Long sought-after, and previously thought impossible — a McMaster University PhD student in Hamilton Canada demonstrates a cost-effective and simple laser in silicon.

This could have dramatic consequences for the SiP (Silicon Photonics) — a hot topic for those working in the field of integrated optics. Integrated optics is a critical technology involved in advanced telecommunications networks, and showing increasing importance in quantum research and devices, such as QKD (Quantum Key Distribution) and in various entanglement type experiments (involved in Quantum Compute).
“This is the holy grail of photonics,” says Jonathan Bradley, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Physics (and the student’s co-supervisor) in an announcement from McMaster University. “Fabricating a laser on silicon has been a longstanding challenge.” Bradley notes that Miarabbas Kiani’s achievement is remarkable not only for demonstrating a working laser on a silicon chip, but also for doing so in a simple, cost-effective way that’s compatible with existing global manufacturing facilities. This compatibility is essential, as it allows for volume manufacturing at low cost. “If it costs too much, you can’t mass produce it,” says Bradley.

Source: Breakthrough By McMaster PhD Student Creates Laser In Silicon – Slashdot

Apple, having long stood in the way of customers who want to fix their own devices, now says it wants to help those who feel they have the right to repair their own products.

On Wednesday the iBiz announced Self Service Repair, “which will allow customers who are comfortable with completing their own repairs access to Apple genuine parts and tools.”

This may be something of a mixed blessing as Apple hardware is notoriously difficult to mend, due to the fact that special tools are often required, parts may be glued together, and components like Apple’s TouchID sensor and T2 security chip can complicate getting devices to work again once reassembled.

Kyle Wiens, CEO of DIY repair community iFixit, told The Register in an email that Apple’s reputation for making difficult to repair products is deserved, particularly for things like AirPods, Apple Pencil, and their keyboards which iFixit has rated 0 out of 10 for repairability.

“Some products that get a 1 are fixable, but it’s really really hard,” said Wiens. “And some like the new MacBook Pro get a 4. Not great but certainly fixable.”

The recently released iPhone 13 received a repairability rating of 5 out of 10. As it happens, Apple last week promised an iOS update to facilitate iPhone 13 screen repair without breaking FaceID.

Initially, Apple will provide more than 200 parts and tools for those determined to conduct common iPhone repairs, such as replacing the display screen, battery, and camera. The program will focus first on iPhone 12 and 13 devices, and will expand later to include M1-based Macs.

Starting early next year, DIY-inclined customers in the US will be able to order Apple-approved parts and tools from the Apple Self Service Repair Online Store – at Apple prices – instead of scouring eBay, Alibaba, and various grey market tool and parts sources. The program is expected to expand internationally at a later date.

A victory for the right to repair

Apple’s about-face follows years of lobbying, advocacy, and regulatory pressure by those who support the right to repair purchased products. Previously, the company said such fiddling represented a security risk. In 2017, the iGiant argued that a right to repair bill under consideration in Nebraska would make the state a Mecca for hackers if it passed.

“This is the clear result of tireless advocacy from the repair community and policy proposals on three continents,” said Wiens. “Right to repair investigations at the FTC and the Australian Productivity Commission are ongoing.

“Consumers deserve the right to repair their own products. Repair manuals should not be secret. We’ve been saying this for a long time, and it’s great to see that Apple finally agrees. We still need to pass legislation and guarantee a level playing field for the entire industry. Apple’s announcement shows that it’s possible to do the right thing. Hopefully Samsung will be next.”

Source: Apple launches Self Service Repair for DIY iPhone, Mac fixes • The Register

Throughout history, people have devised ways to send information across long distances. For centuries we relied on smoke signals, semaphores, and similar physical devices. Electricity changed everything. First the telegraph and then radio transformed communications. Now researchers at the University of Lancaster have demonstrated another way to send wireless data without using electromagnetic radiation. They’ve harnessed fast neutrons from californium-252 and modulated them with information with 100% success.

