I spent the afternoon in the digital fabrication lab in Margaret Morrison and got to see models being created in 3D modeling software and carved by machine. So cool!

As a mini-project in the course Making Things Interactive, I created a prototype of a pop-up piano with six keys. When a key is pressed, the corresponding musical note plays through a speaker. A pull-tab can be also be pulled or pushed to dim or brighten an LED by means of a paper variable resistor. [...]

Behold my latest masterpiece for Making Things Interactive, a dazzling demonstration of mechanical movements. circuit driving the DC motor 4-bar linkage pivot point made of pipe cleaner twisted and duct-taped to my rapid-prototyping rig (aka my desk) string harness holding wooden dowel Unrelated to the final device, this is an earlier attempt at creating a [...]

A table-mounted, latch-equipped winch that raises a wooden stuntman in a pipe cleaner cage! Yes, my class Making Things Interactive rocks.

A simple board soldered with 32-gauge wire as a connector between solder blobs

For the course Making Things Interactive I am taking this fall, I had an assignment to make a switch. I decided to make a footswitch, which you can see in action here: Download now or watch on posterous Footswitch.m4v (4329 KB) To make the footswitch, I used two cutting boards that were laying around the house. [...]

Today’s class in Pragmatics of Color was tactile, beautiful, and tasty. Here is a sample of my own salad, which I attempted to capture in colored pencil.

the color of laughter dancing through your veins, so vibrant it startles a funereal yellow that shows its age, but sweetly

Apparently, restaurant menus in San Francisco come with their own commentary (see the blurb under Vegetable Dishes). I wonder, though, if this particular nugget might be more effective under the heading for the meat dishes. Here, they’re preaching to the choir. If you saw this on a menu, would it influence how you ordered? Posted [...]