Most of us have seen the game of life, and those programmers among us have probably had to implement this game in code. Windell Oskay and Lenore Edman of Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories have made a huge version of this game for a new exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art. I can see they got lots of use out of their laser cutter in the making of the system. I am sure I am not alone in guessing this would make for the ultimate geek coffee table!

Thanks for the tip Paul.

Thanks to Fibers for sponsoring the contest this week. They will be providing the winner a $35 gift certificate which can be used towards some cool threads on their site. They have tons of cool designs ready to purchase but you need to have a look at their custom designer. You can pick the clothing item style, choose some text in any font you like, toss in some images and more. In the end you are left with a cool custom creation.

The first example shirt design below is from their Engineer t-shirts line and the second is one from a t-shirt contest they are running. After entering this contest be sure to enter theirs.

This contest will run for one week (Aug 21 – Aug 27, 2010) . Ending time is based on central standard time. To enter, identify the blown up component 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 September 12, 2010

The item to guess was a Starter Solenoid

The winner is Derek T. (there were 94 entries)

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Below are some examples of what you could get.

(more…)

I am lucky to live in Manitoba where we have an excess of hydro electric power that is sold to our neighboring provinces and states. I have not been impacted with the results of my electrical grid being shut down due to excess demand. Our friend David Pedersen from Volunteer Lab Rat has devised an Intelligent Power Consumption Adjustment Device which would help to remedy the issue many places have where the demand of energy exceeds the supply. The system works by monitoring the live voltage frequency, when there is a heavy load against the power grid the frequency will drop. By monitoring this drop this device can intelligently lower the demand to help the situation. David has been busy these days completing his PhD but as soon as he is complete I am sure we will see a surge of projects like the CNC machine, and High Voltage Tesla Coil.

You probably remember hearing about the rolling power outages in California years ago, this system would allow devices in your home to monitor the stability of the power grid and draw less power to help stabilize the grid. It would take a large number of these devices to become effective but if it were implemented properly it could be a great help.

California is taking the issue very seriously, they are trying to make it mandatory that the state can dictate the loads in your house, they will alter your energy consumption remotely and they will force adoption by denying a building permit that tries to avoid installing these energy control devices.

“It is possible to monitor the net frequency and help the power generating facilities to balance the power consumption to meet the production. The result is that the coal, natural gas and nuclear plants does not have to increase the fuel consumption when the wind suddenly stops to blow or a could pass by the solar plants.Instead it is the power consuming devices that meet the production.

A prototype of such a monitoring system has been designed, built, tested and shown good results. The prototype is based on an Olimex LPC-2478-STK development board and runs on an ARM7 processor. The prototype use a color touch screen as user interface and the grid status can be monitored on an embedded webserver based on the micro IP protocol.”

Teravolt.org has an interesting demonstration of a Quick and Dirty DIY Laser Microscope. What you are looking at is a laser sitting on a book and the beam is shining through a drop of water that is hanging on the tip of a syringe. The water was taken from a potted plant which is why it’s teeming with life. I think we could have increased the number of people if we said it was tap water.

These DIY Motorized Rollerblades would be perfect for people who like skating but want a bit more distance and speed capability.

Via: Zedomax

“The blades have the following characteristics:

• All-wheel drive with four hub motors, which are the most compact drive solution possible. The motors add minimal drivetrain drag to the system, so the skates can still be used normally. I contend this should always be available as a backup propulsion method for small electric vehicles.
• 100% self-contained. All of the batteries and controls are contained within the skate body, and each skate frame is effectively a single-channel motor vehicle. No power is shared between the two units. There is of course then the downside of uneven battery life depending on which side of your body is dominant.
• Controlled wirelessly via 2.4Ghz radio modules.  Not only does this keep the hands free to perform standard skating motions, but also allows for creative control methods. I’ve integrated the throttle into one of the wrist guards, which is equipped with force sensors to read applied forearm and wrist bending force. The wrist guards constrain physical movement, therefore making detection of force relatively easy.”

Monitoring power lines can be done by people but it is a time consuming and expensive. It’s a job that needs to be done because of inventions like the Bat Hook Power Tap. Hydro-Québec Research Institute and BC Transmission Corporation have developed a robot that is capable of inspecting these lines while they are still powered. That’s not a big deal right since the power lines is a perfect platform to hang a robot from and roll along. The hitch comes when the power line is connected to the transmission tower, that is where this robot excels since it can traverse from one section of line to the next!

Via: BotJunkie

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