Investing – Kevin Gulling

12 Days of Arduino Day 12 – Glorious Spambot! – DIY Robot for $50

keving — Sat, 24 Dec 2016 15:34:57 +0000

Day 12 of 12 Days of Arduino! On the 12th day of Arduino, I present our final project of the series: Glorious Spambot! I printed out some wheels , and fashioned some wheels out of bottle caps, and an axle out of a spray tube, a paperclip and a ballpoint pen. I found the wheel model on Thingiverse. There are a ton of wheels on Thingiverse that will work great, or if you don’t have a 3d printer, I’ve found that plastic bottle caps will do the trick!

Watch Spambot on his first official voyage:

Spambot Sketch


#include 
#define rxPin 0

#define txPin  1
int motor = 3;

int fan = 5;

int incomingByte[2];

boolean motorBool = false;

boolean fanBool = false;
SoftwareSerial bluetooth(rxPin, txPin);
void setup() {

  pinMode(rxPin, INPUT);

  pinMode(txPin, OUTPUT);

  pinMode (motor, OUTPUT);

  pinMode (fan, OUTPUT);

  bluetooth.begin(9600);
  analogWrite (motor, 0);

  analogWrite (fan, 0);

}
void loop() {

  if(bluetooth.available()>0){

      while(bluetooth.peek() == 'A'){

        //bluetooth.println(bluetooth.peek());

        bluetooth.read();

        incomingByte[0] = bluetooth.parseInt();

        bluetooth.println(incomingByte[0], DEC);

        if(incomingByte[0] == 1){

          motorBool = true;

          bluetooth.print("motor:");

          bluetooth.println(motorBool, DEC);

        }

        else if(incomingByte[0] == 0){

          motorBool = false;
        }

        else if(incomingByte[0] == 2){

          fanBool = true;

          bluetooth.print("fan:");

          bluetooth.println(fanBool, DEC);

        }

        else if(incomingByte[0] == 3){

          fanBool = false;
        }

      }
      while(bluetooth.available()>0){

        bluetooth.read();

      }

    }
  if(motorBool == true){

   analogWrite (motor, 255);

    //bluetooth.print("motor:");

   // bluetooth.println(motorBool, DEC);

  }

  else{

   analogWrite (motor, 0);

    //bluetooth.print("motor:");

    //bluetooth.println(motorBool, DEC);

  }

  if(fanBool == true){

   analogWrite (fan, 255);

   //bluetooth.print("fan:");

   //bluetooth.println(fanBool, DEC);

  }

  else{

   analogWrite (fan, 0);

   //bluetooth.print("fan:");

   //bluetooth.println(fanBool, DEC);

  }

  delay(1000);

}

The code hasn’t changed much from yesterday’s I just commented out some of the debugging stuff.

The mission of GloriousSpambot.org is simple, to create one or many useful, fully functional, open-source designs utilizing recycled and used parts and affordable components such as a Spam can, and to spread the word about it! Most robots on the market are for entertainment purposes, I want to see future iterations of Spambot that can

Detect Smoke/Fight Fires
Vacuum/Sweep/Dust
Monitor Pets/Children
Home Security
Elderly Care
Home Automation
Companion, Helper and Friend!

That might seem like quite a leap from the current iteration of Spambot, but you all saw what Spambot was 5 days ago: a pile of scraps! The possibilities are endless. By next month, the plan is to have Spambot doing tasks on the PC including making friends on social networks, and playing video games!

That wraps up my 12 Days of Arduino series but the project will continue at www.GloriousSpamBot.org Make sure you check it out and like/subscribe for updates also follow on Twitter @GloriousSpamBot

If you want to help out with the project, Tweet a message to @GloriousSpamBot and you will get a reply. For now it will be me, but in the near future Spambot will be in the beginning stages of automation including communicating with humans!

Edit: it’s only been a little while since the announcement of Spambot, and already quite the following from around the world, over 1500 followers @GloriousSpamBot! Awesome! Thanks for the support everyone You can also help by clicking over to Youtube in the video above and liking/subscribing! Also thanks to @Nick Gammon for the link to the alternative TIP120 datasheet and @Due_Unto for the expert advice, @JohnLincoln for the link to transistor heatsink mounting kit

Also to help out make sure you use this link to order components from ICStation. All proceeds will go directly back into development!

Happy Holidays!

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Augmented Reality, What is AR and what the Future Holds

keving — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 17:12:46 +0000

Augmented Reality. What is AR?

