Robots and Physical Computing

The long awaited Hackaball has been released to those who backed as a kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hackaball/hackaball-a-programmable-ball-for-active-and-creat  , designed as a tough, easily programmable device for children that can be thrown around and (within reason) treated roughly. Further protected by an outer shell. The microcontroller is surrounded by a tough what appears to be a silicone (or similar) ring and encased in a two rubbery halves of a ball. In included within are  sensors (accelerometer and gyro), vibration motor,  LEDs, rechargeable battery, and a speaker (that can be programmed to make some interesting sounds, that go down well with children and adults). The two halves of the ball are translucent and diffuse the LEDs effectively. The computer you can throw, was the campaign's strapline and that is not an idle boast, I have let a six-year throw it around a large room with hard floors and even harder wall...

1. Single Neurone Instructions: Set the inputs by pressing the buttons marked input 1 and input 2 (Red is off(False or 0) and Green is on(True or 1)) Change the weights by changing weights 1 to 3, wx goes with input x and weight 3 is the bias. To activate the neuron you need to click on the the yellow ball ('the neuron'). The video below show it in action and explains the code. To see the code go to  https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/131892234/  . A slight modification click on the bell to change the weights The code is available at  https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/171190294/ 2. Training a Neurone In this part, the training of a neuron all written in Scratch is tackled. The video shows it action and you can have a go at using the software yourself at the end of the post. The Scratch code can be found at  https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/132915502/ All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any ...

Kamibot was a recent kickstarter ( https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kamibot/kamibot-teach-your-kids-to-code ) from the interesting named, Korean company, 3.14 Co., Ltd as a robot you can dress up in paper outfits. It is actually quite a nice little kit that can be controlled via Android, IOS or PC (available at  http://www.kamibot.com/default.php along with some of the plans for paper outfits). The software is a simple Scratch/Blockly style interface and programming is simple. Connecting the robot to the, in my case, an iPad was relatively easy. I would welcome a Mac version of the KamiBlock software but apart from that nice robot kit, that allows you to get programming quickly if you have used Scratch, Blockly or Crumble.  They have recently twitted about new piece of software for Android device - using cards on the screen in combination with their paper mapboard. Kamicard, now available for download to Android users! Who says you ...

A recently released book  Teaching Computing Unplugged in Primary Schools   edited by Helen Caldwell (University of Northampton) and Neil Smith (Open University) has a number of interesting chapters by authors who are passionate about how computing is taught in schools. The central theme is unplugged activities, without using computers, but still teach the fundamental of computational thinking. Ok, confession time. I co-wrote, along with Katharine Childs (Code Club), Chapter 3 Artists so I am biased here, but I believe in the central theme of Unplugged Computing. Computing, and Computational Thinking in general,  is not  just  about programming and using a computer (though using computers and  programming are vitally important to Computing) but it is also about many other things including problem-solving, being creative and working collaboratively. Chapter 3 is about linking these computational thinking ideas to produce visual art, by app...

This really is a simple one. A Glowbug (or a NeoPixel) with the data in, Ground and 5v connected pushed into the neck of the balloon, then inflated the balloon. The neck of the balloon and wires are twisted tightly and insulating tape used to provide a bit of a seal. The data in wire is connected to Pin 0 of a Micro:Bit and the other two wires are attached to the corresponding connections of the Micro:Bit. The code below randomly selects the colours and the length of the delay before changing colour. from microbit import * import neopixel, random np = neopixel.NeoPixel(pin0, 1) while True:     rd=random.randint(1,254)     gr=random.randint(1,254)     bl=random.randint(1,254)     t1=random.randint(200,2000)     np[0] = (rd, gr, bl)     np.show()     sleep(t1) The problem is a slow leak means it only stays inflated for a short while. All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in an...

In previous post I played with using the combination of the Proto-Pic Micro:pixel and Micro:Bit to react, using the accelerometer, to music through a computer speakers. The vibrations from the music shake the Micro:Bit enough to give measurable changes in three axis, and these values are used to change the pixels colour. The latest version of this uses most of pixels. Coded in micropython using the Mu editor . from microbit import * import neopixel, random np = neopixel.NeoPixel(pin0, 32) while True:     for pxl in range (2,32, 5):         rd=int(abs(accelerometer.get_x())/20)         gr=int(abs(accelerometer.get_y())/20)         bl=int(abs(accelerometer.get_z())/20)         np[pxl] = (rd, gr, 0)         np[pxl-1] = (rd, gr, 0)         np[pxl+1] = (0, gr, rd)         np[pxl-2] = (rd, 0, 0)       ...

This post discusses a simple way to get the Micropixel-Micro:Bit combination to change the Neopixels based on the music. Using the accelerometer on the Micro:Bit to provide x,y,z values to provide colour values for the neopixels; the micropixel sits over the speaker and vibrations are picked up.  Simple but it roughly works (see the video at the end of the post). Code from microbit import * import neopixel, random # Setup the Neopixel strip on pin0 with a length of 2 pixels np = neopixel.NeoPixel(pin0, 32) while True:     pxl=11     rd=int(abs(accelerometer.get_x())/20)     gr=int(abs(accelerometer.get_y())/20)     bl=int(abs(accelerometer.get_z())/20)     t1=10     np[pxl] = (0, 0, bl)     np[pxl-1] = (rd, gr, 0)     np[pxl+1] = (0, gr, rd)     np[pxl-2] = (rd, 0, 0)     np[pxl+2] = (0, gr,0)     np.show()     sleep(t1)     np...