FreeSide Atlanta

One fo the movements sweeping through the Open Hardware world is that of the hackerspace: a place where people can communially work on hardware, sharing tools, resources, expertise and encouragement. In Atlanta we have FreeSide Atlanta. From their Meetup Page:

Freeside Technology Spaces, Inc., a non-profit organization, strives to be the best in providing resources and an environment that encourages research, knowledge exchange, learning, and mentoring in the Atlanta community, through  workshops, collaborative projects,  and other activities that develop and support free and open source software and hardware.

So check out their blog. They also have a wiki.

Upcoming FreeSide Atlanta Meetups

Events - Freeside Atlanta

Events - Freeside Atlanta
  • Art-O-Mat Design Meeting

    Freeside Atlanta

    We're building an Art-O-Mat to take to Alchemy, the Georgia Burn!  

    An Art-O-Mat is a vending machine that distributes art.  This project was fully funded by the Alchemy community.  We are on track to collect somewhere between 200-300 pieces of art to distribute, including works by Catlanta and Evereman.  We are actively collecting works of art, so if you're interested in contributing, you can email Joy at joyogozelec@gmail.com.

    The Art-O-Mat explores two of the 10 core Burning Man principles: Decommodification and Gifting.  We express Gifting by distributing art through the machine.  Gifting trees are a familiar sight at Burns, but suffer from accumulating trash or trinkets.  By gifting art (a gift in itself) we create a sort of on-demand gifting tree.  We express Decommodification by not allowing the Art-O-Mat to accept money.  Instead, art is distributed by the machine on a timer.  The machine lights up, and you push a button to receive art.

    The purpose of this meeting is to discuss and decide on the mechanism we will use to actually deliver the art.  We have a few designs and some constraints to weigh.  We will consider and discuss the pros and cons of using Arduinos, relays, stepper motors, actuators, and more to facilitate the delivery.

    Light snacks and drinks provided, with a suggested donation of $5 to Freeside for hosting the event.

    Atlanta, GA 30310 - USA

    Monday, July 28 at 7:30 PM

    Attending: 5

    Details: http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/196822662/

  • Freeside Braniacs - Fun with Neuroscience and Brain-Computer Interfaces

    Freeside Atlanta

    We haven't had a meeting in a while, but several of us who are interested in this stuff and are also Freeside members have been working on the next phase of this Meetup - We're building an open biometrics lab to keep at Freeside and build experiments and projects with.


    The main components that we're currently working on implementing are:

    • Neurosky EEG to Arduino interface.

    • Neurosky to Raspberry Pi interface.

    • Biometrics array research (skin galvanometers, EMGs, eye trackers, and other advanced interfaces)

    • Analysis and archival libraries (Python mostly, for now)

    • OpenVibe research and exploration


    We hope to use this toolkit to build amazing projects and conduct research. We've already had one successful gaze tracking study and Randall has his ongoing sleep study. But we'd like to do LED lighting using EEGs or make a mind-controlled Tesla Coil. It would be cool to pair EEGs with other different interfaces, so we can do gaze tracking and infer levels of concentration, focus, and surprise from EEG data. Or we could use two EEGs and study different kinds or interaction or competition. Mental tug-of-war, anyone?!

    We can do basically any project like this if we can finish the different interfaces needed to do analysis and hardware control with these devices.

    If you'd like to pitch in on the effort and/or add an interface that you'd like to incorporate (Google Glass, Android, DMX controller, etc...) then this Meetup is for you. These meetings will lean a little closer to a work day until we start finishing pieces of the lab. It'll still be a lot of fun and folks that help to build it will have first access to start building AMAZING projects. We're pretty excited!


    You can join our Google group here.

    Directions to the space for first-timers are here -
    https://wiki.freeside...

    See you there!

    Atlanta, GA 30310 - USA

    Sunday, August 3 at 3:00 PM

    Attending: 10

    Details: http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/181448122/

  • Analog Game Night

    Freeside Atlanta

    It's Analog Game Night at Freeside Atlanta, so come get your board and/or card game on!

    We'll be playing short, quick games like Dominion to long, drawn out games like Axis and Allies.

    We'll even play games that destroy families and friends, like Settlers of Catan!

    This meetup is open to non-members!  Please consider a $5 donation towards the purchase of more board games for Freeside!

    Atlanta, GA 30310 - USA

    Thursday, August 7 at 8:00 PM

    Attending: 4

    Details: http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/events/195761062/