Artificial intelligence, Nature, Photography, Research, Science

Fly colony relies on artificial intelligence software run on a Raspberry Pi

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David Bowen, who is an Associate Professor of Sculpture and Physical Computing at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, has created a project called FlyAI. In this artificial intelligence experiment, Bowen has established a fly colony inside a transparent globe and is using a piece of learning software called TensorFlow. The Raspberry Pi captures images of the fly environment and then processes it through image recognition libraries and TensorFlow to determine if a fly was present in the photograph. If the fly is determined as being present, a pump delivers water and nutrients to the colony. If the fly is not definitely there, no nutrients are delivered. The system will run indefinitely, just to see what happens. You can read more about the system on Bowen’s blog or watch a video below.

Android, Blinkies, GPIO boards, Sensors

Pimoroni announces new HAT for the Raspberry Pi that uses a new Android OS!

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Pimoroni have just announced a new HAT for the Raspberry Pi, and a new operating system to go along with it. The HAT is called the RainbowHAT (full specs in a moment) and the operating system is Android Things (TM, and that’s the last time I’m typing that…)

Android Things is a new image available for the Raspberry Pi that will enable you to use the Android SDK to develop apps on the Pi. Now, I haven’t read the simply acres of documentation, but I think it works a bit like Windows IoT – i.e. it’s a non-GUI operating system that you push code to and then it runs and feeds the information back by way of an API. I think. If someone wants to expand, comment or correct, go right ahead! 😉

The RainbowHAT itself has a lovely load of features:

  • Seven APA102 multicolour LEDs
  • Four 14-segment alphanumeric displays (green LEDs)
  • HT16K33 display driver chip
  • Three capacitive touch buttons
  • Atmel QT1070 capacitive touch driver chip
  • Blue, green and red LEDs
  • BMP280 temperature and pressure sensor
  • Piezo buzzer
  • Breakout pins for servo, I2C, SPI, and UART (all 3v3)

Pimoroni have come up with several suggestions for what it could be used for but probably the number one thing people will use it for is as a simple weather station.

Fortunately, Pimoroni have been very sensible and also developed a Python library for the board – allowing those using Raspbian to fully explore the capabilities of the board.

You can buy the HAT on it’s own, or as part of a kit, from the Pimoroni store, download the Android Things OS from here and explore more about this new platform here.

Aside: Tell you what: it’s a bloody lovely board as always from Pim!

Accessories, Crowdfunding, GPIO boards

Zero-sized Solar Energy Management Module for the Raspberry Pi

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Here’s a bit of a novelty on the crowdfunding front. The PiSolMan is a Zero-form-factor add-on board which will take in a power source and also a solar panel to provide constant power to the Pi. It has circuitry on-board to monitor the various levels. Here are the full specs:

  • 16 V to 28 V solar panel input
  • Solar panel maximum power point fixed at 17.8 V
  • Compatible with 11.1 V (3 cells) Lithium-Ion/Polymer and 12 V Lead-Acid batteries
  • Battery charging current up to 1 A
  • 5 V output for powering the Raspberry Pi with up to 1.8 A
  • I2C Serial Interface (Configuration & Power Information)
  • Pushbutton for general purpose use
  • User programmable RGB LED for charging status Information
  • Automatic power down when low battery level detected in order to protect the battery

This Italian-run campaign has 34 days to go. You can take a look at the campaign video below and visit the campaign here.

Blinkies, Geeky Techiness, Music, Nature

South African group relies on Raspberry Pi to deliver their album… from a cliff-face

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South African group Bateleur decided that simply purchasing their latest album from iTunes was too easy. So, they took a Raspberry Pi, uploaded their album to it and set it to transfer the files to a USB stick when a “secret whistle” was heard. They embedded the Pi inside a semi-transparent fake rock shield and placed the package, that they’ve called “The Nest“ … wait for it… part-way down Table Mountain in Cape Town! If you forget your USB stick, you can also plug directly into the Pi and listen via the exposed headphone jack. You can see a video of how they did it below. Unfortunately, someone has since vandalised The Nest and it no longer functions. Apparently that seemed appropriate to somebody! 🙁

Blinkies, Operating systems, Programming

Synchronised Raspberry Pi-driven Christmas light show brings some pizzazz to a radio station

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Alec Connolly, who attends the University of Toledo majoring in electrical engineering, has recently been interning at a company called iHeartMedia. He was tasked by one of the directors with creating a Christmas light show that would sync with their radio station, WRVF(FM), “101.5 The River”. So he took a Raspberry Pi 2 (well, actually, from the images here it looks like he used an original model Pi, but I could be mistaken), some relays and some strings of multi-coloured LEDs and set to work. He used a piece of software called LightShow Pi to do the audio-to-light pattern conversions. They now have two different displays at two offices. You can read more here and see a demo of it in action below:

Audio, GPIO boards, Music, Reviews, Uncategorized

Comparison of sound card DACs for the Raspberry Pi from RasPi.TV

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Photo credit: Alex Eames, RasPi.TV

Alex Eames from RasPi.TV has tested out some sound cards from IQaudIO, JustBoom, and HiFiBerry. What’s great about his review is that he’s not only tested out what they sound like but also what kind of user experiences you get when faced with the task of adding the boards onto your Pi. Read more and see the overview video over at RasPi.TV. I’ll be doing my own comparison of several boards in the near future!