If your TV set-top box is going to sit there in plain sight, it might as well do more work for you! That’s the idea behind the Smart TV Box. Slimmer and sleeker, it takes up less space than the average box and is less intrusive on your aesthetic. The top serves as a charging station for the remote control. If you misplace the remote, simply press a single button on the unit to locate it! In addition, the front of the unit also displays useful information such as the time, weather conditions, and more!
There are many model airplanes out there that can perform cool tricks, but the Super Circle Plane model airplane is different. It is an airplane with a large circle above the wings, which is the perfect target for other planes to fly through.
Model airplane designer Peter Sripol from Flite Test created this unique aircraft for Flite Fest 2015. Check out the video of this craft flying over a field of RC aircraft enthusiasts. Many of them took advantage of the plane’s presence, using it as a target for their own craft to fly through. The video starts off with a few failed efforts, but around 6:45, it gets to the good stuff:
It’s amazing to me that this plane flies so well with that design, but it does – even after being hit by another plane. At least it does for a time. At the end of the video it does crash spectacularly. Still, it’s awesome to see all of the other planes flying through it.
For better or for worse, our appliances are getting smarter. But like their simpler ancestors, they usually come with their own remote controls, be they physical controllers or apps. French startup Sevenhugs thinks it has the answer with SmartRemote, a touchscreen universal remote control for connected devices.
Ideally, SmartRemote works like this: you point it at your TV, and it turns into a TV remote, but when you point it at your LED bulb, it automatically switches to the color and brightness controls. And so on. Right now the remote works only with Philips Hue lights, Sonos speakers and the Nest Learning Thermostat, but Sevenhugs says it has an open SDK that will hopefully encourage companies and developers to make their devices compatible with SmartRemote.
In truth, the remote itself isn’t that smart. It works in conjunction with a mobile app and three location modules that plug into bulb sockets. For best results, the three modules should all be plugged in the same room. The app lets you pair the remote with any device that has Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity, while the modules serve as the remote’s compass. In short, the remote detects not what you’re pointing at, but where you’re pointing to. But you can use that limitation to your advantage. For instance, you can train the remote to show the thermostat controls when you point at your fireplace, or toggle the outdoor lights when you point at your window.
Sevenhugs plans on raising funds for SmartRemote on Kickstarter on February and start shipping on September. It seems like a magical device, but I’d still rather have it as an app on my phone or perhaps on a smartwatch. I wouldn’t be surprised if the sensors on smartphones would be enough to let it determine its location and orientation on its own.
Hack A Day member Hari Wiguna made a TV and set top box remote control for his dad, who finds it difficult to press the tiny buttons on the original remotes. You’d think it would be a simple matter to make such a ubiquitous device, especially since Hari put only the most used functions on the remote, but it turned out to be quite the challenge.
Hari mounted the ATMega 328 and the remote’s other components on a stripboard, which he then housed on an acrylic case that he made using a laser cutter. One of the most interesting parts of this project is that Hari is in the U.S. but his dad is in Indonesia, so he didn’t have the original remotes on hand. Fortunately he found a universal remote control app that had both remotes, so he used that to program the one he made.
Here’s the rest of Hari’s build log:
I have a newfound appreciation for remote controls. Head to Hari’s Hack A Day page for his parts list and link to his code.
In 2012, the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) teamed up with Royal College of Art product design students to create functional and innovative chairs out of American hardwood. So Thomas Gottelier and Bobby Petersen made a boat.
Collectively known as Featuring Featuring, Thomas and Bobby worked with programmer Jonas Jongejan and boat builder Will Reed to create the Floating Chair, aka Auto Boat. The boat gets its names – and a seat at AHEC’s exhibit – from its ability to ferry the rider to a location that’s set in an app.
Using just a pair of motors, it has no rudder or paddle. You simply activate the boat via the app and off it goes, leaving you free to chill throughout the journey. Hopefully to somewhere safe. The video below implies that you can stop and restart the boat in the middle of the journey, so it seems you do have a chance to nope out of there if needed.
That does seem like a fine way to get around. It’s not a chair though.
You might look at this Sonic Screwdriver universal remote control and feel like you have seen it before. It looks virtually identical to the 11th doctor universal remote we talked about back in 2012. The only real difference I see is that the claw thingies on the 12th Doc’s screwdriver are open.
The remote control has the ability to control your TV with gestures, sort of like Doctor Who’s magical wand. The universal remote supports all remote control protocols and has a learning feature for a wide variety of infrared remote types.
A 3-axis MEMS accelerometer controls the motion sensing. What that all means is that you can rotate the control counterclockwise to adjust volume and up and down to change channels, among other things.
The 12th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver Remote Control is available at ThinkGeek for pre-order at $119.99(USD) with shipping starting in late September.
Knocking on your living room table to switch on the TV. This is not science fiction. Knocki is a small wireless device that transforms any surface into a remote control. Knocki is the...
Last year, we checked out a light switch that let you toggle lights just by waving your hand. Knocki lets you do that and more but by knocking or tapping on a surface.
Unlike the Clapper, Knocki doesn’t use microphones to detect knocks. Instead, it senses the vibration on the surface that it’s mounted on. That reduces false positives as well as multiple activations in case you have multiple Knocki units near each other.
So what can you do with Knocki? For starters, it lets you trigger and talk with your smartphone. For instance, it can text you if someone’s knocking at the door or left mail at your mailbox. Or you can call someone with just a knock.
But you’ll get the most out of Knocki by integrating it with smart appliances and automation systems such as IFTTT, Nest and even Apple’s new home automation platform Home Kit. Then you’ll be able to control and monitor your home with just a few knocks.
Pre-order a Knocki for $59 (USD). You can program different functions into a single unit, so you don’t have to go all in with a house full of Knockis like the family in the video.
It has been a while since we have been hearing about the update for the Apple TV which is reportedly going to include an all new remote control. Apple’s set-top streaming box is going to get an all...
Looks like all sorts of apps are making their way to the Apple Watch; from entertainment to fitness and the most important news. Among the famous publishers, The Economist appears to be the first one...
