From one strange musical contraption to another: the Drawdio is a simple electronics kit that turns a standard 2B pencil into a screeching, wailing instrument. Relying on the conductive properties of graphite, Drawdio is basically an analog synthesizer circuit strapped to a soft-leaded pencil.
Demo video of Drawdio in action after the cut
In fact, it’s not just the graphite doing the conducting but you yourself. You start by drawing a line, then put your finger on one end and, as you continue sketching, all manner of strange 50s-sci-fi bleeps and wurbles are produced.
Drawdio is supplied as a kit, so there’s a little work with soldering and the like before you can start making music. It’s on sale now, priced at $19.50.
Click here to view the embedded video.
[via technabob]
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Written by Chris Davies on December 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on DIY and Music and Videos and archive and bizarre.
Japanese mobile TV fans will have some new content to play with today, but only if they find a friend to enjoy it with. Pair Movie is a new drama series intended to be viewed on two cellphones held side by side; the different characters are displayed on the different screens, with the handsets synchronizing the footage via the infrared ports.
The project is the handiwork of Sony Music, advertizer Dentsu and a promotional company called Mobile Art. First available is a five-part drama, with the male character appearing on one cellphone and the female on the other, interacting despite playing on separate handsets.
Content appears to be accessed via 2D barcodes; a demonstration is online but the service is only available to Japanese users. There’s no suggestion of what future content will be offered, nor if this is just an one-off advertizing venture or has longer-term potential.
[via Digital World Tokyo]
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Written by Chris Davies on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Mobile Phones and archive and bizarre and tv.
A snow globe is old tech. An iPhone is new tech. Put them together and you’d think you’d get broken tech, but if you’re Daljit Singh then you actually end up with the Digital Snow Globe. Sensibly avoiding water, the project is basically an elongated snow globe housing an iPhone; when you shake the globe, the iPhone displays the weather from a randomly-selected city.
Frankly it looks like one of those products you’d see advertized in the catalogs found in airline seat pockets, but that’s probably being unfair. Anyway, it’s unlikely that the Digital Snow Globe will ever reach the market, being more of an arty piece.
Details of the exact workings are scant; there’s no mention of it on the Digit London site. Presumably it’s a custom program that uses the iPhone’s accelerometer and internet connection to randomly download city weather information and couple that with a twee picture of the location.
[via designboom]
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Written by Chris Davies on November 20th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on archive and art and bizarre and iPhone and iphone 3G.
If you live in constant fear of coming across a gang of youths listening to tinny music from their cellphones and staring moodily at passers-by, good news! Now they’ll be able to play their music with far more bass and mid-range, courtesy of German designer Michael Schoner of NL Architects. His Boom Bench connects via Bluetooth A2DP and is positively riddled with speakers and subwoofers.
60W co-axial speakers share bench-space with two subwoofers. There’s also a bass shaker built into the seat to provoke the half-overwhelmed, half-ecstatic expression on the woman in the gallery below.
Honestly, this seems an awful idea for most cities where dissuading disgruntled youth from congregating has become top priority. Still, if you could build in some sort of seniority-override function, perhaps passing elderly people with cellphone collections of old band-hall music could dissipate them.
[via Born Rich]
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Written by Chris Davies on November 20th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Speakers and archive and bizarre and bluetooth and furniture.
Steampunk projects are no strangers to the front page of SlashGear, and here’s one of the more outlandish and impressive. The work of Brass Goggles forum member Herr Döktor, it’s a Steampunk space helmet; it may have started off as a propagator dome and a plastic plantpot, but over the course of 53 pages it evolved into the marvellously detailed helmet you see here.
Various aspects are illuminated, including the dials on the front and multiple gauges inside the dome itself. As with most Steampunk projects the helmet makes liberal use of scrap and junk.
The fact that’s reminiscent of Robbie the Robot from the original Lost in Space is quite appealing. Still, beyond flaunting it on its custom stand, I’m not entirely sure what you’d do with it; in that sense, the Steampunk keyboard is a less dramatic but slightly more usable affair.
[via Hacknmod]
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Written by Chris Davies on November 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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I’m not sure what’s best about this Whac-a-Mole cabinet: the fact that it’s hidden inside an innocent looking bookcase and opens at the press of a remote button, or the fact that you can have personalized mole-heads made to resemble your family, co-workers or favorite politicians. Comprising five moles that randomly pop up, two soft leather mallets to batter them with, and an LED display to keep track of your score, there’s also a drinks shelf and glass-rack above to calm you down after a particularly frantic session.
The cabinet is walnut veneer with real hardwood inlays, and opens via two remote control struts. As well as a rack for your brandy glasses there are holders for the two mallets.
The Personalized Whac-a-Mole cabinet is available now from Hammacher Schlemmer (who else?) priced at the not-inconsiderable $35,000. Alternatively they sell a more straightforward, stock Whac-a-Mole game for “just” $4,500.
[via Born Rich]
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Written by Chris Davies on October 31st, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Gaming and archive and bizarre and luxury and remote control.
“Cold hands, warm heart” goes the old saying, but if you’re more keen on melting the ice around your digits than you are reassuring people of your genial nature then Thanko’s new keyboard might appeal. As well as looking monstrously well built, the USB ‘board includes both a fan-cooler and warmer function, designed to keep your hands clement despite the weather.
Either heating or cooling is selected by a single switch, and there’s a dial that adjusts the fans or the temperature level. Two USB ports are required, one for data and the other for power, and compared to the previous cooling-only version there are even more fans.
Available in Japan now, the “USB Hot Cooler Keyboard” is priced at 4,980 Yen ($51). A small price to pay for being able to turn the house thermostat down a few notches, and you can always use it to warm up your socks in the morning. Nothing like a nice, warm sock to kick off the day with a smile.
[via Akihabara]
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Written by Chris Davies on October 29th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Accessories and Keyboards and Peripherals and QWERTY Keyboard and USB and archive and bizarre.
Relatively pointless, underspecified in key areas like storage, and in today’s economic climate a needless luxury; all criticisms that could fairly be aimed at the Sony Rolly, and yet people keep buying them. Latest update to the dancing, spinning, flashing and flapping PMP is the ability to control it via Bluetooth: the Sony Rolly SEP-50BT has just 2GB of onboard storage and a 5hr battery life, but now you can use your cellphone or Bluetooth-enabled PC to trundle it about.
Video demo of the Sony Rolly SEP-50BT after the cut
In fact you can synchronize the dancing of up to seven new Rollys, and a new playlist function lets you control the music from your cellphone. As before, you can either let the Rolly make up its own dance moves, download preset dances, or programme your own.
The new Sony Rolly SEP-50BT, in pink or white, is expected to retail at around ¥40,000 ($420) when it ships in Japan on November 21st. Owners of existing Sony Rolly models who would like the Bluetooth remote control functionality will have the option to upgrade their software in early December, though it won’t be free.
Click here to view the embedded video.
[via Impress]
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Written by Chris Davies on October 28th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on PMP and Robotics and Sony and archive and bizarre and mediaplayer.
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