Hacks, Mods & Circuitry News

News: Think You're Good at Mario? Try Playing With Your Eyes

Now that you've mastered hand control, here's a new challenge for you. Try playing Mario using just your eye movements. The video below describes how the system works, and if you're feeling extra ambitious, scroll down for two HowTo videos, paired with (1, 2, 3, 4) build details.

Water Music: Conducting with Conductivity

What do you get when you mix water-filled bowls with electrical wiring and human hands? The answer may shock you. Artists Ion Furjanic & Isaac Souweine write, "Electric Tea 1.0 is the first in a series of works that put sound where it doesn't belong. [It] uses porcelain bowls, metal orbs, speaker wire, water, and the conductive power of the human body to create a water based musical controller."

News: Brain-Computer Interface Gives New Meaning to "Mind Control"

Can a well-directed thought be as good as a mouse click? With an Emotiv EPOC headset, the answer is yes. And then some. Though Emotiv describe their device as a "high-resolution, neuro-signal acquisition and processing wireless neuroheadset," we're quite content to call it a thinking cap.

News: Robo-Exoskeleton Puts Paralyzed Back on Their Feet

Meet Rex, the Robotic Exoskeleton—a pair of wearable robotic legs that promise to help the wheelchair-bound get back on their feet. The wealthy ones, at least. The device is expected to retail for around $150,000 stateside.

News: Wave-Shaping Pool Puts Poseidon to Shame

Say what you will, this wave-shaping safety pool's got heart. And, thanks to the principle of wave interference, quite a lot of other shapes besides.

Friday Fresh: Create an Auto G-Spot and More

Every day of the week, WonderHowTo curators are hard at work, scouring the web for the greatest and most inspiring how-to videos. Every Friday, we'll highlight our favorite finds.

News: It's a Bird, It's a Plane–It's a Self-Folding Origami Robot

Love folk art but could do without the folk? Prepare to have your heart stolen by a self-folding origami automaton.

News: Splish Splash, My Computer's Taking a Bath

Goodbye, point-and-click; hello, point-and-splash! This water-based touch screen by Japanese designer Taichi Inoue is more than just clever and ergonomic, it's downright summery.

News: What Every Man Wants in Bed

Wait for it... Wait for it... (Trust me, you won't be sorry).

News: High Design Gets Trashy

What do these egg-carton lamps by American designer Victor Vetterlein have in common with Frankenstein's monster? More than you'd think! Both are green. Both have bolted necks. And both are assembled from materials most would be happy to let decompose.

News: Fingerpainting for Baby Cyborgs

Did you ever, as a know-nothing kid, push against your closed eyelids for the pleasure of the resultant light show? LCD bending takes the low-tech fun of physical retinal stimulation and updates it for the 21st century. And, as the title suggests, the end result looks very much like a sort of angelic, fractal-based fingerpainting.

News: The World's Most Badass Printer (Operated by LEGO Chicks)

Well, not just chicks. A couple LEGO dudes, too. (Oh, and a horse). All I can say is, I'm head over heels in love. With a LEGO People operated, felt tip pen printer. B3ta forum member Squirrelfantasy spent about three weeks building his LEGO printer, which uses a felt-tip pen in place of an ink cartridge.

News: Sony Playstation of Pain Administers Prison Tattoos

A British prisoner was recently caught with a tattoo gun rigged from a Sony Playstation. The crafty D.I.Y.er broke down the Playstation and attached the console motor to a finely sharpened ballpoint pen.

News: Ouch. Demented Japanese Electrocutes Himself & Others in the Name of Art

Japanese artist and programmer Daito Manabe uses the face as an instrument. He makes the human face involuntarily dance using electric stimulators (which, by the way, look like the same kind used for electroshock therapy). The stimulators are taped to the face, and each musical beat delivers a shock, resulting in disturbing face contortions in time to the music.

News: Mmmm, I Wish My Bicycle Made Cotton Candy

In the far away land of China, cotton candy is made with bicycles. According to Make, the sugar is heated with propane, and the cotton candy is spun using the bike pedals. I've gotta get myself one of these (or next best thing, travel to China so I can sample it myself). Previously, Chinese Dropout Builds Submarine.

News: Got an Itch? Let Your Chair Do the Scratching

The itch chair, designed by Dana Gordon and Alejandro Zamudio Sánchez, is a futuristic chair that scratches the back of the sitter.

News: Easy! Cell Phone Camera Macro Mod (5X Zoom)

Hack N Mod offers an incredibly simple cell phone camera mod that delivers striking results. All you need is a lens from an old DVD player and you can magnify your zoom by five times.

News: The Man Behind MacGyver

MacGyver. How can he not be a WonderHowTo hero?

News: Fire Breathing Snowman

Nick and Anna Berte of Bel Air, Maryland mischievously rigged their snowman with a flamethrower.

News: DIY Digital Combination Clock

Ever wondered how a digital combination lock works? Instructables member Nino123 is kind enough to demonstrate the inner workings, with a step-by-step HowTo on building your own.

