Top 10: Rube Goldberg Machines
Ever known somebody who makes things more complicated than they have to be?
Fun & Games
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for bikes, rockets, R/C vehicles, toys and other diversions.
World’s Largest Lego Great Ball Contraption
GBCs are cool because they’re built separately by many different users, then brought to a convention with the expectation that they’ll work together. I love the dizzying variety of ball-moving gadgets! This one was built by 7 Danish, Belgian, and Dutch builders with a world-record 93 mechanisms linked together. The contraption was featured at Lego […]
Kinect 3D Modeler
Austrian Kinect hacker Sebastian Pirch from 3rD-EYE in Salzburg has built a 3D modeling system using a Microsoft Kinect controller and an Arduino. Using a pair of custom soft circuit gloves to provide a mouse click, Sebastian is able to model objects in mid air, in 3D, using gestures captured by the Kinect, which are then rendered with an LCD projector. It’s a little crude now, but he’ll probably be designing flying armored suits by this time next year.
Geek Run, a Kinect game
This game, designed by Emilie Tappolet, Raphaël Munoz and Maria Beltran, involves manipulating physical cubes as if they were game controllers. Geek Run is a collaborative game prototype played with cubes and a Kinect controller programed with open frameworks and presented at the LIFT11 conferences. By moving cubes on the floor in front of the […]
Interactive Fountain Tracks Passersby
And, depending on how you position the nozzles, sprays them! More coolness from Gerry Chu, whose Kinect-based Motion Emotions I hit yesterday. Gerry’s fountain prototype has at least two Arduino Megas for brains.
Lego Minifig Volt and Ohm Meter
This Lego meter uses a microcontroller inside the case to check resistors and batteries. A PC running a .NET application displays the value and uses text to speech to say the number aloud. [Via Dangerous Prototypes]
The Cyclotrope: Amazing Bike Wheel Animation
Who would have ever thought that there were so many ways to combine cycling and persistence of vision? Here’s another cool one to add to the list: much like a zoetrope, Tim Wheatley’s Cyclotrope is a bike wheel that gives the illusion of animation when it’s being spun on camera. [via Neatorama] More: Embroidered Animation […]