These days displays are increasingly expected to be bidirectional devices, accepting not only touch inputs, but also to integrate fingerprint sensing and even somehow combine a camera with a display without punching a hole through said display. Used primarily on smartphone displays, these attempts have been met with varying degrees of success, but a recently demonstrated version in Nature Communications which combines an OLED with photosensors in the same structure might provide a way to make such features much more effective.

The article by [Chul Kim] and colleagues of the Samsung Display Research Center in South Korea the construction of these bidirectional OLED displays is described, featuring the standard OLED pixels as well as an organic photodiode (OPD) placed side-by-side. Focusing on the OLED’s green light for its absorption characteristics with the human skin, the researchers were able to use the produced OLED/OPD hybrid display for fingerprint recognition, as well as a range of cardiovascular markers, including heart rate, blood pressure, etc.

The basic principle behind these measurements involves photoplethysmography, which is commonly used in commercially available pulse oximeters. Before these hybrid displays can make their way into commercial devices, there are still a few technical challenges to deal with, in particular electrical and optical leakage. The sample demonstrated appears to work well in this regard, but the proof is always in the transition from the lab to mass-production. We have to admit that it would be rather cool to have a display that can also handle touch, fingerprints and record PPG data without any special layers or sensor chips.

hackaday.com/2024/10/24/using-…

Automating tasks with a robot sounds appealing, but not everyone has the budget for an Aismo or Kuka. [FABRI Creator] has a great tutorial on how to build your own mini robotic arm for small, repeatable tasks.

Walking us through the entire build, step-by-step, [FABRI Creator] shows us how to populate the custom-designed PCB and where to put every servo motor and potentiometer to bring the creation to life. This seems like a great project to start with if you haven’t branched out into motion systems before since it’s a useful build without anything too complicated to trip up the beginner.

Beyond the usual ability to use the arm to perform tasks, this particular device uses an Arduino Nano to allow you to record a set of positions as you move the arm and to replay it over and over. The video shows the arm putting rings on a stand, but we can think of all kinds of small tasks that it could accomplish for us, letting us get back to writing or hacking.

If controlling a robot arm with potentiometers sounds familiar, maybe you remember this robot arm with an arm-shaped controller.

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hackaday.com/2024/10/24/mini-r…

For those of us devoted to keeping an older vehicle on the road, the struggle is real. We know that at some point, a part will go bad and we’ll learn that it’s no longer available from the dealer or in the aftermarket, at least at a reasonable cost. We might get lucky and find a replacement at the boneyard, but if not — well, it was nice knowing ya, faithful chariot.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though, at least if the wonky part is one of the many computer modules found in most cars made in the last few decades. Sometimes they can be repaired, as with this engine control module from a Ford F350 pickup. Admittedly, [jeffescortlx] got pretty lucky with this module, which with its trio of obviously defective electrolytics practically diagnosed itself. He also had the advantage of the module’s mid-90s technology, which still relied heavily on through-hole parts, making the repair easier.

Unfortunately, his luck stopped there, as the caps had released the schmoo and corroded quite a few traces on the PCB. Complicating the repair was the conformal coating on everything, a common problem on any electronics used in rough environments. It took a bit of probing and poking to locate all the open traces, which included a mystery trace far away from any of the leaky caps. Magnet wire was used to repair the damaged traces, the caps were replaced with new ones, and everything got a fresh coat of brush-on conformal coating.

Simple though they may be, we really enjoy these successful vehicle module repairs because they give us hope that when the day eventually comes, we’ll stand a chance of being able to perform some repair heroics. And it’s nice to know that something as simple as fixing a dead dashboard cluster can keep a car out of the crusher.

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hackaday.com/2024/10/24/simple…

Fundamentally, an artificial intelligence (AI) is nothing more than a system that takes a series of inputs, makes some prediction, and then outputs that information. Of course, the types of AI in the news right now can handle a huge number of inputs and need server farms’ worth of compute to generate outputs of various forms, but at a basic level, there’s no reason a purpose-built AI can’t run on much less powerful hardware. As a demonstration, and to win a bet with a friend, [mondal3011] got an artificial intelligence up and running on an Arduino.

This AI isn’t going to do anything as complex as generate images or write clunky preambles to every recipe on the Internet, but it is still a functional and useful piece of software. This one specifically handles the brightness of a single lamp, taking user input on acceptable brightness ranges in the room and outputting what it thinks the brightness of the lamp should be to match the user’s preferences. [mondal3011] also builds a set of training data for the AI to learn from, taking the lamp to various places around the house and letting it figure out where to set the brightness on its own. The training data is run through a linear regression model in Python which generates the function that the Arduino needs to automatically operate the lamp.

