Behold the uWave, a microwave oven that plays YouTube videos while it cooks. [Kevin] and three classmates at the University of Pennsylvania developed the project for the 2011 PennApps hackathon. It uses a tablet computer to replace the boring old spinning food display microwaves are known for. Now, an Arduino reads the cook time and sends that information to a server via its Ethernet shield. The server then searches YouTube for a video that approximately matches the cooking time, then pushed that video to the tablet to start playing. The video demonstration embedded after the break shows this, as well as the tweet that the machine sends at the beginning of the process.
Supposedly designed to help avoid a robot apocalypse, the Creative Robotics and Interactive Construction Kit from Adafruit - Crickit for short - is an add-on for their Circuit Playground Express (CPX), an easy-to-use board with support for CircuitPython, Arduino, or (coming soon) the Microsoft MakeCode programming tool.
Can a new subscription box open the world of cheap microcontrollers to eager amateurs?
There’s nothing quite like the experience of tinkering with gadgets. Taking them apart, repairing them, assembling them, or programming them to do something unique — it’s all fun and interesting.
But not everyone can experience the fun that comes along with tinkering: Many electronics — especially internal hardware — can be confusing and difficult to wrap your head around.
If only there was something that could make the entire process simpler: something universal and easy enough for a layman to use. And believe it or not, there is. It’s called the Arduino board, and it’s a programmable logic controller.
