Arduino Lab on the Syntax

Blink without delay:
it sets pin 13 as output for the LED, the place to plug in the LED, this is a constant meaning it doesnt change. Then it sets the changing information or variables.
I think what the code is doing is setting up so that the program checks the time that has passed between blinks. If the time that has passed is more than the interval time you want, the program will blink the LED. If the LED was on when the time interval was reached, it would turn it off. If it was off, it would turn it on.

tone melody:
the library holds all the information you need to program all the different notes to make different melodies.
It states the meoldy to be played and then sets the duration of each note. The 4 means a quarter note and 8 means an eigth note. It then tells the program how to determine the duration. It will divide 1000ms by the note duration of 4 or 8. The code then does on to set a pause between the notes. The pause is defined as the note duration plus 30%. There is no loop so the melody does not repeat.

instructables update/ final project

So, I going to use my instructables for my final project. If I understood correctly, I can do this. I only need to use a micro-controller (arduino, check), a sensor (wii nunchucki, check), a switch, and it has to do something physical (move, check). so all I need to add is a switch.

I am working on getting an internet camera that I plan to add into the doll, preferably in the head so that it turns when the head turns and thus will be like seeing what the doll would see. I want for this camera to be able to viewed by anyone who so choose from any internet connection. I am wondering if this will count for the switch or not.

I am also working on an alternate way to add the audio aspect as the bluetooth headset to speaker option was a horrible failure. I posted the question of how to link the two on instructables and have recieved answers telling me that it isnt possible so its time to find another way. I am currently bidding on a wireless microphone on ebay. My hope is that the reciever will plug into the bluetooth mini speaker I have already purchased and therefore serve my purpose. If it doesnt, there are other options but all are too expensive for me: 2 way audio baby monitors, 2 way audio internet cameras, personal PA systems, and other wireless microphone systems and intercoms.

I have taken some photos and videos of my progress so far hacking into the wireless nunchuck to be used as a controller.

response to 5&6 NBC

Megan Barton

Response to ch. 5 & 6 NBC

                This was a very interesting read. I could understand most of it, for once, which is great news for me.  I’m not sure what I want to talk about first, so many new ideas and possibilities were brought to my attention in this reading. Let’s focus on the mind control aspects.

                One of the studies mentioned was intended to enable a blind person to see using a camera and computer set up attached to their brain. The results weren’t as incredible as you might imagine from this information. The person was able to perceive visual-like sensations. They would react to objects that seemed to come at them in one study for instance. They couldn’t really see like they would had, they had working biological sight. They even kind of hooked the person up to a TV and the internet. While the results aren’t there yet, you could imagine the possibilities. What would you “see” if you were hooked up to the internet? Would you see code kind of reminiscent of the Matrix or would you kind of exist in a virtual world? If the later was true, imagine all the possibilities for MMOs. If you were hooked up to a computer and saw the virtual world as if you were actually there and you were logged on to an online game, would your body move and react in the real world to what you saw and experienced in the virtual one? Would you perceive a sense of pain if you saw yourself get zapped with electricity or slashed with a sword? These are all outlandish ponderings but in a more practical and realistic view, the possibilities of enabling the blind to see again are phenomenal.

                Along the same lines of the aforementioned online video-gaming aspect, Steve Potter’s study begs similar inquiries. He used in vitro grown rat hippocampal neural tissue to control a virtual animal. One is left to wonder what this makes the creature. Is this creature “alive”? The tissues controlling the animal are most definitely alive, but are attached to no living body. Does this make the creature a computer program and thus not living, or does the living tissue take precedence and rule the being as living? After a time, would the living tissue have integrated enough with virtual body to experience sensations of pain or pleasure inflicted on the virtual body? This brings on very interesting pondering in my mind. Would it be possible to attach the mind of a fully paralyzed individual to a virtual avatar so that the person can live on in that reality? Or maybe integrate the person’s mind into a 100 percent mechanical robot body? Would it be like having bodily control again? In a different imagining, in a far off future, having built on this study, would such a world exist in which a person could wear a headband, similar to those used in the game Mind Flex, to attach their neural activities to an online virtual avatar to play in online games, or go to virtual speed dating meetings, or family reunions or even business meetings? Just imagine this world, how easy it would be to keep in touch with family in a more in- person kind of way than the existing technology of today.

arduino lab