Tag Archives: Interactive

Creepy Articulated Finger Extensions Are Nightmare Fuel

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Because why not make every day Halloween, HELIAN is selling these 3D Printed Flexible Finger Extensions on Amazon (affiliate link). The gloves feature long articulated fingers reminiscent of Freddy Krueger’s that triple the length of your existing fingers, presumably so you can reach the television remote without straining yourself. Or at least that’s how I plan on using them.

The fingers can be individually posed in any position, and if you don’t pose the middle finger flipping one of the longest birds I’ve ever seen, clearly, you’ve missed the point of these gloves entirely. Alternatively, cover the gloves with faux fur and pretend you’re a werewolf. Either way, I’ll be sure to keep my distance from the crazy person with the finger claws.

Whatever you do, if you see someone wearing a pair of finger-extending gloves, DO NOT ask for a back scratch. I made that mistake, and now I can’t even look at a fingernail without flinching – which particularly sucks because I have ten of them and spend all day typing, so my workday is pretty much just one long flinchfest now. You’d think I’d seen a ghost! Granted, I really have before, but that’s unrelated.

A 3D Printed Playstation Controller Mod to Play Entirely One-Handed

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Because gaming should be all-inclusive, inventor Akaki Kuumeri has created a snap-on attachment for Playstation 4 DualShock controllers that allow a player to operate all the peripheral’s buttons one-handed. The mod, which is constructed entirely from 3D printed pieces, even enables the use of the right thumbstick (typically for adjusting camera view) by moving the whole controller around a hinged pivot resting against your leg. Now that’s a clever design.

The right-side trigger buttons can also be operated with the left hand thanks to an extending arm, with a design that allows both the R2 and L2 triggers to be pressed at once, as is often necessary for first-person shooters. Akari has the 3D printing model files available for free download over at PrusaPrinters, with the default being a left-handed model. To make a right-handed model, just mirror all the pieces before printing. Of course, this is assuming you’ve already completed step one of the whole process: buying a 3D printer.

Not only is this a great opportunity for gamers with hand-related disabilities, but also for those of us who want to multitask while gaming. Like being able to snack or test. I mean, it never hurts to multitask. Except while driving, then it can hurt the worst. Eyes on the road!

[via TechEBlog]

Virtual Reality Boots Promise an Even More Immersive Experience

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What good is virtual reality if it can still be distinguished from actual reality? So companies are hard at work trying to make the VR experience as immersive as possible. And one of those companies is Ekto One, which is developing a pair of VR boots that allow a user to actually walk without moving forward. Soon we won’t even have to go outside to experience life!

The boots work via a motion tracking system that keeps tabs on the boots’ movement and location and wheels that return the user to their starting position after each step. The Ekto Ones allow a user the sensation of walking in virtual reality without the need of a bulky and difficult-to-move omnidirectional treadmill so that you could bring virtual reality with you virtually anywhere.

Of course, the boots come with their own drawbacks, including taking five minutes to put on and being awkward and weighty enough that early testers have described 20 minutes of use as a workout itself. Granted, I already consider twenty minutes of regular walking a workout, so I’m really not sure what their point is there.

[via dornob]

Death Star Ball Bearing Maze: That’s No Moon

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Because who hasn’t ever dreamed of participating in the Battle of Yavin (aka the Battle of the Death Star), Paladone has created this Death Star Maze. Sure it’s absolutely nothing like flying an X-wing and battling the Galactic Empire but use your imagination. A lot of it. Use every last bit of your imagination, and then some.

Available from Entertainment Earth, the $17 maze consists of the upper half of a Death Star with a transparent outer shell and plastic labyrinth inside and a small ball bearing to guide towards the super laser in a full 360-degrees of getting lost and frustrated. Or, if you’re really using your imagination, as I suggested, you can pretend the ball bearing is an ion torpedo, and you’re trying to guide it through a thermal exhaust port leading to the reactor core. I’ll even call you Luke Skywalker if it helps in this little fantasy of yours.

Tried solving the maze but struggling to finish? No problem, do you own a hammer? When all else fails, smack it with a hammer – that’s one of my mottos. Along with ‘You can never have enough duct tape,’ and ‘Honey, have you seen the Band-Aids?’

