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Arduino and Physical Computing WorkshopThursday, February 4th, 2010

Over the past couple of years, the Arduino has given artists, designers and programmers the ability to rethink the ways in which the physical and digital worlds coexist – going beyond keyboard and mouse into creating electronic objects and installations which can sense and respond to the physical world in new and interesting ways.
Needless to say, we at the Madlab love the Arduino – and for this reason we’ve put together a 1-day workshop covering the basics of getting started with the platform – what you need to know, a hands-on introduction into what you can make it do, how to get the most out of the platform and some ideas for where you can take it next.
The workshop will be on Friday the 26th of February, from 10am until 5pm. Cost is £65 which includes a starter kit (http://www.oomlout.co.uk/arduino-budget-pack-ardb-p-217.html) from our friends at Oomlout containing all the bits you need to get going including the Arduino board itself. Attendees will need to bring a laptop, and if they like some lunch (although we can recommend lunch at Common). Prior computer programming experience would be desirable but not essential and we will aim to accommodate everyone, regardless of their skill levels or confidence.
We really hope that you’ll come down and check this out – we’ve kept the costs as low as we can, to give more people the chance to get involved!
And finally, some of our favourite Arduino-based projects:
An interactive shop window display, for HBO in New York courtesy of Soso. Sensors detect the movement of passers-by and respond by launching snowflakes into the air.
(VID)
The Arduinome – a DIY (and much cheaper) version of the Yamaha Tenori-on electronic instrument as used by Lady Gaga and others.
(VID)
The “responsible robot bartender”, SoBear. Based on how boozy your breath is, the SoBear gives you what it considers to the be the appropriate blend of spirit and mixer!
<object width=”480″ height=”324″><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” /><param name=”movie” value=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4551381&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1″ /><embed src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4551381&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” width=”480″ height=”324″></embed></object><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/4551381″>SOBEaR v02 :: the responsible robot bartender</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user579902″>j saavedra</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
And, saving the best for last, the all-twittering Bubblino from friend of Madlab Adrian McEwen. Bubblino looks out for messages on twitter about him, and blows bubbles in response.
<object width=”480″ height=”362″><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” /><param name=”movie” value=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3775263&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1″ /><embed src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3775263&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ADEF&amp;fullscreen=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” width=”480″ height=”362″></embed></object><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/3775263″>Bubblino at Bookcamp</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user1027252″>Adrian McEwen</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

Over the past couple of years, the Arduino has given artists, designers and programmers the ability to rethink the ways in which the physical and digital worlds coexist – going beyond keyboard and mouse into creating electronic objects and installations which can sense and respond to the physical world in new and interesting ways.

Needless to say, we at the Madlab love the Arduino – and for this reason we’ve put together a 1-day workshop covering the basics – what you need to know, a hands-on introduction into what you can make it do, how to get the most out of the platform and some ideas for where you can take it next.

The workshop will be on Friday the 26th of February, from 10am until 5pm. Cost is £65 which includes a starter kit from our friends at Oomlout containing all the bits you need to get going including the Arduino board itself. Attendees will need to bring a laptop, and if they like some lunch (although there are plenty of places nearby if not). Prior computer programming experience would be desirable but not essential and we will aim to accommodate everyone, regardless of their skill levels or confidence.

We really hope that you’ll come down and check this out – we’ve kept the costs as low as we can, to give more people the chance to get involved!

And finally, some of our favourite Arduino-based projects!

An interactive shop window display, for HBO in New York courtesy of Soso. Sensors detect the movement of passers-by and respond by launching snowflakes into the air.

The Arduinome – a DIY (and much cheaper) version of the Yamaha Tenori-on electronic instrument as used by Lady Gaga and others.

The “responsible robot bartender”, SoBear. Based on how boozy your breath is, the SoBear gives you what it considers to the be the appropriate blend of spirit and mixer!

And, saving the best for last, the all-twittering Bubblino from friend of Madlab Adrian McEwen. Bubblino looks out for messages on twitter about him, and blows bubbles in response.

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Sci-fi book club updateTuesday, January 5th, 2010

Thanks to everyone who turned out for the inaugural Science Fiction Book Club! There was plenty of enjoyable science fiction discussion to be had, and some really great suggestions for an initial reading list. After much debate, we settled on:

For the first few months. In addition, we all decided that it would be a good idea to supplement the reading list with some short stories from A Science Fiction Omnibus which covers a wide range of classic science fiction authors such as Clifford Simak, Isaac Asimov and Philip K Dick.

The next meetup is on Tuesday the 16th of February and it’s not too late to get involved, just pick yourself up a copy of the Joe Haldeman and get stuck in!

Ryan has generously volunteered himself to administrate this group for the first meeting, and Tom will be the advocate for the first book. Also, there’s now an official Google Group which you can find here.

In addition, the person who comes up with the twitter #tag for this group will be presented with a copy of the Science Fiction Omnibus, so flick the switch on  your thinking caps to WIN.