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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23 March 2009

Inventing a super-kite to tap the energy of high-altitude wind: Saul Griffith on TED.com

Unveiled at TED2009: In this brief talk, Saul Griffith debuts the invention his new company Makani Power has been working on: giant kite turbines that create surprising amounts of clean, renewable energy. (Recorded at TED2009, February 2009, in Long Beach, California. Duration: 05:25.)

Watch Saul Griffith's talk from TED2009 on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 400+ TEDTalks -- including more tales of invention.

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13 March 2009

Trendables -- 6 products that can

-able, everyone's favorite "can-do" adjective suffix, is enjoying a revival. 20-some years since its heyday, we've found it stitched to no less than six modern product names, deriving for them a certain adroitness that a lonesome noun mightn't have provided. And two of these products, as it happens, have been demoed at TED.

1. Siftables: The cookie-sized computers with motion sensing, neighbor detection, graphical display, and wireless communication. (See David Merrill's demo of Siftables at TED2009.)

2. Inventables: A subscription service used by consumer product companies who want to create unique products. (Watch Keith Schact and Zach Kaplan show off products from the future.)

3. Instructables: A how-to and DIY community where people make and share inspiring, entertaining, and useful projects, recipes and hacks. (Watch Saul Griffith show hardware solutions to everyday problems.)

4. Mashable: Touted as the world's largest Web 2.0- and social networking-related news blog.

5. Reactable: An electronic music instrument with a slick, multi-touch interface.

6. Lunchables: Children's meal combinations, often called "the taste of elementary school" by the Gen Y cohort.

Give us more examples in the comments, if you are capable.

(Image: Mike Femia)

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20 August 2008

Tiny battery made of self-assembling viruses

MIT reports today on the work of professors Yet-Ming Chiang, Angela Belcher and Paula Hammond, who've developed a way to build tiny batteries about half the size of a human cell to power tomorrow's equally tiny devices. The electrolyte of the battery is made of polymers stamped onto a rubbery film. On top of this, a genetically altered virus goes to work, self-assembling to form wires that act as the battery's anode.

Several TEDTalks delve into the wonders of self-assembly at the microscopic scale. The first half of Neil Gershenfeld's talk is a quick primer on self-assembly, and its uses in what he sees as the coming world of ubiquitous computing -- tiny processors in doorknobs and lightbulbs, doing useful things and talking to one another. (Look for the little blocks that move on their own to spell out "M I T.") Saul Griffith talks about the elegance of self-assembly -- taking advantage of the form that natural materials want to take. Then watch Paul Rothemund twist and fold DNA into triangles, stars, and smiley faces.

Image: An array of microbattery electrodes, each only about four micrometers, or millionths of a meter, in diameter. Image courtesy / Belcher Laboratory, MIT

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25 September 2007

MacArthur "genius" grant to TEDster Saul Griffith

Saul Griffith (watch his TEDTalk) has been awarded a 2007 MacArthur "genius" grant.

Griffith is one of the brains behind Instructables, a community website that lets users share directions for ... almost anything, from building your own home lathe to "How to Kiss." His think-tank design firm, Squid Labs, has invented an array of new devices and materials -- such as a "smart" rope that senses its load, or a machine for making low-cost eyeglass lenses through a process inspired by a water droplet -- and has now spun off several separate companies to dig deeper into some of the technologies it has pioneered, including Potenco, which makes the groovy pull-string power source for the XO laptop.

Look for other talks on TED.com from MacArthur grantees, including Majora Carter (2005), Anna Deavere Smith (1996) and Amy Smith (2004). With more to come ...

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20 February 2007

Saul Griffith on TED.com

Inventor and MacArthur fellow Saul Griffith shares some innovative ideas from his lab -- from "smart rope" to a house-sized kite for towing large loads.

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