projects-in-progress snapshot

1. hexacon
   Hexapod conference funded by deFlorez humor fund! Been doing a lot of work refining the vision of the conference/convention and how to make it humorous and yet useful to attend at the same time.
   
   It will be like academic conference - hexapod dance off - giant hexapods - poster session and the humor will come out of the contrast.
   
   Hexacon!
   
2. servo arm drawbot for starttroll project / graduation cap
   Delta robot face drawing:
   http://jarkman.co.uk/catalog/robots/sketchy.htm
   

   The lifecycle goes like this:
   - Pick a picture from the Android photo album
   - Run a Canny edge-finder on it to get to a black bitmap with white lines on the edges of the original picture. I used a splendid implementation by Tom Gibara- Run a vectoriser on that, to generate vectors along those lines. I couldn't find one I liked, so I write one, which was easier that I expected.
   - Simplify the vectors - discard very short vectors, and replace straightish bits with straight lines. The Arduino can only store 300 points, so we have a strong incentive to optimise the vectors to within an inch of their lives.
   - Package the vectors up and send them over Bluetooth to the Arduino
   - Wait for the drawing ! 

   For speed, I'm working with very low-resolution bitmaps - 128 pixels square by default.

   http://hackaday.com/2012/01/13/pythagoras-a-delta-robot-for-drawing/
   vectorizing linked to in Sketchy\src\com\jarkman\sketchy\Vectoriser.java
   http://cardhouse.com/computer/vectcode.htm
   Actual vectoriser code used in sketchy is in VectorWalker.java. TODO: read over and understand this code.
   
   canny edge detection implementation in processing
   http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5827809/canny-edge-detection-using-processing
   
3. scooter: CAD and order parts. have: shady chinese ebay controller, melon motor, brakes. need: battery pack, trigger, front lights
4. POV yoyo: 
1. 3d print prototype, etch out circuitboard and populate, begin programming anew
2. CAD and masterCAM the injection-molded yoyo files
3. spec out parts list cost for 50
5. EL wire choreography arts proposal: only missing a budget
6. MITERS door open trigger: awaiting parts from atw
• post MITERS flyers in pappalardo!
7. jewelry
• go to blick's in central, 9am to 8pm - earring materials
• acrylic bracelets
8. pika housing application
• perhaps visit pika for dinner
9. documentary
10. feelers about filming (hey, 10k is enough to sustain my startproject for a while... apparently it is good publicity too)
11. hexapod
    give it an new body, make it dance, ...
    hexarideablepod is on permanent hiatus (how to dispose of it? I need to fix it up a bit before disposing of it, I feel)
12. 2.007
    document hall sensor with circuit picture
    lasercutter pdf
    intro to arduino pdf (where to find resources)