Spectral Forms

tumblr_inline_nleqv0IQzN1r1ofietumblr_inline_nleshmU6T21r1ofieOver the past few months, we have been working with brain waves. What started at Artek Circle hackathon last year has grown to be Spectral Forms. We have taken consumer-grade EEG wearables, and tried to see what is the potential and limits of these devices are. Available online and for only $50, it has opened up a whole new area to play with. These small devices claim to accurately detect and interpret the tiny electrical impulses our brains output. These impulses can be broadly categorised into four bands, representing four different ‘levels’ of thought.

We have created software programmes that takes in the brain data, then displays it in a number of different patterns. We also play back an audio representation back to the wearer via a bone conduction unit. You can hear a sample below.

 

Lab in the Gallery

We are now taking the project to the public to try out. From the 24th till the 29 March we will be in the Science Gallery as the Lab in the Gallery . We are hopping that people will drop into us and listen to their own thoughts for a while. During our time there, we hope to work more on the 3D printing of brain wave data and testing the accuracy of the sensors.

 Skull Radio Workshop

We are running our Skull Radio Workshop during our time in the Science Gallery where you get to make your very own bone conduction kit. For more information on the workshop and tickets visit here.

Spectral Forms forms was created by Sinead McDonald, Jeffrey Roe and Krzysztof Foltman with lots of help from TOG members.

Global Urban Datafest – Smart Bins for Dublin!

Over the 7-8th March 2015, several members of Tog participated in and mentored at the Global Urban Datafest.

This was a globally synchronised hackathon with dozens of cities around the world hosting teams to solve urban problems with open-source hardware, software and data solutions.

Dublin saw many great teams participating — you can check out some of the projects here:

http://global.datafest.net/projects

The winning team was Bintel – retrofitting Dublin city’s street bins with sensors and wifi to help make our city smarter and safer.

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One of the members of the team was from Tog, and the others are now big hackerspace fans – they are using our space to build more prototypes for their products.

See the project page here for more info.

Overall it was a great weekend, and the kind of environment Tog thrives at.

We are looking forward to host and participate at many more events like this in 2015!

 

 

 

TOG Laser is alive

So finally after 7 months of running the laser, we are getting around to making a blog post.

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Our Lasersaur 13.04 is working well have been able to cut lots and lots of projects. Come and check it out we have some stuff you can take away with you. Also if you have any projects you would like to try out let us know in comments or join our mailing list.

 

Video:

Open Social with Satellite Ground Stations

This Saturday is our monthly Open Social. We are trying something new this month with having a talk on during the night too. We will have all the normal madness with project demo’s, beer tasting , pizza making and general chatting all round but with a short talk by Daniel Cussen.

Our doors will be open from 7pm with the talk starting at 9.30pm . The event is free and all our welcome.

Talk Title : Creating a Satellite Ground Station

Talk Description: This talk will be about the experiences of setting up a  Satellite Station to talk to the International Space Station. From more information you can view an article in Echo Ireland on the project.

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Epson Stylus Pro 9500 large form printer

Epson Printer

We, at tog, like to extend the usability of items for as long as possible. (Or at least that is our excuse for all the out-of-date tech laying about.) So back in May of last year when we were offered a very large format printer, it was hard to say no. (Stay with me sewists.)

Some members took it in, gave it some TLC, and we even found a roll of paper at ReCreate! But then we hit a problem. The last available drivers for it are Windows XP 32-bit. Which is not exactly commonplace anymore.

Then, a short while, and some internet searching, ago, we discovered that gutenprint-cups, the default printing facility on many linux distros actually supports this printer! It’s not hard to install; plug in the USB cable, open a browser, go to http://localhost:631/ and press the right buttons. Done.

Long story short; the printer lives again! And for you sewists out there; ever buy a digital pattern and have to spend hours taping together A4 sheets? Well, if you can also get a large form pattern, you won’t have to do that anymore! Just visit tog some Craft Night and we’ll sort you out!