POV

So it looks like I'll be playing in POV soon. Me and some of my friends have decided to start a small business together and we've decided to create a POV kit of our own for bikes. It will help riders to stay visible in the dark which will help lower accidents involving rider injuries. I know I haven't really been posting recently but I'll try to get better at keeping up with letting you all in on my projects.

Distracted! Blame the internet

So I was soooo~ about to update I swear when I got distracted by one of my favorite Mr. Weebl videos. And my only thought while I was bobbing <.< >.> and sooo~ not dancing to the song was "Wow that would be really cool to figure out. Creating a robot that can grow to a vastly larger size. The storage capacity and the robots functions and uses are vastly increased that way." NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD~!

Ultrasound by Weebl

Moved By Sound - Synchronized Art Bots

Now that the Spring 2011 UAT Commencement is over I'm finally allowed to talk out it. The project that Ryan Carmain, Kasey Norman, Professor Mueth, and myself have been working on: 3 Synchronized Art Bots. Yes that is a mouthful so from now on I'll affectionately refer to them as the SAB crew, seeing as there are 3 of them. We made three of them in order to use three colors to both identify them and to have them paint: Red, Blue, Green. The bots movement is based off of both the noise made and the duration of that noise. With each bot focused in on a different range, their movements therefore aren't the same in dance mode. Dance mode being the mode in their programming where they react to the noise being created. The SAB crew was created to be used at UAT's Spring 2011 Commencement Ceremony and then got invited to demo at the 2011 PhoenixCon happening at the end of May. The bots come with a pamphlet that I put together myself as we went along detailing the creation both hardware and software wise. After the demo at PhoenixCon I'll be sure to post more video and pics of them.

Combo Breaker - Aux meet Headphones

So in the random crazy category I came up with another one. What if you didn't have to worry about lugging around two separate cables for your iPod or other MP3 player? Why carry around headphones and an audio aux cable? I decided to combine the two, to create an audio aux cable with an interchangeable headphone topper. Changing two different cables into one as well as allowing for customization depending on the type of headphone you prefer [Circumaural, Supra-aural, earbuds, or in-ear monitors]. This being a mostly hardware task I decided to see how much of it I could do on my own, so I began with getting a cheap aux cable and a cheap set of earbuds to take apart.

As far as research goes I of course looked into aux cables and their standards as well as layout, as well as the same for headphones. Taking into account that to start off with I would be taking apart two different types of wires and making the play nice together, I need to know the intricacies of each separate part. The aux cable I'll be taking apart and working with during the first part of this endevour is a black audio aux cable purchase through Buy.com measuring 1.5 m long and an interface of 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm on each end. There fore the headphone toppers will have to be made for a 3.5 mm interface, so the second order of business would be to manufacture and connect a female 3.5 mm interface onto the headphones.

I'll make sure to give you all an update when the new semester starts and I really jump into this new project. ^^

QuadCopter Swarm - Thinking like a group

So I was just browsing Hack-A-Day and came across several different QuadCopter projects, which got me thinking. Why don't we take the best features of all of them, combine them together, and add a swarm mentality? They'd be able to map out an area in second by relaying information back to "home base" or your computer and they'd be able to lift and transport pretty much anything back to a specified location. Yes these crazy jumps is how my brain works and for a Robotics student it means alot of crazy projects. Now that I had an idea and jumping off point I needed to pick a name and a team for the project so I chose the name MetalMen in honor of the 1962 American comic of the same name [Metal Men], a team of robot superheroes that DC published. I thought the name was appropriate considering the idea of each QuadCopter working together as a whole for a goal.

Now the team was a more interesting pick, because in a University that is so small I personally knew all of the robotics students. Which meant I knew their skills and had to pick which ones would work best for this project. Given what I needed for this to work I picked Kasey Norman, Ryan Carmain, and Jon Geller to help me with this based off of their skills and the scope of the project.

So for our base platform we've broken down several projects that have taken on QuadCopters. Those being CrazyFlie, ArduIMU QuadCopter, OpenSource QuadCopter, and AeroQuad to learn from them what works and improve it for our own purposes. This review of what has been done to combine what works and further push something is how one side of robotics works, the other side of course being completely insane and doing something never even thought of before. A nice balance of doing both helps keep your skills up and you from going completely crazy.

