Do you like kid's toys, but don't want to put up with the hassle of operating them yourself? Do you feel like autonomous weapons systems are way too far in the future? Then this project is just the thing for you: This foam dart shooter aims at people's heads all by itself and opens fire as soon as the opportunity arises!
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A camera that's mounted to the front of the gun sends a video feed to a computer running an OpenCV face detection algorithm. If it finds a face, it sends that information to an Arduino, where it should point the Nerf, which it does with two servo motors - one for up-down and another for left-right movement. As soon as the gun is aimed properly, a relais pulls the trigger and fires away!
What does a programmer do with a task that takes more than 30 minutes to complete? They spend the next hour automating the solution!
So here's what i did when i was faced with the burden of having to walk all the way to my light switch to operate it: I bolted a servo to the wall, hooked a microcomputer up to it and developed an Android application.
All so I can turn my light on and off from my phone.
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The app communicates with a Tornado-Server running on a Raspberry Pi, which in turn moves the Servo in the proper direction. The app provides a so-called 'quick setting', which can be placed in the top dropdown bar for easier access.
The name's the game: The most useless of all inventions has only one lever to turn it on. As soon as it's turned on, the device turns itself off again. With its rather good-looking appearance, it makes for an interesting, yet totally useless decorative piece.
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Inside the box you can find an Arduino, a 5V battery, a relais and a servo. Flipping the lever to 'On' sends a current to the relais, turning on the Arduino. The Arduino keeps the Relais open with another lead for as long as the servo arm needs to turn the lever off and return. As soon as the arm is back in its box, the Arduino closes the relais, cutting off its own power supply. Because of this, this box uses no electricity at all when it's not powered on!