In Cory Doctorow’s latest novel, Makers, one of the main characters puts together an amazing little hack using a bunch of Boogie Woogie Elmo toys. These have been stripped of their fur and let loose on a tiny electric Smart Car. Reprogrammed to know how to drive, they collectively take the car for a spin: one on the “gas”, one on the brakes, one on the wheel and so on. They can talk and listen, so they call commands to each other, becoming one big many-armed robot.
Now, something similar has happened in real life. For $140, you can buy a naked Chumby (or “Chumby Guts”). The Chumby is a plushie internet box which displays web-info on its little screen, and Chumby Guts come without the soft skin of the original.
On (limited) sale at the Maker Shed, Chumby Guts are pretty ideal for the beginnings of a hacking project. You might not be able to make them drive a car for you, but the 3.5-inch LCD touch screen, Wi-Fi, USB ports and assorted other gubbins have the advantage of being made to work together, and that you can pretty much reconfigure them however you want. My fogged, early morning brain can only think of building the screen into my fridge door as a podcast, music and widget device, but I’m sure y’all can do better. $140.
Chumby Guts product page [Make]
Cory Doctorow’s Makers [Craphound]
See Also:
- Chumby Guts, Get Yer Chumby Guts!
- Worth the Wait: Chumby Lands at a Desk Near You
- Chumby to License its Software to Other Gadgets
- Chumby Desktop Media Player
Post a Comment