NorthStarNerd.Org

Lego Mindstorms Meets HDR Photography!

Wow! Fantastic! Superb! I really can not think of enough adjectives to complement French photographer Tanguy Louvigny, who created a time lapse video of the Normandy and Brittany country-side using High Dynamic Range photography (HDR Wikipedia Link). His movie incorporated 30 frames per second, that’s 90 exposures for each second of screen time (HDR takes each shot in triplicate using different exposure settings ... learn more from my prior post on HDR).

Equally amazing is the Legos camera / tracking system Mr. Louvigny  built using Lego Mindstorms. Quoting Open Culture, which is the web site from which I first learned of this video: "To create the moving-camera effects, Louvigny designed and built his own robotic three-axis motion system using Tetrix motors and a LEGO Mindstorms control system, which he programmed in ROBOTC language. This allowed him to automate the tortoise-like dolly, pan and tilt movements."

Take some time to review the photographer's web site ... you'll find more equally fascinating creations. However, for the moment, relax, turn your computer's speakers on, and enjoy a trip through the French country-side from sunrise to sunset. Wow!

Hdr skies from Tanguy Louvigny on Vimeo.

 

It All Began With Legos!

Back on Arpil 2nd, 2007, I asked my son, Erik, if I could blog about his search for the perfect undergraduate engineering college. Given an answer of "yes", it led to an interesting series of posts, which now finishes with Erik's senior year at Rose-Hulman. You could actually say, it all began with Legos! Thus, you really have to go back nine years when our Lego Robotics Team "Super Nerds In Pink (SNIP)" was formed (I was the coach); the end result will be Erik's graduation this Spring with his electrical engineering degree. Everyone else on that team has also pursued a technical degree!

Along the journey, there were such memorable posts as:

• Initial Post: Search for the Perfect Engineering School
• College Consultants for your Kids
• Our Children's Sloppy Dress
• Hello from Milepost 214 .. or .. Two Nerds in Iowa (a fav of mine!)

At times, Erik would be my guest blogger. For instance he wrote:

• And the winner is ... Rose-Hulman

As a parent I am still pleased with Erik's choice. His engineering internships (GE and Oshkosh) provided good technical learning opportunities, and what can you say about a school which has been ranked #1 for engineering undergraduate programs for over a decade?! (Rose-Hulman: US News and World Report rankings for schools where the top degree awarded is a master's degree). Thus, if you are looking for a sharp young man (I'm biased), download Erik's resume. However, I warn you ... there is plenty of competition!

• Erik Hoeg: Resume

In closing, lest you think our home always had a serious, academic focus ... enjoy this video of one or Erik's earlier robots: Cyrus the Cat vs. the Lego Synchro Drive Robot (121,676 views to date)

MindDroid (Lego Mindstorms and Android)

It's Saturday morning, and in case you're wondering what to do with your Lego Mindstorms, look no farther than your Android smartphone! Why not ditch the old controller and use MindDroid?! Of course you could build some Angry Birds out of Legos!

  

If the ancient Greeks only had Legos!

This is so very cool. The ancient Greeks developed a mechanical computer which they used to predict celestial events. All knowledge of their computing device was lost for over 2,000 years. In the year 1901, a shipwreck is discovered along with the Antikythera Mechanism. Fast forward a bit over 100 years and some Apple Computer engineers replicate and build a copy of the device using Legos! Read the full story in the magazine Nature. (video link)

and a photo of the real McCoy

Lego Engineering and Robotics

Last week I posted about the Google Lego Engineering and the Lego Engineering initiative at Tufts University. Although not strictly Legos, Stanford has an undergraduate robotics course which is worth a look for your advanced First Lego League student. The course is offered via Stanford's Engineering Anywhere initiative. I also added the robotics course to my Lego Robotics Educational Search Engine.

Google Lego Engineering

I've been quiet with respect to Legos for much to long! However, as anyone who is involved with First Lego League knows, it's tournament time! It seems strange after all these years of coaching S.N.I.P (Super Nerds In Pink) to be a spectator on the sidelines ... however my boys are all off to engineering colleges around the USA. Thus, I decided it was time to do a few updates to my Google Custom Lego Educational Search Engine. After a few queries, I discovered that Google itself has finally caught the Lego bug. Here are the latest additions:

• Lego Engineering at Google
• NXT Unplugged (also Google content)

and finally a lecture that took place at Google

• Lego Engineering: From Kindergarten to College

The Lego Engineering lecture was given by the folks at Tufts University, who first defined this domain. To learn and see more with respect to Lego Education, link to my special section of my Engineering Learning Wiki, or just try the custom Google Lego Search Engine which I created last year.

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Project Polar Bear

For years I have tried to make education (science and engineering) a bit more fun via my work with Lego League. Well, these folks from Ely, Minnesota ... make the Northstar Nerd proud. Read, watch (video link) and learn about Project Polar Bear (Hundred mile journey by dogsled and ski to Hudson Bay and Churchill ... but linked to the classroom):

• Project Polar Bear
• Expedition Blog
  
• Boundary Waters Blogger

Project Polar Bear on PhotoPeach

Legos ... Young Engineers at Work!

I've been remiss in not posting upon one of my favorite subjects, Legos! After all ... it all began with Legos. As the former six year veteran coach of Super Nerds In Pink, I understand just how important Legos have been and will be to the future of America (and the world). My boys (not just my own children, but the team) have spread out to some of this country's top schools; most of them are majoring in engineering!

I can remember the days when my own children were between the ages of three and five. Dad and children would be down in the floor playing with Duplos. My son Carl and I built some great ferry boats. Karen introduced me to Legos and Barbie. Erik as he moved on in elementary school introduced me to Lego Mindstorms.

This relationship is now reviewed by a MIT professor, Sherry Turkle. She has written the book, "Falling for Science" (download a sample chapter). In the book she reviews what caused many of her former MIT students to becoame interested in science. While Legos are not the only reason her students got interested in science, it is a common theme. Take just a couple of minutes and listen to the National Public Radio Falling for Science Discussion. It's a fun discussion and makes you realize how important is the subject of intelligent play.

Just so you don't think that this topic is only being discussed on one side of the Atlantic Ocean. In February, the top engineering society in the United Kingdom had a similar discussion. Here is a link to my favorite article.

What got you interested in science? Post a comment and let the other readers know. There is no wrong answer to this question. In my own case, it involved my Legos, a Marble Machine Computer which calculated in Base 2, and Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

Lego Engineering

This post is an excellent way to ease into the new work year. If you want to keep current on the world of technology, subscribe via RSS to Google Tech Talks. However, for those of you with kids involved with First Lego League (or the big kid in you who still loves to program and create robots), link to this recent Google seminar:

• LEGO Engineering: From Kindergarten to College

Google TechTalks are already indexed in my engineering seminar search engine, and you may browse /search via the Engineering Learning Wiki.
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Holiday Engineering ... MATLAB Meets Legos

It's quiet at work. 85% of the other techies are still on vacation. I assume they're playing with some of the new games they gave their kids! As many of you know, I have coached for many years for Lego Robotics. Anyone familiar with Mindstorms understands the relationship between Legos and Labview, but did you know that you can use MATLAB to program your NXT bot? Here are some links to get you started (remember to let your kids also use the Lego Mindstorms kit):

• Lego Mindstorms NXT in Teaching (using MATLAB)
• The NXT Step Blog (how I learned of the MATLAB content)

In addition, you should use my Engineering Learning Wiki Lego Section (and it's accompanying search engine). It focuses upon the educational use of Lego robotics. I will add the MATLAB instructions to both the wiki and search engine. (click to view the image at full size) (read my other Lego posts)
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