Another Maker Fair has come and gone. This was actually my first time to see it, and oh, what a show! Way more than any one person could effectively take in. I think I talked to a zillion people, both at the booth and walking around, and came back with more ideas that I could act upon.
Thus begins my story...
So there I was, working the front table for a while, answering questions, giving away various freebies... when a guy walks up to me, and he's got something massive on his wrist. I think I opened the conversation with “what...(dramatic pause while I'm eye-ing his hardware)...have you got there?” I'm captivated. It's huge, menacing, intriguing, gaudy and somehow elegant all at the same time. What is it, you ask?
I'd like to introduce you to Matthew Garten. Matthew built a watch using a list of SparkFun items, the heart of which is an Arduino Pro Mini. Well, that's a lie. He built two watches. One is a Steampunk theme, the other is a Biopunk theme, covered in stingray skin (I didn't know you could get this stuff). Check these out:
The Twins...
Action shot for the affluent Steampunk
Temperature sensing glove attachment
He then goes on to show me how it draws pictures, plays games, and allows for a variety of sensor peripherals to be employed. Whoa, dude! This is seriously tricked out! Have a look at the demo video.
We love people like you, Matthew! You are a perfect example of the quintessential hacker: you took technology and creativity and turned it into a physical manifestation. Very nice work!
For more information, you can find the full list of parts and building step at Instructables, along with Matthew's own site, http://www.optimizedforce.com/.
Antimov Update
On another note, we're going to take the advice of some and allow video entries into the Antimov Competition in addition to live entries. There is no entry fee for a video submission and, of course, safety concerns become the will of the entrant rather than us dictating safety rules. Now, we expect everybody's going to use good judgment here, but let's state some of the obvious points: don't kill anyone or anything in the process, and don't create any environmental hazards. Video submissions will be allowed up to one week before the competition, and the prize for which will be a $100 gift card from us (hey, you want the big money, you gotta show up). Check the product page for a full list of rules and updates.
If you want to do software hacking of a watch, which includes a pressure sensor, accelerometer, and wireless, running on an MSP430, you want to check out
TI's $49 watch development kit.
It looks like an ordinary $10 plastic watch, but you could casemod it as well.
His watch turned out great. I've been working on mine for the last couple of weeks which was inspired by his project on Instructables. These 4D uOLED displays are too cool.
Very cool. Does anyone know about battery life?
I've also made a watch with arduino and then several with 4D systems screens (which are programmable). Right now, I can get about 2 days on one charge.
https://sites.google.com/site/arduinowatch/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/norinori/3888662633/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/norinori/3833299758/
Franklin
Nice! Exceptionally cool!