated in the model, and a route from the current position to the desired position is plotted. Clear plastic trays that exert forces on the teeth are then 3D printed
Tomi Engdahl says:
Orthoprint, or How I Open-Sourced My Face
http://amosdudley.com/weblog/Ortho
Tomi Engdahl says:
CitizenWatt and the Power of Community
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/15/citizenwatt-and-the-power-of-community/
Depending upon where you live in the world, the chances are that your national or local government, or your utility company, has smart meters on their agenda. The idea is that these network-connected energy meters for your gas and electricity supply will allow greater control of energy usage and lead to lower costs through more efficient use of that energy. Bold plans have been advanced for meters that exert control over your higher-power appliances such as water heaters, washing machines, or home heating systems, able to turn them off or on depending on the time of day, spot price of energy, or load on the grid as a whole.
These devices are not without controversy though. Privacy concerns for example, centred on the amount of information about individuals that could be gleaned from the data they collect. Or security, that a vulnerability in an internet-connected electronic device fitted to millions of homes and with control over high-power appliances could be catastrophic if successfully exploited.
In a small area of Paris, they are trying to reap some of the benefits of smart meters for a community without some of those risks. CitizenWatt (French language, Google Translate link) is an open-source smart energy monitor that provides some of the benefits of a smart meter while allowing its owner to retain control of the data it generates by sharing data only with their consent.
The CitizenWatt system comprises an electricity sensor and a base station. The sensor is a simple battery-powered device that takes the output from a current transformer clamped onto the electricity supply cable and feeds it via an ATMEGA8 microcontroller to a 2.4GHz RF link. The base station is a Raspberry Pi which retrieves the data from the RF, stores it, and allows the user to view it through a web interface. Both the sensor code and hardware files, and the files for the Raspberry Pi base station are freely available on GitHub.
https://github.com/CitoyensCapteurs/CitizenWatt-sensor
Tomi Engdahl says:
Maker Community Takes Up the FPGA
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329227&
The powerful but complex field programmable gate array (FPGA), long considered a tool for the technical elite, is unexpectedly finding new popularity in the non-elite world of the maker community.
Increasingly, suppliers are marketing devices and software to make the FPGA’s tricky implementation more accessible to the masses. New development kits and boards are rolling out, simplifying the complex FPGA programming process and attracting a more technically literate class of “makers.”
“We’re seeing professional engineers — graduates with master’s degrees and four or five years experience in industry,” Mark Jensen, corporate software strategy and marketing director for Xilinx, Inc., told Design News. “They call themselves Pro Makers. And they see that they can use FPGAs to build programmable robots and drones, then get crowd source funding, and create their own grassroots businesses out of it.”
The result is an odd convergence: a new class of makers, maybe not formally educated in FPGA programming, but smart enough to apply the new breed of simpler development kits in ways that no one has up to now. Some of the new makers are night owls, breathing life into their ideas when they return from their nine-to-five engineering jobs. Others are students – electrical and mechanical engineers alike – learning the technology while they complete a senior project or master’s thesis. They’re building an unusual assortment of mechanized devices – from self-balancing bicycles to robots that run like cheetahs – and they’re using FPGAs for intelligence.
“Some of these projects use really complex non-linear control algorithms, so the developers have to use FPGAs to get the performance they need,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home Made 8mm Digitizer
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/18/home-made-8mm-digitizer/
The 8mm film look is making a comeback, but distributing it is an issue. [Heikki Hietala] wanted an easy way to digitally capture the 8mm movies he made. So, he built an 8mm digitizer from an Arduino, a cheap Canon camera and the guts of an old 8mm film camera. When you throw in a few 3D printed components and some odd electronics, you get an impressive build that captures 8mm film with impressive speed and quality.
