Use PocketLab to detect Santa Claus

Christmas Eve is only a few days away, and if you want a chance to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus, a PocketLab just might do the trick.

Here are three ways you can monitor Santa’s presence while pretending to sleep.

1) The Cookie Weight

It’s been rumored Santa goes Paleo in the summer to shed some pounds, but on Christmas Eve, he’s all about the chocolate chip cookie. When setting up your plate of cookies, add one small wrinkle: Place the plate on top of a small, sealed ziplock bag with a PocketLab inside. Note the barometric pressure reading inside the bag when the plate of cookies is on top of it. As soon as Santa grabs a cookie, the air pressure inside the bag should change. That’s your chance! Make a break for the tree and see if you can catch Santa snacking.

2) Pressure change in the chimney

Santa likes to make an entrance. If you have a chimney, that will be his go to method for breaking and entering. Tape your PocketLab to the inside of your chimney and monitor the air pressure. Santa will really need to squeeze into the top of your chimney from your roof, and that will create a large change in air pressure inside the chimney. If you hurry, you can catch Santa right as he lands in the fireplace.

3) Footsteps with Seismometer

Some say Santa can sneak around the tree so quietly because he was trained by Ninja’s. However, even Ninja’s are powerless before science. By creating a seismometer and placing it near your tree, you’ll be able to monitor even the smallest vibrations on your floor. Hang a heavy magnet as a pendulum over your PocketLab. The magnetic field graph will pick up the natural frequency of the pendulum. When the ground vibrates, either from an Earthquake or a footstep, you’ll be able to see a strong signal from the pendulum (for more details check out this instructibles). Once you pick up a Santa tip-toe, race to the tree to find him placing a bow on that new hoverboard you wanted.

Can PocketLab improve your athletic performance?

Check out how the NFL has been using RFID sensors to monitor every player’s movement in every NFL game this season. Two location beacons, made by Zebra Technologies, are placed on each shoulder pad of every NFL player. Data from those beacons is transmitted to 20 stationary receivers throughout each stadium. Using the data, the NFL can measure each player’s position, speed, acceleration, and distance covered, in real time.

From CIO.com:

With a foam football and a PocketLab you can measure the angular rotation of your spiral

The NFL plans to use the data generated to power the NFL 2015 app for Xbox One and Windows 10, allowing for things like “Next Gen Replay” that will allow fans to call up stats for each player tied into highlight clips posted on the app. But that’s just the beginning. The data will be fed to broadcasters, leveraged for in-stadium displays and provided to coaching staff and players.

“We’ve always had these traditional NFL stats,” says Matt Swensson, senior director of Emerging Products and Technology at the NFL. “The league has been very interested in trying to broaden that and bring new statistics to the fans. Along the way, there’s been more realization about how the data can be leveraged to make workflow more efficient around the game.”

You can see how the NFL has been using the data at their Next Gen Stats page. Check out this Anatomy of a Play breakdown of Buffalo Bills wide-receiver Sammy Watkins, burning Miami Dolphins cornerback Brent Grimes for a 63-yard touchdown pass. The sensors on the shoulder pads, along with the 20 stationary sensors in the stadium mean data on Watkins’ top speed and separation from Grimes during the route can be collected.

Next time you’re out playing football, bring along your PocketLab and see what data you can collect. The NFL data gathering solution is very different than PocketLab’s (and much more expensive), but similar applications can be applied. Use the accelerometer and the gyroscope to capture your movement as you run around the field. Place PocketLab inside a foam football and measure the angular velocity of your best spiral. If you’re playing the other football, put one PocketLab on your cleat and the other in a foam soccer ball to optimize the spin on your corner kicks.

The best athletes in the world are using data to improve their game. With PocketLab, you can too.   

PocketLab Geography Lesson

Who knew you could use a science lab like PocketLab to learn geography? Well, we have certainly been getting a major geography lesson from our customers. We have shipped PocketLab to more than 43 countries around the world, and we have to admit that we consulted a map more than once to know where some of them were. So far our list of countries shipped includes:

Australia

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

Chile

China

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Great Britain

Hong Kong

Hungary

India

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Luxembourg

Macedonia

Malaysia

Mexico

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Pakistan

Philippines

Poland

Republic of Korea

Romania

Russia

Singapore

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

Thailand

Turkey

United Arab Emirates

United States

We continue to be amazed and encouraged by the world wide interest in science and exploration! We are working to connect all of our world wide users into a global network of explorers – we encourage you to use tools like our Forum to connect with out PocketLab users, or if you rather post on Facebook or Twitter. We welcome your comments and interactions!!

