Made in Japan

Glass lens doorknob gives preview of room beyond

Glass lens doorknob gives preview of room beyond

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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Probably not all doors should offer previews, all the time, but this is undeniably wonderful. As it is, the knob offers bi-directional viewing; I wonder if you could half-silver one side and make it one-way? Johnny Strategy at Spoon & Tomago writes:

In conjunction with Design Tide Tokyo, architect Hideyuki Nakayama – a protégé of Toyo Ito -　has teamed up with UNION, a manufacturer of door handles and levers, to create a glass globe doorknob. As you approach the doorknob you catch a glimpse of what appears to be another world, waiting for you to enter and join, but in fact is a reflection of the room on the other side of the door.

[via Gizmodo]

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Spoon organ!

Spoon organ!

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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The user can play musical tunes simply by touching a row of spoons sitting on a table, with a fork added in for good measure. A microcontroller is used to detect changes in capacitance caused by a finger pressing against the metal, which are then sent to a computer using the MIDI protocol.

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Dekotora art trucks

By John Baichtal

John Baichtal

My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net

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This Alienware ad highlights Japan’s cool art trucks. I liked the makery atmosphere of the ad, though I think it’s possible the POV effect at the end was faked. See Pink Tentacle’s Dekotora truck post for a lot more pix of these super cool vehicles.

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Behold Your Doom: Children’s battle mech

Behold Your Doom: Children’s battle mech

By Sean Michael Ragan

Sean Michael Ragan

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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In point of fact, this “Kid’s Walker” from Japanese firm Sakakibara Kikai, like every real-world mecha prototype I’ve ever seen, is considerably more impressive when standing still than when in motion. There’s embedded video here. If you are actually concerned about the possibility of the world being stomped to rubble beneath the armored galoshes of a Pokémech revolution, you should watch it and put your mind at ease. If, like me, however, you were excited by the photo and are enjoying dreaming about buying or making one of these for your own outer or inner child, you may want to keep that dream alive and pass on the vid. [via gizmag]

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