Interactive Cubes Workshop

Software/Hardware Hacking at Noisebridge, where we dig deep into the Sifteo cubes http://sifteo.com

Sifteo cubes are the best hackable platform, here is a summary of what they have:

• an accelerometer
• a touch screen (128x128)
• 4 proximity sensors (to recognize other cubes touching their 4 sides)

They are wirelessly connected to a base with:

• an STM32 (cortex M3)
• a mono speaker
• a usb connection to log anything to a computer

The base can communicate with up to 12 cubes (maybe 24 if you ask nicely).

It can be programmed with a simple C++ SDK (a bit like arduino but much more powerful).

Examples of a few projects that could be done:

• magic light juggle: acceleration change the color/brightness and the cubes disappear in the air
• siftephone in: listen to a smartphone vibrations with Sifteo's accelerometer
• siftephone out: talk to a smartphone using sound with audio system such as chirp.io (a 1st proof of concept can be found here)
• music & light: implement a BPM counter to blink color screens on the music rythme by listening to the vibrations sensed by accelerometer
• midi controller: play music using the cubes as midi instruments with Ableton or Renoise (a 1st proof of concept can be found here)
• internet of things: control anything remotely using python to forward Sifteo logs to an email or a server such as heroku or parse.com
• simple hacks involving microcontrollers such as Arduino can be tried too but the project must be worth it ;p (it's a bit more complicated)

If interested, please don't just show up, your participation/preparation is important:

• ask Cédric at least 24h in advance to bring more cubes
• download the SDK: https://developers.sifteo.com/download
• start to play with the examples in the free simulator: https://developers.sifteo.com/docs/SifteoSDK/1.0.0

For more info talk to J.C. or Cédric.