Hasta La Gadget!

These electrical plugs look like noses, just in case you want some great big nostrils on your wall. These Hanaga Tap Nose Outlets from design firm ekoD Works will make your home look pretty damn weird.

They will turn any horizontal U.S. or Japanese wall outlet into a nose-shaped vertical outlet that you can plug into, making it look even weirder.

These come in black, white and pink and sell for $35(USD) a piece. That’s pretty expensive for a nose-shaped outlet. Never mind the fact that it’ll block two outlets due to its height. ‘Snot cool man.

I suppose you could draw a face around the outlet area and really complete the package if you have to have a nose on your wall. Humans are weird. Am I the only one creeped out by this? Just a little?

[via Coolest Gadgets via Geekologie]

Technology has changed not only how people do things, but how people perceive and create art as well. Take what researcher and artist Cassinelli Alvaro has done with his Toro-bots.

The Toro-bots are a pair of walking robots that have Japanese lanterns for a head. They were created for beautifying gardens with minimal effort, but they certainly could be used for indoor illumination as well.

People often have to get down on all fours to move lamps and lanterns from one spot on their garden to another. The Toro-bots get rid of the dirty work because they’ll get up and walk to your desired location with a few flicks of the remote control. They’re also equipped with infrared rangefinders that allows them to detect when someone is nearby (they’ll step off to the side if they sense they’re in someone’s way.)

We propose here a garden that takes care of itself, that somehow understands and re-interprets the rules of harmony and equilibrium, and reconfigures itself depending on the season, the presence or absence of a human observers – that develops structure in a generative way, creating a dynamic conversation between the elements in the garden.

Now this is garden decor, just the way I like it. What do you think?

[via Trossen Robotics via Dvice]

Back in 2010 Nick Homer and his college buddy Stewart Clyde made headlines because of their silly invention: a remote-controlled motorized couch. Now Nick is working on a comprehensive guide for couch potatoes who have a very slight need for speed.

As with the original ride, Nick’s guide will consist of combining an electric wheelchair base with a loveseat. If you get both of those components used – and you should – the whole thing should cost you only about $150 (USD). Nick claims that his guide will have you napping in motion in just a few hours.

Lie down on your browser and head to Kickstarter. You only need to pledge $2 to gain access to Nick’s online guide, which will include videos, FAQs and recommendations for the supplies.

[via Gadgetify]

The folks at PiFace – makers of hardware interfaces for the Raspberry Pi – wanted to make a camera rig that could create the bullet time effect popularized by The Matrix, but they didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars on cameras. Naturally their first instinct was to see if they could use the Raspberry Pi to make a cheaper alternative. To their surprise, their idea worked!

PiFace calls its rig the Frozen Raspberry Pi or Frozen Pi. It consists of 48 Raspberry Pis each with a Raspberry Pi Camera and a PiFace Control and Display interface, all mounted on a laser-cut wood frame. The computers are networked via Ethernet so they can be simultaneously triggered remotely and so that the pictures they take can be sent to a single computer. PiFace wrote a Python script to collect the pictures and arrange them in order. Skip to around 2:17 in the video below to see the rig in action and people in inaction.

Slow down time and head to the PiFace blog to find out more about how they made the Frozen Pi.

[via MAKE]

We’ve featured a couple of PC casemods that incorporated a computer’s hardware into a desk. If Lian-Li pushes through with its prototype, you won’t need to be a modder to have a desk and PC case in one.

The DK01 is basically a tower case with legs. It has all of the features of an enthusiast PC chassis, including LEDs, a transparent glass panel and tool-less mounting. Lian-Li also said that the monitor mount shown in the image above will be included with the desk if it goes into production.

Head to Lian-Li’s blog for more images of the DK01 prototype.

[via Ubergizmo]