Ken Moore figured out how to use a Wii remote, a computer and a synth to make a theremin — the spacey instrument used in the Star Trek theme. He also shows you how to do it yourself.

If you dig the theremin sound, be sure to check out the band Iqu. They use one all the time.

Thanks to Hackzine.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Wii Hack — How to make a Theremin

Related posts

• Wii HACK - Industrial Robot with Wiimote!
• Wii HACK - Christmas Wii-remote xmms hack
• Wii Accessories - Wii Infrared Laser Magnum Gun!
• The Chief Cook Robot Knows how to make an Omelette!
• Improved Motion Sensing for Wii Controller with Wii MotionPlus!
• Zedomax DIY HACK - HOWTO make your own “PS3 SIXAXIS controller” style BASIC-programmable USB device!
• Wind-up Cranking Remote Control!
• Wiitopsy - Hacking Wii

Oh no. battery low.

Will wrote an article a little while back, about a stack of tricks to extend your battery life (you can find that here). That article generated a LOT of comments, and some really great comments too!

Now being an iPhone user (but certainly not a worshipper, that device has some issues!), I have noticed my battery getting shredded on a daily basis - so I’ve been analysing why my battery is getting killed.

Not withstanding the buggy causes of battery drain (like when your email client is collecting from a POP mailbox, and gets it to an infinite loop of trying to collect, but failing…), there are a load of radios you can turn off:

• GPS
• Bluetooth
• WiFi
• 3G

You could argue that some of these should be able to be left on - and I’d agree on the front of things like Bluetooth (since I have a Car Kit that automatically hooks in, IF the Bluetooth is on, on the iPhone!). However, things like 3G to me are not hyper-important unless I am browsing - besides, having it off has meant I can accurately evaluate whether being on solely 2G gives better runtime (it’s a well known fact that being connected to a 3G network drains the battery faster).

Interestingly, even just on 2G, I’ve been having issues with runtime - and so that lead me to the area of Applications - that is, those that hog or continually use a data connection. Because even if you’ve optimised (read: turned off) the devices hardware network connections, if you are continually using the only radio that is still turned on, things are going to go downhill fast on the battery front.

For Apps, I have a calendar syncing with an Exchange server - uh oh - how frequently is it doing this? Well, anecdotal reports suggest the frequency could even be every 15 mins! Aha, do we have our candidate here?

Picking up on the previous thread too, there was a great suggestion from one of our readers, Susan, which I’ll reproduce below:

Apple really should have made that side “quiet” switch… user programmable.

We could then go to a new “Settings->Side Switch” and decide for ourselves what we would like that switch do to:

• GPS on/off

• EDGE on/off

• 3G on/off

• BlueTooth on/off

• Ringer on/off

• Vibrate on/off

• Auto-lock on/off

• Wi-Fi on/off

Saving battery-life!

Mine would be configured to:
“Everything off”… but “Wi-FI on”.
(Many airlines are now allowing wi-fi… but you must
turn everything else off.)

… all by instantly, throwing 1 (configured) switch.

Hmm, I like that idea of Susan’s - Apple, you listening?

Without wanting to re-tread the same debate about battery life before, anyone else experienced odd battery behaviour, or found ingenious ways to squeeze extra runtime? I usually get about 1 days’ worth…..

Ben

Related News from IntoMobile:

• iPhone OS 2.0 beta firmware shows 3G data settings option for iPhone
• iPhone v1.1.3 battery life giving you the blues? Try this…
• Rocketship Apple: the story so far….
• Apple sneaks in MobileMe server updates improving iPhone experience
• Rocketship Apple: Airport Extreme … online!

Nao developed by the French company replaced Sony's Aibo dog as the standard platform for the competition last year and that has helped boost its popularity among a select crowd of enthusiasts.

But the robot still has a way to go before most general users can get near it.

The fully programmable robot is packed with features. With its humanoid appearance can be made to do any number of tasks and comes with x86 AMD Geocode 500 Mhz CPU, 1 GB flash memory, 256 MB SDRAM, two speakers, vision processing capabilities, Wi-fi connectivity and Ethernet port.

The robot has 25 degrees of freedom, which means it can do a lot more than just tilt is head, look right, left and take a few steps.

