Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Frozen: Elsa Coronation Cape Stencils

The short story is that my niece needed a cape that matched Elsa coronation dress from frozen. Everything was going great till she pointed out that the cape has magical symbols on it.  So I spent 2hrs and digitally traced and outlined the symbols. From what her mom says, it makes it easier to iron on these shapes. Leave me a post or donate if you find this useful.
Donate Bitcoins

If you need high resolution files or need the MS Publisher File to make even more adjustments, leave a post and will get back to you.

Oh if you are making this dress... I highly suggest you check out Esty.com sites below. I found that came close to what I needed, but mom needed more details.
Etsy: Elsa Dress Stencil
Etsy: Elsa Dress Pattern






Wednesday, March 7, 2012

MultiTouch LightBox

LightBox

This proof of concept of the multi touch system not using IR technology and using the human eye viable spectrum 400nm-700mn. shadows from light(s) within the box will be capture on the 'glass surface' via the web cam. The Surface will need to use a diffuser with the correct oipacness to allow object (like fingers) to be recognized. This information will be process by a computer to do cool things.

Phase 1:  Research Gather Supplies needed


 Items needed    cost  comments
 2 usb webcams   $10 found on woot
 2 Glass/plexi       $8 got from hardware store
 2 Boxes              free have them
 Diffuser              free bought from hobbie lobbie
 Projector             N/A don't need
 IR gear             N/A don't need


Phase 2  Design/Build


Phase 3  Test Hardware/Software Setup
web cams are installed and have been calibrated (aligned and focused)
Software Calibration done (tbeta)

Phase 4  Develop Software
Successfully ran Photo Demo software
  
Phase 5  Review Improvements for next version
Pros
  • Cheap to make
  • Simple to make
  • Would be easy to do large scale
Cons
  • exterior shadows cause slight problems with touch recognition
  • exterior lights need be off (lights cause shadows)
  • not very reliable as far as accuracy or consistent results
  • No good way to read QR codes
  • No good way to No or very little difference between hovering and touching surface
Improvement to current design
  • Exterior lights, learned that over head lights need to be off for this to work better
  • might be hard integrate display into the surface (using interior light as backlight, but visable light might make it hard to tell what are figers and what is the display)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Multi Touch ShadowBox

you don't know how good you kids have it...


Before the iPhone and touch screens, My friend and I saw this add for MS Surface. We loved the idea but didn't have $12,500 to buy one. However the NUI Group, was a open source project that showed how to make a multi-touch table. The 'Shadow Box' was first attempt at making a multi-touch interface.




Stage 1: ShadowBox
This proof of concept of the multi-touch system not using IR technology and using the human eye viable spectrum 400nm-700mn. Building two so Dan and Bob can play with them.


Phase 1  Research Gather Supplies needed

Items neededcostcomments
2 usb web cams~$10being shipped
2 Glass/plexi~$8will buy
Box free cardboardhave
Diffuser        free paperhave
Projectordon't need
IR geardone need




Phase 2  Design/Build
Diagram 1: Shadow box design



Phase 3  Test Hardware/Software Setup
web cams is installed and have been calibrated (aligned and focused)
Software Calibration done (tbeta)

Phase 4  Develop Software
Successfully ran Photo Demo software
 
Phase 5  Review Improvements for next version
Pros
  • Cheap to make
  • Simple to make
  • Would be easy to do large scale (maybe use sun as exterior light)

Cons
  • exterior shadows cause slight problems with touch recognition
  • exterior lights need for use (lights need to be positioned optimally)
  • not very reliable as far as accuracy or consistent results
  • No good way to read QR codes
  • No good way to integrate display into the surface (using visible light)
  • No or very little difference between hovering and touching surface


Improvement to current design

  • Exterior lights
    • learned that over head lights are better then light coming at sideways angle
  • printer paper worked well, but paper was fibrous. This caused little dark spots for the web cam
    • would like to use material that has consistent density (less fibrous)

Thursday, February 23, 2012


My EDC is kinda basic.
  • Swiss Arm Knife
  • StreamLight MicroStream
  • FirstAid Kit 
    • Duct tape, Gloves
    • Sterile Pads, BandAids
    • Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Benadryl, Mucinex 
  • Keys
  • YubiKey
  • Bottle opener
  • Pen
  • Wallet
  • Hair Pin / Paper Clips
  • Mini Lighter
  • iPhone