PocketLab “Improved [his] Life”

A member of the PocketLab community posted to our forum last week, describing a clever way he used PocketLab’s magnetometer to help with a medical condition. We aren’t medical doctors, and PocketLab is not a medical device. This post is not endorsing PocketLab to be used to collect medically relevant data, however, we think this post speaks to the creativity of our users. It sure put a smile on our faces.

The following was from user @ibid, posted to our forum on August 19:

PocketLab Improved My Life

I had a cardiac device implanted about 5 years ago and was given an extensive list of appliances, tools, etc., to avoid due to possible interference, including triggering the built-in defibrillator. Unfortunately, one of the listed appliances was induction cooktops, which we had just installed as part of a kitchen renovation. For those not aware, induction cooktops use AC current to create an oscillating magnetic field that then interacts directly with the cooking vessel to heat it.

Example PocketLab Magnetic Field data, NOT @ibid’s data.

Long story short, I have not been able to go near the operating stove at all…I’ve conservatively stayed pretty far away to avoid the unpleasant consequences. PocketLab changed all that. With my wife moving the [PocketLab] toward the stove, I was able to very clearly see how far the magnetic field effects were projecting and determine a safe zone for myself. Now I can confidently approach the stove much more closely and even use it to some extent without fear of it interfering with my device.

It seems like a small thing, but it’s a big deal for me.
Thanks, [PocketLab]!

Explorers, PocketLab is Ready for You

Fulfillment update

After hours of USPS box folding, tiny-screw tightening, and quality assurance testing, we are happy to announce that our manufacturing and fulfillment is up to speed. We can’t thank our supporters enough.

If you pre-ordered a PocketLab through Kickstarter or through our own site, chances are you’ve already paired it to your device and explored with it.

If you pre-ordered and don’t have yours yet, it is most likely in transit. You should have received a tracking number from stamps.com if it shipped. If you haven’t heard anything from us or from stamps.com, make sure you filled out your Kickstarter survey (if you were a backer) so we have your mailing address and then send us a message at support@thepocketlab.com.

We want to hear from you!

How are you using your PocketLab? What are you attaching it to? What kind of acceleration can you get from your homemade catapult? Have you already made a cool PocketLab video? There are a number of ways to share with our community. Post PocketLab ideas and videos to Twitter using our handle @thepocketlab or #thepocketlab.  Post to Facebook and link it to our page, Facebook.com/thepocketlab, or post it to the forum under “Fun Activities and Use Cases.” 

It’s already been great to hear from so many enthusiastic users who are exploring with PocketLab in exciting new ways. The PocketLab community wants to hear more!

Calling all teachers…

We have 25 PocketLab experiments posted on our forum under “School Curriculum.” You can download a lesson, use it or modify it for you specific grade level or classroom, and share it back with the community to help other teachers.

We know the best classroom ideas and lessons for PocketLab will come from our teacher community. If you make your own teaching resource that takes advantage of the PocketLab we want you to share it with the community on our forum under “Share your Labs and Assignments.”

This is an exciting time for PocketLab. We owe everything to our supporters and community, so a huge thank you from the entire PocketLab Team.

PocketLab manufacturing update #4

Originally posted on Kickstarter:

Backers,

After a couple weeks of long hours of coding and testing, we are moving ahead with manufacturing! We have ordered all of the PocketLab sensors to fulfill the Kickstarter orders, and we are waiting on parts to return from our manufacturing partners. If everything progress as expected, we will be fulfilling orders in mid-July. We will be sending out surveys soon to collect your shipping information, color choice, t-shirt size, or any option that was included with your reward tier. Kickstarter only allows us to send out one survey to all the backers, so we are making sure everything is in order before we send it out.

We greatly appreciate your messages of excitement and encouragement. We apologize for the delay, because the new hardware took extra time to test and verify functionality. The results are really cool though! For example, we changed the pressure sensor to a new component that enables much higher accuracy and faster data output. We encapsulated PocketLab in a Protective Sphere of Science (see picture) and then conducted some projectile motion experiments.

Using the pressure sensor we can calculate the height of the ball. Then using the accelerometer, we can directly measure acceleration and also calculate speed. So after just 15 seconds of setup, you can conduct experiments to measure, position, speed, and acceleration vs. time (see the graphs below). We think the results really illustrate the derivative and integral relationships between position, speed, and acceleration. We can’t wait until everyone has the chance to try.

