I tell you what. You never quite know what you’ll find on Kickstarter from week to week. Sure, we’ve seen 3D printers and the like, but there’s definitely no lack of sweet tech toys and gadgets. We look at two this week that are sure to capture your sense of office pranking and treasure hunting.
Win it!
Guess which one you can use on a daily basis to cure your frustration and angst (read: shoot things at other people) and you’ll be entered to win one after the product is shipped! Hit the comments to enter and tell us how you’ll use it!
Desktop Ballista
It’s war in the office. Somebody has been stealing your cupcakes from the fridge. You suspect it’s the mail clerk with the tell-tale mark of icing on your mail… or your cubicle-mate who plays (and sways his shoulders) to Yani WAY TOO PASSIONATELY. What do you do? Crumple an TPS report and chuck it at their heads? NO. You’re a better person than that. Chivalrous. Daring. Mechanically-inclined. So you open your desk and pull out… your Desktop Ballista. Load. Aim. FIRE. And hope you don’t get fired as well. Even though the ammo doesn’t pierce the skin, the Desktop Ballista is an awesome design and is accepting funding to teach and recreate this miniature version of the ancient Roman weapon until July 17th!
OpenROV
So maybe you don’t want to shoot toothpicks – maybe you’d rather be searching for sunken treasure. That’s exactly why we have the OpenROV. OpenROV is a small, open-source submersible design from Eric Stackpole, David Lang and Bran Sorem that allows you to explore the watery depths from the comfort of your computer screen. Complete with camera, controllers and a solid mechanical design, the OpenROV is a solid machine capable of hitting 20 meters underwater, moving at 1 m/s and travelling through fresh and salt waters. There’s also plenty of attachment points and room to attach your own cameras, lights or harpoon system. The aim of the Kickstarter campaign is to make everyone an ocean explorer and to divert the profits into improving the design. Look out Alvin, there’s a new sub in town! Campaign has hit its target already (303% already!) with plenty of time to spare with an August 1st deadline. $775 or more will get you a DIY kit: Lasercut parts, motors, arduino. No pirate flag though. This is for Science, not skulduggery! Check out their website as well at OpenROV.com.
