Unique project ideas.

1) Build a small controller that monitors the surface of the bread in the toaster and stops the toaster when the bread gets to a certain level of brown color.

2) Make a small device that monitors the angle of your fore arms as you sit at the computer terminal and automatically adjusts the chair up and down so as to keep the arm angle at a optimum position to reduce the possibility of repeatitive stress disorder.

3) Instrument a garden water sprinkler of the "rain bird" type with the ability to turn on/off, rotate through angle, and change elevation. (IE via some small stepper motors connected to an 89C52). Next make some small ground moisture detectors that can transmit their readings back to the sprinkler control board. (For a proof of concept you could hard wire the detectors as opposed to using RF comms). The idea is to use multiple sensors and then use the microcontroller to adjust the wattering pattern so that the garden is watered uniformly as per the sensor readings.

4) Connect a PC type track ball device up to a microcontroller (use one of the track balls that has a large ball inside about the size of a pool cue ball) and have the microcontroller translate the ball motion into a position control that aims a spotlight mounted on a police vehicle. The spotlight is mounted away from direct operator accessability and can be moved with some small DC servo devices. You could also attach some motion sensors to the vehicle so as to be able to keep the spotlight aimed at the subject even though the vehicle may be moving.

Michael Karas