Poor man's smart mirror

By covering a computer display with a mirror foil or a two way mirror you can make a smart mirror - a mirror where you can both look at yourself and get an update from the attached computer. This is typically used to give updates on weather, news, calendar and so on. I have wanted to have one for some time, but the obvious location in the main bathroom has a mirror that is glued to the wall.

Since I am not about to remodel the bathroom or move to a new one, I thought I should look into other ways of achieving a similar effect, while leaving the mirror unharmed. My solution was to combine a unused 4:3 Dell display and a Raspberry Pi single-board computer, and place this so that I could see the computer display's mirror image when I stood in front of the regular mirror.


The application I tried was Michael Teeuw's Magic Mirror. It turned out that my myopia meant that I needed big letters to be able to read easily via the mirror, so some playing around with the configuration was needed. And of course I needed to force the computer to render a mirrored image on the display. The Raspberry Pi can do that, although not as easily as one could hope!

The result is shown in the image on the right. Due partly to WAF the installation did not become permanent. But I am intrigued by the prospect of adding some software for facial recognition and make the display switch dynamically between the mirrored and the normal display, depending on which way the viewer is looking. But since the Rapberry Pi needs a reboot to switch display configuration, I will need computer that implements the RandR protocol to do this.

Actually, there are a number of features that can be designed around such a platform, and an important angle is so called welfare technology - technology that is aimed at helping for example elderly stay at home instead of being taken into care. When I get older I expect that such solutions can help me take my medication, monitor my physical fitness, remind me about appointments and so on.   
  

House of MOS Technology

Around Easter I started the process of changing the color of my house. We renovated and extended the house around the turn of the millenium. It used to be covered with Eternit, but we replaced that with wood paneling in red and details in yellow. But making sure the house looked OK when the coloring was an oil based wood stain proved challenging. As a consequence we decided to change to paint instead.

Well, the wife suggested that we use the same colors as we used on a new garage we built in 2012, but I was skeptic because I thought the result would be too dark. But when I noticed the NCS codes for the colors I changed my mind!
In the picture I have indicated how the new colors 6502 and 8502 are used. You can also see the original colors (after wire brushing and washing). I had to remove the rain gutter to get the scaffolding in place. That is why the edge of the roof does not look right.

So why did the codes of the colors mean so much to me? Well, when I was a kid in the seventies the microprocessor revolution was happening. I never had a Apple II but its processor, the 6502, was one of the technological wonders of that time, and I read everything I could find about such things. And the 8502 was based on the 6502 with special functionality for the Commodore 128.

Both of these processors were made by MOS Technology, and I fear that having these colors on my house will be as close as I will ever get to this technology.

Call me a nerd, but it is my House of MOS Technology.

I'm on sugru.com

I while back I made a cable to connect a JTAG test system to a proprietary DSP board. The cable has a Molex type connector in one end and a RJ45 in the other (not Ethernet), but the Molex side looked vulnerable with bare cables soldered to pins.

So I took some Sugru I had lying around and covered it up. I posted the result on their site, and today I discovered that my contribution is featured on the front page. If you look at the picture you can see my design in the lower left hand corner, see Make a 14-pin, 2 row connector.

Sugur is really a fantastic material, and I look forward to finding more uses for it.

Do you know how to reuse computers?

Do you know how to reuse computers?

This video presents how the FAIR equips schools with computer labs built from recycled computers. Linux is the platform that makes this economically viable, and the result is a spread of IT knowledge among people that would otherwise miss out on this cornerstone of modern society. Unfortunately, you need to know Spanish or Norwegian to understand the audio or subtitles, respectively.

But you get the idea, don't you? Even though you have the latest in computer technology for yourself, the equipment you phase out can still be of use to others. In Scandinavia, large amounts of computers are being discarded each year. They are thrown away because they are not fast enough, or do not have enough disk space etc. We replace them for new computers that are faster, more modern, and have up to date features and functions - rarely because the old computer is broken! In developing countries, institutions such as schools, universities and hospitals, have a great need for IT in order to join the global information community, and enjoy its many benefits. Information technologies are an important prerequisite for the development and sustainability of democracy, education and health-care.

