Yes, that time of year is upon us. SXSW Interactive time. Which also means it’s time for the biggest Dorkbot of the season. Dorkbot 28 will be a split-bill event with Ignite Austin.

Join our Facebook Group and you could get free entry to the event!

In this Ignite we’ll ask 16 experts in their fields to look ahead 10 years and help us understand how our everyday lives will be affected by advances in technology and society. 16 presenters, 5 minutes and 20 slides each. They’ll enlighten you but pay attention – it goes fast!

Dorkbot will have over 25 of our Hacker Science Fair booths set up around the concert hall. Robots, hacked synths, microcontroller magic, sci-fi movies in miniature, Amish tech and more!

Brooklyn band Ghost Ghost will perform from 6-7pm and throughout the evening as our 31st Century House Band.

Ignite and Dorkbot t-shirts for sale at the event. Printing provided by Sanctuary on-site printing in their bitchin’ El Camino. Bring your own cotton or cotton/poly shirt to print on for a 50% discount off the shirt price!

The first 200 Dorkbot Facebook Group members to RSVP to our Facebook event will get on the guest list and get in free! That’s a $6.11 savings! Once those spots run out (which they do every year), you’ll still be able to attend the event without a SXSW badge. Click here for the Facebook registration (must be a Dorkbot Austin Facebook Group member to RSVP) or here for the Eventbrite registration if all the Facebook RSVPs are taken.

Ignite/Dorkbot @ SXSW
2021: Vision of the Future
Friday, March 11, 2011, 6-10pm
Austin Music Hall [google map]
208 Nueces Street, Austin TX 78701

Hey, you! Dorkbot Austin is looking for people to fill the following roles at SXSW this year. The event is at Austin Music Hall on 3.11.11 from 6-10pm.

• Booth presenters -  Show off your latest project to a gaggle of excited partygoers. 17 positions left to fill and time is running out!
• Ignite speakers – Only 16 of the best and brightest at SXSWi will present on the top of 2021: Vision of the Future. Apply to be a speaker at igniteaustin.org.
• Sponsors – Where would we be without you? Broke, laying in a gutter, drowning our sorrows in a 40 of Mickey’s, that’s where. Sponsorship levels for this year’s event are:
  • $500 – Dork
  • $1000 – Mega-Dork
  • $2500 – Uber-Dork
  • $5000 – Manager

I’ll be the first to say that if your company donates at the $2500 level or above, I will gladly volunteer my time from 7-9pm as the main target in the Dunk-A-Dork booth. Interested in any of that stuff? Contact dorkbotaustin@dorkbot.org for more information.

Dorkbot is teaming up with Ignite Austin for an opening event at SXSWi this year. We’ll be in Austin Music Hall instead of Brush Square Park.

The Event:
Ignite & Dorkbot SXSW – Vision of the Future 2021
Friday, March 11, 2011. 6-10pm.

We are looking for presenters to give Ignite-type talks (5 minutes, 20 slides) on the subject of “The Vision of the Future: 2021″. We’re also looking for folks who would like to set up a booth inside the hall and discuss their projects on a more personal level. Think MakerFaire but fast-paced, for only one evening and with booze. Details here: http://www.igniteaustin.org/

There will be other entertainment throughout the evening (TBA, but probably who you’re thinking it is).

Dorkbot Austin is a zero-profit organization, which means we are looking for sponsors to help pay for this year’s SXSWi event. If you know of a business who would like some name recognition by making a $500+ donation, have them contact Laura, Dustin or Katie for details. If you’re working on a shoestring budget and would like to offer some in-kind donations in exchange for a mention during the event, let’s talk.

We’ll provide more information about the event and the space as we have it. Join our Facebook group for updates.

Thanks to all who attended and presented at Dorkbot 27: Electric Boogaloo at the UT ACTLab last night. We had a great group of presenters.

Here’s the list of last night’s presenters. Craig Newswanger wins the award for ‘Fastest Providing of Follow-up Data After a Dorkbot Presentation’. He presented last night, then sent links this morning. How’s that for service?

