community news
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FIFA World Cup 2026’s Trionda Ball Has a 500Hz Sensor Inside With the 2026 FIFA World Cup now under way across Canada, Mexico and the USA, adidas' official match ball, Trionda, is in use at all 104 matches of the tournament. Beyond the colour scheme tied to the three host nations, the ball's more interesting story for engineers is the sensor package built into it. Trionda uses the latest version of adidas' Connected Ball Technology, built around… |
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Built a Portable AR Sandbox Using an ESP32 and a ToF Sensor If you've ever visited a science museum, an exhibition, or stumbled across a viral video online, you've probably seen those interactive sandboxes where creating a mountain with your hand instantly turns it into a colorful topographical map. Independent creator UncleStem has now recreated that experience in a much more compact and affordable form. By combining a $20… |
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Thumb-Sized Smart Button Packs Years of Battery Life with Matter Connectivity A tiny smart button measuring just 32 millimeters in diameter is demonstrating how modern IoT hardware can deliver powerful functionality in a miniature package. At its core is the Nordic nRF54L15 chipset, a next-generation wireless microcontroller designed for ultra-low-power embedded applications. The board supports Bluetooth Low Energy and Matter over Thread,… |
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Google's Gemma 4 E2B Runs Locally on Robot Duck Google For Developers recently came up with a practical demonstration of their multimodal AI model, Gemma 4 E2B, running entirely on-device on two robotic ducks built by independent maker Antoine Pirrone. The demo is called “Gemma Playground: Robot Duck” as the goal of it is to exhibit the capabilities of Gemma with the help of the robot ducks as a demonstration… |
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The Future of Screens Might Be a Contact Lens What if the next generation of wearable technology doesn't sit in your pocket or on your face, but directly on your eye? Dubai-based startup XPANCEO has already developed over 28 working prototypes of smart contact lens and recently showcased five of them at the MWC 2026 event. These futuristic lenses integrate advanced micro-displays, holographic optics, highly sensitive biosensors, and built… |
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Open-Source MoCap Camera Rivals Hollywood Tech The YouTube creator Matt has developed an impressive open-source motion capture (MoCap) camera system that delivers professional-level 3D tracking at a much lower cost than existing commercial solutions. The project uses 16 custom-built infrared cameras that work together to capture and process more than four billion pixels every second. These cameras can track… |
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Inside a DIY EMF Generator Built from 12000 Turns of Wire and a Marx Generator A homemade EMF generator built around a Marx generator and custom transformer offers an interesting look at the science behind electromagnetic interference. A maker on YouTube known as Skill Make has showcased an experimental high-voltage electromagnetic pulse generator built using a combination of a custom transformer, a Marx generator, and a directional antenna coil. The project explores how… |
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Moody Mush: DIY Interactive Mushroom Robot That Follows Your Touch Moody Mush is an interactive, mushroom‑shaped robot built by SayaNIGHT. It has three modes of operation. In Mode 1, it functions as a desk lamp; the LEDs and cap (the head portion) are controlled with an IR remote. In Mode 2, the LED colors are adjustable with the same remote, but the robot also reacts to touch. Different movements and sounds occur depending on the type of touch (a short touch… |
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Repurposing a Wear OS Smartwatch as a Smart Gear Shift Display A DIY maker has repurposed an old smartwatch into a custom gear knob with an integrated display. Instead of letting the aging smartwatch collect dust, the project reuses its display, sensors, and processing hardware inside a 3D-printed gear shifter housing. The result is a unique modification that displays the vehicle's current gear position directly on the gear lever itself. What I… |
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Pala Note - a Pocket-Sized AI Voice Note Device Many of us have experienced the frustration of having a great idea and then forgetting it moments later. While smartphones can help capture those thoughts, they often come with a different problem: distractions. That's the challenge maker and developer Paul Lagier set out to solve with his latest project, the Pala Note, a compact AI-powered voice note device designed to work as a personal "… |
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PolyCast5 Combines Wi-Fi, LoRa, Bluetooth, IR, and ESP-NOW on an ESP32-C5 Platform If carrying a TV remote, a smart home controller, a password manager, a wireless keyboard, and a long-range IoT transmitter sounds excessive, the PolyCast5 aims to combine all of them into a single handheld device. Built around the ESP32-C5 microcontroller, the open-source gadget brings together five wireless technologies Infrared (IR), dual-band Wi-Fi, LoRa, Bluetooth 5.0/BLE, and ESP-… |
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Life-Sized Animatronic Goddard Robot Maker and YouTuber Kiara from Kiara's Workshop recently created an impressive, fully functional real-life version of Goddard, the iconic robot dog from the cartoon The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. The robot dog features moving parts, including corrugated tube-like legs that compress using four linear actuators mounted inside them, a cable-driven neck that can look up/down and turn… |
