Tag Archives: Videos

Volkswagen Created a Motorized Office Chair with Car Features

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Inspired by the features found in its line of vans, Volkswagen Norway created a motorized office chair with all sorts of bells and whistles. The chair’s features include LED headlights, a seatbelt, a seat warmer, a horn, a tow hitch – even an entertainment system. So basically, an office chair that’s even nicer than my car.

The foot-pedal-operated chair has a range of about 7.5-miles and a top speed of just over 12 MPH. It also has a backup camera and proximity sensors and a touchscreen entertainment center with integrated speakers. For reference, my car has a boombox sitting in the passenger seat operated by eight D batteries.

Unfortunately for business executives with corner offices and private bathrooms, the chair isn’t actually going to be sold but was made as a marketing piece to highlight VW’s van features. Which, from what I could gather, aren’t that different than other manufacturers’ van features. Those companies didn’t put them all in an office chair, though, which is why I’m only buying VW from now on. When’s the new microbus coming out anyways?

[via New Atlas]

Man Creates Folding iPhone from an iPhone X and Motorola Razr

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Because dream it and you can achieve it, Chinese YouTuber 科技美学 has created the iPhone V, a folding iPhone he built using parts from both an iPhone X and Motorola Razr. That’s cool; I’ve also bent an iPhone before. Granted, it wasn’t on purpose, and it cost me $900 to replace, but this time I got the insurance.

The video walks through the process in which the phone was Frankenstein’d together, which looks slightly above my expertise level. And by slightly, I mean vastly. I can barely put a protective case on my phone without breaking something.

There are rumors Apple is going to release its own folding version of the iPhone. Are they true? No clue; I don’t participate in gossip. But if other phone companies are making flip phones and they’re selling, I suspect Apple will as well, then claim they invented them in the first place. When are pagers going to make a comeback?

[via MacRumors]

Autonomous Fruit-Picking Drones: Harvesting the Future

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Developed by Tevel Aerobotics, the Flying Autonomous Robot harvester is a collection of tethered drones that can pick ripe fruit from trees. The robots can analyze a piece of fruit for color and ripeness before picking it with its suction arm, being able to identify fruit from leaves or other objects. That’s good because the last thing you want is your fruit-harvesting robots to come back with a bunch of squirrels instead of apples.

The robots have already successfully been used to harvest peaches, apples, nectarines, and plums, with California-based HMC Farms, which is pleased with the results. According to HMS vice president Drew Ketelsen, “The years of work we’ve put into cultivating high-density orchards are paying off as we implement technology like Flying Autonomous Robot harvesting. This project is still in an early stage, but the future potential is very exciting.” Exciting being relative to just how thrilling you find robotic fruit harvesting to begin with, of course.

First, harvesting fruit to power the humans; next, harvesting humans to power the Matrix. It’s only a matter of time. And I don’t want to be here when it happens, just for the record. And it will happen. I’ve read a lot of robot fan fiction, and 9 out of 10 ends poorly for us fleshbags.

[via TechEBlog]

Man Installs ‘Eject Passenger’ Button Garage Door Opener in Car

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Because who hasn’t dreamed of having a James Bond-style ejector seat in their vehicle to quickly remove a passenger during an uncomfortable conversation, YouTuber Scott Prints installed a passenger ejector seat button in his vehicle. Of course, it’s not actually an ejector seat button; it’s a garage door opener. Despite that, I still want one.

The button fits in the loose change compartment of the car’s center console and features the guts of a garage door opener inside a 3D-printed case, with a milled aluminum top plate and red button. He should make an upgrade, so the button lights up and flashes when you reach a certain speed. Sorry, but it’s time for you to go!

Sure, it’s just a novelty garage door opener, but is that going to stop me from laughing maniacally and telling my passenger I’ve got them right where I want them before pointing at the red button? It is not. “Say hello to the sun for me!” I imagine joking before accidentally running over a parking curb because I thought the car was in reverse.

[via Hackaday]

Man Creates Marble Dropper With 1 Millisecond Accuracy

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Creating marble machines that produce music when the balls hit objects, Martin Molin of the band Wintergatan (which I’m pretty sure is just him and his machine) knows precision ball-dropping is of utmost importance. So he developed this ball gate that can release his musical marbles with a standard timing deviation of just 1.46 milliseconds. That’s 1.46 thousandths of a second, or, in layman’s time, pretty damn accurate.

In the video, Martin demonstrates what 1.46 milliseconds sounds like to the naked ear, then delayed 10, 20, and 50ms until you can actually detect a noticeable difference. So yeah, it’s safe to say the machine drops those balls when it’s supposed to. Below is a video of the sort of insane machine Martin needs, such a precision marble-dropping gate to power.

Hey, everybody needs a hobby. And if your hobby happens to make beautiful music, all the better. But if your hobby happens to make a bunch of deafening noise in the garage and start the occasional fire, well, welcome to my life. My wife says I should take up reading or painting instead of trying to build a rocket.

