Hasta La Gadget!

A die-hard Legend of Zelda fan saw the wisdom in using the power of 3D printing to bring the game’s items to life. He also has the courage to sell the items despite the looming threat of Nintendo’s octorok lawyers. He calls his endeavor the Hyrule Foundry. I like to call it the Nintendo 3DP.

The potions are still being finalized and the arrows are in the wrong color, but otherwise the Hyrule Foundry features all 32 items from the classic adventure game, from the Wooden Sword to the Ladder to the Book of Magic. A bonus consequence of the Hyrule Foundry is that we now have an exchange rate for Rupees. One Rupee is $12 (USD). But for some reason two Rupees are worth $18. Hmmm. Hylian math is weird.

You can read more about the Hyrule Foundry on its official blog. If you can’t go alone without these items any longer, you can buy them at the Hyrule Foundry shop on Shapeways. They’re quite expensive though – the cheapest one is $4 for two arrows; the entire set sells for $320(USD).

[via Kotaku]

We already have devices that augment two our sight and hearing. But a group of Innovation Design Engineering students at the Royal College of Art built a couple of devices that provide a new level of augmentation. One is a headset that applies special effects to what you’re seeing in real time, while the other one is a mask that works like noise canceling headphones. No Typhoon explosives though.

Tim Bouckley, Millie Clive-Smith, Mi Eun Kim and Yuta Sugawara call their project Eidos. The idea is not just to help us focus on sights or sounds that we consider important, but also to provide totally new ways of seeing and hearing.

The headset for example can apply a long-exposure effect on moving objects – a bit like seeing in four dimensions. The mask on the other hand not only blocks out all sound except for the one you want to hear, it broadcasts the sound through your inner ear. The students claim that this makes it seem like the sound is being sent directly inside your head – a bit like being a schizophrenic.

Obviously the devices in their current state are silly and impractical – the cool use cases shown in the video are all hypothetical and conceptual. Still, wouldn’t be amazing if future sunglasses and hearing aids had these capabilities? I mean I didn’t ask for these, but when they arrive I can see old man Bert buying Eidoses. Eidii. Eidoes. Edeese. Eidosia.

[via Dezeen via Walyou]

Here’s a coffee table that would go well with the steampunk NES. It was made by Charles Lushear of Bohemian Workbench using found items. I wouldn’t disagree if you think it’s more junkyard than steampunk, but either way it’s an impressive piece.

The cedar wood tabletop used to be part of a fence, the A and B buttons are antique clock movements and the Start and Select buttons are vintage rifle magazines. But the most intriguing part is the directional pad.

Apparently that piece of metal is a Katanga cross or a handa, a copper cross that was used as a form of currency in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the 19th to the 20th century. Katanga Katanga cross, y’all.

Lushear is selling it on his Etsy shop for $2,600 (USD). That’s a lot of Katanga crosses.

[via Apartment Therapy]

Last year we saw Critical Hit Collectibles’ glow-in-the-dark Life Bar necklace. The Etsy shop is now selling a necklace containing the other half of the RPG staple. When you wear this, I hope you have a fun time explaining to non-gamers that your name isn’t “Mana.”

The pendant glows in the dark as well:

Critical Hit Collectibles can also make “partially depleted” versions of both the Mana Bar and Life Bar necklaces. One is almost full while the other is almost empty.

Cast the Browser spell and head to Critical Hit Collectibles’ Etsy shop to order the Mana Bar necklace for $16 (USD).

[via Sprite Stitch]

A few units of the much hyped Oculus Rift 3D headset are now in the hands of developers and testers. But Stefan Welker wants you to know that if you have a modern Android smartphone, you already have half of a 3D head-mounted display. Welker and his colleagues are working on releasing the Durovis Dive, an open source 3D gaming system that works with Android smarphones.

The current prototype of the Durovis Dive uses a 3D-printed case and a pair of lenses jacked from cheap binoculars. The head-tracking software taps into the smartphone’s accelerometer, compass and gyroscope. Currently the only game that works for it is a modified version of Quake 2, but as Welker mentions in the video other games can be tweaked to work with the Durovis Dive.

The consumer version of the Durovis Dive should be released by August 2013, but Welker already posted the software (including the modded Quake 2) and instructions to make your own on the Durovis Dive website.

[via Nerdcore]