FAIR is working to bridge the digital divide between countries that are technically more developed and those that are technically disadvantaged. Schools in recipient countries are provided with integrated and effective computer solutions for use in IT classes - based on open source software and reused hardware, which otherwise would have been discarded and destroyed during recycling. You can help FAIR in its efforts by donating your own equipment, convincing your employer to become partner, or by becoming a personal member. The choice is yours, but the responsibility is with us all!

And by the way, I am biased as I am a member of FAIR's board.

Easy living

It has been a wonderful week. A week back a friend and I celebrated that we both had turned 50.

We had a big party in my garden with friends, live music, good weather, food and drink and everything else we could wish for. As you can see by the picture I was all smiles!

And it didn't stop there.

On Thursday I had my last day at my job in TraceTracker. I handed in my resignation some time back since I got an offer for a new challenge in a major engineering company. But first I cashed in a gift certificate for spa treatment on Friday to "wash off" my old job. And yesterday, out of the blue, I learnt that a musical wizard from earlier times, Ken Hensley, was performing at Eidsvoll Rock & Blues Klubb not far away. So I got to get my head cleaned out with old Uriah Heep music as well. Big success!

I start in my new job tomorrow, and I look forward to coming back to low level programming in the hardware/software interface.

GoOpen 2012 in Oslo

The market for free and open source software in Norway is being assisted by the government via the Friprogsenteret. As part of its outreach they arrange the annual Go Open conference. This year's iteration was held in downtown Oslo 23. April 2012.

My association with FAIR allowed me to staff a stand where conference participants could be informed about our projects to bring computer technology to schools in developing countries. This effort is important to let those populations take part in the fast development of ICT technology. But cost is a critical issue, and FAIR keeps cost down by refurbishing equipment that otherwise would be recycled destructively into school sets. This way selected schools can take work to close the gap between rich and poor countries, building a better future. In addition, FAIR has a take-back scheme whereby used electronics is taken back to Norway for recycling. This way neither FAIR or its partners can be accused of dumping electronic waste.

Google selects Arduino for Android Open Accessory

Stop press! Google's initiative for using the Android platform for controlling your environment, Android Open Accessory, has selected Arduino as its platform.

Think of the possibilities - the Arduino is so simple to play with that we can expect "everybody" to play with this. I even have one myself.

With this I can play with simple instrumentation projects and easily interface the real world with applications written in Processing. And now I can also start controlling Arduinos and whatever is connected from my Android devices. Hurray!

But will I find the time? Back in the early eighties I did instrumentation projects with Z80 and similar processors. It was such fun! If my employer practiced the Google concept for employees time to own projects, then I definitely know what I would be doing!

See you later, calculator

The abacus and the slide rule have both been replaced by new technology. When I went to school electronic calculators with scientific notation were becomming available. These days, in Norway, kids are at some point expected to have graphing calculator, but isn't this an anachronism?


With desktop and laptop computers have we have access to tools like Matlab, Mathematica, Macsyma and Gnu Octave. And schools are beginning to use tablet computers. Isn't the natural consequence that calculators go away, and that tablet computers take over the role of both the standard computer and the calculator. Maybe the concept of the Dynabook is eventually becomming a reality?

Currently, the rules in the Norwegian educational system rules out tablets, but there is time for a change, don't you think?

Paper tape programming tool

We all know how programming is done these days. But it has not always been so. I was first exposed to programming (BASIC) on a Tandberg desktop computer in 1979 (I think), but even then the screen and keyboard combination was a fact.


Was there anything before that? Well certainly - there were paper tape and punched cards. I have never used such technology myself, but I have the device in the picture in my posession. It consists of some pieces of aluminium that have been machined to work as a primitive programming/repair tool for paper tape. The actual holes were made with a broken off screwdriver in the lower right.
This device was a write-only tool on its own. But I guess anyone using it would also have a suitable reader as well.