Ian McGregor lost his entire leg to a cancerous tumor, but he’s lucky to be alive thanks to a weird, never-before-attempted 18-hour surgical procedure: First doctors removed his calf and attached it to his arm to keep it alive during the tumor and leg amputation. Then they used the calf to fix the huge hole that resulted from the operation.
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Instructables Community Manager and avid maker Mike Warren figured out a way to work on his gaming skills while walking his dog. He gutted a broken Xbox 360 controller and turned it into a large but somewhat practical dog leash.
I say the mod is somewhat practical because Mike replaced one of the gamepad’s rumble motors with a poop bag dispenser.
Check out Mike’s Instructables page to see how he did it. An Instructables commenter suggested hacking the controller’s buttons so that they trigger sound effects, or perhaps make your dog’s collar light up.
[via Neatorama]
The day that a lot of singles dread has now come and gone. While more and more unattached people choose to go out and spend the night with friends when February 14th rolls around, there are still those who stay home and sulk over their singlehood.
Then there are those who choose to have a little fun with the situation, like Instructables user Emily Grace King. After finding a bunch of CPR dummy mouths in a dumpster by her apartment building, Emily was inspired to create the Make-out Pillow.
Staying true to its name, it’s a pillow that lonely people can make out with (ew) if they feel the need to, well, make out. While it looks pretty simple, making the Make-out Pillow requires a bit of work.
You’ll need a sewing machine (yeah, you gotta work for that kiss!), some scissors, thread, embroidery floss, glue, felt or fabric, pullow stuffing, some cardboard, and of course, the CPR dummy mouth.
Want to make one of your very own? Check out Emily’s Instructables page to see how she did it.
[via Incredible Things]
Oh, China. You’re such a great nation, but sometimes we’ve got to call you on your ridiculous reinterpretations of trademarked and copyrighted works from other parts of the world. This handheld gaming console is one such example.
This ridiculously confused PVP Station Light 3000 handheld co-opts imagery from Sony, Nintendo, Rovio and Naughty Dog all in one single package. And having played some of these craptacular systems over the years, I’m going to bet it can’t even play most of the games referenced on its box. Or if it can, it does it very badly.
[via I Use No Way as Way]
Here’s another way to capitalize on social media: make snack foods inspired by social media elements like emoticons and hashtags. That’s what Birds Eye Foods UK did with their latest offering called Mashtags.
It’s essentially a potato snack with its chips (can you still call them chips?) in the shame of smiley faces, asterisks, at symbols, hearts, and of course, hashtags.
Birds Eye brand manager Pete Johnson explained: “Social media is all about conversation and we’re confident Mashtags will resonate across various groups of people. We’re constantly looking for ways to innovate and inspire consumers and hope that Mashtags will get people talking around the table and help to make mealtimes more enjoyable.”
It’s a fun idea, but it feels like a novelty at best. What do you think?
[via C|NET]
A lot of phone cases incorporate features that give users added convenience. This particular case, however, takes a couple of steps backward.
Dubbed by artist/hacker Dennis DeBel as the S.M.S. or “smoke messaging service” case, the bulky case can be used to send smoke signals at the push of a button. It has a chamber where lamp oil is stored, which is heated when the button is pressed. This, in turn, produces the wisps of smoke when you’re ready to send a message of the smoky kind.
The SMS Case is just a concept design for now, considering the fact that, well, they’re incredibly bulky and you can’t really translate smoke into actual messages. But it’s still pretty neat, though.
[via LikeCool]
Some people live on in the memories of others, even when they pass on, because of the life they’ve led and the differences that they’ve made on the lives of others. Others may be forgotten, while still others will live on as avatars in the online realm.
The latter is made possible by Eterni.me, a start-up brought about by MIT’s Entrepreneurship Development Program.
It’s essentially a service that learns and creates an online personality for the departed, based on their old chat logs, emails, photos, and social network interactions. A blurb on the site explains:
Eterni.me collects almost everything that you create during your lifetime, and processes this huge amount of information using complex Artificial Intelligence algorithms. Then it generates a virtual YOU, an avatar that emulates your personality and can interact with, and offer information and advice to, your family and friends after you pass away. It’s like a Skype chat from the past.
Marius Ursache, the startup’s Chief Executive, revealed that over 1,300 registrations were received in a span of 24 hours, so there’s certainly an interest in from people interested in being preserved as an electronic avatar.
To say that it is both unusual and creepy is an understatement. You can check out Eterni.me here.
[via Kotaku Australia via C|NET]
We’ve seen a handful of unique analog digital clocks, but the Plotclock has to be the most unusual of the bunch. It’s also a metaphor for a dozen sad things. Made by Thingiverse member joo, Plotclock writes the time by hand, then erases what it just wrote so it can write again.
Joo used an Arduino Uno, three servos and 3D printed components to make the clock. Though I strongly suspect that he also added a liter of sighs, a patch of wrinkled skin and some shredded tax forms to the device.
This clock knows life’s a waste of time. Check out joo’s page on Thingiverse for more on the futility of it all.
[via I Heart Chaos]
We’ve featured a couple of unusual keyboard and mouse hybrid devices, but so far it looks like people like their devices just as they are – separate and not looking like devices you’d use to pilot an alien spaceship. I wonder if Solid Art Labs’ King’s Assembly will fare any better. At the very least it’s the least weird-looking of the bunch.
The King’s Assembly is a pair of devices (a left and a right “hand”) that each have an optical laser sensor, 35 keys with Cherry mechanical keyboard switches (30 in front and 5 near the thumb rest) and an analog joystick. Because you only get 70 keys at most, one of the keys can be set to serve as a modifier. Hold that down and you can access the secondary function of the other keys, giving you a total of 139 key mappings. Speaking of which, each device will have a preset key mapping, but you’ll be able to create new mapping profiles as well.
Each hand can serve as a mouse and keyboard on its own. But if you have both hands you’ll need to link them using the included interconnect cable if you want to use them in tandem. Once they’re linked, your computer will only see one mouse and one keyboard instead of two of each peripheral. Also, each hand has its own USB cable, but when they’re linked you only need to connect one of their USB cables to your computer. This means you can connect a pair of hands to two computers at once.
How will the two mice act as one? The King’s Assembly’s built-in Atmel microcontroller will average the input from the hands’ optical sensors and send that as one signal to your computer. That may sound weird, but we’re used to using just one of our hands to move our mice anyway, so that shouldn’t be a big problem. You’ll also be able to tweak the sensitivity of each hand’s sensor separately or even disable a hand’s mouse input altogether.
Finally, the joysticks will be useful in playing video games, but you can also use them as scroll wheels.
Pledge at least $110 (USD) on Kickstarter to get one King’s Assembly hand as a reward; pledge at least $200 and you get a pair. I think I’m good with my low-tech keyboard and mouse for work and daily use, but I can see myself using these for gaming.
[via Geeky Gadgets]
Theremins are super fun production lines of weird squeeps and bloops, the de rigueur sound of kitschy black-and-white sci-fi movies and DJ rave parties alike. Anyone with an appreciation of music, or just noise, should play with one given the chance—and now you can do so from the comfort of your computer, thanks to Femur Design’s Theremin webpage.
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