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Here you’ll find a variety of rather unusual paper toys, all free for you to print out and enjoy. The toys include a hearse playset, coffin gift boxes (with occupants), a little cemetery, several unusual board games, a gloomy little haunted house, a rusty old-style robot, and quite a few other dark delights. So pick out some toys, print out the pattern pages, and with a few common supplies like scissors and glue you’re ready to create all these strange little curiosities. I hope you’ll enjoy them all. I like the mechanical bat. Link.

Incremental optical encoders can be quite expensive...commercially available units from US Digital can go from $7 USD (mylar encoder disk) and $50 USD (encased encoder). Taking apart the ubiquitous $5 PC mouse, however, can give you two cheap but quite reliable encoders plus two infrared (IR) emitter-detector pairs. This tutorial will show you how to take apart a mouse, remove these parts and protoboard your own quadrature encoder in an afternoon or two. Link.

In the Media Arts and Technology program, we explore new metaphors for artistic interactivity that connect the physical world with the virtual realm. We develop new techniques for computing that generate music and visual arts in a myriad of ways; but in order to put forth these techniques, we must create new sensors, and build interfaces that can better grasp their control and generation. The CUI allows us to bind physical processes or actions to corresponding digital expressions. Link.

Here are some photos and dissections of the Juicebox, a cheap LCD device that can play music and photos. It’s based on uClinux, so there are a few projects currently underway to do some neat things with it. And here’s a tip- to put the Juicebox into test mode – just hold the top and bottom most buttons on powerup. Link.

wikiHow is a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest how-to manual. With your contributions, we can create a free resource that helps people by offering clear, concise solutions to the problems of everyday life. There are a ton of articles, here’s a good one on making your own Lineman’s phone. Link.

Here are some great concept models and Mecha robots made from LEGOs. Complete with detailed descriptions too- Armament: Beam rifle x2 (~2 megawatt charge, stored in shoulder charging racks/weapons binders), clay bazooka (fed from 5-round clips, hand-carried). Even lighter armored than the L-Siren, V-Sirens are built for speed and agility above all else. Typically not armed with melee weapons, a V-Siren is most frequently seen slinging either its integral beam guns or a “clay bazooka”, a shotgun-like multi-payload launcher. [via] Link.

The TileToy is a modular electronic game prototype- their blog has lots of the iterations, ideas and updates their project has gone through. From what I can tell it can communicate with other blocks, and users can create patterns, possibly play games and some other neat things. They also have some interesting videos of the little guys in action. Link.