 

We will continue to update you with manufacturing progress and any other changes that occur. As always, please let us know any thoughts or questions you have.

Gratefully,

Clifton and The PocketLab Team

A Big Thank You + What’s Next

As our Kickstarter campaign comes to a successful close, the first thing we want to do is thank all the backers, friends, supporters, and explorers that have helped us make our campaign successful beyond our imagination! We have surpassed $100,000, and reached a level of funding – more than 5x our goal!

A big part of the success was getting the word out. Thank you to everyone who shared, linked to, tweeted and told your friends!  We could not have done it without you.  We were humbled by the depth and breadth of the press coverage we received.  The NY Times, Popular Science, Fictiv, TechCrunch, Texas Instruments, and GeekWire all wrote wonderful articles about The PocketLab and brought a diverse crowd of backers to our site from all corners of the internet.  We even landed on a BuzzFeed List!

The Kickstarter site is no longer taking backers, but, don’t worry – if you want to pre-order The PocketLab, we can take your order on our eCommerce site: www.thepocketlab.com.  Just click on the “pre-order” tab, or scroll to the bottom of the site.

We are still on track for an end of June delivery and for a limited time (until we are shipping production units) we will be honoring the Kickstarter price of $98.  Large order discounts and accessories are available on the site as well.  If you missed the Kickstarter, go to our site and pre-order yours now!

Of course we are always just an email, tweet, or phone call away.  To receive PocketLab updates, join our mailing list.

Sneak Peak at The PocketLab: Photos and Story from our recent Tech In Motion DEMO Night

We recently just finished an early preview of The PocketLab for the Tech In Motion Product Design Demo at the Art Institute of California in Sunnyvale. Thanks to everyone who turned out and especially to the Tech In Motion team who made the event both enjoyable and extremely successful for us.

Almost 300 attendees crowded into the conference center in the Art Institute, and it was busy all night. Clif and Dorothy Lou held down the booth and were surrounded by interested techies from start to close.

Tech in Motion is a nation wide series of technology events that boasts 35,000 members who attend the weekly events across the US and internationally. We were honored to be part of this invitation-only event, and it was a great chance for us to meet with hundreds of tech enthusiasts who are part of the Tech In Motion community.

This was our first booth show, and helped prepare us for our first major teachers conference, the National Science Teachers Association conference which will be in Chicago on Thursday March 12-15.  (Come find us at Booth #378!)

New Year, New Post! Happy 2015 from the PocketLab

2015 is going to be a big year for the PocketLab. Our Kickstarter campaign goes live in just a couple of weeks, we’re starting our first manufacturing run, and transitioning the whole team into sales and marketing mode. Looking back, our entire 2014 was spent preparing for the next few months.  We built the team, prototyped early versions of the product, tested more than 100 units with early users, formed a corporation, filed our patents, and even took a few fitness breaks.  We’ve recruited a cadre of smart, helpful, and involved advisors to the team and we’re (almost) ready to launch.

Our hopes and dreams for 2015 are to give our customers a unique and valuable tool for exploration of the physical properties that are everywhere around us. We designed PocketLab to be very simple to use.  Push one button, and PocketLab will reward you with sophisticated data on acceleration, pressure, temperature, and magnetic field strength.  Until now, hobbyists seeking this kind of information needed several different tools, and had to put the data together themselves.  Not anymore.

We couldn’t have reached this pivotal moment without our beta testers and their invaluable feedback.   And now, the PocketLab is able to return the favor.   Chuck Williams, one of our first testers, recently told us, “We used data we gathered with an early PocketLab prototype to optimize the inertia of the throwing arm on our robotic entry into the annual FIRST robotics competition.”  Williams is an AP Physics teacher and the faculty advisor of the Cupertino, CA High School Robotics team.  FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization founded by celebrated innovator Dean Kamen, that wishes to offer youth an appreciation for the wonders of science and technology. The Cupertino High School’s Robotics Club has been competing since 2007, and will compete again this year in the state-wide CalGames 2015 sponsored by the Western Region Robotics Forum.

Feeling inspired?  You can join the PocketLab revolution by supporting our Kickstarter, telling your friends, and giving the techies in your life a PocketLab for President’s Day.  Pocket Lab makes a great gift for anyone who loves to tinker and is curious about the world around them.  Come explore with us!