Many of us have heard or read the phrase Augmented Reality paired with it’s sister Virtual Reality. Unsurprisingly a lot of people are under the false impression that AR stands for Alternate Reality which could easily be misconstrued as a being synonymous with Virtual Reality. The truth is that the two are different, AR – augmenting actual reality, and VR, creating an entire reality virtually. It can be argued that it takes a bit of VR to accomplish AR, but arguments aside the capabilities and the future of the two could be night and day. Analysts predict that in spite of Googles failed to launch “Google Glasses” that AR is going to be the next big thing. After you watch this TED talk by Alex Kipman if you have a creative imagination, it’s easy to see why:

Microsoft’s Alex Kipman talks about the new Hololens

I have recently been experimenting with a form of Augmented Reality accomplished by using a Leap Motion in conjunction with the Oculus Rift and the possibilities of AR are exciting to say the least. There are definite limitations to this specific combination (Leap Motion + Rift) which the Microsoft Hololens has addressed, and I hope to begin development on a Hololens project in the near future. For those of you who would like to try out a demo of the Leap Motion Orion Augmented Reality setup here is the basic demo (Newer Post Orion Leap Motion Visualizer) with a little pizazz added. It’s pretty amazing, see for yourself!

Download Oculus Rift + Leap Motion Orion “Visualizer +” Demo

Controls

Tab – Remove Arm bones
Caps – Flame on
Up Arrow – Toggle Flames to Smokescreen
Esc – Exit Program

I’ve been talking with the developers at Leap Motion about making a more portable unit and adding mobile support for Cardboard and GearVR. Lowering the weight or distributing it differently and offering additional normal light cameras will significantly improve the AR capabilities of the combination. Combining an improved Leap Motion with a mobile device like GearVR would in essence result in something similar to the Hololens for a fraction of the price. If anyone is interested in funding development of something like this, or developing for the Hololens, feel free to contact me.

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How To Invest in Virtual Reality in 2016?

keving — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 21:49:45 +0000

Whether you just stumbled across this article or you were specifically searching for AR/VR investment opportunities, one thing is for certain, VR is expected to be big business over the next few years and if you’re reading this you are probably looking to make a smart move with your capital.

“2016 should be the year virtual reality finally realizes its mass market potential”

If you are keen to the stock exchange chances are you haven’t heard much hype about investments in VR for many reasons. It’s human nature to be comfortable taking a certain degree of risk when we are younger in life, but then to have that urge diminish in our older, and generally wiser years. It makes more sense for young people to take greater risks, the prospect of early retirement or luxurious lifestyles is a thought that is commonly entertained by the younger generations. But what incentive would a 70 year old have to risk their entire nest egg, especially on something they have viewed their entire life as science fiction? Not only is VR not yet fully understood by the masses (according to fool.com “2016 should be the year virtual reality finally realizes its mass market potential”)
, but even if you did want to invest in VR via the stock market, where do you put your money? Unfortunately for beginning investors, it really isn’t a clear cut, black and white situation when trying to put your money directly towards virtual reality so below I will go over a few of the investment opportunities in the AR/VR industry.

Stock Symbol – Name – Risk level
FB – Facebook – 155
Facebook owns Oculus which makes the popular HMD’s Oculus Rift and Gear VR

SNE – Sony – 180
Sony of course owns Playstation which will be releasing their “Project Morpheus” later this year.

GOOGL – Google – 142
Google, or Alphabet, was the creator of Google Cardboard and although that may only have a small influence on this stock, it isn’t going to hurt it and Google isn’t stopping there! (See Jump)

MSFT – Microsoft – 135
Microsoft is a latecomer to the VR scene only recently partnering with Oculus to release the Rift with Xbox controllers. A jump in Oculus sales could lead to a small bump in MSFT stock!

AMD – Advanced Micro Devices – 299
AMD is a company that has fully embraced the inevitability of VR and they are making sure they have the hardware to cater to the AR/VR consumer market!

NVDA – NVIDIA – 179
NVIDIA has been working closely with VR hardware producers to make sure their graphic drivers are VR capable. Oculus has officially recommended the NVIDIA GTX 970 in the hardware requirements.

GPRO – GoPro – 325
GoPro might be a surprising candidate here, but seeing as the GoPro cameras have remained the industry standard for 360 video, not to mention GoPro has more plans in the works for professionals in this niche!

60% of people in a a recent poll conducted by Benzinga predict that a that the market will become bearish in 2017. Right now could possibly be your best opportunity to make a decent return with fairly low risk, and a potential for huge gains!

Personally I have purchased shares of GoPro, Amazon, Fitbit, Pandora, and Netflix. I was going to jump on AMD but the price spiked recently so I am holding out on that. I would have Google shares but Alphabet stock is pretty pricey at $720 or so a share.

14/3/16 Edit – After AMD expands the VR ecosystem with first-ever Polaris 10 GPU demonstration, and its new GPU certified program for VR AMD went up 8% today! I am kicking myself for not jumping on it when I could have.

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