At first glance, the speaker above may look like an ordinary iPod dock…that is, until you actually see the iPod inside of it. The $30,000 device is more than 8 feet wide and 700 pounds. Obviously it’s more than a little ridiculous, but it’s certainly a good way to attract attention to the Behringer’s booth at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show where it will debut.

Link Via The Consumerist

From YouTube member bd594, the same geek who brought us “Bohemian Rhapsody” by The Gadget Orchestra a couple of years ago, we now have the classic “House of the Rising Sun” played by various vintage electronic gadgets. The instruments:

a. HP Scanjet 3P, Adaptec SCSI card and a computer powered by Ubuntu v9.10 OS as the Vocals. (hey, the scanner is old)
b. Atari 800XL with an EiCO Oscilloscope as the Organ
c. Texas instrument Ti-99/4A with a Tektronix Oscilloscope as the Guitar
d. Hard-drive powered by a PiC16F84A microcontroller as the bass drum and cymbal

-via Metafilter

This amazing new device does a lot more than project little duckies onto objects, it projects a truly 3d image onto whichever surface you choose. You can walk around your projection, view it from all sides, and would make for the greatest ghost prank ever. Scooby Doo-style crimes via ghostly projected images have never been easier!

Link

Link

A new gadget pen created by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign creates functional electronic circuits on surfaces such as paper and wood . Using liquid metal ink made of silver nanoparticles that only dries when applied to a surface, the pen is meant to be a fast, easy and portable way to create simple circuits in any shape the user can draw, circuits that could be placed on surfaces of virtually any shape.

Link

A fun build-it-yourself project is to create this “Crazyflie” a homemade miniature Quadcopter that uses a Printed Circuit Board (PCB). The video  at the link shows the tiny flying machine zipping around effortlessly.

Despite its tinyness, the quadcopter includes a charging port, radio, 3-axis accelerometer, two gyroscopes, and a lightweight 110 mAh LiPO battery that gives it about four and a half minutes of flying time

Link

The first transistor was handmade at Bell Labs in 1947. It didn’t look quite like what we are used to today, but it worked! -Thanks, Bill Hammack!

Mike Szczys went all out this Halloween and installed a matrix of 70 LEDs in a pumpkin! The result is a way to scroll messages in the dark for visitors and trick-or-treaters. See a video of the Jack-o-Lantern in action, and the complete process of building it at Hack a Day. Link -Thanks, Mike!

Festo, has been shown here on Neatorama several times in the past and each time their robotics and bizarre creations blew our collective minds…our Neatorama Hivemind to be exact…but that’s a story for another time.

In this video you’ll get to see creepy blue LED robotic penguins swimming about in a large pool. Also, you’ll see it’s more lighter cousin who probably is the envy of every penguin in being able to fly/float and much more in terms of various robotic creations. Really fascinating stuff!

More info here – Link

For older Neatorama Festo links:

Festo’s Upside-Down Hot Air Balloon
AquaJelly and AirJelly
Air Ray: The Blimp With Wings
Meet Aqua Ray
Festo Airic’s Robotic Arm
Floating Fish Blimp

I made these plastic milk bottle lights by embedding LEDs in the caps, hanging them from a bent section of pipe and hooking them up to an Arduino microcontroller.

Not happy with an on-off switch, I thought they might look mesmerising with a rotary control knob turning them on in sequence. It works! They make great low lighting to wind down for sleep, and they’re great to hang in the hall for parties too.

There are complete build instructions on Instructables.

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Nachimir.

This neatolicious: Dan McPharlin creates what is probably the cutest papercraft set of miniature analog electronic devices, from tape recorder to retro synthesizers. Take a looksee: Link [Flickr Photoset] – via The Terminally Juvenile

The Great Internet Migratory Box of Electronics Junk is sort roving flea market meets Internet meme.

The idea, hatched by the guys over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, is to send a box containing random electronics junk to somebody who would take a few pieces, write about them, add some item, and then send it on its merry way to somebody else.

You can request a box or even start one of your own … and don’t forget to document the journey at Flickr!

Recipient Conditions for The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronics Junk:

1. Take out and add as much electronics junk as you like (but keep it small enough to fit in a USPS flat-rate Priority Mail box or the equivalent for your postal system).

2. Write up, photograph, document or otherwise publish in some way online at least one thing you took out (suggested flickr tag: TGIMBOEJ, see also: flickr group ).

3. There is a little book in the box. Add a checkmark by your name to show that the box has been to you. Also propose a future recipient by adding their name and e-mail address to the book.

4. Within two weeks pass the box along to one of the people whose name is in the book. Before mailing it to them, send them this list and make sure that they want to participate.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by BMA.

Remember the post about where have all the acorns gone? Well, we’ve found some of ‘em.

When a microwave radio transmitter stopped working, engineers discovered that the antenna had been used as acorn storage device by woodpeckers.

– via reddit

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

Two of our favorite things in the world are playing with electronics and playing with food, and so it is about time that someone finally got around to combining the two. We begin by gathering up appropriate snack-food building blocks and making food-based models of electronic components. From these components, you can assemble "circuitry snacks"-- edible models of functioning electronic circuits. You can make these for fun, for dessert, for your geek friends, for kids, and for teaching and learning electronics.

Link

From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by zeo.