LED R/C Helicopter Writes Words on Its Blades

Remote-controlled helicopters can be fun to fly, but they’re not exactly easy to see in the dark. But these little R/C choppers not only light up when flying, their blades can display messages while airborne.

The helicopter’s spinning blades have LEDs on them, which can be programmed to display dot-matrix text or icons which emerge while the blades spin, thanks to a persistence of vision illusion.

Simply enter the text you want to display using the companion app (which appears to be Windows only), choose the animation pattern, and download the data to your helicopter. The text is designed to be legible when viewed from the ground looking up at the helicopter.

The helicopter itself has 8-inch gyro-stabilized blades, and can be charged via USB. The LED R/C Helicopter is available from Brando for $39.90(USD).

It would be cool to see this same technology applied to multi-blade drones too.

via Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2013/12/02/led-rc-helicopter-writer/

Saberforge Double-Bladed Staff: As Popularized by Arthday Aulmay

We’ve already seen Etsy seller Philip Isherwood’s Saberforge Battle Sabers, a series of very original prop weapons. While I’m still researching how he came up with his utterly unique designs, Philip already upped the ante. He’s now making Saberforge Staffs, which have not one but two blades. This changes everything. This guy is a genius. A genius I say!

Philip is well aware that his props are used by people who like to play both heroes and villains, so he again fired up his innovation engine and came up with two distinct designs. The Decimator Staff, shown above, looks unmistakably evil, while the Grand Master Staff, shown below, is for those who (pretend to) fight for good. Philip’s imagination truly knows no bounds.

Seriously though, these seem like durable and beautiful props. Not only do they have aircraft-grade aluminum handles, they also have force- and motion-sensitive sound effects, meaning they play appropriate audio effects when swung and when their blades clash. Speaking of clashing, the staff’s coupler can be removed if you want to dual wield or share a saber with a friend. Each staff comes with two sets of blades, a pair of 36″ blades and a pair of 32″ blades. A 10w dual-color LED on each hilt provides the lighting.

Here’s Philip demonstrating the Decimator Staff…

…and the Grand Master Staff:

If you’re ready to take your pretend interstellar armed conflicts to the next level, head to Philip’s Etsy shop Saberforge. The staffs cost $850 (USD) each.

[via DudeIWantThat]

via Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2013/12/02/saberforge-double-bladed-staff/

Write and Share Five-Sentence Stories with Spine

You might not be able to write for a living for one reason or another, even if you wanted to, but that doesn’t mean you should stop writing. Let off some steam, talk about your dreams, share funny anecdotes – there are so many things you can do with words.

They don’t have to be extremely long. In fact, there’s an app that lets you write short blurbs and share them with friends and random people when you’re done with them. That app is called Spine.

It’s a neat little app that lets aspiring writers publish five-sentence stories. You can basically consider Spine as a social network for micro-stories where authors and readers can connect and share stories with one another.

Users can post and browse stories in nine different categories, which includes literary staples like action, horror, sci-fi, and mystery.

Users can rate stories and share the ones they love to others on their networks. In short, it’s a community of writers and readers doing something they love: reading and writing.

Spine is available free for iOS devices and can be downloaded here.

[via Laughing Squid]

via Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2013/12/02/share-stories-with-spine-app/

Amazon Prime Air Would Use Drones for 30-Minute Delivery: Fast Good

Drones are often thought of as weapons of war, but a few years from now people may come to know them as delivery bots. In a recent interview with CBS show 60 Minutes , Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled Amazon Prime Air, a futuristic service in development that would use unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver goods to customers in just 30 minutes after they order.

In the interview, Bezos explained that the drones will be able to operate in a 10 mile radius from its shipping centers and will be able to carry goods weighing up to five pounds. While that means you can’t expect your future TV to be airlifted to your house, Bezos says that 86% of the goods they sell are under that weight limit, so it’s not such a significant limitation. More importantly, that means tacos and burritos are not out of the question.

Bezos also said that the delivery drones won’t be controlled manually. Instead they’ll be given the customer’s coordinates and the robots will be smart enough to figure out how to get there on their own, avoiding obstacles and hopefully foiling thieves and pranksters trying to shoot them down.

Here’s the full version of the video that Bezos showed off:

If it gets the approval of the FAA, Amazon could theoretically launch Prime Air as early as 2015, though it’s likely to take a few more years than that. Your move, FedEx.

[via Amazon & 60 Minutes via Mashable]

via Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2013/12/02/amazon-prime-air-drones/

LEGO Lawnmower Mows My Mind

Despite the fact that I live in the city and have a really tiny lawn, I’m still really bad about mowing my lawn regularly. I think I’d rather stay inside and build things out of LEGO. But maybe if I had a LEGO lawnmower, I could kill two birds with one stone.

LEGO artist Sean Kenney has already beat me to the punch, having built this amazing lawnmower out of bricks. The full-scale mower was built using 13,704 individual LEGO bricks, and took Kenney and his assistants over 200 hours to design and build.

The mower was built for Kenney’s traveling LEGO exhibition Nature Connects, which is touring the U.S. through 2016. It’s currently on exhibit at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, NC through January 5, 2014, among many other amazing LEGO creations.

Unfortunately, the LEGO lawnmower isn’t functional, but that’s okay with me. I’d be happy to just sit and stare at it instead of cutting the grass anyhow.

via Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2013/12/01/lego-lawnmower/

Portal 2 PotatOS Plush isn’t Even an Actual Potato, But at Least it Talks and Lights up, So We Have That.

You can make your own PotatOS with ThinkGeek’s Portal 2 Science Kit, but if you can’t get your hands on an actual potato, the geeky store has another option for you. This officially licensed plush replica of GLaDOS’ tuberous incarnation lights up and plays 10 audio clips from Portal 2.

You’ll power it with three AA batteries, so it might have the energy to lie to you.

Fall to ThinkGeek and order the PotatOS plush for $20 (USD).

[via Coolest-Gadgets]

via Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2013/12/01/plush-portal-2-potato/

The Internet is the New Heart

In the future, when you and your grandkids are gathered over a hologram of a fireplace and they ask you where you think your home is, dust off your ancient tablet and show them Isaac Moore’s profound cross-stitch.

We may mess with cell towers, but we’ll always come home to our router. You can grab Isaac’s cross-stitch pattern on his blog.

[via Sprite Stitch]

via Technabob http://technabob.com/blog/2013/12/01/home-is-where-the-wifi-connects/