Unless you have the same songwriting chops as Bob Dylan, it’s probably best to stick with putting bananas on your breakfast cereal rather than pursuing them as a musical instrument. In any case, that may soon change. Ableton, makers of the hit professional music production software Live, wants users to set up new and experimental ways to interact with and extend their software with the introduction of their new Max for Live Connection Kit. When used with Arduino, littleBits, Leap Motion Controllers, LEGO Mindstorm and other technologies that make use of sensors, lights and motors, the connection kit converts a seemingly endless amount of input possibilities into usable sounds for…
As the world of IoT continues to reveal new ways of doing the same things better, certain applications have clearly been better than others. The BRIXO blocks from “lifelong restless tinkerer” and Quantum Physicist Boaz Almog is one of those few applications. Almog, who also gave a 2012 TED talk about quantum levitation, has been devoting a significant chunk of time and energy over the past couple of years to developing a building brick that is free of wires and can bring toy brick designs to life with electronic sensors, motors and connected apps. Described as “LEGO on steroids”, the BRIXO electric bricks are normal-sized chrome-coated building bricks that act…
If failed 3D prints, Futurama toys and mini-LEGO Architecture buildings just aren’t cutting it for desk toys anymore, how about replacing that valuable desktop real estate with some glowing dinoflagellates? Unlike the crudely mass manufactured plastic vessels for mail order brine shrimp (AKA Sea Monkeys), the interactive glass Dino Sphere from BioPop is a true salute to nature on par with the legendary EcoSphere closed ecosystems. As a home for thousands of dinoflagellates (tiny marine plankton), the Dino Sphere brings the natural phenomenon of bioluminescence into a vessel that can be held and “swirled” to physically agitate the plankton until they glow in response to physical stimulation. If nothing else,…
While you were tucking into Easter Breakfast or carefully organizing the Cadbury eggs in your basket this past Sunday, Henning Pedersen of Norway was delivering easter eggs via parachute with a hen mounted to a drone. It is 2016 after all. Pedersen, whose Norway-based company MAKEADRONE sells easy-to-build drone kits for kids, teachers and parents, took full advantage of Resurrection Sunday and made a YouTube video of his duocopter hen. To keep the bird afloat in the air, Pedersen outfitted the bird’s flight suit with two racing drone motors and a KK2 mini flight controller mounted to a body made from CNC cut plastic and carbon fiber rods. The result…
This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist knocks you in the pop sockets with head-boppin’ groove tuneage to help propel you through the work week in style. Whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or working that 3D geometry all day, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week we’ll start things off with “Vicious” from the one and only Lou Reed before working our way through a fresh mix of LCD Soundsystem, Toro y Moi, Air, Talking Heads and others before wrapping up with the classic “Ballade de Melody Nelson” from Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. Have suggestions? As always,…
$199 can get you a lot these days–smartphones, single-board computers, robots, a latte. Getting a 3D printer for that price usually entails assembling it yourself and is, more often than not, limited in the area of print quality. Kodama wants to change those limitations with the Trinus 3D printer, set to hit Kickstarter March 30th (9AM PST) with an early bird price of $199.