an ordinary calculator can become a counter for the physical world
it already has a display, arithmetic logic, and a running total
add an infrared sensor, and changes in reflected light can become counting pulses
the trick is the "=" key: on compatible calculators, repeated presses keep adding 1. let the sensor trigger those presses, and the calculator does the counting
the same principle can count passing objects, shaft rotations, or winding turns
that’s a useful starting point for sensor projects:
1 decide what physical change matters
2 turn it into a clear event
3make the device respond
my ESP32 sensor guide below covers choosing sensors, filtering noisy readings, and building that loop yourself ↓
THE NEW GUY ON THE FACTORY FLOOR HAS METAL HANDS.
A humanoid robot stands at a press, handling parts while people work right beside it. Stacked trays, worn worktables, machines running. An ordinary workshop with one very unusual coworker.
What catches your eye is how little attention the people give it. They carry on with their tasks while the robot works at its station.
A few seconds of factory footage, and suddenly a robot colleague feels a lot less futuristic.
Would you feel comfortable working beside one?
Your next great insight could be in a video, podcast, or audio file. 🎥🎧
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This bee is flying around with a fruit fly's brain in its head, and it has no idea.
We started with a normal honeybee, with fuzzy stripes, six legs and wings.
Then we zoomed in through its compound eye, all 5,500 facets of it.
We went through the glass chip sitting on top of its head.
Inside the chip, the brain isn't a bee brain.
It's a fruit fly brain.
There are 139,255 neurons in it, and every single one was mapped from a fly.
There are 54.5 million synapses, all wired exactly the way a fly's are.
There are 8,453 cell types, and none of them belong to a bee.
The optic lobe is trying to see through bee eyes.
The antennal lobe still smells like a fly.
The mushroom body is learning how to fly a body that's 100 times heavier.
Meanwhile its own 1,000,000 bee neurons are sitting there, completely switched off.
The brain still thinks it's a fly.
The body is very clearly a bee.
It's flying anyway.
So who is actually flying this bee.