Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve featured several cameras that were made using LEGO bricks (or something similar to LEGO), but this camera separates itself from the pack because it’s just one brick. Also it’s not made out of a LEGO brick. At least they’re stackable!

Simply called the Block, it’s made by Chobi Cam, a Japanese company that’s known for its tiny cameras. The Block can take colored or black and white 1.3MP still images and capture 720×480 video at 24fps. Here are clips taken with the Block and uploaded to YouTube by JTT:

You’ll need a microSDHC card to store your data, and a USB port to charge the camera.

You can order the Chobi Cam Block camera from Japan Trend Shop for $73 (USD), while Detective Conan wannabes in Japan should order it from JTT.

[via Incredible Things]

I’m always amazed how LEGO builders can come up with accurate representations of items using just a handful of bricks. It’s sort of like low-res pixel art – if you stand back far enough, it makes sense. One of my recent favorite minimal LEGO builds has to be this tiny tape deck by customBRICKS (who also has an awesome LEGO Battleship game on their home page.)

This miniature reel-to-reel tape deck is too small to actually record anything, and I can’t tell you if it’s a 2-track or a 4-track, but that doesn’t make it any less perfect. I’d love to see a whole miniature recording studio done the same way. In the mean time, I’m enjoying they’re other recent creation – a little LEGO movie projector…

Check out more of customBRICKS’ LEGO builds over on their Flickr stream.

[via lego diem]

When I think of superheroes, I usually envision large, hulking men or women in tights, capable of taking down the most evil of supervillains. They usually don’t conjure up images of tiny, cuddly knits which are small enough for the cat to swallow.

But the textile artists of Sweden’s Crivens Studio clearly have the latter in their minds. They handmake and sell these miniscule superheroes which measure just about  1″ tall each. Each tiny hero is knit from yarn and the is small enough to let your dolls play with them – assuming you still play with dolls – and your dolls still play with dolls too.

They’re currently available for $25(USD) each in Batman, Superman and Iron Man versions, and if you’re more into zombies than superheroes, there’s a couple of those for sale too.

There are tons of media players on the market, and a number of relatively inexpensive “pico-projectors” as well, but here’s a fun gadget that combines both into one cheap and compact little package that costs less than $100.

The USB Music Projector has a deceiving name, as it doesn’t project music at all – it projects still images and video, of course. Measuring just 2.67″ x 2.44″ x 0.78″, and weighing just 84g, this portable media player is small enough to be carried in your pocket or worn around your neck, but has a tiny projector built into it that can be used for impromptu video playback.

The gadget uses an LED light source rated for 20,000 hours of use, and can play video files in MP4 (H.264), MOV (H.264), AVI (H.264, MPEG 4, MJPEG). It’s also an audio player, with support for MP3, WMA and WAV files, and has a built-in speaker in addition to a headphone jack. It’s not clear how long you can run the projector on a single charge, but it does ship with an AC adapter for longer viewing sessions.

Storage is provided using a microSD(HC) memory card, and you can also connect to a PC using a USB cable to “synchronize projection ” whatever that means. I’m assuming they’re talking about some sort of display mirroring, perhaps through DisplayLink – or possibly just a PC remote control app for use with still images on the projector.

Specs aren’t provided for the projector itself, but I’d guess the resolution and brightness aren’t anything special, and you most certainly will need a darkened room to watch video. That said, the USB Music Projector sells for just $99(USD), which seems like a bargain in my book. You can grab one over at Brando if you’d like to check it out.