Haley Who, as liaison for the Seabat family, guides the Mechanical Swam Kirin around Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. According to Haley’s story, Evrin Seabat spotted a Swamp Kirin in Japan and brought back documentation of it. His son Seth wanted one for himself, but since it would be impossible to have one of his own, his older sister Halo created a mechanical version for him.
Joe and John DiPrima’s ArcAttack! is a performance group that creates electrifying melodies by controlling the frequency sweep on their solid state Tesla coil. This is accompanied by a full drum set that’s controlled electrically through a series of rotary solenoids.
Make: Live episode 18 featured makers in MAKE v28, the toys & games issue! Onyx Ashanti performs and talks Xbees and sensors, and Michael Colombo explains his reflective improvement to flashlight tag. David Harris made Charlie’s bear (above), originally designed for his nephew with cerebral palsy. It’s a location aware plush toy with an embedded RFID reader, speaker, Arduino and wave shield to play sounds when it interacts with objects.
Lisa Pongrace’s cupcake cars are powered by electric motors, and evolved from a costume idea for Burning Man. After building the first prototype, her friends wanted their own mobile muffins and helped create a fleet of confectionery art cars, now known as Acme Muffineering.
The Uira Engine is a part of the guts from the Raygun Gothic Rocket Ship, which now resides in San Francisco’s Embarcadero. For Maker Faire Bay Area 2011, the engine was displayed by its designer, Alan Rorie. The engine consists of a series of cylinders that slowly rotate while emitting capacitive discharge that’s pleasing to the eye. Parts of this were handmade as well as produced from a CNC, and provided an important visual component to the rocket ship.
Jon Cox shows the Nor Cal Mars Rover Project at Maker Faire Bay Area 2011. This group of enthusiasts is dedicated to furthering the cause of making manned missions to Mars with the possibility of colonization in the future. NASA approached the group to design and build a prototype for a future Mars mission.
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The R2D2 Builder’s Club brings one of the world’s most beloved fictional robots to life. Steve Simmons and his hobby roboticist club use fabrication, programming, and remote controls to build exact replicas of R2D2. Their R2’s are quirky friends who roamed Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 delighting everyone they encountered.
