Summary for Wednesday/本周三开放日综述

• IKEA lamps: by Mika & Edward
• Fast & furious robot car: Edward
• Swarmbot update: Leo

Wednesday Presenters/本周演讲者介绍

This evening Mika and Edward will present dot dot dot the 64bit ikea lights, Edward will be show off his fastest robo racing car and Leo will show us swarm robots, he even has a an island variant – very cool!

]]>

Bragging rights, well deserved, the winner of this years Autonomous racing championship is EdwardRF with his entry XHD, a 10 second car that flew around the track, sticking like glue to the ground, nimble and hightech in one.

5 competitors competed for best time in time trials on the track for 2012, but only one would win. first up on the track was “Icecream Breaker” which unfortunately didn’t make it off the starting track.

The second contestant was Charlie “wallbanger” famed for it’s uncanny desire to hit every wall in the past, for this year it had an upgrade, 2 Sharp IR range sensors a powerful microservo, a high current motor driver all on top of an arduino nano built right into the original platform, he was no longer a wallbanger but a high powered racing car which clocked in at 7seconds in testing on the same course but different surface. Charlie set the time to beat at 14.62 seconds

XHD time to roll around, with a tough 14.62 seconds to beat, it started out on the track for 1 flawless lap, unfortunately the second lap was not as great, but it did clock in at 10.25seconds. this was the highest tech vehicle to race, PID controllers, wickedly expensive racing platform, 3 Sharp IR range sensors, 1 nano, 1 703n, 1 micro servo, 1 high power motor for the quad wheel drive-shaft with differential driving allowing it to take corners like no ones business.

With a little intermission Cherokey was ready to try again, this 4 wheel drive platform from dfrobot needed a little more time to work out the bugs but it was a great start, it could turn 360° on the spot! equipped with 4 Basic IR sensors, 4 powered wheel drive shaft and a nice base, unfortunately it’s fastest time on the track was 25.02 seconds with 1 collision making it 35.02 seconds.

With man behind the wheel in the only entrant into the User controlled group Stanley clocked in with Loader Shovel with 31.96 seconds, not a good start for human controlled. anyway he won by default.

Lio finally entered in with the Lone Ranger – unfortunately time and a new platform didn’t work out for him, it was a good show of walloping wall-banging!.

in winner takes all, EdwardRF took home the prize of 500rmb 🙂 congratulations to EdwardRF, if you would like to challenge him, make sure you have a 10 second car or you’ll be paying the price of loosing to the champion.

]]>

Strelka are planning a visit of Shanghai and its hackerspace, XinCheJian, on December 17th from 19h00 to 21h00. Each year Strelka brings its students to one of the metropolis of the world to do research on the theme of DiY technologies and creative communities. The students are all young (23-32 years old) active persons that have already done something in different spheres of urban culture. They are looking forward to a lecture about the space, show & tell, Q&A session and a small discussion with residents of the XinCheJian space. Members with interesting projects are invited to join in to welcome our Russian guests. About Strelka Strelka Website, Strelka Flicker, Strelka Blog Strelka is an interdisciplinary institution, founded in Moscow, Russia 3 years ago. Its main topic is Urbanism and everything related to big cities and people, living there. Strelka Institute is a non-profit organization aimed at generating knowledge, producing new ideas and making them come true. Strelka lecture halls and studios provide free tuition for international young specialists with backgrounds in architecture, design, social sciences, etc. Strelka courtyard hosts open lectures, conferences and film screenings. Strelka bar provides both a place for the social networking of creative people from around the globe and a source of Strelka’s financial backing: what the bar earns goes to support the institute. Strelka is an educational centre that is open to the world and ready to share. What happens here spills out into social exchanges. The output of the institute is multidimensional: it includes graduates and their projects and involves a growing network of creativity. But, most importantly, it helps shape the reality of tomorrow. About Sergey Kasich: Sergey Kasich – experimental electronic musician, performer, sound artist, developer of interactive installations. Author of a number of Russian and Crimean festivals of experimental electronic music and technological arts. Initiator and principal curator for communities LoveLiveElectronic (LoLieL.tk) (2008-2011) and SoundArtist.ru (2011-present). From 2005 to 2010 he was resident at the Theremin Center of Moscow State Conservatory by name Tchaikovsky as a freelance composer-developer. Sergey graduatedthe  psychological faculty of Moscow State University and has been pursuing a PhD study in fields of differential psychology and behavioral genetics from 2007 to 2010 (didn’t finish). He now teaches “Technologies in Interactive contemporary Art basics” course at Rodchenko’s school for Multimedia Arts and studies urbanistics in the Strelka Institute.]]>

Summary for Wednesday/本周三开放日综述 胡介鸣 – BlackBoxlab Alex Cureton-Griffiths – SpaceGAMBIT

Wednesday Presenters/本周演讲者介绍

胡介鸣 will be presenting blackboxlab and some of their installation work done previously and how you can also get involved. Using art, electronics, design, interaction, any action! check out http://www.blackboxlab.org Alex from SpaceGAMBIT will hopefully be presenting this evening, it’s been hard to pin him down, so we just tied a rope to his rocketship! who else? *your name here* it’s also adhoc, so get ready, just keep it to 9 minutes plus Q&A afterwards]]>

