This self-balancing robot was designed and built by Kerry Wong and uses just a few ICs and some basic electronic components to get the job done. This project is definitely more up your alley if you’re interested in using discrete components rather than a microcontroller designed for prototyping, but the cost in doing it this way makes it attractive. 
From Kerry’s site: I used a LPY450AL for the gyroscope and anMMA8453Q for the accelerometer. These two devices are rather inexpensive and the IMU can be built for well under $10. The toy truck I used for this project has a single motor that drives both of the rear wheels. Since I only need the drive wheels, I cut off the unused front portion. The toy car's plastic chassis is not rigid enough so I hot-glued a few pieces of plastic and metal support on the back. The extra support is important as excessive vibrations affect the accuracy of the sensor measurements. Here is the bill of material in my build: Platform: Toy truck (0 – $20)
Controller: ATmega328P (~$4)
Accelerometer: MMA8453Q (~$2)
Gyroscope: LPY450AL ($4)
H-Bridge: SN754410 (~$2)
Miscellaneous: ~$10
[via Hacked Gadgets] More:          
Manchester-based design and advertising firm LOVE Labs created a real-time collaborative digital drawing game, called Doodlr. With the help of Socket.IO and node.js we wrote a server application (we like to call this "Mo") that bridges the gap between smartphone web browsers and real-time, multi-user experiences. Doodlr is our first idea built using Mo.
They tested Doodlr out using the shop window of MadLab, a maker space in the Northern Quarter of Manchester. Participants connected through a smartphone browser via URL or QR code. Then they had 12 seconds to draw whatever prompt was on-screen: “heart,” “ghetto,” “mullet,” etc. As they drew, the drawing instantly showed up in the shop window, with a maximum of 6 artists drawing in the same drawing space at a time (each person was assigned a different “ink” color). Once the 12 seconds had elapsed, the drawing was saved and posted to a Flickr gallery. “The thing that’s really exciting about this is the fact that it’s so instant. We’re not asking anyone to download an app, or even log in in to a specific Wifi network – Doodlr works in the browser, and over 3G,” says Graeme Rutherford, creative digital strategist at LOVE.           
Tacocopter has been trending for awhile, now, but I wanted to hold off on covering it until the hype wore off a bit and a more sober analysis appeared. And now it has, thanks to Huffington Post reporter Jason Gilbert, who got an interview with MIT Personal Robots Group alum Star Simpson, one of three brains behind behind the project, and heard it straight from the horse’s mouth: For now, at least, Tacocopter is more stunt than startup. Simpson told HuffPost that because of the FAA’s regulations — as well as other minor problems, like navigating the treacherous terrain of an urban environment, keeping the food warm, finding a city map precise enough to avoid crashes 100 percent of the time, avoiding birds, balconies and telephone wires, delivering food to people indoors, delivering food to the right person, dealing with greedy humans who would just steal the Tacocopter as soon as it got to them, etc. — the Tacocopter website exists more as a conversation starter about the future of food delivery (and delivery in general), as well as about the commercial uses of unmanned vehicles, than an actual startup plan or business.
The “Lobstercopter” graphic (“Taco Of The East!”) at the bottom right corner of the Tacocopter page is another strong clue, IMHO. [Thanks, Rachel!] Tacocopter Aims To Deliver Tacos Using Unmanned Drone Helicopters More:          | |
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