Robots and Physical Computing

Scratch 3 was launched on 2nd January 2019, so I wanted to know would Webcams still work with Scratch 3 as it did with Scratch 2. For example, in a previous post  Scratch, webcams, cats and explosions  the cat (Scratch) moved across the screen and a button burst when the object moved in the camera onto it.  Can the same thing be done in Scratch 3? The short answer is yes, but it is done slightly differently. The first change the video capture is not there in the blocks automatically; but is an extension that needs to be added. First, you need to add the extension blocks for video sensing. Go to the little icon at the bottom left of the screen (as shown below) this takes you to the extensions menu. Next, find the Video Sensing option and selected. The webcam, if enabled, with start automatically. A video sensing set of blocks is now in the list of block options.  The rest is very similar to doing this in Scratch 2. Moving ...

How to produce a Microbit neural network This is really part two of a set of post  in response to a question from Carl Simmons ( @Activ8Thinking ) concerning building a   micro:bit ... Microbit Neuron - producing a single neuron using a microbit This post is in response to a question from Carl Simmons ( @Activ8Thinking ) about has anyone built a microbit simple neuron. Quick Overv... USB Robot arm control with Python and Raspberry Pi I was asked recently if the USB robot arm could be programmed - I knew the answer was yes. The Arm came from the CBiS Education Robot Arm ... Micro:bit, Servo control with Micropython or blocks You can control servos (small ones) from a Micro:Bit directly. Following a link from the David Whale (Twitter  @ whaleygeek ) , thank you, t... WebVR 5 Playtime: Augmented Reality to display Videos In previous posts ( post 1 , post 2 ) I have raved over the brilliant combination of Mozi...

Video 1: How to produce a simple web-based augmented reality application. Video 2:  Using AFrame and AR.js to create AR - this time adding an image and rotation to an AR object. Related Links Basic guide and starting point  https://aframe.io/blog/arjs/#move-the-camera-or-the-marker Example: White block (needs the Hiro marker)  https://gregarious-fibre.glitch.me/ Example: An image is added to block (needs the Hiro marker)  https://glitch.com/~dandy-custard Further guidance on setting up AR through AR.js  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2018/07/webvr-3-playtime-augmented-reality.html Further guidance adding objects into AR  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2018/07/webvr-4-playtime-putting-objects-into.html Guide on adding video into AR  https://robotsandphysicalcomputing.blogspot.com/2018/10/webvr5-playtime-augmented-reality-to.html   All opinions in this blog are the Author's and sho...

Still enjoying playing with Scratch and webcam. in this post,  initially improving on the example shown in a previous post Webcam and Scratch ;  enhancing the movement of Scratch the Cat by adding the interim step and facing in the direction of the 'moving finger' (see the code below).  Please go to the code at https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/263334488/   to try it yourself. Going to add one more feature to experiment with getting objects to react to the motion. In this case to explode a button or change a button to a small ball by moving the finger onto the button. The motion on the sprite is used to do this. Please try the code yourself at  https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/266837380/ All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

In a previous post,  Adafruit Circuit Playground reacting to music (updated with simulator)  using vibrations to change the RGB of pixels on the Circuit Playground Express was played with (it is too much fun to not). Here I am going to go even simpler, using the sound level directly, again using MakeCode. The circuit playground includes a microphone so sound levels can be used directly, by using them to vary the RGB inputs and brightness of the pixel (see the code above). You can try the idea out on the simulator below; the circle bottom left can be used to simulate varying the sound level.  Please feel free to alter the code and share; the code is available at  https://makecode.com/_8UPY8oD54bmE All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

I have to admit I do enjoy playing with Scratch. I heard you can connect a webcam to Scratch and though there might be quite a lot of set-up. I was wrong, it is was very easy just one block really. So in this very short post, I share my (very simple) code. Getting Scratch the Cat to follow my finger left or right. I am intrigued to see what else can be done. Code is at  https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/263334488/   All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

In previous posts I looked at using the 4Tronix Cube:Bit with Python ( http://bit.ly/2DcXcei ) or Adafruit Circuit Playground with MakeCode ( http://bit.ly/2T0ddcN ) both used to make a 'Disco-Light' essentially reacting to vibrations from a speaker and therefore indirectly react to music. In this post, a short experiment with the Cube:Bit combined with MakeCode is shown. First thing once you are in  https://makecode.microbit.org/#  is to add the MakeCode package for the Cube released by 4tronix; details on setting this up are at  https://4tronix.co.uk/blog/?p=1770 . So the basic (and it is basic) idea in the code, is change one of the pixel/LEDs colour in response to the acceleration in the three axes, with each axis controlling either the amount of Red, Green or Blue in the LED's output. The colour is shifted one pixel along each time and the process repeats. The effect is run the colours through all the LEDs. The code is shown below: ...