Tools Hack Daily

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Wearables May Helps Children with Autism #WearableWednesday

Interesting findings out of JAMA Pediatrics. Wearable devices, like google glass, may help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder better interpret social interactions. Via Neurology Advisor:

Results of a randomized controlled trial support the efficacy of a wearable digital intervention in improving socialization among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics.

SG [Superpower Glass] is deployed via Google Glass, a wearable set of eyeglasses, and an Android smartphone application. The SG system uses the glasses’ outward-facing camera to capture facial image data from the wearer’s social partner. Facial data are then transmitted to the smartphone, which interprets facial expressions and transmits a corresponding emoji to the glasses’ peripheral monitor.

Children receiving the intervention displayed significant improvements on the socialization dimension of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviors Scale compared with treatment-as-usual control children

Learn more!

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

Monster Pajamas are #Wearables for Stuffed Animals #WearableWednesday

…and oh my these pajamas from heidee.vincent on instructables are adorable:

These stuffed animal pajamas were designed to help your child not be afraid of the dark! They have a night light and a sound module where you can record any song they like, as well as voice recordings of you or other loved ones speaking or singing.

The Physics of Heating Up Water with a Battery

Via Wired

If the change in energy (ΔE) is measured in Joules and the time interval (Δt) is in seconds, then the power (P) would be in units of Watts. If you pick a textbook off the ground and put it on a table over an interval of 5 seconds, that would be a power of about 2 Watts.

What about thermal energy? When you heat up water, the water increases in thermal energy. The change in thermal energy can be calculated with the following equation.

Changeinthermal 1

In this expression, m is the mass of the water (in grams) and C is the specific heat capacity in Joules per gram per degree Celsius. Don’t confuse this ΔT with the time interval. The capital T stands for temperature. The last part of this energy calculation is the decrease in energy in the battery. You can’t really measure the actual battery energy—instead you have to calculate it. If you find both the electric current and the voltage across the battery, you can find the power.

Learn more!

This could be New York in the not-so-distant future

Rising sea levels pose a significant risk to New York City Via NYMag

Klaus Jacob, a German professor affiliated with Columbia’s University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is a geophysicist by profession and a doomsayer by disposition. I’ve gotten to know him over the past few years, as I’ve sought to understand the greatest threat to life in New York as we know it. Jacob has a white beard and a ponderous accent: Imagine if Werner Herzog happened to be a renowned expert on disaster risk. Jacob believes most people live in an irrational state of “risk denial,” and he takes delight in dispelling their blissful ignorance. “If you want to survive an earthquake, don’t buy a brownstone,” he once cautioned me, citing the catastrophic potential of a long-dormant fault line that runs under the city. When Mayor Bloomberg announced nine years ago an initiative to plant a million trees, Jacob thought, That’s nice — but what about tornadoes?

For the past 15 years or so, Jacob has been primarily preoccupied with a more existential danger: the rising sea. The latest scientific findings suggest that a child born today in this island metropolis may live to see the waters around it swell by six feet, as the previously hypothetical consequences of global warming take on an escalating — and unstoppable — force. “I have made it my mission,” Jacob says, “to think long term.” The life span of a city is measured in centuries, and New York, which is approaching its fifth, probably doesn’t have another five to go, at least in any presently recognizable form. Instead, Jacob has said, the city will become a “gradual Atlantis.”

3D Printed Dragon Lamp

We’re using the Circuit Playground Express to light it up and with its on-board NeoPixel LEDs you can make it look like a real flame!

You can change the colors or program your own animations using CircuitPython. In this guide, we'll get started with tips on how to print without supports and example code for the Circuit Playground Express!

Alex Glow’s Solar Bowler #WearableWednesday

Alex Glow’s projects are always 😻. From Alex Glow on Hackster.io:

It makes sense, right? A hat sits on top of your head all day. It’s easy to take off and leave in a bright spot. And it has a convenient shady spot underneath so your electronics don’t overheat!

Electric-Assisted Cargo Bike

Could these cute little electric quadricycles be the next big e-cargo bike solution?, Via electrek

Light electric vehicles are increasingly falling into favor for use in cargo and delivery applications. Now a new company from the UK has unveiled their own solution: electric quadricycles.

The new company, Electric Assisted Vehicles Limited (EAV), made the announcement today at the eBike Summit currently underway in Oxford.

EAV’s new vehicles are known as the Project 1 eCargo bicycle, or the “P1” for short.

The P1 is an electric quadricycle designed for carrying cargo. The designation “quadricycle” is an EU vehicle classification that includes microcars and other small four-wheeled vehicles.

The operator of a P1 rides and steers it like a conventional bicycle. The electric pedal assist helps multiply the rider’s pedal input to provide more propulsion power. There is also a thumb throttle that can power the P1 up to 10 km/h (6 mph) without any pedaling input. That mode is likely helpful in warehouses or narrow alleyways where the operator is more focused on maneuvering the vehicle than covering greater distances.

Learn more!