If You're Ever Asking An Autistic Person To Do Something, Be Sure To Explain Why You Want Them To Do

This guys raspberry pi laptop is goals via Cyberpunk

Stop perpetuating the idea that avoiding eye contact = lying. Some of us are just autistic and shouldn't have to force ourselves to make eye contact just to avoid being called liars.

Same goes for fidgeting. It doesn't necessarily mean someone's lying or nervous. It could just be the result of neurodivergence.

The Open Book Project

As a society, we need an open source device for reading. Books are among the most important documents of our culture, yet the most popular and widespread devices we have for reading — the Kobo, the Nook, the Kindle and even the iPad — are closed devices, operating as small moving parts in a set of giant closed platforms whose owners’ interests are not always aligned with readers’.

The Open Book aims to be a simple device that anyone with a soldering iron can build for themselves. The Open Book should be comprehensible: the reader should be able to look at it and understand, at least in broad strokes, how it works. It should be extensible, so that a reader with different needs can write code and add accessories that make the book work for them. It should be global, supporting readers of books in all the languages of the world. Most of all, it should be open, so that anyone can take this design as a starting point and use it to build a better book.

The most important thing I can reiterate in this README is that This Is A Work In Progress! The Open Book board is probably 90% of the way there, but the software required to actually be an eBook is in its infancy; I can put a few Arduino sketches up here, but the long-term goal involves building open source eBook software, and that’s still a ways out.

Read more…

Adafruit / Beagle Bone Black / Proto Plate / 2013

A controllable prosthetic hand using electromyography to detect the gestures and muscle activities. The project is aimed to be affordable, upgradable, repairable, and flexible. To make it affordable, it consists of 3D printed parts for structure and only common electronic parts are being used. The hand is controlled through EMG signals read by muscle activities on upper forearm. These EMG signals are then transmitted via Bluetooth to Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi then processes these signals and move servo motors accordingly. The project is still in early state with many areas could be improved.

courtesy: Kenneth V.

How to build a horse with programming language 🐎

Amazing! :)

Amino: Desktop Bioengineering for Everyone

The countdown begins - there are just over 24 hours left to get your hands on the first do-it-yourself bioengineering kit! The Amino, which originally began as a school project by Julie Legault out of the MIT Media Lab, is a kit made to encourage people to experiment with synthetic biology. So much of our life is created through bioengineering, and the Amino lets everyone from artists to hackers experience the fun of the lab at home. Better yet, it lets you do so without the expensive equipment.  

When you first think of bioengineering something Frankenstein might come to mind, but there won’t be any dangerous monsters growing in this package. The Amino uses friendly strains of bacteria that are safe for home use. In total, the Amino lets you grow living cells while also getting data on what is going on, and is sophisticated enough for professional labs too! The kit comes with DNA programs (“Apps”), and in the first order you can choose from making a glow in the dark living light or experimenting with several DNA programs. 

The kit looks like loads of fun and I’m excited to see where this goes!

1. Read up on the backstory of the project on the MIT blog. 

2. Check out the Amino Indiegogo campaign

The best pull request (PR) in 2017???

Finished one of my Altoids-friendly Arduino Menta’s from Adafruit