Category Archives: Geek Toys

A Kids Book Where Every Character Can Be 3-D Printed

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Wired posted an article recently about a book that should be on the “to buy” list of everyone whose library has a makerspace: Leo the Maker Prince.

Characters from the book can be 3D printed.

Characters from the book can be 3D printed.

From Wired:
“Leo the Maker Prince is a twee tale about a Brooklyn-based engineer-in-training named Diana, and Leo, a 3-D printer robot that transforms her drawings into functional objects. It’s a heartwarming story, equal parts The Little Prince and Bre Pettis, and it’s squarely aimed at the bedtime rotation of children with maker parents. What separates it from other stories is that kiddos can follow Diana’s lead and produce the characters and objects from the book on their own 3-D printers.”

What an excellent way to excite kids about technology!

What? You’re on Twitter but Your Houseplant is Not? Tsk Tsk

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I love ThinkGeek.com.  It’s chock-full of great tee shirts, gadgets, toys and electronics that are sure to fill your geek heart with lust and envy. They seem to have first dibs on some great new technologies and they put them out there for the rest of us to buy. Reasonably priced, too.

This caught my eye today:

Who wouldn’t want a plant to post its status to Twitter so you know when to water it?

I know this sounds like a fun toy, but keep your eyes open. We’re going to see a lot more of this sort of thing. Getting status updates delivered to our inboxes and cell phones in real time will be commonplace before long. So go ahead – be the first one at your office with a twittering plant! : )

Roll Your Own Multi-touch Display

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Were you totally wowed by Microsoft’s Surface? Trying to figure out how to come up with $10K so you can have one for yourself? Save some cash and build your own instead! Technology Review has an article on Eyebeam engineers who created an open source version, and there’s a nice exploded-view image of it at Gizmodo. At a mere 500 bucks for parts and some hands-on building time, who wouldn’t put this multi-touch table on their wish list?

And just as a reminder: Microsoft didn’t invent this technology. Here’s a fantastic video of Jeff Han showing his multi-touch display for Perceptive Pixel, and another from Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab.

Cool stuff. : )

I’m Blogging This

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That’s what my new tee shirt will say when it arrives. In an effort to kill time while I’m not feeling well, I spent a good, long time browsing the ThinkGeek website before deciding on the tee:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/ladies/6388/

Here’s what’s new since last time I checked out their site: you can make a wish list. Great idea for people like me who are tempted by, but not ready to commit to, a number of cool geek toys. Do I really want the USB lava lamp? The ambient weather-forecasting umbrella? The LED necklace? How about the do-it-yourself hologram kit? There is just way too much cool stuff, so I’ve put my favorites on my wish list for now while I weigh out my choices.

If nothing else, browsing the site will get your geeky creativity flowing.