Month: June 2010

Lost Knowledge: Antique automata

Lost Knowledge: Antique automata

The Lost Knowledge column explores the possible technology of the future in the forgotten ideas of the past (and those just slightly off to the side). We look at retro-tech, “lost” technology, and the make-do, improvised “street tech” of village artisans and tradespeople from around the globe. “Lost Knowledge” was also the theme of MAKE […]

Drumbrella sings The Doom Song

Drumbrella sings The Doom Song

This is a concept design, aka Rain Drum, from one Dong Min Park, whose personal web presence, if it exists, seems to be eluding me, possibly because it originates somewhere in Asia and is completely orthogonal to my English-language googling.

Another hint that whoever created these images is not a native English speaker: The onomatopoeia he or she has chosen for the sound of rain striking the membranes is “doom,” which is not exactly great marketing, but is pretty amusing, both in and of itself, and because it evokes The Doom Song from Invader Zim.

Lego RC hand with exoskeletal controller

Lego RC hand with exoskeletal controller

MOCpages user David Hyman created an ambitious Lego robotic hand controlled by a wrist-mounted exoskeleton packing 3 rotation sensors and 2 touch sensors. I built it using 3 RCX bricks, one for each finger. The hand has two fingers and an opposable thumb. Each finger/thumb uses a rack & pinion mechanism which moves flexible tubes […]