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Making Minimal Mechanical Digital Clock

Making Minimal Mechanical Digital Clock New devices are so much fun to build or use. Lately been motivated by interesting designs from around the Internet and building time counting/displaying devices are an obsession, as they are more useful than just showing some irrelevant counter, been building quite a few clocks. ThingSurfing led me again to Thingiverse and I came across this  Minimal Mechanical Digital Clock Seems like the maker Shiura is also obsessed with making various "time machines" (clocks). But there is an interesting mechanical and digital interface to all these devices, which is unique and provides a new angle to time. It was 3D printed and mechanically well designed enough not to need any changes. Used the standard code provided. Though this code runs on a network connected microcontroller, was able to get this working on an Arduino with manual setting of time. The ESP was not able to drive the motor well. Maybe an issue with the power supply. Need to check th...
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Game for the blind




  1. Have been thinking about writing a game for the blind since a long time
  2. Got an opportunity when a couple of High School Kids came up with the requirement
  3. Many options were experimented on: Scratch, Unity, etc
  4. It was decided to Keep it Simple and modding an existing game
  5. What other better than to implement in python and use python games
  6. Used an example from here PyGame Pythonprogramming.net example 
  7. This is a car game where one has to avoid blocks in its path or falling on it
  8. To make it suitable for blind playing, visual representation of a block falling on the car or not and the speed of it falling were alerted to the user by means of different sounds; one tone for block not being in line with the car, one tone for slow rate of drop on the car and one tone for rapid rate of drop on the car. So hearing these sound clues, one can use the cursor keys to escape the falling blocks. This can be seen in the video.
  9. One can also play comfortably with their eyes closed.
  10. It can be improved further: sounds, interaction, etc. Later ?




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Comments

  1. GaneshAugust 8, 2022 at 5:04 PM

    Amazing!
    Never realised that effectively all games are made for people with vision. After all, it's hand "eye" co-ordination for a reason. So great idea for a game, designed for the blind.
    Some suggestions for future updates...
    You can take advantage of their hearing abilities better by increasing the volume and frequency of the sound, as the obstacles get closer, to give a better sense of speed and distance. You can also add some sound effects like whooshes, to give them a more immersive experience.

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    Replies
    1. AjAugust 8, 2022 at 9:30 PM

      Hi Ganesh,

      Thank you for the comment and feedback. It was written pretty much in a hurry so it is how it is. Also still have to see how the blind people will play/adapt to the experience.
      Anyways it's written in python so if you get a chance to test it or extend it, it'll be good.
      Thanks to Ady and Nitish also for the use-case and implementation.

      Thanks!

      Delete

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