I love stories like this, about how people are making use of off-the-shelf technologies to mimic the effects of more sophisticated and expensive scientific equipment. Yay DIY! The slow march of optical spectroscopies toward the clinic has been helped along by technologies borrowed from communications electronics. Those technologies are allowing optics researchers to build things […]
I recently worked on a knitting project in London and while I was there the term “Stitch-Hacking” came up. Upon further research I discovered that “Stitch-Hacking” and “Pattern-Blagging” were terms used by Amy Twigger Holroyd to describe her techniques for modifying patterns in existing knitted garments. Stitch-Hacking: the laddering and reconfiguration of stitches in an […]
I love video projectors, and have used one instead of a traditional TV for almost 6 years now. The only serious drawback, in my experience, is the expense of the bulbs, and I expect that it will not be very long before full-color laser diode projector technology overcomes it. Red, green, and blue laser diodes are already accessible; the trick seems to be in scanning the beams in an economical and reliable way.
Diane of Crafty Pod kicked off her New Year with some plastic canvas crafting, and made this awesome robot. (In case you didn’t already know, Diane is a plastic canvas master) She was tweeting in-progress pictures of her adorable robot throughout the day, and when the final piece was revealed, I was completely smitten. Rumor […]
Mechanical sculpter Nik Ramage, in collaboration with Laikingland, created Fingers Mk II, a kinetic sculpture of fingers drumming, driven by a DC motor and a pair of AA batteries (included). [via designboom]
Cubelets are a robotic construction system from Modular Robotics. Using color coded cube modules, a maker can create a robot from snap together pieces that contain sensors, logic circuits, or “actions”. When attached together, the modules communicate via i/o built into the connector. Cubelets seem like they’d be the perfect introduction to robotics because you could easily get started creating robots without having to pick up a soldering iron.
Photos of Steve Lodefink’s cool Pinewood Derby Racer
