When you think of toys normally you think of something that is fun and pleasurable. Well this toy by Harcos Labs is anything but pleasurable! It senses your brain waves using a Mindflex brainwave reader and if you are caught thinking hard about something…. ZAPPPPP, you get an electric shock. I think I need a reverse model of this to keep my productivity up all day, just think about the extra work I could get done if I harnessed all those 2 minute day dreams…

“The Mindflex utilizes a wireless headset to detect the frequency of your brain activity. If you are calm and idle, no LEDs will light up. If you are concentrating strongly, all of the LEDs will light up (and a little motor will levitate a ball). I happened to know that Eli, the other founder here at Harcos Labs, absolutely hated being shocked. This project was going to be DELIGHTFUL.

I decided that I would output the top two LED’s leads to a transistor/resistor/relay network that would activate an electroshock unit I ordered off QKits. The first LED would power on the electroshock unit and give a painless tingle through a resistor network. The second LED would activate a transistor that would activate a relay that would bypass the resistor network and give the user the full brunt of the electric shock. Initially, I was going to use a separate shocking unit for 3 of the LEDs, but when I put together the unit from QKits, I found that only one was too painful to hold on to for more than few.”

Carl has built some lasers that have been featured here in the past. Well he has sent in his latest creation. It is a small metal box filled with a microcontroller driven array of lasers!

Thanks Carl.

“My latest work using three lasers (red, green, blu-ray) combined with optics from a HD DVD drive mounted in something called an white fusion kit. I designed a driver circuit to control the lasers with PWM from a PIC to make millions of colours and it has lot of built-in effects.“

Using a bubble bath bottle Steve from BotBuilder.co.uk has made a cool Dalek Robot that is controlled using an iPhone (or iPod Touch).

“The ipod sends out OSC signals over WiFi to processing which then talks over serial to my Servo Board.

The Dalek moves around when you tilt the ipod/iphone. I am getting the accelerometer data out for this. I also have a turret that can be rotated and some leds that are switch-able.”

If you have been looking for a minimalist case design for some of your projects have a look at the Wise Time 2 Clock. Some acrylic front and back keeps your fingers off the electronics, acts as a stand and doesn’t hide the electronics. This case was cut using a laser cutter but you can also do a nice job with a CNC machine or a bit of time and some hand tools. If you are determined to have a perfect laser cut result have a look at online services such as Ponoko, eMachineShop or Pololu.