The setup was interesting. The radioactive material was encased in a cubic meter steel tank filled with water. A pneumatic system can move the material to one edge of the tank which allows fast neutrons to escape. A scintillating detector can pick up the increased neutron activity. It seems like it is akin to using what hams call CW and college professors call OOK (on off keying). You can do that with just about anything you can detect. A flashlight, knocking on wood, or — we suppose — neutrons.

We wondered what the practical application of this might be. The paper suggests that the technique could send data through metal containment structures like those of a nuclear reactor or, perhaps, a spacecraft where you don’t want anything unnecessarily breaching the containment. After all, neutrons cut through things that would stop a conventional radio wave cold.

It seems like you only have to prove you can detect something to make this work — it really doesn’t matter what it is you are detecting. It seems like it would be much harder to do more advanced types of modulation using neutrons. Maybe this is why we don’t hear aliens. They are all Morse code operators with neutron-based telegraphs.

Source: Forget Radio! Transmitting With Neutrons | Hackaday

Controlling your computer with a wave of the hand seems like something from science fiction, and for good reason. From Minority Report to Iron Man, we’ve seen plenty of famous actors controlling their high-tech computer systems by wildly gesticulating in the air. Meanwhile, we’re all stuck using keyboards and mice like a bunch of chumps.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. As [Norbert Zare] demonstrates in his latest project, you can actually achieve some fairly impressive gesture control on your computer using a $10 USD PAJ7620U2 sensor. Well not just the sensor, of course. You need some way to convert the output from the I2C-enabled sensor into something your computer will understand, which is where the microcontroller comes in.

Looking through the provided source code, you can see just how easy it is to talk to the PAJ7620U2. With nothing more exotic than a switch case statement, [Norbert] is able to pick up on the gesture flags coming from the sensor. From there, it’s just a matter of using the Arduino Keyboard library to fire off the appropriate keycodes. If you’re looking to recreate this we’d go with a microcontroller that supports native USB, but technically this could be done on pretty much any Arduino. In fact, in this case he’s actually using the ATtiny85-based Digispark.

This actually isn’t the first time we’ve seen somebody use a similar sensor to pull off low-cost gesture control, but so far, none of these projects have really taken off. It seems like it works well enough in the video after the break, but looks can be deceiving. Have any Hackaday readers actually tried to use one of these modules for their day-to-day futuristic computing?

 

Source: Low-Cost Computer Gesture Control With An I2C Sensor | Hackaday

Ultraleap’s fifth-generation hand tracking platform, known as Gemini, is fully available on Windows. The most robust, flexible hand tracking ever, it’s already powering amazing experiences from Varjo, been integrated into Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 platform, and is bringing touchless technology to self-service solutions around the world. 

The Gemini Windows release is the first step in making the world’s best hand tracking easier to access and more flexible for multiple platforms, camera systems and third-party hardware.

Ultraleap have rebuilt their tracking engine from the ground up to be able to improve hand tracking across various aspects including:

1. Improved two-handed interaction
2. Faster initialization and hand detection
3. Improved robustness to challenging environmental conditions
4. Better adaptation to hand anatomy

Ultraleap have also made significant changes to the tracking platform to able to extend hand-tracking to different platforms and hardware. Varjo’s XR-3 and VR-3 headsets and Qualcomm’s XR2 chipset are two variations already announced, with more in the pipeline.

[…]

Hand tracking will be to XR what touchscreens were to mobile

The Windows release is the first time full Gemini has been made available to all and the first full hand tracking release from the company in three years. Since a preview of the release went out earlier in the year, Ultraleap have been further refining the software ahead of full launch.

[…]

Source: Ultraleap launches its 5th Gen hand tracking platform – Gemini | Ultraleap

The OAK-D is an open-source, full-color depth sensing camera with embedded AI capabilities, and there is now a crowdfunding campaign for a newer, lighter version called the OAK-D Lite. The new model does everything the previous one could do, combining machine vision with stereo depth sensing and an ability to run highly complex image processing tasks all on-board, freeing the host from any of the overhead involved.

The OAK-D Lite camera is actually several elements together in one package: a full-color 4K camera, two greyscale cameras for stereo depth sensing, and onboard AI machine vision processing with Intel’s Movidius Myriad X processor. Tying it all together is an open-source software platform called DepthAI that wraps the camera’s functions and capabilities together into a unified whole.

