maker faire
Gadgets
Wii Nunchuck-Controlled Beanbag Chair Makes Nacho Retrieval Easier
7:30AM Dan Nosowitz | The Beancat is a battery-powered skid-steer beanbag chair piloted by a Wii nunchuck controller, created for this year’s Bay Area Maker Faire. It looks like a pretty great way to make a fridge run without having to, well, run. [Make] More »
Gadgets
MAKE Makes Call for Makers for October Austin Faire
9:01PM Kit Eaton | We love the whacky creativity of the Maker Faire here at Giz, and all you DIY gadget enthusiasts out there will be pleased to hear MAKE has just put out a call for Makers for the upcoming Austin Faire. You’ve got until September 4th to get your application in, and the faire itself will be happening October 18th and 19th at the Travis County Expo Centre. [MakerFaire via LaughingSquid] More »
Design
Wiimote Wheelchair Helps Disabled People Paint (Roughly Speaking)
1:30PM Benny Goldman | Digital Wheel Art, a wheelchair painting program to help disabled people make art was on display at the Maker Faire event in NYC tonight. Creator YoungHyun Chung was inspired to create the device after seeing children with cerebral palsy whose limited movement stifled their artistic expression. Here’s how it works, plus a video of the system in action. More »
Robots
DIY R2-D2 Is Even Better than the Real Thing
11:20PM Jesus Diaz | Chris James’ R2-D2 won four Make Magazine editors’ choice ribbons at Maker Faire and it’s easy to see why: not only does it have every detail from the original—except having a little person inside—but this one is even more charming, capable of singing the Star Wars theme, and Indiana Jones sound bites. It only needs to have a built-in projector to be absolutely perfect. We asked Chris about the obvious next step: installing sensory inputs and artificial intelligence to make it truly autonomous. His take—and another video of R2 dancing with kids at Maker Faire—after the jump.
Gadgets
Modded Violin adds Steampunk-esque Styling, One Extra String
9:22PM Gizmodo US Edition | Steampunk modding, love it or hate it, has caught on and led to everything from LCD monitors to Nerf rifles getting the treatment. And now we have this steampunk-ish modded violin, that’s seriously cut-down and gutted, and packs in tubes and wires and faux valves. Plus one extra string. More »
Robots
Video: A Robot Drawing Beautiful Stars In The Sand
11:32PM Brian Lam | Here’s a video of Sisyphus V drawing shapes in the sand using a magnetic arm on a 2-axis plotter. [Maker Faire] More »
Gadgets
Remote Plant Watering Via iPhone
4:33PM Brian Lam | Peter set up a robotic watering can to take directions from an iPhone. When Safari’s screen state goes from horizontal to vertical, it sends a status update to a webserver via javascript that sets the watering can up or down. Pretty simple but clever setup. [Maker Faire] More »
Entertainment
Quote: Would a Modern Day MacGyver Still Use a Swiss Army Knife?
9:35AM Matt Buchanan | While yesterday’s revelation at Maker Faire by MacGyver creator and real-life inspiration Lee D. Zlotoff that a MacGyver blockbuster was in the works was a pretty sweet surprise, today we asked him the most pressing MacGyver question of all: Would a modern day MacGyver still use a Swiss Army knife? [Maker Faire on Giz] More »
Toys
Wall-E Robot Toy In Action
4:38AM Brian Lam | We just saw the Wall-E toy in action, and its a pretty interesting toy (Although not US$190 worth of interesting.) The best features include fully articulating tank treads, 10 motors, audio and vision sensors, remote control by both joystick and touchpad, individual shutters on each eye, and collision detection. Wall E also has a “follow me” mode that’ll allow a Wall-E to stick to a kid or dog and track it around the house. (We would have tried it out, but it was far to noisy and crowded at Maker Faire for Wall-E to track anything or anyone reliably.) [Maker Faire and Wall-E]
Computers