12月05日周三开放日更新

• Marie Dariel – Bio Mimickery
• Michael Rozenberg – A board game fanatic

Marie Dariel will be talking about bio mimickery in design and how they hope to launch a program in the middle of next year that focuses on Nature-Inspired Innovation, a hot topic. Michael Rozenberg will be presenting on board games, his deep passion for them and how he’s using them in day to day life and business. He’s also bringing his most loved board game over tonight, so get ready to get your game on and take it for a spin! who else? *your name here* it’s also adhoc, so get ready, just keep it to 9 minutes plus Q&A afterwards]]>

A few of us have gotten together to organize a Robo race on the 16th of December 2012 at 1pm, we’re racing autonomous, it’s purely for fun but also bragging rights for the end of the season. If you would like to join us to race (you can be a spectator but its more fun to join in) then sign up for the event, to enter Autonomous racing you’ll need to drop 100rmb into the robo racing box, the ultimate winner will take the winnings, if there is no winner, then the money goes into XinCheJian’s donation box.  We’re doing it for fun with a little incentive. If you would like to race a line follower please sign up, there is no prizes for that category and is free to enter (for now, but if you want an incentive then we can put an entry fee on this). Who knows, there might not be a robo racing season next year, so build and join in! 1: autonomous course – entry 100rmb winner takes all http://wiki.xinchejian.com/wiki/RoboRacing (Challenge track) 2: line follower – entry ???rmb winner takes all? http://wiki.xinchejian.com/wiki/Analog_line_follower http://139.162.84.35/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/track-201204.pdf << track Register here: http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=156]]>

Summary for Wednesday/本周三开放日综述 CSK is coming down to show the MK802 (better than a Raspberry PI) doing motion tracking using an Arduino and OpenCV Valentin is going to show us his recent project he worked on with Supernature named “Tablet Man” that’s loads of tablets, tron like suits and battery packs that will stop an airplane! Sam Lynn will be presenting XZR magazine, a quarterly free bi-lingual magazine written by young reporters writing about things that inspire them but around technology, arts, music and also how to get involved.  ]]>

Summary for Wednesday/本周三开放日综述 Last Weekend it was great to see the multi touch tables working in no time! Patricks at it again, check out this weekend! Francesca will be presenting on design buildings with locally available materials with an example of a school in the Himalayas, not to be missed Zhang Chi (张驰) will be presenting on building your own oscilloscope (those pricey things with squiggly lines going up and down) and the workshop he’s got running, if you sign up tonight, you’ll get a 100rmb discount on the workshop! that’s up to 40mhz frequency or 20mhz if you want a little cheaper, it’s USB! Upcoming Events/近期活动安排 Building interactive installations with the vvvv environment – vvvv与交互项目应用工作坊 (英语教学) http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=152 Date: Saturday Nov. 17th & Sunday Nov. 18th 2012 Time: 10AM – 12PM, LUNCH, 1PM – 5PM This is the most in-demand for workshop, 2 days of feature-packed-fun-filled-action-play – only a few spots remain be Secret spy, or a double agent! – 007秘笈之一～密信潜伏 http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=153 Date: Saturday 24th 2012 Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm Perfect for kids and adults alike to explore and experiment with science and technology in a fun filled 007 workshop]]>

Summary for Wednesday/本周三开放日综述 It’s adhoc wednesday, you know the score – open Mic without the Mic, get up and present something. that’s 9 minutes on stage, if you are giving a presentation please let a staff member know on arrival and what you need prepared. 7pm – be there. For the next few weeks we have Patrick of the vvvv fame in town who will be running these awesome vvvv workshops. He travels the world over doing installations for fun and for work, he knows what he’s doing and has been doing it for years. sign up online and dont wait since there is limited seats, please if you cannot make it or are not sure, do not sign up as you will be denying someone a place.

Upcoming Events/近期活动安排

Multi-touch screen introduction workshop – 多点触摸屏入门工作坊 (英语教学) http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=150 Date: Saturday Nov. 10th 2012 Time: 1PM – 5PM In this workshop the participants will build a small multitouch screen out of a cheap webcam and a cardboard box which they can take home for further experiments. They will also learn how to use Community Core Vision, an open source software which does touch-table related computer vision. In depth vvvv and multi-touch screen workshop – vvvv与多点触摸屏应用工作坊 (英语教学) http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=151 Date: Sunday Nov. 11th 2012 Time: 10AM – 12PM, LUNCH, 1PM – 5PM cant make saturday? dont worry do sunday, its a little more indepth but well worth it Building interactive installations with the vvvv environment – vvvv与交互项目应用工作坊 (英语教学) http://xinchejian.com/event/?ee=152 Date: Saturday Nov. 17th & Sunday Nov. 18th 2012 Time: 10AM – 12PM, LUNCH, 1PM – 5PM This is the most in-demand for workshop, 2 days of feature-packed-fun-filled-psychedelic-play]]>

Shanghai Maker Carnival badge 2012[/caption] XinCheJian attended the first Shanghai maker carnival this weekend showing off members projects. There were also lots of really interesting projects from other Chinese hackers. Heaps more photos and videos can be found via these links:

• slashdot
• Reddit article link
• Reddit photo link
• Reddit videos link

Upvotes and comments – will help get more attention on the articles :)]]>