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2012/01/03

[MAKE Magazine - daily] - MAKE

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News From The Future – Your Tukus Will Start Your Car

111221-Carseat2

Anti-Theft Car Seat Identifies Driver With 360 Sensors @ Mobile Magazine.

With all the advances in technology, anti-theft measures for automobiles really haven’t moved along at the same pace. If someone steals your car remote, they can get in, start your car, and drive off with it. There has to be a better way to protect your vehicle from theft and that’s exactly why some researchers in Japan have come up with a way to use your butt as a protective measure.

98% accurate for identifying drivers.

 


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The Zombie Hammer, Now with Skull Ejector

Slingshot artificer Jörge Sprave is at it again. This time he’s made a vicious slingshot (no surprise there), but with a second business end — a deadly counter-weighted spike, aka the Zombie Hammer. Ever the thoughtful weaponeer, Jörge added a handled lever to disengage the weapon from zombie-skull after a blow. Don’t worry, he promises to only use his weapon on the undead.

The Slingshot Channel

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Superglue: AMA-Recognized Maker Ouch-Aid

Firefly Workshop’s Craig Smith described how he seals small wounds with the help of superglue:

I read that the American Medical Association now recognizes superglue as a medical aid. For cuts that are deep, but not requiring stitches, or in an area where stitches are tricky, superglue is used. Funny thing was that I had been aware of this trick several years earlier. It annoyed me that even with a band-aid, I had a wound that would not close and healing time was slow. So now I gently clean the wound with anti-bacterial soap, rinse and dry. With a drop of glue on a piece of plastic (paper will absorb it) I hold the wound closed and drag a bit of glue on a toothpick across the cut. Two or three 'stitches' across the cut does the job. Do not go along with the cut. Do not totally seal the cut. Amazingly, heal time is a day or two. And best part is you can go back to your project almost immediately after your boo-boo.

You’re probably better off consulting an actual doctor than a blog post, so if you get an ouchie, be safe!

 


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Best of MAKE: My Ten For 2011

I took some free time over the break to review the stuff I covered last year and pick out about 50 personal faves. Then I went back through that list and produced this highly unscientific “Top 10″ by bubble sort. Looking at it, now, I’ve learned some things about my own taste:

  1. I like projects that do a lot with a little.
  2. I like projects that use familiar materials and processes in new, unexpected, and/or clever ways.
  3. I like scratchbuilt models of giant guns that shoot nuclear bullets.

Except, perhaps, for #3, I know I’m not alone on these, and I think you’ll enjoy looking over this list as much as I enjoyed making it. Thanks, as always, for reading and here’s looking forward to another great year!

#10

Small Screw Top Capsules from Plastic Bottle Caps, Necks

I went a little nuts making these, and now have about a dozen. I knew it was time to move on when I found myself choosing beverages at the grocery store based on the shape and color of their bottle caps.


#9

Lemon Hand Grenades

I made something very like these myself, once, but using a piece of real fruit. Also, I like the idea of taking something as generally tasteless and useless as fake fruit and making it into something, while perhaps equally useless, is at least 400% cooler.


#8

HKC-pot-rick-wilderness-survival-forum.jpg

How-To: Ultralight Camp Pot from Heineken “Keg” Can

One of several “upcycling” posts that appear in this list, though I now rather cringe to use that word. I’m as green as the next guy, but I’ve figured out that I like projects like this not because they are somehow “eco-friendly,” but because it’s cheap to make stuff out of trash, and because doing so imposes a lot of constraints that force you to come up with clever solutions. And once you’ve figured it out, it’s easy for pretty much anyone else, anywhere, to go and do likewise.


#7

Scratchbuilt: M65 Atomic Cannon

See rule #3, above.


#6

Car Tire Pottery Wheel


#5

Circuit Tree

I’ve always wanted to design a PCB where the traces were both functional, within the circuit, and also arranged to create a pleasing visual design. This “Circuit Tree” etching is non-functional, but it’s headed in the right direction.


