ThingM Technology Sketch: LockM

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WHAT'S A TECHNOLOGY SKETCH? As part of our product development process, ThingM creates Technology Sketches, which are examples of early stage conceptual approaches to how a product might work, rather than actual fully-functional systems. We believe in lightweight, agile, user-centered product development, which means that we focus on users' experiences first and technological details later.

LockM is a portable and secure personal thumb drive, adding a sense of protection and high design to an everyday experience.

Inspired by the familiar interface of the combination lock, LockM uses a customizable  combination to access your data on-the-go. The discreet opening at the bottom keeps your combination safe from peepers and, when you're not using your thumb drive, a quick swipe of the dials scramble the code and disables access to your content.

LockM is designed to give you security when you need it, ease of mind if you lose it, and will make you feel better about taking important data with you.

Learn More at the ThingM website: http://thingm.com/sketches/lockm.html

 

 

BlinkM in the Miniature Main Street Electrical Parade!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kf3ZSLptxU&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZUFWQtqjXE&feature=youtu.be

Mechanizing a Miniature Main Street Electrical Parade Two years in the making, it's a mechanized miniature Main Street Electrical Parade. Utilizing miniatures from the Olszewski Disneyland Collection, the Electrical Parade has been motorized to travel down Main Street U.S.A. and put to a nighttime show of music. The floats are illuminated with BlinkMs that are attached to a hidden chain system under the street and are powered by contact rails along the parade route.

It's no exaggeration to say that BlinkMs came to the rescue for this project. Creator Alex George needed a practical way to illuminate the floats in a way that  could control changes in color and even add some twinkling effects similar to the actual parade.  Each BlinkM could be programmed to do it's own thing in a stand alone fashion greatly simplified that goal.  Alex also networked them together for future plans of synchronizing their playback for a more complex light show.

More on the artist at: http://www.bygeorgeithinkyouvegotit.com/miniparade.html

The miniature Electrical Parade travels down this z-scale Main Street U.S.A. thanks to a hidden chain which pulls the floats along a slot in the road.

BlinkMs illuminate each float from underneath the street.

The chain system which defines the parade path is completed. Notice the special tabbed links to which the BlinkMs will be attached.

A backstage view as the parade proceeds from its hidden underground queue up to Main Street.

ThingM March 2012 Newsletter!

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TOD'S SILVER SCREEN DEBUT Unchained Reaction, Discovery Channels new show judged by Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters — is a new six-part series that pits two teams of varying backgrounds against each other to build an elaborate chain-reaction contraption. Who is on the very first season premier you ask? Why it is our very own ThingM Co-Founder Tod Kurt!

The episode is titled " Heavy vs. Light" and Adam and Jamie challenge a team of electronics experts and a team of set carpenters to build the most creative multi-step "heavy-vs-light" themed machine. Please visit the sight and watch!

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/unchained-reaction/about-episode-5.html

NEW DISTRIBUTOR ThingM has also welcomed a new distributor to the fold. Light With LED! Please visit them:

http://lightwithled.com/

MIKE'S BLOG Mike has been collecting demo phones over the last several years, inadvertently documenting the last great design push before the iPhone created a consistant trend of black rectangles. Since February Mike has been photographing and blogging a phone a day on Orange Cone. Please click the link to review and learn more!

http://orangecone.com/archives/2012/03/

SUBMIT THINGM PROJECTS Do you have any amazing ThingM projects that you would like to share? We're currently looking for new ThingM projects to post to our blog. If you have photos, a project description that talks about your experience with our products, video, or any other material you would like to share, please email us. We look forward to seeing some amazing projects!

BlinkM in the Energy Harvesting Playground!

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Created by the Computational Design Lab at Carnegie Mellon University - team members Deren Guler, Yen-Chia Hsu, Zack Jacobson-Weaver, Tobias Sonne, and Sharon Winter created the Energy harvesting playground.  A tangible interaction playground for kids and adults to have fun together and to harvest human energy. There are four features in energy harvesting playground, each of them has different functions and components as following:

1. Self-Sufficient Power Supply While biking and seesawing, human energy can be turned into electric power by the bike wheel and the flywheel on seesaw through two motor generators. The flywheel mechanical structure keeps the wheel spining continuously. Then the power will be used to charge batteries.