The goal is to give embedded systems access to human-like visual perception in real-time, which at its core means detecting things, and identifying where they are in physical space. It does this with a combination of traditional machine vision functions (like edge detection and perspective correction), depth sensing, and the ability to plug in pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) models for complex tasks like object classification, pose estimation, or hand tracking in real-time.

So how is it used? Practically speaking, the OAK-D Lite is a USB device intended to be plugged into a host (running any OS), and the team has put a lot of work into making it as easy as possible. With the help of a downloadable application, the hardware can be up and running with examples in about half a minute. Integrating the device into other projects or products can be done in Python with the help of the DepthAI SDK, which provides functionality with minimal coding and configuration (and for more advanced users, there is also a full API for low-level access). Since the vision processing is all done on-board, even a Raspberry Pi Zero can be used effectively as a host.

There’s one more thing that improves the ease-of-use situation, and that’s the fact that support for the OAK-D Lite (as well as the previous OAK-D) has been added to a software suite called the Cortic Edge Platform (CEP). CEP is a block-based visual coding system that runs on a Raspberry Pi, and is aimed at anyone who wants to rapidly prototype with AI tools in a primarily visual interface, providing yet another way to glue a project together.

Earlier this year we saw the OAK-D used in a system to visually identify weeds and estimate biomass in agriculture, and it’s exciting to see a new model being released. If you’re interested, the OAK-D Lite is available at a considerable discount during the Kickstarter campaign.

Source: OAK-D Depth Sensing AI Camera Gets Smaller And Lighter | Hackaday

With the addition of features like a 120Hz display on some models, Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup is many ways a step above the phones the company shipped last year. But when it comes to the question of repairability, the story is more complicated. Conducting a teardown of the device, iFixit found it couldn’t get the iPhone 13’s Face ID feature to work if replaced the phone’s display. No matter what workaround it tried, iFixit could not get Face ID to work again. By its estimation, the display on the iPhone 13 lineup is serial-locked to the device. “Right now, if you replace your screen, Apple kills your Face ID, unless they control the repair,” the company warns.

While obviously not a good look for Apple, there may be a simple explanation for what’s happening. iFixit says it spoke to a licensed repair technician who said they were told by Apple support that the issue is a bug the company plans to fix in a future iOS release. We’ve reached out to Apple for more information. If it turns that limitation is not a mistake, it would be a brazen move on Apple’s part given that the FTC, at the behest of President Joe Biden, recently voted unanimously to tackle unlawful repair restrictions.

Source: Face ID on the iPhone 13 stops working if a third-party replaces the phone’s display | Engadget

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging and tracking is an emerging technology that allows the shape or position of objects around corners or behind diffusers to be recovered from transient, time-of-flight measurements. However, existing NLOS approaches require the imaging system to scan a large area on a visible surface, where the indirect light paths of hidden objects are sampled. In many applications, such as robotic vision or autonomous driving, optical access to a large scanning area may not be available, which severely limits the practicality of existing NLOS techniques. Here, we propose a new approach, dubbed keyhole imaging, that captures a sequence of transient measurements along a single optical path, for example, through a keyhole. Assuming that the hidden object of interest moves during the acquisition time, we effectively capture a series of time-resolved projections of the object’s shape from unknown viewpoints. We derive inverse methods based on expectation-maximization to recover the object’s shape and location using these measurements. Then, with the help of long exposure times and retroreflective tape, we demonstrate successful experimental results with a prototype keyhole imaging system.

FILES

• • Technical Paper and Supplement (link)

CITATION

C. Metzler, D. Lindell, G. Wetzstein, Keyhole Imaging: Non-Line-of-Sight Imaging and Tracking of Moving Objects Along a Single Optical Path, IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging, 2021.

Overview of results

Keyhole imaging. A time-resolved detector and pulsed laser illuminate and image a point visible through a keyhole (left). As a hidden person moves, the detector captures a series of time-resolved measurements of the indirectly scattered light (center). From these measurements, we reconstruct both hidden object shape (e.g., for a hidden mannequin) and the time-resolved trajectory (right).