This build started with a Canon Ixus 5 camera running CHDK (the Canon Hack Development Kit) to lock the settings down. This points at the film strip through a macro lens so each frame of the strip fills the frame. An Arduino then triggers the camera to take a photo using a USB cable. The same Arduino also controls a motor that winds the film and triggers the film gate from the camera that he salvaged. By reversing the function and triggering it with a servo motor, he can easily blank off the edges of the frame so no stray light shining through the film material causes any problems. Once the camera has captured every frame on the strip, he feeds the captured images into Blender, which processes them and spits out the final movie.
This is a very impressive build overall.
The 8mm film scanner (Telecine) project, part 1 – Overview
http://www.sabulo.com/sb/8mm-film/the-8mm-film-scanner-project-part-1/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mr. Gibbs
A powerful, inexpensive, and extensible tactical sailing computer
https://hackaday.io/project/9438-mr-gibbs
Mr. Gibbs is a powerful, inexpensive, and extensible tactical sailing computer. After getting fed up with the expensive commercial offerings (Velocitek, TackTick, RockBox), I decided to build my own and make it open source.
The goal of this project is to build a system which will meet or exceed the functionality of commercially available tactical sailing compass/gps units, with inexpensive, easy to acquire commodity hardware. A minimum configuration of the Mr. Gibbs unit and a Pebble watch will cost less than $150 to build.
Project Home: http://mrgibbs.io
Demonstration: http://blog.mrgibbs.io/mr-gibbs-bench/
Tomi Engdahl says:
P.Y.O. SI (Print your own surgical instruments)
https://hackaday.io/project/10274-pyo-si-print-your-own-surgical-instruments
The project idea is to design custom surgical instruments like retractors both in size or shape and 3d print them
My idea for this project is to bring access to surgical instruments to everybody who can use a 3d printer. A database of pre-made instruments can be available on sites like thingiverse. This gives at least two possibilities: cheap availability of instruments in countries with less resources or custom instruments for specific purpouses.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microswitch (without lever)
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1382326
This is an opensource 3D printed microswitch, the first in a series of common electronic components we are developing to share for people who want to download and print out components faster than they could go to the store and buy them, or order them and have them delivered.
Follow the projects on Hackaday IO here: https://hackaday.io/project/9942-opensource-3d-printed-electronic-components
Tomi Engdahl says:
Add Fiber-optic Control to Your CNC
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/20/add-fiber-optic-control-to-your-cnc/
CNC machines can be very noisy, and we’re not talking about the kind of noise problem that you can solve with earplugs. With all those stepper motors and drivers, potentially running at high-speed, electrical noise can often get to the point where it interferes with your control signals. This is especially true if your controller is separated from the machine by long cable runs.
But electrical noise won’t interfere with light beams! [Musti] and his fellow hackers at IRNAS decided to use commodity TOSLINK cables and transmitter / receiver gear to make a cheap and hackable fiber-optic setup. The basic idea is just to bridge between the controller board and the motor drivers with optical fiber. To make this happen, a couple of signals need to be transmitted: pulse and direction. They’ve set the system up so that it can be chained as well. Serializing the data, Manchester encoding it for transmission, and decoding it on reception is handled by CPLDs for speed and reliability.
ToslinkCNC
https://hackaday.io/project/10087-toslinkcnc
CNC machine control modules with Toslink optical cables.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fuzzy Blanket Hides Serious Tech
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/20/fuzzy-blanket-hides-serious-tech/
Who needs the Internet of Things? Not this interactive, sound playback blanket! Instead, hidden within its soft fuzzy exterior, it makes use of a NRF24L01+ module to speak directly with its sound server.
The project was built for a school, and let the students record whatever sounds they think are important into a Raspberry Pi. Then, the students assembled the physical felt blanket, with the sensors sewn inside, and could play back their favorite sounds by clambering all over the floor. It’s a multi-sensory, participatory, DIY extravaganza. We wish we did cool stuff like that in grade school.
