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[Week 6] Clever uses for the Pi (part 2)

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Small computers, while not fully functional out-of-the-box and not as easy to setup as their closed, single purpose counterparts, allow for the realisation of some very interesting and different projects. I've already written about the Raspberry Pi, what it is and why it was created. This time I will show what it's capable of doing.

Gaming

Although this is a very small device, it does have hardware acceleration built-in. For a long time however, the drivers were closed source so performance wasn't too good. That is now changing. Quake 3 has been ported to the Pi successfully. Minecraft can run on the Pi also!. There can also be found heavier, hardware modifications of the computer. Ben Heck managed to squeeze a Pi into a small enclosure along with a monitor and a few buttons and make it into a portable gaming device. It can run retro games using an emulator and has appeared at various shows.


Portable Pi. Source: http://www.recantha.co.uk/blog/?p=4530

Second part of Ben's tutorial on how the console was created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DVyHE8MJLY.

Computing

An example consisting of 33 Pis, being used in a cluster to make simulations.


Whole cluster neatly organised. Source: http://www.zdnet.com/build-your-own-supercomputer-out-of-raspberry-pi-boards-7000015831/



The cluster in action.

The same was done by the University of Southampton. They have 64 Raspberries working together.



Media and storage, home and office automation

It's very easy to create a media center using the Pi. In fact, there are operating systems ready for download that have such capabilities. The device is small, almost completely silent and can be easily hidden behind a TV or computer screen.


Raspberry working as a media center.

The Pi doesn't come with a camera but installing one is simple. Pictures made by it won't be the highest quality but they're perfect for long, stable work. Here's an example of a Pi used as a surveillance camera: http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-as-low-cost-HD-surveillance-camera/?ALLSTEPS.

An all-in-one PC can be built with the Pi being attached at the back. It's so small it won't even be visible when using the computer. It might not be the most comfortable to use, the fastest or the best looking but it can be pretty portable and cheap: http://everyday-tech.com/raspberry-pi-all-in-one-pc-build/.

Other projects

A Raspberry was attached to a balloon and flew to an altitude of about 40km to take pictures of the Earth. It then fell down and was retrieved. More details: http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=592.


One of the pictures taken by the Pi. Source: http://www.daveakerman.com/?p=592

One of the prettiest starter kits that can definitely appeal to kids is Kano.


Kano video presentation.

BeetBox
A musical instrument consisting of a Raspberry Pi and... beets. It has a touch sensor and a speaker to produce sound when one of the beets is touched.


BeetBox in action.

Did you hear of any other interesting implementations of the Raspberry or any other small computer?

