Category: Design

Selector Mug

I love Extopia so much! Without it I would have never seen the very cool and utilitarian Selector mug! now you can shamble into your local Megabucks and just proffer your mug with it’s predefined beverage choice to the droid, er.. I mean nice employee, and bingo! wake up time is served!
Now, how do I get one of these in the states… And for me I should have a mug with some sort of day tracker because sometimes I kind of forget to dump my java at the end of the day. OK, fair enough to forget that except that I also forget that I didn’t get fresh coffee and take a big ‘ol swig of the aged brew. Ughhh!

[via Extopia ]
Selector Mug

People Who Build Micro Planes

micro plane

You don’t have to shell out the big bucks if you want a micro sized R/C plane. You can do like these guys and build your own. I think that if anyone likes to tinker and build things at least once in their lives they should conquer flight. I can’t think of a better way of doing this than to build a tiny plane that you can fly in your own home. Think of the benefits, the only thermal it can catch is over the coffee maker and if it does catch it your not going to be running for miles after it. It it smacks into a door frame and turns into art rather than a working plane your the only one that sees it happen and thus are spared the embarrassment.
Make sure you read the twin motor steering section!

[via MAKEzine]
South Leicester Aeronutz

Karakuri the tea Robot

This Japanese tea serving robot showed up on a few places on the ‘net today. I have long wondered if anyone would ever offer one of these in kit form and now I have my answer.
You can get one from the Robotstore for $90US ($170US if your a wimp and can’t build it from the kit).

The driving force of the original tea-carrying doll came from a spring made of whale whiskers (actually whale teeth). All the other components, such as its gears, body and escapement for speed adjustments, were made of wood. How does it work? When a tea cup is placed on the tray, the stopper is released by the whale spring attached to the doll’s arms; the spring forces the stopper to engage again when the cup is lifted from the tray.

[via Engadget and MAKEzine]

Karakuri kit