Implant Stimulation? Extended hacks?
I'm sure most of you guys have read about the bottlenose project, and possibly read the paper. I see the rough design of the coil they use to stimulate the magnet in the picture, but was wondering if anyone has any specific experience with extending that or using a similar setup.
Also, has anyone tried anything like setting up an open cube of magnetometers to get a 3D coordinate of your finger in space, such that you could use it as a PC control surface or something of the sort?
Generally, what kind of hacks have you guys attempted with your magnets?
Also, has anyone tried anything like setting up an open cube of magnetometers to get a 3D coordinate of your finger in space, such that you could use it as a PC control surface or something of the sort?
Generally, what kind of hacks have you guys attempted with your magnets?
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As far as the coil goes, what are you looking to do? The easiest way I've found to get started with that is to buy one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/271288743429
Your magnetometer idea is particularly interesting to me. I've got a bunch of old Android phones (with magnetometers!) sitting around gathering dust, and I've been thinking for a while of making a cube or something out of them for input purposes. I could totally do the software, but I'm really, really unsure on where to start as far as the math goes.
If we got it working, though, I'm imagining that being able to interact with 3D environments could be very exciting.
~Drew
^Hall effect sensor designed to interpret XYZ coordinates of magnets.
I've been thinking about getting some kind of hall effect sensor for a while now, but I'm really not sure what strength my magnets are vs what strength these can pick up...
I'm going to set it up with my arduino and see what the resolution, jitter, etc. is. I'll of course keep a thread going on here. If I determine that range and signal strength is practical, I'll go talk to my EM physics professor about what the most sensible setup for 3D sensing would be (open cube of multiple sensors ($$$), three sensors at right angles, etc).
To get started from nothing, though, an arduino, breadboard, few jumpers can be gotten along with servos, resistors, etc in a kit for about $100 (Take a look here). Programming knowledge is a big plus, but not vital, for learning an Arduino - you'll definitely have an easier time handling more complex tasks like converting serial data from the arduino to a usable HID device on the computer, as well as a bit of math for triangulation. So, from square one, an Arduino kit + magnetometer would be about $100.
As I get working prototypes and develop things, I'll keep everything open source and chuck up code, pinouts, etc. as I go along so it should be decently simple for someone with comparatively basic coding knowledge to plug'n'play with an Arduino and a parts list. The only real variable between grinders that might be implementing things is magnetic field power which could affect how practical certain sensors are, so I'll do my best to do some math to figure out my field strength and include that with code. I'm a few weeks away from finals (schedule gets tight), though, and even one week away from my actual implant date, but I'll be setting things up prior to my implant and able to work with magnetometers prior to total healing, albeit with slightly less resolution (through bandages).
One of my other long term goals, as I mentioned, is to make a socket that I can put my fingertip into that has coils, a magnetometer, and a small amount of wiggle room for my most distal joint so I can move it slightly up and down in the socket, hopefully enough for the magnetometer to discriminate (dipole strength falls off as a function of 1/radius^3 so I'm not super concerned). Hopefully, I can use the coils for output and the magnetometer for output, turning off the sensor when the coil is pulsed, so I can have a coherent and self contained IO device - that's a way's down the road though.
$10 says my implant rejects and I have to wait like a month to try any of this - that would majorly suck.