FlashBrighton: Arduino & WiiMote M’Wash Up March 18, 2008

Now I dunno about you but i just LOVE Flex. Ever since I saw that guy with the wild eyes and the bird’s nest beard do his whole “with flex… without flex… any questions?” thing I’ve just been, like, just CRAZY about Flex 3. I can hardly stop myself instantiating new AdvancedDataGrid components. But… well, I’ll be honest, I mostly went along to the Flex 3 party ‘coupla weeks ago because I wanted to win an Arduino board.

Maybe you didn’t know, maybe you couldn’t make it, but thanks to the generosity of Adobe and the tireless work of Jo Summers we had 8 of these badboys to give away. Were you there? Did you get one? Did you get one and then graciously give it back because your boyfriend already won one? Did you get one because someone who’s boyfriend had already won one gave hers back? And if so have you made any cool sh*t with it yet? And if not WHY NOT considering that some of us who work bloody hard to make FlashBrighton just a magnificent success for you all DIDN’T GET ONE!

Not like I’m bitter or anything. It’s just… man, just look at all this great stuff you get with them. Like, diodes and switches, how cool is that? And… uh, knobs and um… uh and… yeah, other stuff. Like this… thing. Dunno what it does but it looks nice. Hey look, USB cable, just *IMAGINE* what you could do with that! So apparently the idea is that, and I quote, “it can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators”. Cool, connect it all up, stream your bits, get yourself some raybans, before you know it’s time for your Eno collaboration.

Whatever. I’ve no idea what it all does but I’m damn sure I’m gonna find out. And so can you, because as well as being my birthday Tuesday March 18th is also FlashBrighton’s Arduino Mwash-Up night bwoy! If you got your hands on one of these - or even if you didn’t - and are just *DYING* to know what you can do with it, come along and let our grandmasters of the board put you in check. We’re not really sure what we’re gonna be doing or who’s gonna be doing it but that’s half the fun. Some of us have got these babies *DOWN* and they can show the rest of us what they’ve done so far and how the whole shooting match holds together and everything. It’ll be sketchy, hacky, bit-y and just loads of fun!

AND WAIT… COS THAT’S NOT ALL!

That’s right, hack fans! If that wasn’t badly planned enough we’ve got even more making-it-up-as-we-go-along fun in the form of WiiMote sensai Kyle E. Jennings. Fresh from the University of California, Berkeley, Kyle is an expert in interfacing Wiimotes and Flash using the Wiiflash API, a technique which connects to a native application that interfaces with the Wiimote via Bluetooth. Apparently this gives you all sorts of exciting inputs, both from the ‘mote’s and nunchuk’s accelerometers and from its IR tracking. Crikey!

Kyle is kindly going to show you an application that… does all that stuff I just said, and will point out what others have done and what future possibilities exist. In keeping with the hacking theme, if you have a Wiimote plus a PC* (that can do Bluetooth) or a Mac** are encouraged to bring them along and mwash along with the mwastah! It’ll be like seeing Hendrix on the Isle of Wight. How will you tell your kids that you were at home doing the washing up when they ask you, a few decades hence, what you were doing whilst K. E. Jennings was rockin’ the Cricketers?

Seriously, are we not good to you? Where else are you going get a free Arduino, then free instruction in how to use it all washed down with a vintage WiiMote masterclass from a Berkeley Ph.D student? I don’t know the answer to that question but I’ll bet you a pound that it’s: NOWHERE!

Once again kids, best register to avoid disappointment. Places are very much as-per limited so don’t delay, register today!

Official Website: http://www.flashbrighton.org/wordpress/?p=105