2. Wheel Animation While biking and seesawing, the animation wheel is powered up and rotates . People can watch the wheel animation through a small hole.

3. BlinkM Bike Light Two blinkM LEDs are installed on the bike. Arduino changes the color of BlinkM LEDs according to the value of photoresiter when people bike.

4. Light Color Changing and Blinking First, the arduino microcontroller under the seesaw controls the color of LED strips according to the input value of the accelerometer installed on the middle of the seesaw. Second, when people bike and the tape light barrier on the bike wheel blocks the photoresister on the bike frame, arduino blinks the LED strips according to the changes of sensor value.

 

 

For more information and a video please visit: http://code.arc.cmu.edu/workinprogess/energy-harvesting-playground-2/

ThingM Internship!

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Work on Open Source hardware, firmware and software with us in Pasadena!  We're a company dedicated to making innovative technology for the hacking, making, tinkering and design worlds.  We are looking for someone with strong technical skills and the desire to put them to practical use helping us make our products better, more interesting and more efficient. We need someone who can take an idea and run with it, writing great, readable, maintainable Java and C. Atmel AVR microcontroller experience a big plus, but not required if you have other awesome skills.

You have to be comfortable working in a tiny company that's distributed around California, communicating frequently with company management.

More information about ThingM can be found on http://thingm.com, including examples of products we've developed.

We're looking to begin immediately, the internship would last for 3 months, and we would need about 15 hours a week.  For more information and details please email: info@thingm.com

BlinkM in Moduled!

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http://vimeo.com/33571204 Moduled created by Jason Kim

A MFA Design & Technology student at Parsons, Jason created Moduled a multipurpose lamp for people who are in need of different functions, forms, and colors of lighting. He strongly believes that things that are considered as “basic” such as lighting and “basic shapes” such as circles, squares, and trapezoids can be reinvented with the addition of details and tried to find beauty within seemingly simplistic objects.

Jason was a part of the Fall 2011 ThingM seedkit program. To learn more about his work and project please visit: http://jasonkimdesign.com/moduled.html

 

 

Abraham Peter's: LED Cheer Box!

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With the great help of ThingM, the Legend Performance Cheer box is the next generation of Cheerleading equipment. Using injection molded ABS and a collapsible design, the Legend cheer box gives you minimal weight and high performance all packaged into a highly portable and easy to carry accessory.

This box has gone through two other versions that focused on collapsibility and safety. But the real innovation takes place with the use of LEDs. The legend box uses an array or LEDs on the face to give you customized graphics and animations. I consulted the help of Tod E. Kurt to help design and implement the the LED board. Running on the Arduino platform, strip LED lighting was reconfigured into a panel to create a board that had code written to display animated gifs. The real challenge was to make the LED panel easy to use, easy to upload new data, and had to run on batteries. We were able to power the arduino and the LEDs on 4 C Batteries, used one button to control the power and animations, and would ideally only need to use a USB cable to upload new data. Other versions of this collapsible box include a detachable panel that would make the LEDs completely independent so you could use the display as a sign and hold hold it up at competitions and games. Adding infrared technology and wireless capabilities could also open the door to communication between boxes and group messages across multiple boxes. The possibilities are endless and we look to continue this project further.

Visit Abraham's website for more work: http://www.abrahampeters.com/

BlinkM MaxM in Makerbots!

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Owners of Makerbot 3d printers have discovered that adding BlinkM MaxMs their 3d printer is easy to do and gives their bot an extra cool feel.  This excellent mood lighting system by jetty is one of many examples of how to do this.  Other users are using MaxMs to indicate bot build status.  All you need is a BlinkM MaxM and some LED strip, both available in the Makerbot store.

Makerbot Industries themselves like BlinkMs too.  At their CES 2012 booth, the display stands for their award-winning Makerbot Replicator utilized MaxMs and RGB LED strips too.

(image from gizmag.com)

If you're curious about BlinkM MaxMs, here's some more information.