Experimental setup. Our optical system sends a laser pulse through the keyhole of a closed door. On the other side of the door, the hidden object moves along a translation stage. When third-bounce photons return, they are recorded and time-stamped by a SPAD. Top-right inset: A beam splitter (BS) is used to place the laser and SPAD in a confocal configuration.

Experimental results. First row: Images of the hidden objects. Second row: Reconstructions of the hidden objects using GD when their trajectories are known. Third row: EM reconstructions of the hidden objects when their trajectories are unknown. Fourth row: EM estimates of the trajectories of the hidden objects, each of which follows a different trajectory, where the dot color indicates position over time.

Computational imaging of moving 3D objects through the keyhole of a closed door.

Source: Computational Imaging Keyhole Imaging | IEEE TCI 2021

In a joint project with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the school designed a neuroprosthetic that costs about $500 in components. It’s an inflatable hand made from an elastomer called EcoFlex and looks a bit like Baymax from Big Hero 6.

The device foregoes electric motors in favor of a pneumatic system that inflates and bends its balloon-like digits. The hand can assume various grasps that allow an amputee to subsequently do things like pet a cat, pour a carton of milk or even pick up a cupcake. The device translates how its wearer wants to use it through a software program that “decodes” the EMG signals the brain sends to an injured limb.

The prosthetic weighs about half a pound and can even restore some sense of feeling for its user. It does this with a series of pressure sensors. When the wearer touches or squeezes an object, they send an electric signal to a specific position on their amputated arm. Another advantage of the arm is it doesn’t take long to learn how to use it. After about 15 minutes, two volunteers found they could write with a pen and stack checkers.

“This is not a product yet, but the performance is already similar or superior to existing neuroprosthetics, which we’re excited about,” said Professor Xuanhe Zhao, one of the engineers who worked on the project. “There’s huge potential to make this soft prosthetic very low cost, for low-income families who have suffered from amputation.”

[…]

Source: MIT developed a low-cost prosthetic hand that can help amputees feel again | Engadget

Until recently, there was only one smartphone on the market equipped with an under-screen camera: last year’s ZTE Axon 20 5G. Other players such as Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi had also been testing this futuristic tech, but given the subpar image quality back then, it’s no wonder that phone makers largely stuck with punch-hole cameras for selfies.

Despite much criticism of its first under-screen camera, ZTE worked what it claims to be an improved version into its new Axon 30 5G, which launched in China last week. Coincidentally, today Oppo unveiled its third-gen under-screen camera which, based on a sample shot it provided, appears to be surprisingly promising — no noticeable haziness nor glare. But that was just one photo, of course, so I’ll obviously reserve my final judgement until I get to play with one. Even so, the AI tricks and display circuitry that made this possible are intriguing.

Oppo

In a nutshell, nothing has changed in terms of how the under-screen camera sees through the screen. Its performance is limited by how much light can travel through the gaps between each OLED pixel. Therefore, AI compensation is still a must. For its latest under-screen camera, Oppo says it trained its own AI engine “using tens of thousands of photos” in order to achieve more accurate corrections on diffraction, white balance and HDR. Hence the surprisingly natural-looking sample shot.

Oppo

Another noteworthy improvement here lies within the display panel’s consistency. The earlier designs chose to lower the pixel density in the area above the camera, in order to let sufficient light into the sensor. This resulted in a noticeable patch above the camera, which would have been a major turn-off when you watched videos or read fine text on that screen.

But now, Oppo — or the display panel maker, which could be Samsung — figured out a way to boost light transmittance by slightly shrinking each pixel’s geometry above the camera. In order words, we get to keep the same 400-ppi pixel density as the rest of the screen, thus creating a more consistent look.

Oppo added that this is further enhanced by a transparent wiring material, as well as a one-to-one pixel-circuit-to-pixel architecture (instead of two-to-one like before) in the screen area above the camera. The latter promises more precise image control and greater sharpness, with the bonus being a 50-percent longer panel lifespan due to better burn-in prevention.