1. Craig and Sally Newswanger – Homemade 3d video cameras with demo.
   • Craig’s Blog:
     http://www.resonancestudio.com/craigsblog
   • 3D photo encyclopedia:
     http://www.rmm3d.com/3d.encyclopedia/index.html
   • Dashwood Beginners Guide to shooting 3d video:
     http://www.dashwoodcinemasolutions.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-shooting-stereoscopic-3d/
   • Stereo Movie Maker:
     http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stvmkr/
   • Craig’s anaglyphic video test:
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UxQPMykqPo
2. Ben Urick and Brandt Westing from TACC VisLab (@TACC_Hedda) – Multi-touch IR surface display on a movable, swiveling board. “Blackboard 2.0″
   • http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/about/staff-directory/staff-page/brandt-westing/
   • http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/about/staff-directory/staff-page/ben-urick/
3. Jeff Keyzer (@mightyohm) – Wi-Fi Internet Radio Project
   • http://mightyohm.com/blog/2011/01/wifi-radio-dorkbot-27/
4. Arthur Kendrick (@arthurkendrick) – stop-motion, rotoscoped video presentation
   • http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/13/sweet-little-rotosco.html
5. Christian Miller (@levelset) – Arduino controlled LED belt
   • http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~ckm/

Photos from Dorkbot 27 courtesy of Jeff Keyzer (@mightyohm)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mightyohm/sets/72157625776482239/

We’re meeting on campus tonight from 7-10pm. It’s Studio 4b in the CMB Building on the corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe Street. Here’s the Google Map for it. http://bit.ly/hQreIj

Here’s a video to guide you, should you need it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLYPvYDleGw

It’s the ominous-looking, nearly-windowless black building on the southeast corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe, across the street from Madam Mam’s.

I’ll leave a trail of breadcrumbs out for you…

Come one, come all to Dorkbot 27: Electric Boogaloo!

January 24, 2011. 7-10pm. UT ACTLab (Studio 4B).

We’re meeting on UT campus at the ACTLab. The ACTLab is on the 4th floor of the CMB Building at the Southeast corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe Streets. The CMB Building is also accessible via the 1L or 1M bus lines.

We’re still looking for a few good presenters. If you have a project you’d like to present at this meeting, contact Dustin (your friendly neighborhood Dorkbot Overlord) at dorkbotaustin@dorkbot.org.

Our featured speakers for January are:

Craig Newswanger – Craig will be presenting his homemade stereoscopic video camera, crafted from two Kodak pocket video cameras. Anaglyphic glasses will be available for those who would like to watch his videos in 3D. You can find out more about the camera and some of Craig’s other projects at: http://www.resonancestudio.com/.

Brandt Westing and Benjamin Urick (Texas Advanced Computing Center) – “We are designing and building a touch sensitive tiled-display system to conduct research in information visualization and human-computer interaction. The system will consist of 6 1080P LCD TV’s, a 32 point multitouch infrared perimeter and a custom designed transformable frame.” For more information on this project and others from TACC, visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/resources/visualization/

RSVP for the Dorkbot Austin Facebook Event here.

And remember: Dorkbot is — as always — a free event.

LoLShield for Arduino

Introductory Arduino Workshop

Where: Studio 4E, CMB Building, UT Austin
When: 7:00PM Monday, December 6th
Facebook RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=145211748862334

Our instructor, Brandon Wiley (http://blanu.net/) will be walking us through Charlieplexing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlieplexing), a method of addressing multiple LEDs while conserving I/O pins on a microcontroller.  This will cover both hardware and software.  If you do not have time to acquire the parts, feel free to use the DorkbotATX mailing list and Facebook page to try and team up or borrow parts.  If all goes well, we certainly plan on having more of these events in the future, on a variety of Arduino-esque topics.

Here’s the parts list:

Required

1. Arduino

2. LoLShield

OR

LEDs and breadboard

OR

LED Christmas lights, wire cutters, wire strippers, and breadboard

3. Resistors, ideally 270 Ohm, although other ratings can be made to work (enough to match the number of LEDs you have)

Optional

1. Laptop with Arduino IDE installed and USB A-B cable – if you want to mess around with the source code on your own

There is no soldering required for this class. We will just be prototyping and learning the principles. The LolShield is the fastest way to get started. You just plug it into the Arduino, download the code, and you’re ready to go. If you are more interested in the software, get one of these. It’s also $25, so if you are on a budget or are more interested in the hardware side, just bring a bunch of LEDs. I’d recommend at least 8. A single string of LED Christmas lights should have all the LEDs you need, but you’ll need a couple of tools to get the prepare them for plugging into a breadboard.