Photo by eyebeam Eyebeam recently hosted the Art Hack Weekend, which was described as, “a 2-day design and prototype party with 50 makers in attendance.” DisKinect, one of the winning projects, is a plush puppet that is “controlled simply by a person’s movements.” Users make movements in front of a Kinect system that then move […]
By Andrew Lewis When I was very young, I had a pop-up puppet toy that I would play with all the time. I only remembered the toy recently, while I was trying to figure out what to do with a stack of old machine wool cones. Not only are these fun for playtime, they’re quite […]
My significant other was recently given one of these Woodbaby shoulder puppets by a friend of hers who frequents renaissance faires, where the Woodbaby is a popular commodity. The puppet features a strong magnet in its base that mates with a curved metal “shoulder plate” that goes under your clothing and keeps the figure firmly perched on your shoulder. The mechanical control cable (which, per this thread discussing a DIY version, are R/C airplane control surface push-rods) runs to a simple controller that can be concealed in a pocket and manipulated to make the figure turn its head and look around in a surprisingly life-like manner. More elaborate versions have additional controls like wings and blinking, light-up eyes. Flickr user JeffreyWiden made his own. Would be cool to see an electronic version with a wireless control fob.
There’s something both serene and at the same time playful about this paper mache and fabric rabbit puppet, by Arounna Khounnoraj (Toronto) on BloesemKids. I’d love to watch the puppet show this fellow stars in.
Walking through a parking lot and coming across a handmade car seat cover that looked like this would totally make my day! Becky of Beck’s Blog crocheted this car seat cover of Severus Snape, one of the characters in the Harry Potter series. She explains that she was influenced by Neil Cicierega’s Potter Puppet Pals, […]
Guilherme Martins built this “talkie walkie” in response to a challenge to build a robot using only one servo. It responds to sound in real time, automatically controlling the movements of a lip-syncing paper mouth. [via Hack a Day]
Sparky the art-robot responds to air quality, movement, and touch by collapsing his body in relative amounts – indicating quality of environment. Sparking responds negatively to: carbon monoxide, cigarette smoke, alcohol, too much dark lighting, hitting and yelling. Any of the above factors (depending on severity) makes Sparky drop it’s head and tail, whimper, and […]