#4

Ultra Simple 360 Degree Photo Hack

A reflective tree ornament, a digital camera, and a piece of open source software combined to enable one-shot panoramic photographs using materials most folks probably have just lying around.


#3

How-To: Form Fitting Case, Drawer Liners from Old T-shirts, Canned Foam


#2

Harvard’s $14 Swarm Bot Design

We are constantly talking about this “Kilobot” low-cost swarm robot design in our weekly conference calls. Swarm robotics is a fascinating area, but when it comes to real-world applications that require hundreds or thousands of identical robots, cost per unit becomes a huge problem. Designing the most useful and versatile swarm-bot for the lowest possible cost is exactly the kind of problem I like.


#1

Pico Projector + Light Fixture + Free Code = Desktop Spherical Display

This post was inspirational to me in a lot of ways. The marriage of Gorillapod, Pico Projector, and ceiling light fixture globe to create a desktop spherical display is a pretty brilliant improvisation. Plus it makes a great excuse to buy one of those pocket video projectors.

 

Skylanders Fish Sculpt

MAKE contributor I-Wei Huang, aka “Crabfu,” sent us the video for this fun sculpting project he did. It depicts a taxidermied “Leviathan” fish found in the wonderful Skylanders game. I-Wei was the character designer for the game and his designs are amazing. He created this real world, wall-mounted Leviathan out of Sculpey and Shapelock (for the teeth). It hangs over his desk at work.

Leviathan taxidermy sculpt (Skylanders)

 


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These EL Wire Glasses Would be Kanye-approved

For New Years Eve, Ch00f built these EL Wire shutter shades which use an analog circuit to react to sound like a VU meter. He’s posted full build details including schematics and tips for dealing with EL Wire, which he found to be the trickiest part of the project. [via Hack A Day]

 

Drum Machine T-Shirt Brings Chest-Thumping to the Next Level

Not only is the Electronic Drum Machine T-Shirt a playable piece of clothing, but it has 63 different sounds that can be mixed, matched, and looped into the complex beat of your choosing. It comes with a mini amplifier that clips onto your pants and even goes up to 11.

If you’re looking to get your chest poked at parties and then dance in celebration, this might just be the shirt for you. [via ThinkGeek]

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Fab Lab Boombox

MIT student Matthew Keeter designed and built this sweet little portable music player for his final project in Neil Gershenfeld’s famous How to Make (almost) Anything class. The case, a union of three octagonal prisms, is laser-cut from 5.2mm plywood, and features a five-”button” capacitive touch-sensing control panel. The music is stored on an SD card, loaded in the back of the player. The PCB is two-sided, and was cut with a robot PCB mill.  All source files are provided.

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Printable Robotic Hand


Version three of Thingiverse user armjunkie’s Robotic Hand improves over the original with fewer non-printable parts, less plastic to print, less sanding, and requires less pull force to move.

 

MAKE Flickr Pool Holiday Roundup

It’s been two weeks since we last visited the MAKE Flickr pool, and the long break (together with a lot of free time for a lot of clever, creative people with a lot of great new toys) has left it fairly bursting with great shots—even moreso than usual, which is hard enough to do justice in just seven selections. As usual, I’m going to try to hit some of the best project photography in standalone posts during the week, so if you’re disappointed to see your fantastic Flickr submissions missing from those gathered below,  please bear with me and stay tuned.  And thanks, as always, for sending ‘em along.

Bamboo lasercut Settlers board from hudson.


Delta Squad Family Portrait

Delta Squad Family Portrait from thorssoli.


MakerGear Prusa Mendel RepRap (In Progress)

MakerGear Prusa Mendel RepRap (In Progress) from Pete Prodoehl.


antenna topper

antenna topper from jmillerid.


Hand made Brake lever

Hand made Brake lever from Hufnagel Cycles.


Two Gears

Two Gears from 3D King.


Shawn Thorsson Soldering

Shawn Thorsson Soldering from thorssoli.

 




 
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