With games needing more and more movement room you are forced to stand further away from the TV screen. This is most evident with the new XBox Kinect. Alex Uslontsev had this problem when he got a Kinect but his 37 inch screen wasn’t up to the task of making game play immersive. His solution was to build a cool 110 inch big screen on a budget.

“I got myself an XBox Kinect on a launch date. This was an awesome birthday gift, but it had a major shortcoming. In order to play it you need to stand 10+ feet away from the sensor. All of the sudden my 37’’ LCD TV looked tiny.”

iFixit has taken apart one of the coolest toys I have ever seen. The Parrot AR.Drone you can see by the electronics inside that this is no ordinary toy. I am thinking that the guts of this system could be used to fly the SkyFly. Nice thing about the AR Drone is that it is made to be used, broken and repaired. This is one piece of gear that will be hard to trash to the point that it needs to be tossed away.

“The AR.Drone is earth-shattering. It has blown away every drone expert we’ve talked to. It’s not just a toy: it’s a phenomenal piece of engineering that manages to solve some very difficult software problems in order to take flight. Hidden beneath the foam fascia lies some very sophisticated electronics, all of which makes flying the quadricopter very seamless. We were quite interested in seeing exactly what components Parrot used to make their awesome flying device.”

The prize this week is a pair of wire strippers, this will this will help you prep your cables to be attached to your next great creation. This contest will run for one week (December 4 – December 10, 2010). 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.

Below is a picture of the prize.

I wonder when the sky will be as accessible as the roads. I would love to think that within my lifetime this would become reality but that might be a lofty thought. If anyone could build a SkyFly Vertical Takeoff Aircraft on a shoestring budget it would be Mark Rumsey who has worked on the International Space Station program and the F/A-18 Super Hornet. Even for him I think that his 3 to 4 month build time might be a bit rushed but I hope he gets funded so we can follow the progress!

“SkyFly consists of four engines driving two counter-rotating coaxial propellers. You stand on a platform above the propellers and control the aircraft with a throttle and a control lever to turn left or right. To fly in a certain direction, you simply lean in that direction. It’s like a Segway in the sky!

1. Four Engines: $9,500
2. Welded aluminum frame: $2,000
3. Custom transmission: $3,500
4. Propellers: $1,200
5. Mufflers: $900
6. Instrumentation: $700″

Triuky left a comment about his DIY Circuit Board UV Exposure Box with Timer in the comment section of this DIY UV LED Double Sided PCB Exposure Box he us using some small UV florescent tubes similar to the ones that I used when making my UV PCB exposure system. Instead of purchasing a tube with ballast he cracked open a few screw in florescent fixtures and used the small ballast boards from them. He also added a nice counter so that he can perfect the process and keep it consistent.

Via: HG Comments

Want to learn how a Xylophon is made from scratch? The guys from NerdKits go over the basics, when the Xylophon is built they automate it by making some coils and drive it using a NerdKit. This is a fun project that is sure to provide some holiday cheer.

“Our homemade xylophone was a great way to put our milling machine to use cutting the bars for each note, and using the lathe for the solenoid forms and steel slugs. We made our xylophone from aluminum bars — all 6061 aluminum alloy rectangular bars, with a 1.5″ x 0.375″ cross-section.  Our solenoid forms were cut from 0.5″ diameter HDPE (plastic) round stock, and featured an outer channel 0.090″ radially deep, leaving just 0.035″ radial wall thickness to support the coil. The inner bore of 0.250″ allowed the slug to slide up and down, and the slug returned to its base positions simply via gravity. Each coil received 600 turns of 32 AWG magnet wire, for a final measured resistance of approximately 11.5 ohms per coil.”