As soon as I start my next semester at UAT and so start jumping on this project I'll let you guys know what is going on with it. ^^

Woman Power - Female Superheroes and Villians

So~ a friend, Scott, and myself decided that not enough people knew just how many powerful females there are in the comic book/superhero world. And having a blog now puts me in a position to change that so with out further ado, after much research and compiling here is a list of all the super powerful females found.

~ Superheroes ~

A

Agent 13
Angel Salvadore

Arachne
Ariel
Armor
Atom Girl
Aurora

B
Batgirl I
Batgirl II
Batgirl III
Batgirl IV
Batgirl V
Batgirl VI
Big Barda
Binary
Black Canary I
Black Canary II
Black Cat
Black Widow
Black Widow II

Bling!
Blink
Boom Boom
Boomer

C
Cat
Cat II
Claire Bennet

Crystal

D
Dagger
Daphne Powell
Darkstar
Dazzler
Domino

E
Elastigirl
Elektra
Emma Frost

Energy

F
Fighting Spirit
Firebird
Frigga

H
Hawkgirl
Hawkwoman I
Hawkwoman II

Hawkwoman III
Hellcat
Hit-Girl
Hollow
Hope Summers
Huntress

Husk

I
Invisible Woman
Isis

J
Jean Grey
Jennifer Kale
Jessica Sanders
Jolt
Jubilee

L
Light Lass
Liz Sherman
Luna
Lyja

M
Marvel Girl
Maya Herrera
Medusa
Meltdown

Mera
Meteorite
Minna Murray
Misfit
Miss Martian
Monica Dawson

Moonstone
Ms Marvel
Ms Marvel II

N
Namora
Namorita
Niki Sanders

O
Oracle (DC)

P
Penance I
Phantom Girl
Phoenix
Power Girl
Psylocke

R
Renata Soliz
Ripcord
Rogue

S
Sage
Shadowcat
She-Hulk
She-Thing
Shriek

Shrinking Violet
Silk Spectre I
Silk Spectre II
Silverclaw
Snowbird
Songbird
Spider-Girl
Spider-Woman
Spider-Woman II
Spider-Woman III
Stacy X
Stargirl
Stephanie Powell
Storm
Supergirl

T
Tempest
Thor Girl
Thundra
Tigra
Tracy Strauss
Triplicate Girl

U
Ultragirl

V
Vagabond
Valerie Hart

Valkyrie
Vertigo II
Vindicator II
Violet

W
Warbird
Wasp
White Queen
Wolfsbane
Wonder Girl
Wonder Woman
Wondra

X
X-23

Y
Yellowjacket II

Z
Zatanna

~ Super Villains ~

A

Angela

Arclight

B

Black Mamba

Bomb Queen

C

Callisto

Catwoman

Cheetah I

Cheetah II

Cheetah III

E

Elle Bishop

F

Frenzy

G

Giganta

Goblin Queen

Granny Goodness

H

Harley Quinn

L

Lady Bullseye

Lady Deathstrike

M

Maxima

Mystique

P

Plastique

Poison Ivy

S

Scarlet Witch

Scorpia

Siren

Siren II

Siryn

Spider-Woman IV

Update - My Life

So I've been working on alot of projects since I've started college at UAT, in only a year and a half I feel like I've expanded my skills and hope that continues. But I've also met some really amazing people who I'm glad I had a chance to get to know, and though some terrible things have happened this past year and a half like that loss of my Uncle John to cancer, I have also had a chance to find things to help me get through it. One of those being Tania Katan's book "My One Night Stand With Cancer" the other being an awesome net of friends who are just as geeky and crazy as me. We might not be normal by any standard set by society but you'll probably never find a closer group of college students who generally look out and care about what is going on with each other, who came from all over the US to this one college because they love something totally beyond geeky and who end up making and sharing amazing bonds because of it. So this post is for a few reason: To honor a man who effected me more then I can ever explain, my Uncle John. To thank a woman who wrote something that touched me during my period of mourning, Tania Katan. And to all of my crazy UAT friends who keep me just sane enough to not go completely insane but that also encourage letting me go for all the crazy ideas that pop into my head. Thank you, all of you I really don't know what I would do without you guys.