This LEGO Mindstorm Robotic Toilet Flush System is a very polite robot that thanks you after you use the toilet and then flushes it for you. There are full build instructions on the site so that you could build your very own. A study should be done to see if the positive acknowledgment (the thank you phrase) would lead to an increase of water consumption.

Video after the jump.

“Tired of flushing your own toilet? Build a RoboFlush! RoboFlush is a simple Lego NXT Mindstorms Robot designed to flush a toilet automatically. It also comes with a manual flush option! ”

Via: TechEBlog and Zedomax

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Just in time for Halloween, Robosapien get an Elmo costume and a voice change.

Video after the jump.

“He’s furry, red, and robotic! Meet ElmoSapien, the fusion of Sesame Street’s legendary Elmo puppet character and WowWee’s fantastic Robosapien RS Media robot. Like VaderSapien, ElmoSapien is out to dominate the world, but in funny, silly, way! Watch the video to see ElmoSapien in action.”

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Congratulation to the last contest winner.

The prize this week is a travel adapter so that you can keep all of your gadgets working even when you are far away from home.

This contest will run for this weekend only (September 29 - 30, 2007) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above and give an example of what can be done with it. Please do not give the answer in the comments.

Send an email to contest @ hackedgadgets.com with “Name the Thing Contest” as the subject, and the message body consisting of:
* The name of the item in the above picture
* An example of what the item pictured above can be used for

The winner will be chosen at random from all of the correct entries.

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Added October 2, 2007

Thanks to all who entered.
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Below are some pictures of the prize.

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This is a 1GB IBM hard drive from about 20 years ago. Wow how technology has evolved! Do you think that the engineers of the day would guess that today we would have more than a hundred times that storage in your pocket which also by the way has a color screen, battery and the smarts to make it play audio and video? Here are some other hard drives to gaze upon.

Via: Zedomax

Check out this cool PIC Microcontroller Touch Keypad by Mondo Technology. I love the simplicity of button press detection. There are lots of industrial buttons that do this exact thing but they are very costly.

“This board layout was created using the SOIC version of a PIC16F627A without drawing the usual schematic first. Most of the part values are etched on the Layout. The SIP resistor packs I used are 10k ohm, some experimentation with this value may be useful.

The actual data from the touch sensors is quite erratic and requires some software processing. Basically you create a pulse for each of the ports and read the data with the instruction following the pulse signlal rise. Then read the ports the same way looking for a gap of 0.1 seconds with no data detected. This does the ‘debounce’. This results in fairly clean data capture from the sensors.”

This Wicked Lasers Photonic Disruptor is some piece of equipment! If you are needing a laser to do power point presentations have a look at some of the other laser pointers that Wicked Laser offers, if you are looking for a non-lethal weapon then this may be for you!

Watch the Future Weapons video of the Photonic Disruptor in action to get a sense of how it operates.

“The Photonic Disruptor™ is an extremely effective, non-lethal, waterproof high powered green laser built specifically for rugged, harsh environments. This laser is classified as TALI™ (Threat Assessment Laser Illuminator).

This product has been featured on Discovery Channel’s “Future Weapons.” This tactical laser is equipped with versatile focus-adjustable collimating lenses to compensate for range and power intensity. Laze a non-lethal focused or unfocused beam towards potential threats at a distance. Used properly, the Photonic Disruptor™ will temporarily overwhelm a threat’s visual senses without causing permanent eye damage.”

Using a bunch of microcontroller controlled white LEDs is one way to jazz up a coffee table! Check out the LED Coffee Table that Evil Mad Scientists has developed. If you think this technology would look nice in your table you are in luck since you can purchase a kit to build your very own.

Video after the jump.

“Our kits include the giant printed circuit boards, components, instructions, regulated power supply, and all other parts needed to build the electronic portion of the table tops. Constructed, you end up with what essentially amounts to a single extra-ginormous circuit board that can sit underneath the clear or frosted glass (or plastic) top of your own table. The complete six-panel kit costs $350, and the complete eight-panel kit costs $450. Our standard LED option is a 50/50 mixture of blue and white LEDs. You can also choose all blue or all white LEDs at no extra cost. Most other LED colors and combinations are available for an additional charge of $50 (per kit).”

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