Field News

We’ve covered plenty of interesting human input devices over the years, but how about an instrument? No, not as a MIDI controller, but to interact with what’s going on-on screen. That’s the job of GuitarPie, a guitar-driven pie menu produced by a group at the University of Stuttgart. The idea is pretty simple: the computer […]
S/PDIF has been around for a long time; it’s still a really great way to send streams of digital audio from device A to device B. [Nathan Ladwig] has got the ESP32 decoding SPDIF quite effectively, using an onboard peripheral outside its traditional remit. On the ESP32, the Remote Control Transceiver (RMT) peripheral was intended […]
It takes quite a bit of effort to get a 0 out of 10 repairability score from iFixit, but in-ears like Apple’s AirPods are well on course for a clean streak there, with the AirPod Pro 3 making an abysmal showing in their vitriolic teardown video alongside their summary article. The conclusion is that while […]
Some things are more fun when there are more folks involved, and enjoying time in the pool is one of those activities. Knowing this, [Bert Wagner] started thinking of ways to best coordinate pool activities with his kids and their neighborhood friends. Out of this came the Splashflag, an IoT device built from the ground […]
What the Flock? It’s probably just some quirk of The Almighty Algorithm, but ever since we featured a story on Flock’s crime-fighting drones last week, we’ve been flooded with other stories about the company, some of which aren’t very flattering. The first thing that we were pushed was this handy interactive map of the company’s […]
There are all kinds of air quality sensors on the market that rely on all kinds of electro-physical effects to detect gases or contaminants and report them back as a value. [lucascreator] has instead been investigating a method of determining air quality that is closer to divination than measurement—using computer vision and a trained AI […]
The idea of using the Apple II home computer for digital photography purposes may seem somewhat daft considering that this is not a purpose that they were ever designed for, yet this is the goal that [Colin Leroy-Mira] had, requiring some image decoder optimizations. That said, it’s less crazy than one might assume at first […]
We typically think of neon signs as big commercial advertisements, hanging inside windows and lofted on tall signposts outside highway-adjacent businesses. [James Akers] has gone the other route with a fashionable build, creating little wearable neon necklaces that glow beautifully in just the same way. Aiming for small scale, [James] began with 6 mm blue […]
Skateboards were organically developed in the 1940s and 1950s; 30 years would then pass before the ollie was developed, unlocking new realms for skaters dedicated to the artform. The advent of powerful batteries and motors would later make the electric skateboard a practical and (un?)fashionable method of transport in more recent years. Now, [Ivan Miranda] […]
The counter wheel and white worm gear inside the counter. (Credit: Anthony Francis-Jones, YouTube) Recently [Anthony Francis-Jones] decided to take a closer look at the inhaler that his son got prescribed for some mild breathing issues, specifically to teardown the mechanical counter on it. Commonly used with COPD conditions as well as asthma, these inhalers […]