Although this isn’t the most complex model, it does go a long way to demonstrating the basic principles of using artificial intelligence to build a useful and working model, and then taking that model into the real world. Note also that the model is generated on a more powerful computer before being ported over to the microcontroller platform. But that’s all par for the course in AI and machine learning. If you’re looking to take a step up from here, we’d recommend this robot that uses neural networks to learn how to walk.

hackaday.com/2024/10/24/artifi…

The Vectrex was a unique console from the early 1980s. Developed by a company you’ve probably never heard of—Smith Engineering—it was put into production by General Consumer Electronics, and later sold by Milton Bradley. It was an outright commercial failure, but it’s remembered for its sharp vector display and oddball form factor.

The Vectrex was intended for tabletop use in a home environment. However, [Jeroen Domburg], also known as [Sprite_tm], decided to set about building a portable version. This wasn’t easy, but that just makes the development process a more interesting story. Thankfully for us, [Sprite_tm] was kind enough to tell the tale at the 2023 Hackaday Supercon.

Vectorlicious

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Vector graphics were the thing that set the Vectrex apart.
[Sprite] starts by introducing the audience to the Vectrex, just to make sure everyone understands what was special about this thing. For comaprison’s sake, he lines it up against its contemporaries. Back in the early 1980s, the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision had incredibly low resolution video output with big ugly pixels. In contrast, the Vectrex could draw clean, sharp lines with its inbuilt vector-style display.

Basically, instead of coloring in individual pixels, the Vectrex instead drew lines from point to point on the screen. It was an entirely different way of doing graphics—fast, tidy, and effective—and it was popular in early video arcade games, too. Some Vectrex games even came with plastic overlays to create the impression of color on the screen. Unlike pixel displays, though, this technology didn’t really scale well to prettier, more lifelike graphics. Thus after the Vectrex, no other mainstream consoles adopted this technique.
The talk cites the awesome Scopetrex project, which lets you play Vectrex games on an oscilloscope.
From there, [Sprite_tm] walks the audience through the hardware of the Vectrex. The architecture is fairly simple, based around a 68A09 CPU, which is a Motorola CPU with some improvements over the earlier 6502. It’s paired with some ROM, RAM, and I/O glue logic, and it loads its games off cartridges. Then there’s the audio hardware, a digital-to-analog converter for video output, and all the subsequent analog electronics for driving the vector CRT display.

Unlike a modern console, what’s inside the box is no secret. Datasheets and full schematics are publicly available that lay out exactly how the whole thing works. This is hugely valuable for anyone looking to repair a Vectrex—or make a portable one. You don’t need to reverse engineer much, since it’s all laid out for you. Indeed, as [Sprite_tm] notes, a replica motherboard already exists that lets you play Vectrex games on an oscilloscope’s XY input.

Building the Portable

Some people have built small Vectrexes before, by going the emulator route with a Raspberry Pi and a small LCD display. [Sprite] wasn’t a fan of this route, as modern pixel LCDs make for jagged diagonal lines because they’re not proper vector displays like the original Vectrex CRT. Thus, to build a more authentic portable Vectrex, [Sprite_tm]’s build needed certain parts. On top of replicating the CPU and logic of the Vectrex, he needed to find a small CRT that operate as a proper vector display. Plus, he wanted to build something properly portable—”I wanna sit on the bus and then whip it out and play it,” he explains.

Obviously, finding a suitable CRT was the first big hurdle to clear. [Sprite_tm] mused over using a tube from a Sony Watchman handheld portable TV, but decided against it. He notes that these are fairly rare and valuable, and he didn’t want to destroy one for his project. But he still needed a small CRT in a practical form factor, and he found the perfect donor. In the 90s, LCDs were pretty crap and expensive, so apartment video intercoms relied on CRTs instead. Now, these systems are all largely defunct, and he notes you can find old examples of these answerphones for a few dollars online.
Pretty tidy.
Of course, these answerphone CRTs weren’t designed for vector operation. However, [Sprite_tm] teaches us how you can convert one to draw straight lines on command instead of scanning like a TV. You can get legit vector operation just by squirting the right voltages into the deflection coils. Of course, getting it to work in practice is a lot harder than you might think, but perseverance got the job done in the end. Understanding the physics involved is useful, too, and [Sprite_tm] explains the theory with an apt comparison between coils and a pig.

From there, the talk explains how the rest of the hardware came together. [Sprite_tm] elected to stuff all the Vectrex magic into an FPGA, which felt cooler than software emulation but was more compact than using all-original chips on a replica mainboard. It lives on a custom PCB that also carries all the necessary electronics to drive the CRT in the desired vector mode.

The build also has a cartridge port for playing original Vectrex games. However, for ease of use, [Sprite] also fitted a RISC V CPU, some RAM, and a microSD card for loading ROMs for games that he doesn’t own in physical format. Everything was then wrapped up in a custom 3D-printed case that’s roughly twice as large as the Nintendo Game Boy Color in length and width—and about four times thicker.

[Jeroen] built two examples. They’re very fully featured—they can play both real carts and ROMs off a microSD card.The final result? It’s a retrogaming triumph. The display isn’t perfect—it’s flickery, it’s a little skewed—but that’s not so different from the original Vectrex anyway. This thing is portable, it’s playable, and the vector CRT looks absolutely glorious, as does the case design. These things don’t make sense to make, as [Sprite] notes, but we agree with his ultimate assessment—this is art.

