TrafficStop
view the flickr photo gallery : read the build journal : email the creator
I retrofitted this generic “Blinking Traffic Light” with a USB module and wrote a simple Mac application to monitor my computer usage and reflect the results in by changing the stoplight.
This project was born out of the frustration after being constanty interrupted by people who could not tell that I was already busy. The alpha version of the software detects the number of running applications on the computer using Cocoa’s NSDistributedNotificationCenter and updates the light based on a user-defined threshold.
The application resides in the System-wide status bar and the icon is updated each time the light changes to reflect the current color of the light. Future versions of the software will include the ability to monitor CPU usage, unread email, and more.
This project is not complete by any means. That said, I have dozens of other projects that are nagging at the back of my mind that I would like to get started on. If you think this project is good, and you would like to see more: updated software, source code, build instructions, schematics, custom PCB’s etc. Please feel free to leave a comment below, on the Flickr photo gallery, or email me directly. Your input, suggestions, and encouragement will help push this project further!