Hasta La Gadget!

The researchers behind Shape-It-Up call it a “Hand Gesture Based Creative Expression of 3D Shapes Using Intelligent Generalized Cylinders”, but it’s totally a pottery simulator. Decades from now, if – when? – Paramount Pictures decides to remake Ghost, the characters will be using Shape-It-Up while a dubstep remix of Unchained Melody plays in the background. Oh, my WUB WUB WUB WUUUUUB…

Shape-It-Up is a project by Purdue University Engineering students Vinayak, Sundar Murugappan, HaiRong Liu and Karthik Ramanilets. It lets users manipulate a virtual cylinder by using simple hand gestures, which are tracked using a Kinect. Skip to around 1:28 in the video below to see it in action.

I guess you could say that was… righteous. YEEEEA- I’m old. The researchers think of Shape-It-Up as a way for designers to start their sketches in an easier and more intuitive manner, not as a way to create a polished model. But if you pair it with a 3D printer, I think it can also be used as a way to teach kids about the basics of CAD and 3D printing. Now get off my lawn and head to Purdue University’s website for the project’s abstract.

[via Gajitz]

Generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to put things in the microwave that don’t belong in there. But that doesn’t stop the curious minds of people like us from wanting to see what happens to other stuff when you jostle around its atoms in the microwave. Take, for instance, office supplies – more specifically, a fluorescent highlighter pen. Well, ask, and ye shall receive…

This amazing image of an exploding highlighter was captured by Redditor opticreason, presumably for some optic reason, or maybe just for fun. Either way, he’s going to have a whole lot of fun cleaning out the inside of his microwave after this mess. Never mind the fact that the next time he goes to heat up a Hot Pocket or pop some Reddenbacher’s, his food is going to be hot pink. This makes me wonder what might happen if you microwaved some of those scented markers. Could you make food taste like other flavors? I always had a thing for the grape scent.

Needless to say, I don’t recommend that you try this at home. Your office, on the other hand…

[Reddit via Buzzfeed via Gizmodo]

Patrick Priebe is no stranger to laser–based prop weapons, and Wicked Lasers is no stranger to borderline illegal lasers. Put the two together and this is what you get: a minigun replica that fires lasers instead of bullets. It has a laser sight too.

Patrick is still working on the final prop; the one in the video below is just a prototype. The gun has six Spyder 3 Arctic lasers and one Spyder 3 Krypton laser. From what I saw in the video, the gun has an electric motor and a knob that can be used to adjust the barrel’s rotation speed. The Arctic lasers all fire at once though. Might as well call it the Eyebliterator.

He is Priebe Weapons Guy, and this is his new weapon.

[via CNET Asia]

PureGear’s latest smartphone cases don’t have a built-in battery, but they can still extend your phone’s own battery. That’s because they come with old school games. Angry Birds? Pfff. Labyrinth maze, yo! Ridiculous Fishing? How ’bout a ridiculous mashup of a pinball machine and a magic 8-ball? XCOM? Yeah I’ll go with XCOM. Nothing beats XCOM.

The Retro Game Cases come in three variants. Two are simply mazes where you have to guide a tiny and shiny sphere (or spheres), but the third one – the aforementioned pinball meets magic 8-ball – is quite interesting.

The funny thing about these old school cases is that they’re only compatible with some of the latest smartphones: the iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S III. You can order them from PureGear’s website for $30 (USD) each.

Some people are born with the gift of gab, while others are simply lacking in it. For the latter group, there’s something called the “My Automated Conversation Coach” system that can help them out a lot in this department.

Called MACH for short, it’s basically a system that was created to help socially awkward people with their conversation skills.

How? By providing these people with a virtual human to talk to. The system lets the user interact with the three-dimensional character in a variety of situations. It monitors these interactions using facial and speech analysis software to allow the user to evaluate his or her progress afterwards.

MACH’s creator, M. Ehsan Hoque, did a study with 90 MIT undergraduates to test the effectiveness of the system. These students were shown to have improved social interaction performance after using the system. On his website, Hoque explains: “We are currently expanding this technology to open up new possibilities in behavioral health (e.g., treating people with Asperger syndrome, social phobia, PTSD).”

[MIT via Dvice]