Whether it’s the 1991 film The Rocketeer or any of the more recent Iron Man movies, Hollywood has been teasing us with the jet pack for years. After all—who wouldn’t want the chance to fly? As a result, dozens—if not hundreds—of dreamers have built countless prototypes in an attempt to build the most viable solution capable of safely propelling a human body through the air. More recently, UK engineer Richard Browning has been making steady progress towards realizing his own interpretation of a flying suit. https://youtu.be/JinhIHIF8Eo Rather than a traditional backpack-based jet propulsion system, Browning’s ‘Daedalus’ is a jet engine suit with independent thrusters for each limb. And while that…
Traditional speakers, the kind that sits on your bookshelf, produce sound by applying an electrical audio signal to a voice-coil, which vibrates rapidly back and forth, thus moving a diaphragm, which pushes air resulting in an audible tone. The design has not changed much over the century since the invention in 1925. However, VETR Audio, two brothers – one an engineer, the other a designer – from Phoenix, Arizona, wants to change the way audio is heard (and seen) with their PANL1 Speaker System. https://youtu.be/_iQEmpAaIw8 The speakers were designed using a 1.3mm-thick carbon-fiber panel tacked to a brushed aluminum stand, which pump-out 48-watts per channel at a frequency range of…
One of the most remarkable things about the Raspberry Pi isn’t just in what it’s capable of doing—but how affordable it is. As a result, many users never think twice about building out fun side projects—many of which are some of the best examples of the single-board computer in-use. The LEGO Macintosh Classic with e‑paper display is one of those projects. Created by programmer Jannis Hermanns as a birthday present for a friend, the Wi-Fi enabled LEGO Macintosh replica runs Docker (via resin.io) on a Raspberry Pi Zero with an e‑paper display. While it’s not quite the original Macintosh Classic of yore, it’s a spectacular example of what the Raspberry…
You know what your party DOESN’T have. The ambiance created by a bubble-pooting Deadpool. Yes, folks, this will likely go down in SolidSmack history as either the height or depth of our weekly model feature, but hey, where else can you learn about the coolest design, latest tech AND how to make a Deadpool model that poots bubbles? Yeah, that’s what I thought. You remember the Deadpool knife block? Well, that brilliance was created by the same Britt Michelsen who has now brought us the official, unofficial Bubble Breezer Deadpool – a mod of a BUB-L Breezer, a shoddy plastic toy of a man bent over, pants down, blowing bubbles…
When it comes to ‘garage inventors’, few people carry the title as well as Colin Furze. The plumber-turned-viral YouTube video star out of Stamford, Lincolnshire has created everything from the world’s fasted pram to a hoverbike in his humble UK-based garage workshop. And while he probably worries his friends and family sick, he’s showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, he’s been busy lately cranking the extreme up to 11. More recently, BBC and the Top Gear crew called upon Furze’s knack for creating insane vehicles to build a custom bumper car for the hit TV show’s resident racecar driver, The Stig. But this wasn’t your typical reimagination of…
From brewing methods to bean varieties, coffee connoisseurs have never had as many choices for their daily cup of brew as they do today. And while some may swear by the simplicity of the good old-fashioned French press, brewing technologies have been slowly seeping their way into the mainstream; be it in the form of Nespresso pods or other automated systems. Few of these pod-based systems come close to emulating the taste and flavor of pour-over coffee, however. The problem is, few people have the patience to make their own pour-over coffee at home. Enter the PERK. Originally designed for brewing the perfect cup of joe in low-gravity environments, the…