In this exciting recipe you learned the basics of the important technique of tinkering with a ready-made electronic unit. You moved the interaction from a standard computer-based application into the physical world. We hope you enjoyed making this recipe!
From this point on InstantSOUP will use a programmable microcontroller to build more complex objects and behaviors.
The Wiring electronic prototyping board contains exactly this kind of microcontroller. To dive into the world of InstantSOUP you will need a Wiring board.
More information about Wiring
With the simple keyboard tinker you can build a huge variety of projects at a very low cost. Here are some projects that used it to create physical games, exhibition pieces and more.
Projects for inspiration
Guitar Gently Weeps / Pedaliera USB
A USB footswitch controller for guitar on-the-fly looping.
This was Francesco Fraioli’s Dream, with a simple keyboard hack from Instantsoup workshop Francesco build this simple yet amazing tool.
The 2nd part of the video shows Francesco playing live, a strange mixture of Pink Floyd, and Robert Frip.
WoopeFi
WoopeFi strands for Wooden Penguin (Wi-Fi Enabled).
A high-quality Streaming Mp3 player based on Linux-Debian, embedded inside a classic radio. WoopeFi is an Italian project, and due to that should be pronounced Woo- Pi - Fai. (Anyway that’s how we say it).
project page
Fightsuit - (Version 1)
Fightsuit is a physical computer game.
The player wears a suit with embedded sensors (tilt sensors). When the player moves his arm, punching the air, the tilt sensor senses the punch and sends a signal (key press) to the computer. The Flash application on the computer reacts to this movement. For example, the left arm tilt sensor sends the key “A” to the Flash, which makes a punch sound and moves a virtual enemy accordingly.
FightSuit website
Strangely Familiar - many examples from an InstantSOUP workshop
Creative Collision - Artistic “wall-targeting”
Painting digital pictures by throwing rubber pebbles against an inflatable equipped with suitable sensors. The shape and size of the pictures depend on the intensity and the way in which you throw the pebble. The same operation can be repeated several times, using different colours, enabling you to create your own graphic.
Project by: Giovanni Cannata (Italy) and Anurag Sehgal (India)