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In years past, the science and art fields were generally considered to be diametrically opposed; if something was scientific it usually didn’t have artistic value, and if it was a work of art it probably didn’t do much for the scientific community. Recently, though, the line between art and science has been blurred and blended in some very unique and interesting ways.

A prime example of this is a color-sensing “Coltar” made by Youtube user PhilippLens. By mixing imagination with ingenuity, PhilippLens created the hybrid guitar using a LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick with a color sensor and two touch sensors (one on the Coltar itself, the other on the ‘pick’). Using the touch sensors to control chords and the color sensor to control which notes are being ‘strummed’ allows the Coltar to emit a surprisingly large range of notes.

YouTube Direct Link 

For more information on this cool project, check out Philipp’s Reddit post. You can also download the code here.

More 3rd party 3rd party drivers

Does a 3rd party 3rd party driver make it a 4th party? I’m not sure, you decide.  In any case, my good man Gus at HiTechnic has provided a very nice driver for the new HiTechnic Super Pro Board.  Thanks for that!

I also added a driver for the totally awesome Mindsensors Touch Panel sensor and their very versatile Sumo Eyes sensor.  Big thanks to Mindsensors for providing me with the sensors!  The Touch Panel driver still needs a bit of work; I need to add the ability to calibrate it and allow the gesture code.  I’ve made a start but I’m still trying to figure out exactly how they work.  I tried calibrating it once and that really messed it up.  A simple factory reset fixed it, of course, no permanent damage was done, just some mild panic on my side and me thinking I had killed my panel (I was not a happy camper, trust me!).  Deepak from Mindsensors had a quick fix which was actually in the docs, if I had bothered to read them a bit more carefully. Note to self: Read The Fine Manual!  Oh and don’t calibrate the panel, it’s really not necessary.  Trust me.

Changelog

* common.h: added better round() function
* DIMU-driver.h: fixed signed to unsigned conversion
* LEGOUS-driver.h: fixed boneheaded I2C address error
* Added MSSUMO-driver.h for Mindsensors SumoEyes sensor + test program
* Added MSTP-driver.h for Mindsensors TouchPanel sensor + test program
* Added HTSPB-driver.h: for HiTechnic Super Pro Board + tonnes of examples
* HTMAG-test1.c: cleared up some things in test program

Where can I download it?

You can get it at the usual place: [LINK].

[Original article]