Thee-Eyed Goat Ouija Board Is Demon-Summoning Ready

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Laser carved with an original design created by Denver artist Matt Verges, this three-eyed goat Ouija board is just the thing you need to finally make contact with the demon world. Presumably, in an attempt to have them do your bidding, only to be tricked and your soul enslaved for all eternity. Trust me; I have regrets.

Available from Matt’s Etsy store for $230, the 12″ x 18″ x 0.5″ board is made from ash wood and includes an equally detailed planchette (pointer), so you can actually understand what the demons are trying to tell you. Rest assured, I happen to know they’re quite familiar with the English language. I… have regrets. Did I say that already?

I remember growing up, my best friend had a Ouija board, and we’d play with it late at night during sleepovers. Now, looking back, I have to laugh to not cry at how foolish we were, wielding such incredibly dark power so willy-nilly from the comfort of our blanket fort. Honestly, I feel it’s terribly irresponsible of Hasbro to even sell Ouija boards to anyone who isn’t at least 400 years and/or an undead warlock looking to finally escape the mortal realm.

[via The Awesomer]

Amagami Ham Ham, A Plushie That Nibbles Your Fingers

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Amagami Ham Ham is a plush toy that nibbles the end of your fingers when you stick them in its mouth. Apparently, that’s supposed to be comforting. Personally, I find that the opposite of comforting, but that’s just me, and I was raised on a crocodile farm. There was no nibbling, only death or dismemberment.

Recently on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022 in Las Vegas, the 8-inch Amagami Ham Ham (Amagami means soft bite in Japanese, and ham means bite as well) will be available in both dog (Kotaru) and cat (Yuzu) varieties, so you can have your fingers nibbled by your pet of choice. They feature 24 different bite styles, which they deliver at random, including “Tasting HAM, Holding Tight HAM, and Massaging HAM.” I… don’t like the sound of any of those.

Yukai Engineering and Liv Heart Corporation, the companies responsible for the toy, plan to go live with a crowdfunding campaign in early 2022, so stay tuned to the official website if you’re interested. Still, I think we can all agree Teddy Ruxpin did it first, even if it was accidental. Sure he may have just been trying to read me a bedtime story, but that didn’t stop me from jamming my fingers in his mouth trying to get him to stutter. He never did miss a beat, though; I’ll give him that.

[via DigitalTrends]

Lickable Monitor Tastes Like What’s on Screen: Willy Wonka, Here We Come!

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Because some people still care about making the future we all dreamed about as kids a reality, professor Homei Miyashita at Meiji University in Japan has developed a monitor that can imitate on-screen flavors, appropriately naming it Taste The TV (TTTV). I just licked my own old television set to test it, but it appears to be a regular TV and not a TTTV. Tastes like static.

Using a carousel of ten different flavor canisters, the TTTV can mix the basic flavor building blocks in different proportions to create a variety of tastes, which it dispenses via spray on a hygienic film overlaying a flatscreen. But do the snozzberries really taste like snozzberries?

Miyashita estimates a retail version would cost around $835 to produce, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see them in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog before next Christmas. I only hope they figure out what taste an explosion leaves in your mouth so they can make action movies that much more real.

[via 9gag]

Foot Operated Toilet Piano for Crappy Concertos

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Because why shouldn’t I add a bit of piano accompaniment to the natural percussion I produce on the toilet, FireBox is selling this $18 Toilet Piano. The foot-operated piano features a full octave of keys (13 – 8 white, 5 black) so I can vainly attempt to cover the sounds I’m making in the bathroom while party guests knock on the door and politely ask me to hurry up. I hate being rushed!

The roll-out Toilet Piano is powered by 3 AAA batteries and includes both a songbook and ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ sign to let the rest of your family know that your private music lessons are currently in session, and it’s probably best not to enter the bathroom for another thirty minutes after they’ve concluded. Good lord, light a match or something!

Obviously, I plan on recreating the scene at FAO Schwarz from Big where Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia play ‘Heart and Soul’ and ‘Chopsticks’ on the giant foot piano, except in my own bathroom. Now, I just need to find a partner…

With moving magnetic beads, this interactive office organizer is a cool replacement of your to-do list!

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Rowrow is an interactive organizing system built as a desk appliance with magnetic beads that indicate how far you’ve come on any given task.

