Hasta La Gadget!

Some guys are just super hardcore. Like Rambo hardcore. Able to stitch themselves up on the battlefield hardcore. Take this guy for instance. A man named Tim Cannon is a “biohacker,” and he had himself opened up and inserted a computer chip in his arm -with no doctor helping. I must be a wimp, because there is no way I could do this.

Don’t try this at home kids. Being a walking computer just isn’t worth it. Tim had a large “Circadia” board implanted into his arm. It is even larger than normal due to a special case. The chip is powered by a battery but can also be charged wirelessly.

This chip sends all of Tim’s biometric signals to an Android device. He would have used a doctor, but he says that no certified doctor could preform the operation to implant the device. So he had a “body modification enthusiast” named Steve Haworth do the surgery. Sadly for Tim, Steve isn’t an official medical practitioner, so he wasn’t licensed to use anesthetics. That had to be painful.

Here’s an update from Tim showing off the wireless charging process for his arm-implanted computer:

Have fun monitoring your biometric signals, Tim. My idea of fun is playing video games.

[via Motherboard via Kotaku]

Using a robotic mechanism that works sort of like a giant 3D printer, artist Jonathan Schipper has created a device which fills a room with tiny sculptures made from grains of salt.

The robot moves around a room filled with 12 tons of salt on a set of four suspension cables, sort of like those cameras they use at NFL football games. But instead of a camera, there’s a mechanism that can pick up and extrude layers of salt.

The system was constructed for an art exhibit called Detritus, and it gradually creates tiny salt sculptures, as others collapse. The sculptures being built are representative of objects we take for granted in our world, like chairs, toilets, tires, and other everyday items.

…objects are continuously being formed but, due to the fragility of the salt crystals used to make them, they deteriorate at nearly the same rate new ones are being built. this installation is an attempt to create a vantage point that is impossible in the real world. a vantage point that both condenses and speeds up time and provides an objective view of the things we value which, at times, we recognize as merely detritus.

While the exhibit is already highly intriguing, perhaps the most unusual part is that you’re supposed to observe it from the comfort of a hot tub, while the robot does all of its work.

Detritus is currently on exhibit at Pierogi Boiler in New York, until November 24, 2013. No word on whether or not you need to bring a swimsuit.

[via designboom]

Some people carve pumpkins for Halloween and put them in front of their home, others decorate the yard. Others make creepy foods like a demented Martha Stewart. That is what Dan Whalen of The Food in My Beard did this past Halloween.

It doesn’t involve lots of blood, severed limbs or ghosts. The grossness he created is something we all have in common – earwax.

Dan used a pesto sauce for some nasty green earwax and the Q-Tips are balls of mozzarella cheese and lollipop sticks. He even made the ear-shaped bowl himself. Awesomely disgusting.

He might have made this for Halloween, but really this is good for any time of year if you want to gross out your friends.

[via Foodbeast via Make: via Neatorama]

One of last year’s most successful Kickstarter-funded projects was the MaKey MaKey, a device that allowed you to input keyboard commands to a computer using everyday objects. A new USB device called the Verve is similar to the MaKey MaKey, but it’s more versatile. Using a variety of sensors, the Verve lets you trigger mouse and keyboard input using real-world actions or events.

The Verve consists of a central console and seven types of sensors that plug into the console. It also has a companion program that has both Windows and OS X versions. The program is used to map the input from a sensor to a mouse or keyboard key, as well as to set the threshold – i.e. the intensity of the input – to which the mapped key will be triggered. For instance, you can use attach the motion sensor to a sword and make your videogame character attack when you swing the sword. Or you can leave the motion sensor by your cubicle and make your computer show your desktop when someone passes by. Because you’re not hiding anything there.

Pledge at least $99 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Verve kit as a reward. The kit will come with one of each sensor along with all the cables you need. I’m a bit conflicted with the potential of the Verve. On one hand, the variety of sensors means it encourages a creative and diverse array of input options. On the other hand, the one-to-one correspondence of a sensor to a key makes it quite cumbersome to setup anything beyond a simple command.

The MaKey MaKey is so easy to use because it gave you several inputs just by plugging in one board. The Verve gives you seven sensors, but each sensor can only be mapped to one key. What modern software uses just one key? From what I understand it also does not support key combinations (e.g. ctrl+X). And what if you want to use more than one unit of a particular sensor? It’s amazing how cheap and user-friendly sensors have become, but I’m not sure if the Verve will be a legitimately useful product or a mere curio.

[via DVICE]

This awesome zombie cake looks terrifying. Terrifyingly delicious. I would love to get a slice of that rotting flesh and bone. This undeadible masterpiece was created by the Tattooed Bakers for the opening of Miss Cakehead’s Feed the Beast cake shop.

The horse of the apocalypse is a red velvet cake that took over 200 hours to complete. It’s got some really nice detail on its festering wounds. What makes this cake even better is that it pours a circulating fountain of rum out of its nostrils and into a cauldron.

Cake and rum? From a horse? How awesome is that? Eat, drink, then eat some more, then drink some more and sooner or later you will be on top of this cake trying to ride it and slipping all over the place from the icing. Then breaking it in half and falling on the floor. Sugar and rum are a powerful combination.

[via Boing Boing via Geekologie]