Hasta La Gadget!

Everything looks more interesting in slow motion, even if it’s just some dude choking on cinnamon dust. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you perceived your surroundings in slow motion? The Decelerator Helmet was made precisely for that purpose.

The helmet was made by Lorenz Potthast, who by the way has not figured out a way to control the flow of time. A small computer inside the helmet processes the footage coming from a webcam facing outward. The footage is then displayed to the wearer via a head-mounted display. The footage is also shown to outsiders via an external display – that large rectangle in front of the helmet – which of course does little to prevent the wearer from looking like you’re a bit slow yourself.  But the cool thing about the helmet is that the wearer can control how just how slow the footage will be.

Potthast made the helmet for an Interaction Design course at the University of Art in Bremen, Germany, where they were talking about the “increasingly hectic, overstimulated and restless environment we are living in.” But Potthast thinks that the helmet can also serve as a metaphor for people who stay stuck in the past. I wonder if he’s also aware that the helmet will be a massive hit with pot heads.

[via NOTCOT]

The Macintosh Portable was Apple’s first battery-powered portable computer. Released in 1989, it weighed 16lbs., had a 16MHz CPU, a black and white screen and lead-acid batteries, hence its nickname, “Macintosh Luggable.” People had to pay $6,500 for the curse of owning this darned thing. Which is why I find this hack to be so funny.

Yes, that Macintosh Portable has a color screen and is running Mac OS X. Patrick Blampied used the hardware from his old Toshiba NB100 netbook to make this modern miracle possible. In other words, it’s a Hackintosh. Blampied also painstakingly rewired and soldered a Dell keyboard to a USB controller for this project. The classic Apple mouse has an optical mouse in its guts, though it still only has one button. Finally, in place of the lead-acid batteries Blampied put the battery from a cordless drill.

The only thing this computer has over Apple’s current lineup is that sweet rainbow logo. Blampied said he’ll upload more pictures and information about his hack on his blog.

[via TUAW]

Last year we saw a prototype for an unwearable Pip-Boy 3000, which involved using a smartphone to create a replica that was functional, or at least interactive. This hack is not as high tech, because it only uses a digital picture frame, but at least it’s wearable.

The replica was made by amateur prop maker and sculpture student Zachariah Perry as a gift for his brother. Awwww. As with the replica we saw last year, Zachariah also used the Pip-Boy alarm clock that was included in the Survival Edition of Fallout 3. Then he inserted the innards of a digital picture frame and covered it with the domed glass from a slide viewer, giving it a great retro look. He made three buttons to switch between the images being displayed on the frame, which are screenshots from the Pip-Boy 3000 of his brother’s Fallout save game. Double awwww. The knob at the lower left toggles the lights at the bottom of the display. Finally the separate, gizmo you see on the glove is an MP3 player, which he couldn’t fit inside the case of the alarm clock.

Now Zachariah’s brother is ready to leave their vault. Check out Zachariah’s blog for more pictures of the replica.

[via Hack A Day]

Old folks aren’t the only ones who might want to take up knitting. For years, I’ve wanted to learn because I wanted to wear knitted stuff and be able to tell people that I knitted it myself.

Unfortunately, I’m pretty bad at it. But fortunately for me and all the other people who suck at knitting, there’s the Rocking-Knit.

Basically, this rocking chair will do all the knitting for you. And all you have to do is sit and do whatever you want, as long as you keep rocking.

The Rocking-Knit was built by Damien Ludi and Colin Peillex from the University of Art and Design in Lausanne, Switzerland because they just couldn’t bear to see all that geriatric rocking energy go to waste.

The chair itself was created for the University’s Low-Tech Factory design exhibition, and we’re not likely to see it go into production commercially. Regardless, I know a lot of people who’d want to have this chair in their living room to help them get their knitting out of the way while at the same time lounging.

[via Treehugger via Dvice]

Now that arcade centers are mostly gone and their patrons have more gray hairs than time, some companies have capitalized by coming up with accessories that turn the iPad into a mini arcade cabinet. But if you’re skilled at building PCs or programming, you’ll be better off with the Picade, a mini arcade cabinet kit that’s meant to be powered by small PCs such as the Raspberry Pi.

The Picade was invented by Pimoroni, the some company who came up with the Pibow case for the Raspberry Pi. As I said, the Picade will be delivered to you as a kit that can be assembled in under an hour. It has all the components you need – an LCD, arcade joysticks, illuminated buttons, amplifier, speaker and of course the cabinet panels. You just have to supply its brains – a Raspberry Pi, a Pandaboard or any mini-ITX PC will do. You can also use the Picade as an additional monitor when you’re not gaming.

As mentioned in the video, the Picade also has a Mini version. Check the graphic below for the comparison:

You can reserve an early unit of the Picade Mini by pledging at least £120 (~$190 USD) on its Kickstarter fundraiser, while a pledge of at least £192 (~$305 USD) gets you the full Picade. If you’re put off by the bare cabinet, then you’ll be happy to know that the final kit will come with various original artwork that can be applied to the panels.