Keeping track of daily tasks can sometimes feel like a second job. Organizing multiple schedules at once and keeping tabs on each task’s progress isn’t always as easy as it seems. Still, we have our own ways of making sure we’re on top of it.

Some use smartphone reminders, while some prefer physical calendars to jot down each day’s schedule. Industrial designer, Jiwon Song created their own organization device called Rowrow, an interactive office appliance that keeps tabs on every one of your tasks with tiny magnetic beads.

Rowrow is a decently sized organizing system that employs magnetic beads to slide along long progress rows that are punctuated by percent markers to indicate how far you’ve come from the start of any given task. When users first embark on a task, they can write the task’s name on a slip of paper that adheres to the starting point of one of five progress rows.

From there, as users move through their days and get their tasks taken care of, magnetic beads move from one percentage marker to the next to visually track each task’s progress as it comes. Once a task has been completed, the magnetic beads drop into the hourglass on the opposite end of Rowrow–a satisfying way to wrap up the day.

Constructed from acrylic and magnets, Rowrow measures 260x60x120mm and won’t take up more space on your desk than a few notebooks might. With more work taking place at home, keeping track of work responsibilities gets even trickier. With Rowrow, staying on top of our schedules will feel more doable than ever, and watching the magnetic beads sink into the hourglass will feel just as good as crossing out the task on your To-Do list.

Designer: Jiwon Song

Once the given task has been completed, the user sinks the corresponding magnetic bead into the hole and down the hourglass.

With a minimalist look made up of mostly black and white colors, Rowrow fits onto any home or office desk.

Rowrow’s foggy coating gives the appliance a discreet look. 

Storing all of the magnetic beads on a glass plate outside of the hourglass gives the desk a classic touch.

The post With moving magnetic beads, this interactive office organizer is a cool replacement of your to-do list! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This bamboo pavilion is an interactive design that transforms a rural landscape into a social hub!

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Bamboo Pavilion by LIN Architecture is a rural construction project in Chongming that transformed an empty grassy landscape into a dynamic interactive hub in hopes of promoting socialization between visitors and residents alike.

Every big city has its quiet, eclectic, rural counterpart. Brooklynites take short train rides upstate to Hudson, where they visit flea markets for handcrafted goods and knitwear. Then, Los Angelenos drive east to find their zen and a few grassy hikes in Ojai.

In Shanghai, tourists and local residents escape the city heat for Chongming, a low-lying island brimming with sweeping nature preserves and thriving forests. Settling on one of several rural spaces in Chongming, the team from LIN Architecture developed an architectural structure called Bamboo Pavilion designed as a social hub for the island’s residents and visitors.

Relying on one of the strongest construction materials available, Bamboo Pavilion was realized by the architects from LIN, along with designers and students from across the globe, reinstating the Pavilion’s main purpose of bringing people from all walks of life together to share a moment interacting with artfully architectural spaces.

During the day, the Bamboo Pavilion reflects sunlight off its naturally glazed coat. Then, come dark, the Bamboo Pavilion glimmers with golden light from the inside, out, implying a sort of lantern in the night that shines for and attracts tourists filled with wanderlust.

Much of what makes rural construction projects so intriguing for designers and guests comes with the transformation of ‘empty’ space into ‘active’ space. LIN’s Bamboo Pavilion in Chongming turns to free-flowing shapes and lively jungle gym-like architecture to morph the island’s grassland into a hub of social activity and curiosity.

Turning a rural lot’s available space into an interactive architectural pavilion allows visitors to understand familiar landscapes in exciting, new ways. As the designers behind LIN put it, “Interactions between family members or strangers are realized by the space enticing people to break boundaries. People spend their time resting, talking, and transiting around this installation.”

Designer: LIN Architecture

LIN’s architectural vision was realized with the help of designers and students from across the globe!

During the day, the Bamboo Pavilion creates changing light blocks and shadows for a reflective, dynamic display.

From above, the Bamboo Pavilion evokes curiosity and wonder. 

Children and tourists alike can enjoy interacting with this rural landscape in new ways while socializing with one another. 

The post This bamboo pavilion is an interactive design that transforms a rural landscape into a social hub! first appeared on Yanko Design.