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478 Articles

Detail of Horus's face, from a statue of Horus and Set placing the crown of Upper Egypt on the head of Ramesses III. Twentieth Dynasty, early 12th century BC.

HORUS Framework: A Rust Robotics Library

January 9, 2026 by 7 Comments

[neos-builder] wrote in to let us know about their innovation: the HORUS Framework — Hybrid Optimized Robotics Unified System — a production-grade robotics framework built in Rust for real-time performance and memory safety.

This is a batteries included system which aims to have everything you might need available out of the box. [neos-builder] said their vision is to create a robotics framework that is “thick” as a whole (we can’t avoid this as the tools, drivers, etc. make it impossible to be slim and fit everyone’s needs), but modular by choice.

[neos-builder] goes on to say that HORUS aims to provide developers an interface where they can focus on writing algorithms and logic, not on setting up their environments and solving configuration issues and resolving DLL hell. With HORUS instead of writing one monolithic program, you build independent nodes, connected by topics, which are run by a scheduler. If you’d like to know more the documentation is extensive.

The list of features is far too long for us to repeat here, but one cool feature in addition to the real-time performance and modular design that jumped out at us was this system’s ability to process six million messages per second, sustained. That’s a lot of messages! Another neat feature is the system’s ability to “freeze” the environment, thereby assuring everyone on the team is using the same version of included components, no more “but it works on my machine!” And we should probably let you know that Python integration is a feature, connected by shared-memory inter-process communication (IPC).

If you’re interested in robotics and/or real-time systems you should definitely be aware of HORUS. Thanks to [neos-builder] for writing in about it. If you’re interested in real-time systems you might like to read Real-Time BART In A Box Smaller Than Your Coffee Mug and Real-Time Beamforming With Software-Defined Radio.

Simple Tricks To Make Your Python Code Faster

November 25, 2025 by 60 Comments

Python has become one of the most popular programming languages out there, particularly for beginners and those new to the hacker/maker world. Unfortunately, while it’s easy to  get something up and running in Python, it’s performance compared to other languages is generally lacking. Often, when starting out, we’re just happy to have our code run successfully. Eventually, though, performance always becomes a priority. When that happens for you, you might like to check out the nifty tips from [Evgenia Verbina] on how to make your Python code faster.

Many of the tricks are simple common sense. For example, it’s useful to avoid creating duplicates of large objects in memory, so altering an object instead of copying it can save a lot of processing time. Another easy win is using the Python math module instead of using the exponent (**) operator since math calls some C code that runs super fast. Others may be unfamiliar to new coders—like the benefits of using sets instead of lists for faster lookups, particularly when it comes to working with larger datasets. These sorts of efficiency gains might be merely useful, or they might be a critical part of making sure your project is actually practical and fit for purpose.

It’s worth looking over the whole list, even if you’re an intermediate coder. You might find some easy wins that drastically improve your code for minimal effort. We’ve explored similar tricks for speeding up code on embedded platforms like Arduino, too. If you’ve got your own nifty Python speed hacks, don’t hesitate to notify the tipsline!

Audio field emission map

Audio Sound Capture Project Needs Help

November 5, 2025 by 20 Comments

When you are capturing audio from a speaker, you are rarely capturing the actual direct output of such a system. There are reflections and artifacts caused by anything and everything in the environment that make it to whatever detector you might be using. With the modern computation age, you would think there would be a way to compensate for such artifacts, and this is what [d.fapinov] set out to do.

[d.fapinov] has put together a code base for simulating and reversing environmental audio artifacts made to rival systems, entirely orders of magnitude higher in cost. The system relies on similar principles used in radio wave antenna transmission to calculate the audio output map, called spherical harmonic expansion. Once this map is calculated and separated from outside influence, you can truly measure the output of an audio device.

The only problem is that the project needs to be tested in the real world. [d.fapinov] has gotten this far but is unable to continue with the project. A way to measure audio from precise locations around the output is required, as well as the appropriate control for such a device.

Audio enthusiasts go deep into this tech, and if you want to become one of them, check out this article on audio compression and distortion.

A 2D simple regression analysis.