News: Mod Your Power Wheels Into WiFi Halo Warthogs

Tim Higgins brings Halo's warthog vehicles to reality with a live action game created with laser tag weaponry, game controllers, and kid-sized jeeps.

News: Eggsellent DIY Speakers

Says creator and Flickr user gomhi, "Handcrafted loudspeakers using chicken eggshell as cabinet. They sound narrow, but I'm pleased about the result. "

News: Remote Control Your Car via iPhone (Albeit Dangerously)

Bonafide How-It's-Done (not exactly a HowTo) on remote-controlling your car via iPhone and Power Wheels. Brought to you by some crazy Texans, over at Waterloo Labs.

News: Levitating Alarm Clock Literally Lifts You Out of Bed

Via Jeff's Arduino Blog, the Princess and the Pea Alarm Clock:

News: Remote Control Your Lawn Mower

Time to make those lazy Sunday afternoons even lazier. Instructables member johndavid400 has posted a full HowTo on modding your lawn mower to operate via remote control.

News: Ignite Prey and Light Cigarettes With a Laser Burner

Looking for an (explosively) fun Thanksgiving project this week? Something that involves fire and lasers? Check it out. YouTube creator StyroPyro lights ten matches in 9 seconds with a modded laser. One word: Awesome. Luckily both StyroPyro and Kipkay provide HowTo's. First, How to building a burning blue/violet laser. Below, Kipkay demonstrates how to build one with a cheap Bic lighter casing (as well as store bought parts). Have fun.

News: DIY Private-Knock-Knock-Knock Cipher

The secret hideout - a thing of the past, a childhood luxury, an adult-less adventure. Those were the days. And remember the secret knock? The only way in. You either knew it or you didn't. The only way to keep the kids in and the grown-ups out.

News: Beer Launcher Wows Letterman (+ Any Self Respecting Male)

John Cornwell is a God among men. Even Letterman thinks so. As well as every beer drinker. John hacked his mini refrigerator into what he calls the "Beer Launching Fridge":

News: Japan's Thomas Edison Sets Patent Guinness Record (Including Super Viagra)

Talk about yankee ingenuity... zany Japanese inventor, Dr. Nakamats, has lead a life propelled by curiosity and inventiveness. Nakamats boasts that he has Thomas Edison beat by a mile (compare Edison's measly 1,093 patents to Nakamats' 3,357).

News: Hack Together Creepy Arduino Shifty-Eyeballs For Halloween

Todbot offers instructions for making your own Arduino shifty-googly Halloween eyeballs. Perfect to pop inside a pumpkin or skull.

News: DIY Gigantic Nintendo Coffee Table Controller

Playing Super Mario Bros 3 with a giant controller on a projection screen = nerd nirvana. Giant NES controller/coffee table/storage box made by Kyle Downes. This piece of furniture actually connects to the system, and works as a real controller. Scroll down for video demonstration and images.

News: Shh...Cyborg Spy Beetles Released by DARPA

UC Berkeley (funded by DARPA) has created cyborg beetles guided wirelessly via laptop. These spy beetles were created with the intent of bugging actual conversations, literally acting as the "fly on the wall". The beetles range anywhere from 2 to 20 centimeters.

News: Build a Tiny Living Room (In Your PC)

Incredibly odd (not to mention anal retentive) PC casemod: a teeny, tiny living room constructed with dollhouse furniture. From Russian casemod site, unknown origin. Bizarre!

News: Creepy Talking-Piano Hack

Austrian composer Peter Ablinger has created a "speaking" piano. Ablinger digitized a child's voice reciting the Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court to "play" on the piano via MIDI sequencer.  Apparently, the computer is connected to the piano, which analyzes the human speech, and then converts it to key-tapping.

News: Fiber Optic Milky Way in your Bedroom

Instructables member Mike Galloway has constructed his own private planetarium: a fiber optic starfield ceiling for his newborn baby.

News: Lego Mindstorms Puts the Fun Back into Number Two

Sure, unrolling toilet paper and tearing it from the roll is not difficult. But if Lego Mindstorms can do it for you, why not?

News: Make a Taxidermied Mouse Mouse

Instructables member Canida came up with this clever (though grotesque) pun: The Mouse Mouse. PETA members, you may want to skip this one, Canida's project does require a dead mouse.

News: Create perpetual energy - almost

Is perpetual energy possible? The debate rages on. And they just keep trying.

News: Hack together a USB mini-fridge

Babblin5, our good friend from Wichita, is hacking again. Here he mods an old camper cooler, powering it with USB power.

News: Make your face paparazzi-invisible with infrared

Need to be undercover? Well, make yourself impossible to photograph. Get some infrared LEDs. They're undetectable to the human eye, but that's not the case with cameras. Wire them to the brim of your hat and you've got instant invisibility to any camera -- paparazzi, Big Brother or otherwise.