[Noisebridge-discuss] FW: Arduino Help Please

[Mitch Altman]

I received an email call for help (copied below) for Arduino people to volunteer to teach some high school kids with their project in Menlo Park.  



If you can help, please contact Elise directly

elise.scher01 at gmail.com



Here is what Elise sent me, describing the help they need:





Have Arduino skills? You can help VTS’ Looma II volunteers to help the world!


Here’s our story: college and high school summer interns in Menlo Park, California are creating Looma II with coaching from professionals. Everyone is a volunteer. We have about 20 days to finish. We need a volunteer with Arduino programming logic skills. Do you know Arduino? Have a few days for an adventure? If so, please join us.


A hand-held wand with a button (i.e. an aerial mouse) controls Looma with a steady infrared LED. An IR camera inside Looma tracks that ‘red’ dot, so that the cursor follows the wand motion. By modulating the IR signal a button-press signals a ‘click’.


This camera (Pixy, aka CMUcam5) detects objects based on their hue. It is pre-
programmed to output data on the objects it has detected. Programming in the Arduino environment, our goal has been to translate the movements of the wand into smooth mouse movements.


Problem 1: This lies in the implementation of the "click" in the wand. Our current attempts confuse the oscillation of the wand with the general, choppy movement of the IR dot, so it either clicks too often or not often enough. 


Problem 2: We need help uploading this code onto the custom Arduino-based board inside the wand.


Problem 3: The Pixy has some settings (white balance, brightness) which must be set manually. We want to set this through the Arduino (so the user doesn't have to do it).


We will be so thankful if someone with programming experience in the Arduino environment can volunteer some time to help us develop the logic and code needed to overcome these problems and contribute to the success of the Looma project.







________________________________
> Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 01:57:12 -0700 
> Subject: Arduino Help Please 
> From: elise.scher01 at gmail.com 
> To: maltman23 at hotmail.com 
> 
> 
> Hi Mitch, 
> I volunteer with a nonprofit called Village Tech Solutions. They 
> could use some Arduino help. Please read the attachment. Do you know 
> anybody who could help them? 
> 
> Thanks, 
> Elise L. Scher 
> Special Ed Teacher