Oppo didn’t say when or if consumers will get to use its next-gen under-screen camera, but given the timing, I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be the same solution on the ZTE Axon 30 5G. In any case, it would be nice if the industry eventually agreed to dump punch-hole cameras in favor of invisible ones.

Source: Oppo’s latest under-screen camera may finally be capable of good photos | Engadget

iFixit co-founder and CEO Kyle Wiens has exposed how companies including Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft manipulate the design of their products and the supply chain to prevent consumers and third-party repairers from accessing necessary tools and parts to repair products such as smartphones and laptops.

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Speaking during the Productivity Commission’s virtual right to repair public hearing on Monday, Weins took the opportunity to draw on specific examples of how some of the largest tech companies are obstructing consumers from a right to repair.

“We’ve seen manufacturers restrict our ability to buy parts. There’s a German battery manufacturer named Varta that sells batteries to a wide variety of companies. Samsung happens to use these batteries in their Galaxy earbuds … but when we go to Varta and say can we buy that part as a repair part, they’ll say ‘No, our contract with Samsung will not allow us to sell that’. We’re seeing that increasingly,” he said.

“Apple is notorious for doing this with the chips in their computers. There’s a particular charging chip on the MacBook Pro … there is a standard version of the part and then there’s the Apple version of the part that sits very slightly tweaked, but it’s tweaked enough that it’s only required to work in this computer, and that company again is under contractual requirement with Apple.”

He continued, highlighting that a California-based recycler was contracted by Apple to recycle spare parts that were still in new condition.

“California Apple stops providing service after seven years, so this was at seven years and Apple have warehouses full of spare parts, and rather than selling that out in the marketplace — so someone like me who eagerly would’ve bought them — they were paying the recycler to destroy them,” Wiens said.

Weins also pointed to an example involving a Microsoft Surface laptop.

“[iFixit] rated it on our repairability score, we normally rate products from one to 10; the Surface laptop got a zero. It had a glued-in battery … we had to actually cut our way into the product and destroyed it in the process of trying to get inside,” he said.

[…]

The other major point that was covered during the Productivity Commission’s public hearing was whether there is plausibility to introduce a labelling scheme, much like one that exists in France, in Australia.

[…]

Based on his observation, Weins said the adoption of the French index has been “pretty universal” across all five categories. He also pointed out that a recent Samsung survey showed 86% of French citizens say that the index impacts their purchasing behaviour while 80% said they would give up their favourite brand for a more repairable product.

“This is really substantially driving consumer behaviour,” he said.

For consumer group Choice, the possibility of introducing a labelling scheme to improve right to repair in Australia could work.

“We know from experience, particularly with the water and energy labelling scheme, that if you want manufacturers to improve the quality of products, start by rating and ranking them,” Choice campaign and communications director Erin Turner said during the hearing.

[…]

Source: iFixit CEO names and shames tech giants for right to repair obstruction | ZDNet

There’s a limit to what you can learn about cells from 2D pictures, but creating 3D images is a time-intensive process. Now, scientists from UT Southwestern have developed a new “simple and cost-effective” device capable of capturing multi-angle photos that can be retrofitted onto existing lab microscopes. The team say their solution — which involves inserting a unit of two rotating mirrors in front of a microscope’s camera — is 100 times faster than converting images from 2D to 3D.

Currently, this process involves collecting hundreds of photos of a specimen that can be uploaded as an image stack into a graphics software program, which then performs computations in order to provide multiple viewing perspectives. Even with a powerful computer, those two steps can be time-consuming. But, using their optical device, the team found they could bypass that method altogether.

What’s more, they claim their approach is even faster as it requires only one camera exposure instead of the hundreds of camera frames used for entire 3D image stacks. They discovered the technique while de-skewing the images captured by two common light-sheet microscopes. While experimenting with their optical method, they realized that when they used an incorrect amount of de-skew the projected image seemed to rotate.

