Funny curtain hacks are something GeekTech is no stranger to: last January, Niklas Roy created a privacy curtain that drew attention to his studio rather than stop people staring in. In all seriousness, curtains are sometimes the trickiest part of a home automation project to wire up. So, this new Arduino-based curtain idea by Jamie Zawinski may be a useful hack to you.

Jamie automated his bedroom curtain because he figured given the large size of his window, the sudden movement of the curtains in the morning letting the light in may actually wake him up. The curtain works wiring Arduino Ethernet and DCHP to a Seeed Relay Shield. The ethernet port reacts to basic command such as open, close and toggle, plus, when Jaime doesn’t want to use a computer to control the curtain, a big toggle button. The blind cord is pulled up by none other than an Add-a-Motor Model 80 Drapery and Blind Controller, something that’s a bit more readily available than the other parts.

While Jamie is pretty pleased with his newest home automation addition, the downside is that it was one of the more fiddly and frustrating hardware hacks he attempted. In addition, he has no videos or full images of the curtain doing it’s thing just yet.

However, you can check out his blog to see more close-ups of the various parts needed for the project if you would like to give it a go yourself.

Do you have any cool home automation setups? Drop us a line and show us!

[Jamie Zawinski via MAKE]

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New research at North Carolina State University could lead to stretchable electronics–a way to incorporate electronics into clothing (ThinkGeek’s Wi-Fi Shirt not withstanding).

The researchers at NC State haven’t yet developed said “stretchable electronics” but have rather created the first coils of silicon nanowire on a stretchable substrate. The rubber substrate can stretch more than double its original length.

“In order to create stretchable electronics, you need to put electronics on a stretchable substrate, but electronic materials themselves tend to be rigid and fragile,” says Dr. Yong Zhu, one of the researchers involved in the project, in a press release. “Our idea was to create electronic materials that can be tailored into coils to improve their stretchability without harming the electric functionality of the materials.”

NC State points out in a press release that other researchers have been able to create coils using freestanding nanowire, but this is the first time researchers have been able to directly integrate those coils on a stretchable surface.

The nanowire was placed on the substrate by Zhu’s team after the substrate was put under strain and placed under specific levels of ultraviolet radiation and ozone to change its mechanical properties.

The new coils can be stretched more than twice their original length (104 percent), but electric performance can’t hold reliably to such a large range. Zhu says the team is “working to improve the reliability of the electrical performance when the coils are stretched to the limit of their mechanical stretchability, which is likely well beyond 100 percent.”

For the unwashed masses, this means that we’re one (significant) step closer to “incorporating stretchable electronic devices into clothing, implantable health-monitoring devices, and a host of other applications.”

[NC State via Engadget]

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Follow Sarah on Twitter (@ geeklil ) or at sarahpurewal.wordpress.com.