Comments

Maria said…
The first small computer I heard of was Arduino. I linked an article about differences between Raspberry Pi and Arduino under my last post. First time I saw Arduino it was in lego package at my friend’s place, it appeared to be his fascination. About a month ago he was making his diploma on Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts- it contained of two parts. In both of them he used Arduino. Unfortunately it’s too early to find it in the internet , but I’ll ask him to do it. I’ll write only about effects of his work with Arduino, because without seeing at least pictures of objects he created it doesn’t make sense to write about other elements or aspects of his diploma. In the first piece he created an animation and sounds which were connected with digits which occur in Pi number. Each digit which humanity could count in that number, my friend connected with created by him digital sound and simple picture. In whole it created a hypnotizing show consisting of visualization and sound. It lasted until all digits which we know in Pi number ended. The second piece of art he created with Arduino was connected with other elements but talking only about Arduino’s part – an author created a picture on which an audience could have a big influence by pushing some buttons. The picture could be seen by the audience and the final shape of it was the audience’s choice. If somebody is curious of more information I could ask Marek – just let me know.
9 April 2014 at 00:01
Dalvia said…
I never heard of other small computers (I believe you don't count netbooks and stuff... or even mobile phones, especially smartphones, which basiclly are small computers), that's why I'm excited about this one. If it means that my PC can be much smaller, great for me. But, as I said in other article, i have no time to program my work space right now, maybe in a future. This could be really fun! Alhought working without Adobe would be very difficult, but not impossible. i could write my own graphic program, if my level would be good, ha ha ha.
Anyway, waiting for an even smaller computer. I'm ciurous, where it'll all go from here on now
9 April 2014 at 11:31
Kamil Fijałkowski said…
Amazing people doing amazing things with Raspberry Pi. I google something about this microcomputer and I found implementation in Suzuki Swift to use DVDs, GPS, Bluetooth etc. Unbelievable, is it safe ? From your article, the best for me is media centre. Everyone, who has older TV without SMART technology, could build own media centre. You only need raspberry, hdmi cable and one of the free software.
12 April 2014 at 12:12
Patryk Długaszek said…
I’ve never heard about some of this kind of devices such as Raspberry. Although, if we insist, we could include for them this appliance like GameBoy or cellphones, especially todays smartphones which are capable to connect with the most of devices like computer, PlayStation etc. Of course there aren’t an devices designed for multitasking but in 90’s we can count them to small computer components. What about appliances which are installed together and almost everyone have in home is a home cinema system which included three components.
12 April 2014 at 16:28
Unknown said…
My friend use one to build a automatic gate in his house, second build a machine to dig a bitcoins. I build a wi-fi router. When i buy new one i'll make my own MediaCenter.
12 April 2014 at 17:00
Unknown said…
To be honest it doesn't make much sense for large computations due to it not being too efficient. It's just doing something for the sake of doing it, like building a wall from lego blocks ;-)

Now it certainly makes more sense as a media center.
13 April 2014 at 16:43
Kasia Kmieć said…
Reading more about Raspberry makes me feel like: why isn't this so popular by now? It can be useful in so many ways! I've never really heard about any other implementations of Raspberry but I was amazed by the photos it could take in the heights. And the beatbox was funny :)
13 April 2014 at 17:26
Anonymous said…
In GoldenLine we use Raspberry PI to turn on the alarm. It is attached to the special statistics monitoring service and when it stops siren starts howl.
By the way, I recommend the Geckoboard platform for all who are looking for good data visualization.
At PI we have installed their Linux with chrome. Everything is easy simple and fairly quick work.

The ideal tool for small, funny projects :)
13 April 2014 at 21:10
Tomek said…
I never heard of it being used in cars. Nice find! I think it was designed to be safe. After all, it's not a big deal if it breaks. It should be pretty reliable too and work fine for years. An interesting fact is that you can overclock the processor and not void the warranty supplied by the manufacturer.
13 April 2014 at 21:28
Tomek said…
A media center is a very popular implementation. Almost any TV will work with the Pi and it can be integrated unobtrusively. Wireless capability could be added and streaming from different devices.
Like you said, clusters are made mostly for demonstrations. They don't occupy too much space and are easier to decompose and analyse for the purpose of teaching.
13 April 2014 at 21:36
Darkia said…
Haha, It's was really funny experiments with plants. I really enjoy it. It's always question for me, how people get that kind of idea ;D
13 April 2014 at 22:21
Unknown said…
I heard about one interesting implementation of Arduino :D You can find it here: http://konwersatorium1-ms-pjwstk.blogspot.com/2014/01/week-14-high-speed-photography-water.html
Basically you can build everything with platform like Raspberry and Arduino. Of course there are some limitations but still building own devices based on open source code, platform in general is great adventure.
14 April 2014 at 07:51
Sergio Cosentino said…
The only thing that I could compare to RPI is Arduino, which I have used toghether with my group mates for a science project. Compared, I belive RPI to be a more sophisticated version of Arduino. Obviously there are more possibilities with RPI, which is more “out-of-the-box” offering more functionalities “as is”. Apart from these two however I don't know about any other small computers or similar devices. I'm sure that people do custom devices similar to these, customized for their own use, but Arduino and RPI are the only “commercial” ones I know about.
14 April 2014 at 08:19
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