[via hackaday]

LEGO Ferris Wheel Great Ball Contraption

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Designed and built by Berthil van Beek for the Eurobricks T23 competition (where I’m sure it will be a contender), this LEGO Great Ball Contraption (GBC) is a massive functional Ferris wheel, with a diameter of a 91cm (~36″). For those of you unfamiliar, Great Ball Contraptions are modular machines built to move LEGO soccer or basketballs from one place to another in unique and unusual ways. A Ferris wheel definitely fits the bill. So would a tilt-a-whirl or a gravitron.

Berthil built the ferris wheel GBC using 128 strings, 63 pods, 2.5 meters of 3 mm rigid hose, and is 100% LEGO. For reference, my nephew is always around 1% LEGO depending on exactly how many pieces he’s eaten in the past few days. He takes after his uncle.

I can still remember the first time I got a LEGO soccer ball stuck in one of my nostrils. I panicked and went to the doctor. What an idiot I was! Now I just leave them there and wait for a good sneeze.

[via GeeksAreSexy]

‘Pocket Miku’: A Synthesizer That Sings

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The Pocket Miku is a tiny synthesizer that turns its key presses (or audio input) into Hatsune Miku’s voice. For those of you unfamiliar, Miku is a Vocaloid software voicebank created by Crypton Future Media and its official anthropomorphic mascot, a Japanese idol with long, turquoise hair. And now I can make songs with her! I guess I can go ahead and add Music Producer to my résumé.

In the video below, YouTuber David Hilowitz Music actually does a fantastic job using the synthesizer to create a song with Miku on vocals. I probably don’t have the necessary musical talent to do the same and suspect my song would end up sounding like Miku yelling for me to take her batteries out.

If you’re seriously interested, some Pocket Mikus are available on eBay, but they’re going for around $400, so I guess you’ll have to be SERIOUSLY interested to buy one. Me? I’m not really that serious about anything besides what’s for dessert. I’m hoping for a berry crumble with ice cream!

Creepy Tentacle Robot Can Carefully Grasp Fragile Objects

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Because what good is a robotic gripper if it breaks everything it touches, researchers at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a robotic gripper that can carefully grasp and pick up objects with its creepily long tentacles. Just imagine that thing slithering up your pant leg!

Drawing inspiration from nature (specifically octopuses and jellyfish), the SEAS researchers created a soft gripper that uses thin tentacles to “entangle and ensnare object, similar to how jellyfish collect stunned prey.” A rather unsettling image when applied to robotics. The tentacles are powered by air alone and don’t require any sensing, planning, or feedback control to operate. The individual pneumatic tentacles contract when air is removed, causing them to curl up and grab any objects they run into. Again, unsettling.

Fine, but if these things make their way to the doctor’s office, you can count me out. I can’t help but play with all the equipment after the nurse leaves, and I’m waiting for the doctor; there’s no telling what sort of trouble I’ll get into with one of these. I really don’t want to have to change doctors again.

[via adafruit]

3D Printed Meat Is Coming to a Supermarket Near You

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3D printed meat: just the thought alone probably has your mouth watering right now. I know mine is, but I’ve eaten nothing but saltines for the better part of a week because I’m too lazy to go to the grocery store and too poor to order delivery. But enough about my stomach eating itself; food company Redefine Meat is hard at work making 3D-printed meat a reality.

Redefine Meat’s New-Meat product is supposed to be delicious, good for the environment, and kinder to animals. The last two are almost certainly the case considering it’s lab-grown and 3D printed, leaving only its deliciousness in question. Send some my way for a taste test! Just let me know when it’s supposed to arrive, so it doesn’t sit on my front porch for a week and start to rot (I always enter the house through the garage).

The first video, compared to the second, shows a drastic improvement in the technology already. If companies can nail the taste and price, I’m really curious to see how all this lab-grown pans out. Hopefully medium-rare, with a nice sear and topped with herb butter!

[via Reddit]

Man Builds Dream Desk from Circuit Boards Encased In Resin

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Because with enough liquid resin, anything is possible, YouTuber buildxyz constructed his dream standing desk by encasing printed circuit boards (PCBs) in clear plastic. What a beauty. As I’m sure Indiana Jones would agree, it belongs in a museum. Presumably, right alongside a bunch of old statues with missing arms.

In addition to some very beautiful woodworking, the desk includes adjustable mood lighting, a wireless charging station, cable management solutions, an under-desk computer mount, and, perhaps most importantly, a built-in coaster. I mean, you have to set your drink somewhere, and better on a coaster than in your lap – that’s my motto.

Now that’s a nice desk. Way nicer than my standing desk, which, yes, is a closet door lying across two piles of boxes. I originally built it to see if I’d like a standing desk enough to justify purchasing one, but I loved the price of this one so much that I never got around to buying another one. Sure it slants to one side, and the doorknob always gets in the way when I’m typing, but it was free. Besides, the guest bedroom doesn’t really need a closet door anyways.

[via HackADay]