“This was the aha! moment,” said Reto Fiolka, assistant professor at the Lyda Hill Department of Bioinformatics at UT Southwestern. “We realized that this could be bigger than just an optical de-skewing method; that the system could work for other kinds of microscopes as well.”

Using their modified microscope, the team imaged calcium ions carrying signals between nerve cells in a culture dish and looked at the circulatory system of a zebrafish embryo. They also rapidly imaged cancer cells in motion and a beating zebrafish heart. They also applied the optical unit to additional microscopes, including light-sheet and spinning disk confocal microscopy.

Source: Researchers retrofit microscopes to take 3D images of cells in real-time | Engadget

A British right to repair law comes into force today, requiring manufacturers to make spares available to both consumers and third-party repair companies.

However, despite claiming to cover “televisions and other electronic displays,”‘ the law somehow excludes smartphones and laptops…

 

The European Union introduced a right to repair law back in March, and the UK agreed prior to Brexit that it would introduce its own version.

BBC News reports.

From Thursday, manufacturers will have to make spares available to consumers, with the aim of extending the lifespan of products by up to 10 years, it said […]

The right to repair rules are designed to tackle “built-in obsolescence” where manufacturers deliberately build appliances to break down after a certain period to encourage consumers to buy new ones.

Manufacturers will now be legally obliged to make spare parts available to consumers so appliances can be fixed.

Which? notes that the UK law ensures spares are available for either 7 or 10 years after the discontinuation of a product, but that it only covers four specific consumer product categories (plus some commercial/industrial ones).

Spare parts will have to be available within two years of an appliance going on sale, and up until either seven or 10 years after the product has been discontinued, depending on the part. Some parts will only be available to professional repairers, while others will be available to everyone, so you can fix it yourself.

For now, the right to repair laws only cover:

• Dishwashers
• Washing machines and washer-dryers
• Refrigeration appliances
• Televisions and other electronic displays

They also cover non-consumer electronics, such as light sources, electric motors, refrigerators with a direct sales function (eg fridges in supermarkets, vending machines for cold drinks), power transformers and welding equipment.

However, while you would expect “other electronic displays” to include iPhones, iPads, and most Macs, Which? states that these product categories are excluded.

Cookers, hobs, tumble dryers, microwaves or tech such as laptops or smartphones aren’t covered.

A cynical person might suspect some behind-the-scenes lobbying by Apple and other phone and computer brands…

Source: British right to repair law excludes smartphones and computers – 9to5Mac

As you dive deeper into the world of electronics, a good oscilloscope quickly is an indispensable tool. However, for many use cases where you’re debugging low voltage, low speed circuits, that expensive oscilloscope is using only a fraction of its capabilities. As a minimalist alternative for these use cases [fhdm-dev] created Scoppy, a combination of firmware for the Raspberry Pi Pico and an Android app to create a functional oscilloscope.

As you would expect, the specifications are rather limited, capturing a maximum of 100 kpts at a speed of 500 kS/s shared between the two channels. Without some additional front end circuitry to protect the Pico, the input voltage is limited to 0-3.3 V. Neither the app nor the firmware is open source, and getting access to the second channel and removing ads requires a ~$3 in-app purchase. Even so, we can still think of plenty of practical uses for a ~$7 oscilloscope. If you do decide to add some front-end circuitry to change to voltage range, you can set them in the app, and switch between them by pulling certain GPIO pins high or low. The app has most of the basic oscilloscope features covered, continuous and single shot capture, adjustable trigger settings and a scalable waveform display.

Simple, cheap oscilloscopes like these have their place, but you start to understand why the “real” ones are so expensive when you see what goes into developing a high performance oscilloscope.

Source: Raspberry Pi Pico Oscilloscope | Hackaday

[…]

The new technique uses a computer to convert attempted handwriting movements from brain activity into on-screen text. As part of their tests, the team worked with a 65-year-old participant (named T5 in the study) who was paralyzed from the neck down due to a spinal cord injury sustained in 2007.

The researchers started by placing two brain chip implants into T5’s motor cortex — the part of the brain that controls movement. They told the participant to imagine he was writing normally with a pen on a piece of ruled paper. The brain chips then sent his neural signal through wires to a computer where an AI algorithm essentially transcribed his “mindwriting” by decoding hand and finger motion.

