Hasta La Gadget!

Last year we found out about Brian Egenriether’s pet project – a machine that automatically separates Skittles by color. It’s fun to watch it work, but ultimately it was a novelty invention because it went about its task at a leisurely pace. It turns out Brian kept working on his machine and has finished its third version.

The Skittles Sorting Machine 3 can sort different types of Skittles as well as M&M’s and Reese’s Pieces candies. It’s easy to use too – there’s an on and off switch up top, and a series of switches on the body lets you indicate what candy you’re about to put in. It’s also more polished than its predecessor, thanks to the parts that Brian made using machinable epoxy. There’s only one problem:

Yep, it’s still slow. The Skittles Sorting Machine 3 – more practical, still impractical. You can find out more about the machine on the video’s description on YouTube.

[via Boing Boing]

If you enjoyed Nabisco’s first video where David Neevel took his disgust of the cream part of the Oreo to a new level by building a machine that specifically removed the cream filling, then you’ll probably be happy to hear another video has been published.

The latest Oreo-related video highlights a machine built by Barry Kudrowitz and Bill Fienup who work as toy scientists in Minnesota. Unlike Neevel’s machine which completely eradicated the Oreo’s cream filling, their machine allows for both cookie and cream lovers to coexist, and in a way, help one another.

The way the Kudrowitz and Fienup machine works is by loading an Oreo cookie into its tray, where a small plastic piece is used to push the top cookie into the subject’s mouth. The cream is left exposed, which the machine proceeds to heat up the cookie and blast the liquified cream into the cream-lover’s mouth. The final step ejects the cookie, to which the cookie-lover proceeds to eat it.

The Oreo cookie separator machine isn’t as hardcore as Neevel’s contraption, but if it means both cream and cookie lovers can coexist, then we guess it actually might be a better machine in that sense.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: LiquiGlide; No More Ketchup Bottle Thumping, Swiss Pioneer Motor Aimed at Slashing Costs for Space Vacuum Cleaner,

If there’s anything you should hate more than anything in the world, the cream filling inside of an Oreo cookie might be extremely low on the majority of people’s lists. But artist and inventor David Neevel absolutely, positively hates the cream in Oreo cookies. Instead of completely avoiding the cream-filled treat, he decided to create a machine that can remove the part of the Oreo he dislikes the most.

In a short video commissioned by Nabisco, Neevel shows off his Oreo Separator Machine, or OSM as he likes to call it. His monstrous creation if a combination of scrap aluminum, wood, a hatchet and floss that was built in his Portland, Oregon garage.

Building the machine took a lot of sacrifice from Neevel as he says the contraption took about two weeks to build. “It was a big time commitment,” he said. “I had to work some long hours. I didn’t see my girlfriend or my dog for hours at a time.” Neevel also said it was rather difficult for him to find a good sandwich shop in that part of time, something all sandwich lovers could easily relate to.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: LG Invests $655 Million Into Making Cheaper OLED Screens, Polytron Transparent Smartphone Display Prototype,

There’s something magical about being able to control the weather, especially if there’s a way to improve it. Personally, I’d like to have some sort of device in my backyard so I can make sure that it won’t rain when I barbecue in the summer. While that might not be something you can buy today, it is feasible to tweak weather conditions in small areas.

Media artist Karolina Sobecka developed a machine for weather modification, after she was inspired by the idea of artificially generated climate change. The Cloud Machine is made up of gear that’s sent up into the atmosphere, attached to a weather balloon. Once it reaches the right altitude, it disperses ‘cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), heat, and water vapor. Moisture in the air condenses into fog droplets around the CCN, creating small clouds.

The goal of this was to create brighter, more reflective clouds that will better shield the Earth’s surface from the Sun’s radiation, partially counteracting global warming in the immediate vicinity. While I’m not sure about the science behind that concept, it’s still cool that you can make your own weather.

[via Creative Applications via designboom]

Some people like building machines that make doing some mundane task easier. Others, like Dan Grayber, do so in order for the machines to fulfill their own mechanical needs – whatever they may be.

Dan is an artist based in San Francisco and he builds complex machines that work best without humans. That’s probably because they were built with us humans taken out of the equation. Things might seem a bit harder to imagine at first, but once you see his creations, you’ll have to agree that they are pretty cool.

Objects are invented in order to satisfy particular needs, specifically, human needs. With my sculpture I investigate the concept of need when the human is removed from this equation. I do this by replacing the human with the object itself. My sculptures are invented only to sustain themselves, functioning as self-resolving problems.

Okay, I stand corrected. They aren’t pretty cool. They’re crazy awesome. The gallery below features more of Dan’s elaborate machine sculptures in all their standalone glory:

[via Laughing Squid]