Cassandra Khaw is an entry-level audiophile, a street dancer, a person who writes about video games for a living, and someone who spends too much time on Twitter. More by Cassandra Khaw
BrickPi/Kickstarter
Kickstarter campaigns are a dime a dozen these days (which is why you should read our Crowdfunding Spotlight column so you can make sense of them all). But few of them feature such a beautiful marriage between two of geek culture's favorite things: Lego and the Raspberry Pi.
The BrickPi system consists of two parts. First is the BrickPi board itself, which connects, controls, and powers your Raspberry Pi and Lego Mindstorms paraphernalia.The other half of the BrickPi is, of course, the casing. After all, you can't have a robot without something to secure the disparate bits to, right?
Kevin is a small-time tech hound, amateur photographer, and a general know-at-least-something of all things geeky hailing from New York. More by Kevin Lee
Duke UniversityYaroslav Urzhumov holds the 3D-printed invisibility cloak.
Unlike previous attempts at creating invisibility cloaks, Duke University researchers decided to skimp on the expensive metamaterials and opted to create a completely polymer-based invisibility cloak using the stereolithographic fabrication process of a 3D printer. The resulting cloak—which can render you invisible to microwave scanning (though not visible light)—looks more like a Frisbee made of swiss cheese, but the researchers assure us that it really works.
Corey Tamas is a communications consultant, a father, and professional musician in Ottawa, Ontario. More by Corey Tamas
Universal Everything
When you think of Nike, you may only imagine exhausted runners throwing up on their shoes, but UK digital art studio Universal Everything has something just a bit more elegant in mind. Commissioned by Nike, they’ve created a breathtaking art installation called Flyknit that dynamically uses the human body to generate beautiful images.
Flyknit uses Kinect cameras to capture the motion of nearby observers and then digitally translates the image into swirling, undulating swarms of colors and shapes. Imagine standing near a giant cube that senses your motion and interprets it back to you by displaying colorful, swirling video on each of its four sides, following your motions in a colorful cascade.
Kevin is a small-time tech hound, amateur photographer, and a general know-at-least-something of all things geeky hailing from New York. More by Kevin Lee
D-Wave Systems
Happy weekend, folks! In case you’re not the thousands people gawking at all the amazing maker creations at the Bay Area Maker Faire, we’ve got lots of cool and freaky science going for your reading enjoyment. We’ll look at an AI learning machine put together by NASA and Google, an extremely expensive piece of 3D printed meat, and much more.
Cassandra Khaw is an entry-level audiophile, a street dancer, a person who writes about video games for a living, and someone who spends too much time on Twitter. More by Cassandra Khaw
LEGO DOU Moko/Flickr
Lego creations are great, but they're even better when they're larger than logical or capable of helping you make a banana cream pie. This Friday, we have kitchen appliances, a 4-foot-tall tribute to Evangelion, and more. Now, if only someone will make a fully functional tricorder out of Lego blocks.
BrickPi/Kickstarter
Duke University
Universal Everything
D-Wave Systems
LEGO DOU Moko/Flickr