The end result saw T5 reach a writing speed of about 18 words per minute with 94.1 percent accuracy. Comparatively, an able-bodied adult of a similar age can type about 23 words per minute on a smartphone

[…]

Source: Brain implant lets people with paralysis write using their minds | Engadget

Combined with today’s massive flat panel displays, a nice surround sound system can provide an extremely immersive environment for watching movies or gaming. But a stumbling block many run into is speaker placement. The front speakers generally just go on either side of the TV, but finding a spot for the rear speakers that’s both visually and acoustically pleasing can be tricky.

Which is why [Peter Waldraff] decided to take a rather unconventional approach and hide his rear surround sound speakers in a pair of functioning table lamps. This not only looks better than leaving the speakers out, but raises them up off the floor and into a better listening position. The whole thing looks very sleek thanks to some clever wiring, to the point that you’d never suspect they were anything other than ordinary lamps.

The trick here is the wooden box located at the apex of the three copper pipes that make up the body of the lamp. [Peter] mounted rows of LEDs to the sides of the box that can be controlled with a switch on the bottom, which provides light in the absence of a traditional light bulb. The unmodified speaker goes inside the box, and connects to the audio wires that were run up one of the pipes.

In the base, the speaker and power wires are bundled together so it appears to be one cable. Since running the power and audio wires together like this could potentially have resulted in an audible hum, [Peter] only ran 12 VDC up through the lamp to the LEDs and used an external “wall wart” transformer. For convenience, he also put a USB charging port in the center of the base.

When speakers or surround sound systems pass our way, it’s usually because some hacker has either made  a set from scratch, or has added some new and improved capabilities to their existing gear. This project may be a bit low-tech compared to some that have graced these pages, but it’s undoubtedly a clever and unexpected solution to the problem, and that’s a hack in our book.

 

Source: Lamps Double As Secret Surround Sound Speakers | Hackaday

Stock, the Casio W800-H wristwatch ships with dual time modes, multiple alarms, and a stopwatch – useful features for some. However, more is possible if you just know where to look. [Ian] decided to dive under the hood and enable a countdown timer feature hidden from the factory.

The hack involves popping open the case of the watch and exposing the back of the main PCB. There, a series of jumpers control various features. [Ian]’s theory is that this allows Casio to save on manufacturing costs by sharing one basic PCB between a variety of watches and enabling features via the jumper selection. With a little solder wick, a jumper pad can be disconnected, enabling the hidden countdown feature. Other features, such as the multiple alarms, can be disabled in the same way with other jumpers, suggesting lower-feature models use this same board too.

It’s a useful trick that means [Ian] now always has a countdown timer on his wrist when he needs it. Excuses for over-boiling the eggs will now be much harder to come by, but we’re sure he can deal. Of course, watch hacks don’t have to be electronic – as this custom transparent case for an Apple Watch demonstrates. Video after the break.

 

Source: Modding A Casio W800-H With A Countdown Timer | Hackaday

With Galaxy Upcycling at Home, users can easily turn their old Galaxy devices² into smart home devices like a childcare monitor, a pet care solution and other tools that meet individual lifestyle needs.

Make Any Home a Smart Home

The Galaxy Upcycling at Home program provides enhanced sound and light-control features, by repurposing built-in sensors. Users can transform their old devices through SmartThings Labs, a feature within the SmartThings app.

[…]

For a device to continuously detect sound and light, it needs to be actively operating for long periods of time. For this reason, Samsung equipped the Galaxy Upcycling at Home upgrade with battery optimization solutions to minimize battery usage. Devices will also be able to connect effortlessly to SmartThings, allowing them to interact with countless other IoT devices in the SmartThings ecosystem.

[…]

Source: Samsung Electronics Expands its Galaxy Upcycling Program to Enable Consumers to Repurpose Galaxy Smartphones into Smart Home Devices – Samsung US Newsroom

So it can do sound and light detection stuff for you or be used as a controller for your other IoT equipment