02 July 2009

Happy anniversary, T.G.I.M.B.O.E.J.

T.G.I.M.B.O.E.J. stands for The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronic Junk, and it's celebrating its first anniversary this week. Do think of it as partly a social experiment, but more so a free-range parcel service-based electronics grab bag that circulates among hardware hackers who are eager to discover useful, cool, old, or even rare treasures from the world of circuits old and new. According to their own description:

[It] is a progressive lending library of electronic components. An internet meme in physical form halfway between P2P zip-archive sharing and a flea market. It arrives full of wonderful (and possibly useless) components, but you will surely find some treasures to keep. You will be inspired look through your own piles, such as they are, and find more mysterious components that clearly need to be donated to the box before it is passed on again.

If you're a tinkerer, a smart hardware geek, a fab-lab fan or aspiring aeronaut who wants to put that dusty old pile of circuit boards, switches, magnets, transistors, transformers, LCDs, CRTs and LEDs to a greater use (and perhaps find some interesting or useful new treasures to fiddle with), T.G.I.M.B.O.E.J. has a useful wiki that will tell you how you can get started.

Posted by Matthew Trost | Permalink

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29 November 2008

Wii Remote theremin

In an ingenious geek-out that's almost too perfectly suited for TED, designer Ken Moore presents a much-anticipated hack of the Nintendo Wii Remote: a theremin.

It seems to be a nearly serendipitous merger of TEDTalks by thereminist Pamelia Kurstin and Wii hacker Johnny Lee. Has anyone seen other hybridized Ideas Worth Spreading (coincidental or not)? Leave us a comment.

(Via Boing Boing and a zillion others.)

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26 October 2008

Johnny Lee on the power of video demos

In today's New York Times, Johnny Lee talks about his clever Wii hacks -- and how he shared them with the world via viral video. Johnny Lee's TEDTalk, in which he shows how to make an interactive whiteboard from a $40 game controller, is a perpetual Top 10 talk on TED.com. Lee's amazing YouTube videos and his TEDTalk have helped to spread this cheap-but-effective educational tool around the world. From the story:

Some 700,000 people, many of them teachers, have downloaded the software, Mr. Lee says. Much more expensive whiteboards may offer more features and better image resolution, but Mr. Lee’s version is adequate for most classroom applications.

For more video demos from TED, check out:

Hod Lipson's "self-aware" robots >>
Dean Kamen's moving demo of a robotic arm >>
Blaise Aguera y Arcas' demo of Seadragon and Photosynth >>

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27 July 2008

Mash-ups, from the Model T to Johnny Lee

The New York Times has a thoughtful piece today on Model T hacking -- which kicked off the modern sport of customizing, bending, modding and otherwise repurposing a commercial item for unintended-by-the-manufacturer uses. As Steve Lohr writes:

The early Model T hackers were really pioneers in a realm of creative activity that academics call “user innovation.” It has become subject of systematic study only in the last few years, as researchers examine how this kind of individual endeavor works and try to assess its economic impact.

The approach is a break with the tradition of looking at companies, either large ones or start-up ventures, as the main engines of innovation in the economy.

In Charles Leadbeater's TEDTalk, learn more about the power of user-driven creativity -- then watch Johnny Lee's TEDTalk on Wii Remore hacks or Joshua Klein's demo of crow hacks and get inspired to do your own.

Photo: Henry Ford Museum / New York Times

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

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26 June 2008

Counting down the Top 10 TEDTalks

With 50 million views since we debuted online two years ago, TED talks have become a powerful cultural force.

To celebrate this milestone, we're releasing a never-before-seen list: the Top 10 TED talks of all time, as of June 2008.

With speakers like neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor and global health expert Hans Rosling, the list proves one of the compelling ideas behind TEDTalks: that an unknown speaker with a powerful idea can reach -- and move -- a global audience. Links to all 10 talks are found below -- or browse through our Top 10 TED Talks Theme. Even if you've seen all the talks, the highlights video is darn fun.

Download the Top 10 TED Talks highlights video:
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Download the Top 10 TED Talks highlights video:
Video to iTunes (MP4)
Video to desktop (Zipped MP4)
Hi-def video (480p)

Top 10 TED Talks of all time
1. Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
2. Jeff Han: Touchscreen demo foreshadows the iPhone
3. David Gallo: Underwater astonishments
4. Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo
5. Arthur Benjamin: Lightning calculation and other "Mathemagic"
6. Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
7. Hans Rosling: The best stats you've ever seen
8. Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better
9. Al Gore: 15 ways to avert a climate crisis
10. Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote

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06 June 2008

Wii Remote + wheelchair: Digital Wheel Art

Cross the Wii hacking of Johnny Lee with the creativity tools of Tod Machover, and you get Digital Wheel Art -- a wheelchair that uses a hacked Wii Remote to help disabled people make paintings. As Gizmodo reports, inventor YoungHyun Chung showed off the device at the Maker Faire in NYC last night. Watch the video from Chung's thesis site:

Digital Wheel Art from YoungHyun Chung on Vimeo.

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

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11 April 2008

Wii Remote hacks: Johnny Lee on TED.com

Johnny Lee demos his amazing Wii Remote hacks, bending the $40 game part so it powers a digital whiteboard, a multitouch display and a head-mounted 3-D viewer. A multi-ovation demo from TED2008. (Recorded March 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 05:40.)

Watch Johnny Lee's demo on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.

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