Arduino

You know those paintings that show up in nearly every episode of Scooby Doo that follow the gang with suspiciously active eyes as they pass by? How would you like to create your own animatronic eyes and be basically the best neighbor on the block this October?

Today's installment features a mechanical Etch-A-Sketch, emoticons and a lot of sticky notes.

It's not unusual for an iPhone to be used to operate remote control gadgets like the AR Drone quadrocopter or to work with your computer, but this hack by Avadhut Deshmukh combines those with a laptop on wheels.

The Look of Disapproval (made using the unicode character for the letter "tha" in the Indian language of Kannada and an underscore) is possibly my favourite emoticon-come-meme going. It even rivals the popularity of the more violent Table Flip meme. If you also happen to like using the scathing glare around the web, how about bringing it to life with some LEDs?

As you all know by now, the Kinect is a pretty epic piece of kit. But did you know that you can use the Kinect to pause, rewind, or fast-forward any video you watch using your Xbox 360? It's true--but it's also awkward to do at best.

Gardening can be quite rewarding, but it can also take up a quite a bit of time. There is software out there that can make it easier to monitor your garden, but if your plot is larger than just a couple of plants, these can't always help. Fortunately, Invest Geek developed the Arduino Automated Nursery to help give your plants the best start in life.

If you're anything like me, everything around you can distract you from cooking--something I'm not particulalrly good at. While something is simmering, you may float away to do something on your computer, only to come back later and find you've ruined the food. If you have an Android phone or tablet though, Ben Heck's latest hack gives you an assistant to help save your meal.

Ever wanted to create ultra-cool graphics and patterns, but don't quite have the steady hand to keep them tidy enough? Step aside and let the Arduino-powered DoodleBOT do it for you!

Demand for embedded programming is growing like crazy, so anyone looking for some job security might consider becoming an ace embedded programmer. It helps to have some programming experience, but even raw beginners can get started inexpensively and learn on their own. One of the friendliest introductions to embedded coding is Arduino, which is a popular open embedded hardware and software platform with hundreds of howtos and projects to try out. Here are the basics of both electronics and Arduino coding in a fun project.

Arduino is a great microcontroller, but when you want the ability to easily scale your project or exchange components quickly, that's where BoardX really starts to shine.