Hasta La Gadget!

Most of the 3D printed objects we’ve featured have that 3D printed look: a single-colored material that has sharp and exact edges or grooves, something that looks like a prototype. Which is why I was really blown away by this piece made by Greg Petchkovsky:

Even though he didn’t have a 3D scanner, Greg was able to make a 3D model of this particular section of the sandstone wall by taking pictures of it from different angles, which were then fed into Agisoft PhotoScan to create a 3D model. In case you were wondering, the parts that look like LEGO blocks are also part of the piece; Greg made them from scratch using a 3ds Max. After much tweaking and customizing, Greg sent his custom model to Shapeways to be printed. Greg painted some parts of the model to make it even more lifelike before finally placing it on the chipped corner of the sandstone wall.

Looking at Greg’s work, I can’t help but think of what further questions this will raise about the value of art. We can already make perfect copies of music and movies; what will happen when anyone can print perfect copies of sculptures, clothes and the like? I guess that’s for tomorrow’s artists and consumers to decide. For now you can check out Greg’s Instructables page for more details on his project.

[via Reddit]

NASA and the European Space Agency have announced they have successfully tested an internet-like interplanetary communications protocol, called Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), between astronauts on the International Space Station and a Lego-built robot in Germany. Over 225 miles separate the two.

NASA and the ESA said yesterday that DTN could one day allow “internet-like communications” with spacecrafts and help support infrastructure on other planets. The experiment took place late last month, and it involved remotely operating a small Lego rover-like robot from the International Space Station.

The Lego robot was located at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany and it was being operated and driven by US astronaut Sunita Williams who used a laptop that was designed by NASA. A command sent from the laptop would start a script to control the Lego rover, which is also actually a prototype designed for use in the ESA’s future missions.

NASA space communications chief Badri Younes says that once the protocol gets past the experimental stage, DTN could be useful for controlling robots on Mars from either a manned orbiting spacecraft or from Earth using satellites as relay stations. DTN is slightly comparable to the Internet Protocol in terms of functionality. However, the big difference is that IP relies on a continuous connection, while DTN allows for more disconnections and errors.

[via ZDNet]

NASA and ESA test internet-like communication protocol using Lego robot is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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In the future, when the inevitable and literal fast food wars break out, we’ll all be too fat and unhealthy to fight for our chain of choice – which is why these fast food chains should start developing their own war machines. Here’s a free idea for McDonald’s, courtesy of Sean and Steph Mayo. Behold! The Big MaK!

The husband and wife LEGO enthusiasts made the Big MaK for Bricklink’s Creations for Charity (and it seems it’s already been bought). I hope the Mayos make more food-themed mechs. I imagine the Taco Bell mech will be able to combine with the Doritos mech to form a smaller but tougher robot, the KFC robot will be a robot sandwiched in between two other robots and the Pizza Hut robot will be stuffed with smaller robots.

[via Obvious Winner]

Gizmodo alumnus Joel Johnson says this is “perhaps the most fully realized Lego mech build I have ever seen.” I’ve seen many amazing Lego mechas in my life and I don’t agree. I think it’s the greatest, period. There’s no perhaps here. More »

When The Lord of the Rings trilogy ended, I cried. Not because it was such an awesome ending, but because I no longer had any movies to look forward to – until The Hobbit was announced, that is.

A lot of folks are excited for the movie, and it shows. Heck, some of them even went to great lengths to come up with this video featuring everyone’s four favorite hobbits (that’s Sam, Frodo, Merry, and Pippin) in a Halloween adventure of their own.

The coolest part? The entire gang’s made up of LEGO.

In the video, Merry and Pippin are their usual naughty selves when they decide to pull a prank on Sam and Frodo. They dress up as the creepy Nazgul and manage to scare their friends off – until they find themselves face to face with Aragorn.

The mischievous duo find themselves the victim of their own prank later on when a surprise guest joins them later towards the end. I leave it up to you to find out who that ‘guest’ is, which you can easily do so by checking out the video below:

Have a Happy Hobbit Halloween!

[via Geeks Are Sexy]