Making Math Less Stressful With A Python Super-Calculator

October 26, 2025 by 15 Comments

In a recent write-up, [David Delony] explains how he built a Wolfram Mathematica-like engine with Python.

Core to the system is SymPy for symbolic math support. [David] said being able to work with symbolic math easily has helped his understanding of calculus and linear algebra. For statistics support he includes NumPy, pandas, and SciPy. NumPy is useful for creating multidimensional arrays and supports basic descriptive statistics such as mean, median, and standard deviation; pandas is a library for operating on tabular data arranged into “DataFrames”, it can load data from spreadsheets (including Excel) and relational databases; and SciPy is a “grab bag” of operations designed for scientific computing, it includes some useful statistics operations, including common probability distributions, such as the binomial, normal, and Student’s t-distribution.

For regression analysis [David] includes statsmodels and Pingouin. If you’re not familiar with the term “regression analysis” it basically refers to the process of curve fitting. When your data is two-dimensional, with one dependent variable, the simple linear regression algorithm will generate a function that fits the data as y = mx + b, including the slope (m) and the y-intercept (b); this can be extrapolated to higher dimensional data and other types of regression.

If you have an interest in symbolic math you might enjoy learning about Mathematica And Wolfram On The Raspberry Pi.

Creating Python GUIs With GIMP

September 29, 2025 by 30 Comments

GUI design can be a tedious job, requiring the use of specialist design tools and finding a suitable library that fits your use case. If you’re looking for a lightweight solution, though, you might consider just using a simple image editor with a nifty Python library that [Manish Kathuria] whipped up.

[Manish’s] intention was to create a better-looking user interface solution for Python apps that was also accessible. He’d previously considered other Python GUI options to be unimpressive, requiring a lot of code and delivering undesirable results. His solution enables the use of just about any graphic you can think of as a UI object, creating all kinds of visually-appealing possibilities. He also was eager to make sure his solution would work with irregular-shaped buttons, sliders, and other controls—a limitation popular libraries like Tkinter never quite got around.

The system simply works by using layered image files to create interactive interfaces, with a minimum of code required to define the parameters and performance of the interface. You’re not strictly limited to using the GIMP image editor, either; some of the examples use MS Paint instead. Files are on Github for those eager to try the library for themselves.

We’ve featured some neat GUI tools before, too, like this library for embedded environments. Video after the break.

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Two hands working a TekaSketch

TekaSketch: Where Etch A Sketch Meets Graph Theory

September 29, 2025 by 6 Comments

The Etch A Sketch was never supposed to meet a Raspberry Pi, a camera, or a mathematical algorithm, but here we are. [Tekavou]’s Teka-Cam and TekaSketch are a two-part hack that transforms real photos into quite stunning, line-drawn Etch A Sketch art. Where turning the knobs only results in wobbly doodles, this machine plots out every curve and contour better than your fingertips ever could.

Essentially, this is a software hack mixed with hardware: an RPi Zero W 2, a camera module, Inkplate 6, and rotary encoders. Snap a picture, and the image is conveyed to a Mac Mini M4 Pro, where Python takes over. It’s stripped to black and white, and the software creates a skeleton of all black areas. It identifies corner bridges, and unleashes a modified Chinese Postman Algorithm to stitch everything into one continuous SVG path. That file then drives the encoders, producing a drawing that looks like a human with infinite patience and zero caffeine jitters. Originally, the RPi did all the work, but it was getting too slow so the Mac was brought in.

It’s graph theory turned to art, playful and serious at the same time, and it delivers quite unique pieces. [Tekavou] is planning on improving with video support. A bit of love for his efforts might accellerate his endeavours. Let us know in the comments below!

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Wood bent into a spiral

Make Magical-Looking Furniture With Kerf Bend Wizard

June 14, 2025 by 26 Comments

The intersection between “woodworkers” and “programmers” is not a densely populated part of the Venn diagram, but [Michael Schiebler] is there with his Kerf Bend Wizard to help us make wood twist and bend like magic.

Kerf bending is a fine technique we have covered before: by cutting away material on the inside face of a piece of wood, you create an area weak enough to allow for bending. The question becomes: how much wood do I remove? And where? That’s where Kerf Bend Wizard comes to the rescue.

More after the break…

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