What? Your “blankie” doesn’t transmit data to a Pure Data application? Well, [Dan Macnish] is here to help you change that. This well-written entry on Hackady.io describes the setup that he used to make the blanket’s multiple touch sensors send small packets over the air, and provides you with the Pd code to get it all working on GitHub..
http://puredata.info/
an external for puredata, allowing you to stream data wirelessly to a raspberry pi with the NRF24L01+
https://github.com/whiteboarddan/RF24-puredata
Tomi Engdahl says:
PD on embedded systems
http://puredata.info/docs/embedded
Mission: “embedded audio computing for CM” promotes rapid prototyping using Puredata on embedded devices used by computer music artists and audio engineers. It should integrate libraries for sensors and audio computing, which are of common interest for usage of different embedded devices running linux, like arm mobile platforms as a start. Together with the setup for low latency, stable OS-System and interchangeable control protocols. A main focus is led on open hardware and DIY projects.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Hacker’s Notebook: a Mission Log for Every Project
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/21/the-hackers-notebook-a-mission-log-for-every-project/
While “writing it down” might seem like common sense, it wasn’t always the case. From the times of Ancient Greece, Plato tells a story of a worried Egyptian King, who, upon witnessing the invention of writing, remarks,
“If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. [1]”
To some, the notebook was a dangerous device, a thief that would rob us of our memories [2]. Fortunately, these days, there’s plenty of evidence from our Psych texts that say we humans are pretty shabby at keeping the facts straight. In fact, each time we recall a memory, we change it! Here lies the beauty of the notebook. Have an idea for a new project? Why not log it somewhere for future reference? With diligence, the notebook can become our own personal hub for spurring on new project ideas.
Paper may be able to give you the chance to revisit your own take on a project; but, sadly, others don’t become part of this feedback loop. Recording your thoughts and projects online gives you one edge from keeping a solo notebook: peer review. Keeping a notebook gives us the advantage of revisited a deeply thought-out topic with a fresh set of eyes. Publishing your thought process, however, actually gives us many fresh sets of eyes! If you’re getting started on a project and want to open it to the world, Hackaday.io is a fantastic place to get the project underwa
Off the Mental Back-burner and On Paper
Tomi Engdahl says:
BBC Micro:bit officially launches as 29 partners join forces to get kids coding
It’s official: 11- and 12-year-olds can finally play with their bits
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2452039/bbc-micro-bit-officially-launches-as-29-partners-join-forces-to-get-kids-coding
THE LONG-AWAITED BBC Micro:bit officially became a thing today after months of delays.
The barebones mini-computer is being distributed to 11- and 12-year-olds (Year 7) in the hope of inspiring a new generation to learn to code while they’re still young.
Unlike similar machines such as the INQ award winning Raspberry Pi, the Micro:bit has been designed to connect to an existing computer over Bluetooth, meaning that children don’t need to rely on a separate mouse and keyboard, but rather a web interface.
It can even be set up to work from an Android device using a dedicated app. The board itself includes a micro USB connector, optional battery connector, Bluetooth LE antenna and a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 CPU running at 16MHz and with 16K of RAM.
One million Micro:bits are being sent to teachers for distribution in a tie up between the BBC, ARM and Samsung along with nearly 30 other contributors.
With the use of add-ons, the Micro:bit is a fully fledged IoT device limited only by the skills and imagination of the user.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is “open source”? What’s “open hardware”? What does it mean to be open, and above all, why so?
http://www.open-electronics.org/what-is-open-source-whats-open-hardware-what-does-it-mean-to-be-open-and-above-all-why-so/
It is undeniable that the 4th industrial revolution is sweeping us, bringing behind innovations and promises, but also many fears and uncertainties. But what triggered it and what is the concept that rotates at its base, and the change that it intends to provide?
The 4th industrial revolution aims to overturn the productive paradigms known until now, to bring the individual to a maturity, self-awareness and its potentialities to become“prosumers”: producer and consumer at the same time for a good part of the goods and services they need. The man becomes able to evolve, innovate and improve their conditions so much easier, thanks to the democratization of knowledge and technological innovation.
It’s pretty much a dream, the dream of all times: the chance to learn and navigate through the unknown in the know, without fear of getting lost, and to meet their needs and those of the community.