Monday, November 25, 2013

Tongue mouse: Cursor control with your mouth!

I wanted to test the idea of using the tongue to control a computer. The most obvious way would be to map x/y coordinates in a Windows-style UI with tongue movements constrained to a plane. This doesn't work terribly well, as even though the tongue has fine motor control, it's very difficult to smoothy achieve the 2D movements needed to operate a system that has been developed around a classic mouse. I think there is possible applications for swipe interfaces, carousel menus, yes/no input, etc.



Monday, November 18, 2013

Patterning aluminum with the photoresist "lift-off" method

I show how the photoresist "lift-off" method works to pattern thin films as they are deposited. In this case, I patterned aluminum on a microscope slide.


Posture-based game controller

I quickly built a game controller to test the idea of generated game inputs from the player's posture (shift in center-of-gravity). This controller is built from a digital bathroom scale and an XBox 360 controller. I used an opamp to convert the bathroom scale's sensor input to a thumbstick input. I also added a mouse to capture yaw.


Sunday, November 10, 2013

Intro to sputtering (process to create clear, conductive coatings)

I have finally been successful in creating a conductive, clear layer of indium-tin oxide on a microscope slide. In this video, I show the process and explain how sputtering works.