Monster Chess

June 14, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 24 Comments

Over 100,000 Lego pieces, 4 people a year to create, and a 12 foot by 12 foot chess board make this the largest most awesome Lego hack we’ve ever seen. Take that Lego Printer.

For a mere $30,000 you too can have such a setup. Not a lot of information is out yet, but we do know all the pieces are remote controlled via a PC with LabVIEW and a total of 38 NXT controllers are used. Oh, and of course you can see it live at the 2010 Brickworld. Check out a video of a replayed game after the jump.

[via Geekologie]

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Distance Measurement Input Device

June 14, 2010 by Mike Szczys 8 Comments

[Larry] put a different spin on a television remote control. He used an Arduino and an IR receiver to learn the codes from the factory remote. Now that he can use an IR LED to playback these signals he worked on an alternative to pressing buttons as the input. The ultrasonic range finder seen above allows him to wave his hand in front of the device to change channels and alter the volume levels. Check it out after the break.

There are many other ways that gestures could be used with this system, including a laser based input method. We’d like to see [Larry’s] system incorporated into a coffee table of some kind, as long as there was an opening for the range finder to work.

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Radio-Walkman-megaphone Hybrid

June 14, 2010 by Mike Szczys 10 Comments

[Erich] rethought the use of a megaphone and ended up with this Mega-Tape-O-Phone. His first move was to ditch the megaphone’s amplifying circuitry in order to add his own based on an LM386 chip. From there a radio receiver joined the party followed by the guts of a tape player. He relocated the head of the tape deck to the end of a flexible cable and coated the outside of the megaphone bell with magnetic tape. Now he’s surfing the airwaves and scratching away happily.

The use of the tape head has been seen here before, but it was never in a mobile package like this is. Join us after the break for some video of this in action.

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Ground Your Car To Make It Go

June 14, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 27 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFb5_mKfnR8]

This security system called G-spot requires that you touch a special place on the car prior to attempting to start it. This is pretty slick as it could be completely un-obvious and doesn’t require any special fobs or minor surgery. With the right placement, no one would ever notice that you had touched it.

[via HackedGadgets]

Electro Luminescent Fun With Jeri Ellsworth

June 14, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 25 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuDZnJX5kqw]

[Jeri] got her hands on some of the DuPont Luxprint EL ink and had some fun conducting experiments. She tried different materials for the base and the display itself. Not only does she just play with materials, she also tears apart a VFD and an LCD to see if she could use them for parts. The LCD turned out to be the most successful. We saw this stuff show up at the Bay Area Maker Faire and we’re excited to see it become more accessible.

[via Makezine]

World’s Slowest Porsche, Still Faster Than My Car

June 13, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 51 Comments

Well, maybe the title is not so true. This “Porsche” GT3‘s construction is a bit unorthodox, the chassis looks to be aluminum tubing, with bicycle tires and other man-powered parts for propulsion. The body is entirely plastic and tape, yeah…gold…foil…tape. Hey, when you really really want to turn someones head.

Regardless, the car even comes complete with working lights, horn, doors, trunk, and lexan windows. Sure it will never go 0 to 60 (yet), but the mileage is amazing! Follow an amusing video of it after the rift.

[via OMGsoysauce]

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Toddler Android

June 13, 2010 by Mike Szczys 23 Comments

We came across a couple of videos of this toddler android. It sits up, rolls over, and responds to humans around it using visual, audio, and sensor inputs. After the break you will see that the movements are quite like that of a young child. The giveaway is the weight of the robot which is evident when its handlers trying to help it get untangled from that blanket. It seems to respond to individuals around with a smile and a twinkle of its… errr… camera eye. We wonder if it would find delight in knocking down some dominoes.

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