invention

Please buy me on of these stealth helicopter R/C toys. They're only 30 dollars and are available from everybody's favorite store: thinkgeek.

This here is one o' them fancy japanese analog synthesizers. It will synthesize fighting robots, dancing robots, sad robots, and tentacle rape. This is a kit, so the electronics and knobs come in a box and you have to put it together yourself, instead of having some azn kid do it. I think that's neat because I'd like to use my own custom knobs and maybe electrocute myself a couple times while putting it together.

This video from The Citizen Engineer is just awesome! Learn how to use a payphone for your home or voip calls! Learn how to modify the payphone so that it accepts quarters again! Then learn how to use a redbox on your very own phone!

WTF? Nobody knows!

Also, hax0r your sim cardz.

This week's instrument comes to us from the fourth state of matter- Plasma!

This singing plasma arc is frequency modulated, and therefor sounds much better than those crappy amplitude modulated singing plasma arcs. Plus there's not all the hateful right-wing obama bashing.

 This isn't an instrument so much as it is a wierd speaker that could look good in your own custom instruments. Just standback though, because I'm pretty sure this thing manufactures ozone pretty efficiently.

This is Omer Yosha's AirPiano. The device plays notes based on the proximity of your hands to a bunch of infrared light sensors. It really is a beautiful mix of a theremin and a normal piano. Yosha says:

I’m an Interface Design student from the FH Potsdam (near Berlin), i have a musical background, and the idea to create an AirPiano developed as i was playing around with the Arduino board, Processing and some IR sensors in my free time. It was fun controlling MIDI through moving my hands in the air, so i eventually found a way to set it all up in a way that makes sense and that is easy to control.
The concept behind the AirPiano is having a matrix in the air, with virtual keys & faders. The location of each key must be very clear for the user and easily learnt. The AirPiano is therefore only one example of an application that could adopt this concept. Since it is only the first prototype i built, it features at the moment a matrix with 3 layers, 8 keys for each layer. As long as a key is triggered, a note plays and an LED underneath the virtual key turns on (unfortunately it is hard to see it on the videos). The LEDs give the user additional feedback. The device is connected through USB and communicates with the AirPiano Software, which allows the user to assign each key/fader with a Note/Controller number, Channel and Velocity as well as transpose and save/load presets. The AirPiano Software can communicate with any MIDI instrument/sequencer. It is of course a polyphonic controller.
The AirPiano is not only fun to play, it also invites to experiment, to explore endless arrangements and develop new playing techniques. It might be useful for DJ performance, as a music therapy instrument or as a toy.
I’m at the moment trying to look for investors and people that could help me take this idea further. I presented the prototype two months ago in the Hannover Messe and received very good feedback. The concept is protected as a Provisional U.S. Patent Application.

Neat!