Hasta La Gadget!

Being single can suck, especially when all of your friends already have plus one’s. Artist Noortje de Keijzer found a way around this not by joining online dating sites or by going on blind dates, but by knitting her own boyfriend.

Yes, you read that right: she knitted one.

Obviously, she doesn’t have Geppetto’s power, so her knitted boyfriend isn’t alive. But since it’s actually a cushy bodysuit, any guy can wear it and make the suit come alive – or better yet, it can just be filled with stuffing if you’d prefer the strong and silent type.

So far, Noortje has knitted two boyfriends: Arthur, who was born knitted on September 14, 2009, has white skin, dark brown hair and black knickers; while Steve, born knitted on September 27, 2011, has dark brown skin, black hair and beige knickers.

How’s that for a kooky graduation project?

[via BuzzFeed]

Like most of you, I’m patiently waiting for the day when I can buy a robot that will take care of all the irritating things around house I want to deal with. I want a robot to wash the dishes, bathe the dog, mow the lawn, and take out the trash. While this breakthrough might not solve that problem for me yet, a group of scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology have invented something dubbed “smart skin” that could give robots a sense of touch.

The researchers working on the smart skin used a bundle of vertical zinc oxide nano wires along with an array of about 8000 transistors. Each of those individual transistors is able to independently produce electronic signals when subjected to mechanical strain. The researchers say that these touch sensitive transistors, which they call taxels, have sensitivity comparable to that of the human finger. They say that the artificial skin can feel activity on its surface and the sensation could be translated into control signals for robot in the future.

Having a sense of touch is important because it will allow a robot to know when something is in its hand and how hard can grip that object. It wouldn’t do to have a robot breaking all your dishes after all.

[via BBC News]

We’ve seen a couple of robots that take the hassle out of making alcoholic drinks. If you think about it, the most valuable function of those robots is that they mix drinks with an accuracy that you can’t hope to muster even when you’re sober. If you’re willing to pour your own drink – but not measure it – the Barman might be good enough for you.

Invented by John Gallagher, the Barman is a simplified weighing scale. To use it, first you have to select or input a recipe from its companion mobile app. Then you beam the recipe – i.e. the mass of each ingredient – to Barman via Bluetooth. Barman will then prompt you to add the first ingredient, but instead of a number it will simply show a progress bar:

When you’ve added the right amount, the Barman will ask you to stop and it will flash an unmissable red light. Repeat the process for the rest of the ingredients. Gallagher says you’ll be able to exchange recipes with other people online. You can also share the Barman itself even on a beach or tailgating party because it only needs a 9v battery to function.

In exchange for a bit of work on your part, you get a drinking buddy that is vastly cheaper and easier to clean than its automated counterparts. Pledge at least $49 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Barman as a reward.

On second thought, I guess it still might be possible to let this chunky remote control slip between the couch cushions, but it certainly wouldn’t be very comfortable if you sat on it. What you’re looking at here is a hacked together remote control that started its life as a cheap universal remote control.

Modder Bigape decided he had enough of cheap plastic remotes which wear out all of the time, and built this heavy-duty remote to replace his parents’ old broken Sony TV remote. He Frankensteined together the electronic components of the universal remote with the a sturdy industrial case designed to control construction equipment.

Since he wanted the remote to control channels, volume and power, he had to add a couple of additional buttons into the case as well. In true MacGyver fashion, he built the caps for the volume buttons from retractable ball-point pen parts. The large red power switch actually was made from the button from an a light bulb socket, a sweater button and an old spring switch. The giant orb that holds the large IR diode is actually the cap from an old bottle of perfume if you can believe it.

Want to build your own industrial-strength remote control? You can find a similar control box over on eBay, and then check out the full build log over on Instructables.

Most Batman fans are happy to collect the comic books, watch the movies and display their action figures on a shelf. Not Chris Weir. Chris is too big a fan to be content with those things. He collects all that stuff, but he needed his own Batcave to put it all in.

So he did what any enterprising superfan would do – and made his own Batcave. It took him two years to build and cost over $150,000(USD) in renovation costs. He even chose the house specifically because it had enough basement space for his project.

Just like in the classic TVshow, he flips the head on the Shakespeare bust, pushes a button and a bookcase opens up.

The Batcave doubles as a home theater of course with a 120-inch Cinemascope screen and a Batman replica suit, among other goodies. Hey Chris, invite me over!

[via The Daily Record & Oddity Central via Neatorama]