Two things set this Sega Hitokara karaoke machine apart from the rest: it's connected to a cloud-based database of 43,000 songs via mobile phone and it's got a whirling, light-up mirrored disco ball. Ohboyyes. Granted you'd have to be a fan of both karaoke (you strange person) and cheesy disco lighting, but what the heck—it's a neat gizmo, with built-in mic and speakers. But it only connects to special karaoke-enabled mobiles in Japan, so you'll probably not see one. Japanese disco karaoke fans can get them from December for the equivalent of around $US75 though. [Technabob via DVice]

A Japanese DIY aficionado stripped open his DS and added about 200 pieces of LED flair. The Nico Douga commenter who, amidst the sea of wwwwwwwww, suggested pairing this with the Korg DS-10 (which is now available, by the way)--I'm feeling you on that. The action starts, appropriately, at 4:20. [Kotaku]

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If you go to the Netherlands--where I was last week, visiting Philips--remember to go to WATT in between visits to all those Coffee Shops, a club in which you can get drunk, dance, and maybe snog someone while actually helping to save the planet. The whole disco has been designed to save energy and carbon emissions, starting with its power-generating dance floor.

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For those of you who're into a little bit of creative electronics as well as fancying yourself as a bit of a mean DJ, this DIY laser light show may be just the thing to spice up your parties. Not only will the project spray laser light around (and who doesn't like laser light shows?) but it also reacts to music, so you'll have your own laser visualiser. Check out the video to see it in action.

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The Underwater Disco Light Show is a small waterproof contraption that you chuck in the tub for a full-on psychedelic bath-time experience—although, if you want really full-on, it might help to get the hallucinogens in before you strip off your clothes and your dignity and jump in. Turn it on, and LED lights in four colours whoosh around, and there's a little button to change the pattern, as well as a weight underneath so that it doesn't upend itself. Thomas and Guy-Man of Daft Punk should put these US$15 gizmos on their Christmas wish-lists now. [Firebox]

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The International Dance Party looks like an unassuming flight box. But as soon as its radar detects people dancing, its motorised face drops to reveal two speakers running 600 watts of the world's best unfiltered Eurohouse and other assorted Electro Boogie. There's an LED sign that displays a message in 20 languages: That message is simply "Dance." And the more intense the party gets, the greater the effects, eventually culminating in a light show with disco ball, siren, ground effects and fog, creating an infinite loop of more fog, more techno, more siren, and therefore more dancing, and then the radar picks it up and then you've got more disco, and then more fog, and then more techno, and then more dance I'm so tired I can't stop partying my legs won't stop feeling the beat. After everyone collapses, the box returns to its docile flight case status. But really, it's hard to explain how incredible this machine is, unless you watch the video:

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In an idea that's pretty much identical to MITs plan to install energy-mooching floors in places like malls and airports, Enviu, a Netherlands-based research group, has proposed creating a nightclub that generates energy from the dancers within. Sections of floor would depress 2 cm when people stepped on them, generating energy to run the lights, smoke machine, and boot-bass subs. Sounds like an invitation to a whole lot of twisted ankles, but that's just me. A much grosser and less practical idea is using dancers' sweat to flush toilets in clubs. Splashback just got about 100 times more horrible. Ew. [Popular Mechanics]