Remake

Remote controlled shoulder puppets

Remote controlled shoulder puppets

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.

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Google has a Great Glass Elevator; they call it “Liquid Galaxy”

Google has a Great Glass Elevator; they call it “Liquid Galaxy”

.all of a sudden, flying around in Google Earth really felt like flying, and exploring the ocean trenches was like piloting a submarine. When you splashed through the sea surface you cringed slightly, expecting to get wet. You could even command your own lander down to the Moon or Mars…With the Liquid Galaxy, we could fly through the Grand Canyon, leap into low-Earth orbit, and come back down to perch on the Great Pyramid of Giza without even breaking a sweat.

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POV ping-pong paddles

POV ping-pong paddles

Here’s a clever idea I’d love to see liberated from its high-design context by the maker community: Sports equipment with integral POV displays. These ping pong paddles by Troika are an interesting start, but there’s all kinds of other onomatopoetic possibilities, like, say, baseball bats or tennis rackets that leave a glowing WHACK! in the air when you hit the ball. Personally, I want a set of boxing gloves that provide Batman-style comic book POW! and BAM! captions when I punch things. [via adafruit]

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Clever grabby robo-hook

Clever grabby robo-hook

Reportedly this cam-actuated, weight-activated grabbing hook from designer Stefan Bennedahl “makes it easy to hang things like towels that tend to fall off hooks,” which I’m willing to buy into if for no other reason than that it looks like a heckuva lot of fun to use. Design Within Reach actually lives up to its name with these, which are only $10 apiece.

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Lamp brightens as heated oil melts, clarifies

Lamp brightens as heated oil melts, clarifies

The Slow Glow lamp, by NEXT architects for trendy Dutch design collective Droog, is a really simple, cool idea: The bulb is surrounded by a blob of a low-melting point oil (soya oil) that clarifies as the bulb melts it and thus causes the light to gradually brighten over the course of a couple hours as it is turned on. As you can see, it’s just a cork ring, a lamp kit with a tubular bulb, and a few bits of lab glass. But they want $790 US for it from their online store. Which, by the way, is one of those annoying pages that disables right-clicking. Gonna add this one to my personal re-make pile.

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Maker Birthdays: Harry Partch

Born on this date in 1901, American composer Harry Partch (Wikipedia) made music he wrote himself, in a tonal system he designed himself, on instruments he designed, and built, himself. He is largely responsible for the build-your-own-instruments craze that began in the 70s and continues to influence modern performers like The Blue Man Group and, oh, what’s his name…that cigar-box guitar guy…Mark something? Partch died in 1974, aged 73. American Public Media has a great online gallery of Partch’s instruments, including “virtual” versions you can play yourself in a Flash application.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan