Challenge Accepted: Try to Hit this Unnecessarily High Five

Craft & Design

Mike Senese is a content producer with a focus on technology, science, and engineering. He served as Executive Editor of Make: magazine for nearly a decade, and previously was a senior editor at Wired. Mike has also starred in engineering and science shows for Discovery Channel, including Punkin Chunkin, How Stuff Works, and Catch It Keep It.

An avid maker, Mike spends his spare time tinkering with electronics, fixing cars, and attempting to cook the perfect pizza. You might spot him at his local skatepark in the SF Bay Area.

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May 16th, 2015May 19th, 2021 1

Jason Haber of the Irresponsible Dads of Alameda has put together an interactive art piece called Unnecessarily High Five. The inspiration for the piece came from the seemingly-irresistible need for people to give high fives.

“We thought “why not make a device that challenges you to give your highest five,'” Haber said.

From there the group sourced flat-palmed mannequin arms and built a scaled high-five device. The apparatus first debuted at Burning Man, but they have been showcasing it at Maker Faire ever since.

This year at Maker Faire, there are a couple of tweaks. The palms of the mannequin arms have LightBlue Bean sensors to track the number of high fives given out. The team has even built a website that gives the crowd up-to-date tracking on the recorded number of high fives in each position. Another addition is an extra low hand nicknamed Arm Zero. This hand gives all high fivers the opportunity to participate. Check out more high-five action at their Facebook page.