Roma. Si è aperto a Villa Madama l’annuale Summit dell’Associazione Internazionale delle Gendarmerie e delle Forze di Polizia a Statuto Militare (#FIEP), al termine del quale l’Arma dei Carabinieri, che ne aveva assunto la presidenza nell’ottobre 2023, cede il testimone alla Gendarmeria nazionale francese.
All'incontro hanno partecipato i Comandanti/Direttori Generali delle 21 Gendarmerie e Forze di Polizia militari-statutarie, ricevuti dal Presidente della Repubblica durante la loro permanenza in Italia.

Annualmente viene individuato un tema generale come oggetto di studio; durante la presidenza italiana la FIEP si è concentrata sulla lotta ai reati ambientali,
con un focus prioritario sulla tutela della biodiversità e degli ecosistemi. La particolare tematica è molto sentita dall'Arma dei Carabinieri, la forza di polizia ambientale più articolata d'Europa, e il confronto con le altre gendarmerie e forze di polizia è stato utile e propositivo per un comune impegno in difesa dell'ambiente, per lo sviluppo di buone pratiche condivise e di protocolli comuni.

Nell'immagine il passaggio di testimone tra Arma dei Carabinieri e Gendarmeria Francese

Nel 2024 la FIEP ha compiuto 30 anni. Infatti, il 12 maggio 1994, venne istituita a Madrid la Commissione Tripartita, composta dall'Arma dei Carabinieri, dalla Gendarmeria Nazionale francese e dalla Guardia Civil spagnola. Nel 1996 si unì la Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana Portoghese, e l'anno successivo l'associazione, che nel frattempo era diventata Commissione Quadripartita, prese il nome definitivo di FIEP, acronimo formato dalle iniziali dei nomi dei Paesi allora membri: Francia, Italia, Spagna e Portogallo. Con successive Dichiarazioni Congiunte e modifiche statutarie,
l'organizzazione ha assunto il carattere di “Associazione Internazionale”, e attualmente sono membri della FIEP 21 gendarmerie e forze di polizia con status militare .

Nei trent’anni di storia dell’Associazione, prima dell’appuntamento concluso con l’assemblea di questi giorni, i Carabinieri ne avevano assunto la presidenza nel 1999,
2006 e 2014 in corrispondenza del bicentenario di fondazione dell’istituzione. Esperienze sicuramente positive nell'importante settore della cooperazione internazionale.
Nel vertice è stata votata all’unanimità la concessione dello status di membro all’Ispettorato dei Carabinieri della Moldavia.
La loro partecipazione alle dinamiche dell'Associazione è stata sostenuta dai Carabinieri italiani, in aderenza alle linee strategiche di indirizzo della politica estera nazionale.

#ArmadeiCarabinieri
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo

La Polizia di Stato colombiana ha arrestato a Medellin l'italiano Gustavo Nocella (sopra in foto), detto "Ermes", ricercato in Italia per traffico di droga e considerato un "boss invisibile".

"Il boss italiano del narcotraffico Gustavo Nocella è stato catturato a Medellín dalla Polizia Nazionale", ha annunciato lunedì il presidente colombiano Gustavo Petro, precisando che si tratta del "principale anello di congiunzione del clan Rinaldi-Formicola, Amato-Pagano e De Micco alleati con la mafia sudamericana, soprattutto colombiana, per il traffico di ingenti carichi di droga. La fase finale dell'Operazione Minerva - ha reso noto il presidente colombiano - ha cominciato a prendere forma sei mesi fa quando la Polizia Nazionale, in coordinamento con #EUROPOL, i #Carabinieri italiani e le autorità del Regno Unito, si sono scambiate informazioni che hanno permesso loro di stabilire che il fuggitivo aveva la sua centrale operativa in Colombia".

L'italiano, considerato dalle autorità il principale fornitore di cocaina ai clan a nord e a est di Napoli, è stato arrestato in un esclusivo appartamento di #Medellín.

“Gli uomini dei servizi segreti sapevano che uno dei suoi passatempi preferiti era il biliardo, un indizio che trovarono in ciascuno degli appartamenti che, trimestralmente, ha affittato fino a 25 milioni di pesos (circa 5.840 dollari), soprattutto nel settore di El Poblado", ha spiegato la Polizia in un comunicato.

Secondo la polizia, Nocella, 58 anni, era incaricato di coordinare la logistica delle spedizioni di cocaina cloridrato via mare dalla Colombia ad Amsterdam, utilizzando navi e barche a vela.

E, da questa città, trasportava le spedizioni fino a Napoli utilizzando camion pesanti, automobili e anche mezzi di servizio pubblico.
"Questa operazione è il risultato di una fluida cooperazione internazionale che ci ha permesso di catturare più di 40 trafficanti di droga invisibili", ha affermato il Direttore Generale della Polizia, Generale William René Salamanca Ramírez.

#Armadeicarabinieri #Europol
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo