The glass is aligned to concentrate the sun's rays, lighting the cannon's fuse at high noon. More pics here, and a very detailed .pdf from the British Sundial Society on so-called "noon cannons" here. [via Neatorama]

Croatian designer Robert Matysiak has made a delightful array of these "robolamps" by kit-bashing from plumbing supplies and variously colored light bulbs. They are, alas, not presently for sale.

From designer Jung Hwa Jin, the "Polaroid Flower Vase:"

...a small planter that recalls the nostalgic form of polaroid, with the plant becoming the focus of the "picture." The planter is suspended with a clothespin on the end of a cord, with a small embedded lamp illuminating its subject.

[Thanks, Ellie!]

Like Tetris, but tired of playing it alone in the dark on your Game Boy? Well, now you can rejoice, for Luyza Pereira and Bettina Hiel have brought Tetris into the era of physical computing with their installation Tetris meets Arduino. The result is about what one would expect, and with the addition of a tilt sensor to turn the blocks, looks like a pretty fun game. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any details of the build available, however it should be pretty straightforward to re-make. [via dudecraft]

The scrub together table and lazy stool furniture pieces by designer Jason Taylor are pretty neat looking, but is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? Thats right, they are just a motor away from becoming giant bristlebots! The bristles look like they might need to be bent over a bit first, though. [via dude craft]

Here's a linear optical encoder made from printer parts, a PIC 18F4520 MCU, and an L298 motor controller:

The goal of this tutorial is to create a way to know where the 'stage' is, accurate to about 1/4'' using optical encoding. The stage is controlled via a 12v motor so we will use an L298 motor controller for controlling the motor via a 18F4520 PIC.

The PIC will use hardware PWM generators to output the correct frequency & duty cycle. The PIC will also take the analog input from the IR detector diode to keep track of how far the stage has moved via an internal analog to digital converter (ADC).

Simple Motor Optical Encoder

More:
How To: DIY quadrature encoder
HOW TO - Make an Optical Encoder

If there's one thing I can't get enough of, it is funny ways to tell time, and this catena wall clock definitely fits the bill. Instead of rotating a set of hands, or lighting a digital display, this clock works by slowly turning a chain that has a set of numbers attached to it. The current time is whatever number is closest to the top. It's a neat artifact, and could be a good use for an old chainsaw or bike chain that you have laying around. I could also see this being turned sideways, with a set of gears and different chains to represent both the time and the date. [via technabob]

I'm digging this sled coffee table and rug, built by design firm Duffy London. The concept of suggesting a narrative through simple things such as a rug cut to look like snow with tracks in it seems really compelling to me. What would be an appropriate geeky version? A mars rover table with tracks in a red carpet? A siege engine with a flat top, tiny soldiers pushing it and tons of little footprints? The possibilities must be endless! [via curbly]

From Russian designer Vadim Kibardin. It's pricey, of course, but I think all you'd need for a remake is a bunch of closet rod, a miter saw, some wood glue, and vast patience. [via Neatorama]

Want to claim your city as your own? Competing with a rival gang for turf, and want to avoid messy knife fights? Well now you can, thanks to Urban Defender. Working over a short time period, a team of students from Zurich University of Arts built a system to claim buildings by throwing a specially equipped ball at them. Impacts are detected by an accelerometer connected to an Arduino, which is wirelessly connected to a Beagle board which uses a GPS to coordinate the hit to a specific address.

They apparently didn't have time to finish the multi-player version of the game, but I think the concept is too good to let die. Someone should definitely hook this up to the social networking game foursquare. As a bonus, you could use the sensor units to play the actual game four square when you get tired of fighting for turf.

I love this reuse of an first-gen "sunflower" G4 iMac (aka the "Luxo"). It was also nicknamed the iLamp (due to its flexible desk lamp-like arm), so this builder went ahead and turned his into an actual lamp.

How to Recycle an iMac Luxo

BIBI is a French artist who almost entirely uses trash plastic in his art. He calls himself a "plastician." [Thanks, Karen!]

BIBI, Plastician Artist

You kind of have to see this thing move to get the point. The brand name is RevolveR and, apart from novelty, the "floating spine" binding seems to serve no particular function. Still, it's pretty delightful, and seems to operate on the same principle as the toy commonly known as a "Jacob's Ladder" (Wikipedia). [via Boing Boing]

Capturing the same powerful forces that destroyed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge shortly after it was built in 1940, researchers at the University of Michigan are developing a new way of generating electricity with the slow moving currents found in most of the rivers and oceans of the world.

VIVACE is the first known device that could harness energy from most of the water currents around the globe because it works in flows moving slower than 2 knots (about 2 miles per hour.) Most of the Earth's currents are slower than 3 knots. Turbines and water mills need an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently. Michael Bernitsas

Michael Bernitsas, professor in the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, stands before a prototype of his VIVACE hydrokinetic energy device.

VIVACE stands for Vortex Induced Vibrations for Aquatic Clean Energy. It doesn't depend on waves, tides, turbines or dams. It's a unique hydrokinetic energy system that relies on "vortex induced vibrations."

This technology is hoped to be easier to site than traditional windmills and hydropower generators. [Thanks, Amon!]

There are vises, and there are vises. And there are those of us for whom vises are also vices. For we few obsessives cognoscenti, the price of this beautifully-designed chain-drive shoulder vise package may not be unreasonable. For the mechanically inclined, a remake would be totally do-able, and Lie-Nielsen is to be credited for not keeping any secrets about how it all goes together. The installation instructions (.pdf) contain all you'd need to know to cobble together one of your own.

Restrictive homeowners' association preventing you from building your entire house out of LEGO? To help convince them of the importance of the brick, why not start by building a LEGO kitchen, like this one from designers Simon Pillard and Philippe Rosett. While not made entirely of lego (there is a fiberboard counter underneath the brick), it should be sure to earn you the respect of your neighbors. [via inhabitat]

More:

• LEGO Kitchen crafts
• Toilet paper folder & dispenser prototype

Scott Jarvie made this Clutch Chair using more than 10,000 drinking straws. This one is apparently a non-functional art piece, however it seems like one should be able to make a usable chair with the same materials.

Anyone know how to form a curved surface using only straight segments of straw? My best guess is that you could use half-length straws as a wedge to form the curves. [via neatorama]

I like where Youtube user DanieleMattei is going with his video Filter control via light blob tracking in Processing. Using OpenCV and Processing (what else!), he rigged up a way to control the parameters of his MIDI synthesizer by waving a flashlight around. It doesn't look too complicated to set up, and might be a fun way to compose something as a group. With a web cam built into your laptop, you could set up a mobile sound station that anyone with a flashlight (or bright cellphone screen) could play.

Update: Daniele mentions that he developed this project with Massimiliano Schinco, as part of their studies at the ISIM garage. Massimiliano also has an updated video of the project. Great work, guys!

This one looks quite ripe for a remake - Heatstick's wearable hummingbird feeder gives a very close-up view of a fascinating animal. If the $79.95 asking price is a bit outside of your current birdwatching budget - do consider painting up a face shield, drilling a hole, and mounting a nectar-filled bulb within - just be sure to give the little guys some alone time to grow acquainted with the feeder before attempting to 'interface'. [via Boing Boing]

These "musical towers" are featured in the short film 901: After 45 Years of Working by Eames Demetrios. 901 documents the dismantling of the office of famous U.S. designers Charles and Ray Eames in 1988 following Ray's death. The Eames office was a kind of maker fantasy-land, with finished and unfinished projects scattered about, meticulously organized tools and supplies, and wonderful little gewgaws in every nook and cranny.

The first few minutes of the film feature a delightful bubbling xylophone soundtrack that is eventually revealed to be coming from these prototype toys designed by the Eameses themselves, and installed in their office for their own amusement.

The towers are wooden boxes six inches square and about 15' tall, fronted with acrylic, and having sides slotted to accept metal xylophone keys which fit loosely enough to allow free vibration and easy rearrangement. The slots for the keys are angled toward one another, slightly, so that the surfaces of the keys present a series of alternately-sloped platforms for a small hard plastic ball which, when dropped from the top of the tower, will plunk its way slowly down to the bottom, playing a little tune as it goes. The balls are injected using a manual pneumatic piston which shoots them up a pipe to the top of the tower.

There does not seem to be any video of the towers in operation available online, but 901: After 45 Years of Working is available on the first disc of The Films of Charles and Ray Eames, which also includes final and rough draft versions of the classic Powers of Ten. Highly recommended.

At first glance, this Magic Wand For Levitation may look like it is performing something supernatural when it is levitating strange objects. Unfortunately, it's not actually doing anything magical, but instead is just a neatly packaged Van de Graaff generator, which uses electrostatic charge to attract (presumably metallic) bits of Mylar. While slightly disappointing, I still like the effect, and the idea of whisking things around with the flick of a wrist fascinates me. It also means that it should be possible to remake without any special crystals.

About that profit part- anyone know how much metallic content is in paper currency? Because I could think of a good use or two for a bill-levitating wand... [via neatorama]

I'm digging Rich Gilbert's SuperFoam chair, especially the construction video. I've always wondered how you could form bubbles in silicone, and now I know: balloons! Any other ideas about what you could make using this construction method? What if you wanted the bubbles to be some other shape instead of spheres? [via core77]

If you're still looking for ideas for this (or next) year's Halloween display, check out HauntProject.com. They've done a great job of assembling cool Halloween projects from all over the web and have nearly 1,000 indexed and categorized as of this writing. Shown here are three of my faves so far. Above, a sweet crashed flying saucer prop by Scott Rossi. Below, a motorized monster-in-a-box by Bob and Cindy Stewart.

Finally there's this squishy-eyeball doorbell modification by Scott of Modd3d:

Make: Halloween Contest 2009

Microchip Technology Inc. and MAKE have teamed up to present to you the Make: Halloween Contest 2009! Show us your embedded microcontroller Halloween projects and you could be chosen as a winner.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout met with Noridan, a South Korean band that makes its instruments from cast-off objects.

Noridan's eco-friendly music ]]> <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/south_korean_band_makes_music_from.html" />Read more</a> | <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/south_korean_band_makes_music_from.html" /> Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/south_korean_band_makes_music_from.html#comments" />Comments</a> | <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/music/" />Read more articles in Music</a> | <a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=blog.makezine.com%2Farchive%2F2009%2F10%2Fsouth_korean_band_makes_music_from.html&title=South%20Korean%20band%20makes%20music%20from%20found%20objects&bodytext=Embedded%20video%20from%20CNN%20Video%20CNN%26apos%3Bs%20Kristie%20Lu%20Stout%20met%20with%20Noridan%2C%20a%20South%20Korean%20band%20that%20makes%20its%20instruments%20from%20cast-off%20objects.%20Noridan%26apos%3Bs%20eco-friendly%20music...&topic=tech_news" />Digg this!</a> http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/south_korean_band_makes_music_from.html http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/south_korean_band_makes_music_from.html Music Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:27:46 -0800 Metal sculpture artist Gabriel Dishaw uses found objects from typewriters, adding machines, and old computers, held together with fine wire and glue, to create his awesome sculptures. He pays homage to his favorite sneakers by piecing together these replicas....

Metal sculpture artist Gabriel Dishaw uses found objects from typewriters, adding machines, and old computers, held together with fine wire and glue, to create his awesome sculptures. He pays homage to his favorite sneakers by piecing together these replicas. Pictured above is the Junk Dunk (Left), based on the Nike Dunk Low. Here's a side view:

In previous iterations, like the first version shown below, he sacrificed a shoe from his personal collection to harvest the sole as a base to build off of.

The newest addition is the Blazer Pentium 1.0:

(Via Geekologie. Thanks Brookelynn!)

Ever wish you could climb over your chrysanthemums, or roll over your roses? Well, now you can with this giant hammock, designed by Jane Hutton and Adrian Blackwell for an installation at the Jardins de Métis.

Anyone else build a climber over your garden? It seems like a great way to make efficient use of a small backyard space. The only issues I can think of would be the light that the structure blocks, and making sure that there is enough space underneath the structure to actually tend to the garden. As an extra benefit of this arrangement, if your vegetable garden is extra prolific, you could enjoy a nice snack and a nap without getting up. Just watch out for the thorns! [via inhabitat]

Need extra bling on your bike? How about some human powered, light-up pedals? Rather than drawing power from a wheel-mounted generator, each of these pedals actually has a tiny generator built in. Neat! [via Gadget Lab]