This makes it a very attractive machine for researchers and robot enthusiasts that want to take a blank-slate robot and program it themselves, says Chris Kilner, software engineer for Aldebaran Robotics, a Paris-based company.

It's also the reason Aldebaran says it is working to create a behavior exchange site where different programs written to manipulate the robot can be shared.

Aldebaran has shipped a little more than 100 robots since it launched in April. But the robots have been restricted to research labs and universities. Next year, the company hopes to expand distribution to some early adopters. But general users are unlikely to get it before 2010 as the company tries to create a version that will appeal to general consumers and manufacture it on a larger scale.

With the 10,000 Euros ($12,600) price tag on the robot, that may be out of the reach for most anyway.

For consolation, there's always the Femisapien robot from WowWee, equally charming but a lot less functional.

See the Nao Robot in Action

Tags: bk-unv01, bluekey wireless, electronc house, insteon, powerlinc, x10

Related Entries
• Vonage spyware ads funds customer acquisition - Jul 18, 2006

[LJ]

[LJ]

Optimus AUX nearly ready for its $650 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In 1969, Japanese electronics manufacturer Busicom approached a little startup called Intel to develop a chipset for their new 141-PF electronic printing calculator. Intel's solution was the world's first single chip microprocessor -- the tiny Intel 4004 -- which powered the Busicom machine to groundbreaking success in 1971.

37 years later, Bill Kotaska has crafted a replica of this historical machine capable of running the software from the original Busicom ROMs. He even went to the trouble of buying an old calculator of approximately the right vintage and rearranging the mechanical switches to match the original Busicom layout.

The printer mechanism was originally manufactured by Epson, and Kotaska was able reuse one from an old Monroe 1330 printing calculator, although the lack of a full schematic diagram made it tough for Kotaska to figure out exactly how it was supposed to interface with the logic circuit. He eventually figured it out, and the result is a stunning recreation of a piece of computing history.

Busicom sold 100,000 Intel-based calculators before finding themselves in financial trouble. Intel used this misstep to their advantage and bought back the rights to the chip for non-calculator applications. The rest is history.

Bill Kotaska's Busicom 141-PF replica [via Slashdot]

The 4004 was a tiny 4-bit processor with an 8-bit wide instruction set. It was capable of running at speeds up to 740 kHz and could address up to 4K of ROM and 1280 x 4bits of RAM, although the accompanying MCS-4 chipset included a tiny 256 byte mask-programmable ROM and 340 byte RAM chip. It seems laughable by todays standards, but those meager specifications were enough to open up a brand new world of programmable logic capable of replacing extremely complicated and expensive electromechanical systems.

Intel followed the success of this little 16 pin chip with the 8008, a 3,300 transistor 8-bit chip that was introduced in late 1972. The company went on the have a string of successes throughout the 1970s, but it was the incorporation of their processors into the IBM-PC lineup in the 1980s that enabled them to become the largest processor manufacturer in the world.

Incidentally, original 4004 chips are now highly collectible and a rare gold-white-grey chip like the one shown here can change hands for well over $1000. That said, I'd much rather have been given $1000 of Intel stock in the early 1970s - it'd be worth over $500,000 today -- enough for a massive stack of vintage chips.

Read more about the Intel 4004 at CPU-Zone

Now adjusting the temperature around your home is a whole lot easier with the Voice-activated Kelvin Talking Thermostat. This fully programmable thermostat is a voice-interactive device designed especially for the visually impaired, disabled, elderly or anyone who has difficulty seeing and programming a standard thermostat. Once you program the thermostat using the talking buttons, the advanced speech recognition technology allows you to raise and lower the temperature simply by using voice commands. The voice commands can be initiated by pressing the large tactile buttons or by clapping your hands, by knocking on a table or desk, or even just by whistling! Available now for $99.95. [OhGizmo]

ShareThis

They all worked together to come up with a digital DJ interface, and the HDD-turntable you see above sits at the center. The students fell in love with the weight of the disk and the quality of its bearings. All you need are “a few op amps, resistors and a programmable microcontroller of some kind” and you can be mixing like they do. Hit the link for instructions.

[Engadget]