Omniversity of Manchester

Omniversity always aims to keep up with what is new and relevant and offers a beginners and an advanced course on Arduino in March.

‘Physical Computing’ and Arduino devices have made physical interaction affordable and available to non-experts. Whether creating interactive installations, information systems, prototyping products, or making new interfaces, there is a whole world of DIY electronics, interaction design and rapid prototyping available through this platform.

On the Beginners Guide to Arduino and Physical Computing you will get you grips with the basics. Starting off by making an LED blink (then two or three…) you’ll finish the day with a mini theramin.

If this is all kids play for you, we have an advanced course run by the forerunner of Internet of Things, Adrian McEwan.  Building the Internet of Things – Arduino and Ethernet (IOT)03 will allow you to connect objects to the world wide web. Some nice examples exploring the Internet of Things include the Twitter Drum made by MadLab’s very own Paul Plowman , a clock that checks your loved ones:

Here is a really sweet project made by ULAB:

Sweet Tweet from Uniform on Vimeo.

If that got you interested then check here for more information and booking.

Adrain McEwan, our good friend and leader of our Internet of Things course, recently gave a talk at the Insight11 digital communication event in The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce.

You can see his ‘Getting Beyond the Screen‘ talk here.
Read the rest of this entry →

Paul Plowman recently received a bursary to attend the Omniversity “Internet Of Things – Advanced Arduino” one-day course at Madlab, Manchester’s geek hub. Here is his account of the day…

I’ve been interested in the Internet Of Things – the connectivity between the online and physical worlds – ever since the heady days of the Cambridge coffee pot. Now, fifteen years on, we’re used to the idea of the internet being a vast repository of information and data, but this is still largely a case of retrieving information stored on distant hard-drives. The broadcasting of live data directly from real-world inputs has, in most people’s experience, largely been confined to webcams and weather-stations. And as for devices which import network-sourced data and manifest it physically, apart from specialised projects these have tended to be limited to the realms of novelty, such as toasters which burn different images into your bread, depending on the weather forecast.

Read the rest of this entry →