The prize this week is a loupe magnifier. This contest will run for one week (March 7 – 12, 2009) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the item pictured above (including make and model) 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 March 21, 2009

The item to guess was a VAX 4000

The winner is JR. (There were 10 entries)

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Below is a picture of the prize.

Kipkay shows us how to make a Confetti Cannon. Most of the parts are available at your hardware store.

"What You Need…
1. A glow-plug which you can get HERE
2. Electrical Box with cover
3. Plumbing Extension Tube (12" X 1 1/4" in diameter)
4. Hobby Box
5. Momentary Switch
6. 2-AA Battery Holder
7. Epoxy
8. Rubber grommet & wire
9. Flash cotton, flash paper and Flame Resistant Confetti"

I have come to deal with the fact that my computer systems will always live in large boxes that makes lots of noise and are an eyesore. This U1 computer changes that, it is the size of a power strip and can even hide under a printer. At first I thought that this mod was going to be a computer stuffed into the printer that is on the desk. If you want it you still have a few days for the Ebay auction.

"Here is my 1U mod (11D"x17W"x1.75H"). My goal was to fit a FULL POWER (yet silent and FULLY upgradeable) gaming desktop, in a case that is 0.18 cubic feet. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!"

Thanks for the tip Nick.

(more…)

Go big or go home! That seems to be the theme here, you are looking at a Huge Media Center Remote Control. If your eyesight or manual dexterity are not what they used to be this may just the thing for you. If you are interested in making your very own the source code has also been made available.

“A few weeks ago I ran into a huge remote control in a local mall at Brookstone. It did not even take me a minute to decide that this awesome piece of hardware needs to be mine. Not too long after buying this remote control, I had a phone conversation with a friend. Together we agreed on the saying: “the bigger, the better” and brainstormed about how to develop an even bigger remote control.”

With this elaborate media center you had better make sure that your home insurance covers a huge remote control. Even though it was easy to make there is no doubt that there are very few remotes like this around and many people with huge home media centers are going to want to get their hands on a huge remote like this one.

This is a fantastic application of the Nintendo Wiimote. Timo Fleisch of Germany has created a system that uses some Wii remotes which can be purchased at any local department store and some IR LEDs which are also readily available to create a very usable virtual environment. You hold an item infront of a monitor which will be displaying the virtual item, above this screen there is a Wiimote mounted that is looking down towards the table. The item you hold has some IR LEDs mounted on it to allow the Wiimote camera to determine its exact orientation. A second Wiimote enhances the effect by looking at the user who is wearing a device with some more IR LEDs, now the system also knows where the users head is located. The computer generates and image on the screen based on the orientation of the hand held device in addition to the position of the users head.

I can think of lots of very cool applications, just imagine being able to virtually hold an auction item, turning and inspecting it from every angle. This type of inspection would be impossible to do looking at a catalog picture.

"The core of this VR setup is using the Nintendo Wiimote Controller as a tracking camera. As one might already know the Wiimote is equipped with an infra-red camera that is able to recognize up to four infra-red lights. The main idea now is to build a device with four infra-red LEDs that can be recognized by the Wiimote. This device I call IR-LED beacon. Using the values of the 4 LEDs as recognized by the Wiimote I use an algorithm to reconstruct the original position and orientation of the IR-LED beacon. Getting all 3 axis translations and all 3 axis rotation angles of the device is called 6 degree of freedom tracking – or short 6DOF tracking."

It is nice to see something other than a basic machining project for a final university course. This team spent 5 weeks putting together a cool final project that would create and serve an ice cream to some hungry onlookers!

"The Department of Technological Studies at Ohio Northern University developed these ice cream serving robots as part of an extracurricular activity for ONU’s homecoming festivities. The project took 5 weeks and included 26 students."

Mike Phillips shared this video in the Fireball group yesterday, it’s very impressive to see the advancement that has occurred over the years. I remember watching a car prototype being created by hand, modelers were working from a sketch smearing clay all over a model pinching and smoothing to make the lines similar to the sketch. Only problem with the manual method is it would be impossible to duplicate. With the CNC machine making the model it has only to be designed once and can be created as many times as needed. Modifications would also be very easy to do compared to redrawing the concept.