Whyfore

Design Inspiration for the Inventive Mind..

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Watermelon Carving – Jack (Frost) o’ Lantern

 

So I went to the store in search of Halloween supplies, and what do I find? Aisles and aisles of Christmas stuff. This year I just decided to roll with it. I put up the Christmas lights, and we dressed up as Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the Grinch, and handed out candy canes to the trick or treaters, blaring Christmas music.

Of course, no Halloween would be complete without carving a Jack o’ Lantern.  I skipped the pumpkins and hit the melon aisle, choosing out a watermelon, a honeydew, and a mini watermelon. After removing the skin they were a nice snowy white, with Christmasy red and green interiors. I stacked ’em up and carved a wicked snowman, complete with carrot nose and twigs for arms, and then packed him with Christmas lights. The results were pretty awesome for how easy it was. Of course now the neighborhood thinks we’re crazy, but I can live with that.

Christmas Halloween watermelon carving

For the Christmas lights, I used a string of these fairy lights I found dirt cheap on amazon.  I’m super impressed with them. They are LED, so they are cool and low energy, the string is really flexible, the lights are really tiny and bright, and it has a controller with several different blink/steady burn options. These melons can’t handle the heat of a candle. This isn’t the first time I’ve tried this. I’m pretty proud of my previous watermelon skull and brain carving.

See all my previous watermelon carvings here.

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Carved Zucchini

zucchini carving halloween vegetable carving

 

I carved a zucchini for Halloween this year (click image to see full size). Going unconventional with my Jack o’ Lantern is typical for me, though I would usually carve a watermelon, but I couldn’t come up with anything that would top last years watermelon skull with brain, so I figured it was time on to move on to greener fruits…errr vegetables? Whatever they are. The zucchini alligator carving took a bit over an hour (it is all one piece, so carving away the area around the teeth took time). It’s almost two feet long.

I recommend the zucchini as a carving substrate. They don’t stink, they aren’t sticky or messy, and they have a ton of firm flesh and only a small center of seeds. They won’t handle a candle though, so use a LED or ultrasonic fog maker.

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DIY Guitar Tuner

DIY guitar tuner

HackaDay has a fun little project up for those of you who play the guitar and have a do-it-yourself mentality. This little device can be used like a guitar pick. Using the buttons to select your note will cause the LEDs to flash at that frequency. The light will only be visible on the string when it’s in tune.

Or, for around ten bucks, you can save yourself some time and buy one pre-made.

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Awesome Case Mod

house case mod

This case mod (origin unknown, likely Russian) is like an AtomPunk Norman Rockwell, or the Barbie geek dream house.  I love the little LED lamp, the cozy looking couch and chair, the little touches of home. I think that rug is one of those mouse pads.

livingroom case mod

I’d love to come up with a case mod, but I’ve got a case curse. As soon as I put a case on a computer, it breaks and I have to take it apart and fix it again. My microchips live wild and free.

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Glowing Liqour Pour Spout

electropour

This LED lit pour spout for your liquor is more than just a flashlight on top of a bottle. It uses the same physics as a fiber optic cable. The total internal reflection of the light in a fluid with a higher refractive index than air will keep the light inside of the liquor lighting up the curving stream and the liquid in the cup rather than lighting up the table. They make a great gift for anyone with a bar. Chances are they don’t already have one, and they are cheap enough that you can afford to give away a bottle of liquor with it. Video of a green one below:

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Candle Powered LED

candle-powered_led

I know this seems about as useful as the first time you heard about solar powered flashlights, but like the solar flashlight there is more to the story.

The problem with fire is that it puts out far more energy as heat than as light. By using thermoelectrics to generate electricity from the heat, ane use the electricity to power an efficient LED, you can produce far more light from a single candle. I think it would be fun to make a fire powered steampunk lantern, no batteries required; just toss in something burnable to power the bulbs.

The experiment serves to highlight the amount of energy we waste. The inefficiencies of our various devices are mostly expended as heat, which we use additional power to try and blow away. Research into simple, effective ways of turning heat into energy have the potential to be extremely rewarding. I intend to highlight more of them as I come across them.

(Via Tech-On)

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Ultrasonic Fog Maker

Every year when Halloween comes around, I carve a watermelon. I don’t have anything against the carving of pumpkins, I just find the watermelon to be a superior choice.

They are easier to carve.

They are more directly edible.

The green on the skin contrasts nicely with the red interior.

The interior looks awesome when lit.

The biggest flaw I’ve found with the watermelon is that it doesn’t take the heat of a candle very well. This year I tried this little ultrasonic fog maker with LED. Even with a windy Halloween, the results were impressive. The interior had a shifting glow in the swirling fog.

When submerged, the device uses ultrasound to resonate the surface of the water and break it into extremely tiny droplets. The fog feels cool to the touch, but not very damp. In my tests, the effect worked through thin solid materials, so you could hide it in a device. It also worked with some success on other liquids (including Vodka). You may have seen these in use in small fountains, or for reptiles, terrariums, or humidifiers.

Update: Here is my watermelon carving for 2009:

Watermelon Jack o lantern 09

For 2009 I had a small melon. I did’t have much room inside for a water reservoir, so I just put the fog maker in a jar of water. I could hear all of the trick or treaters coming because of all of the exclamations ver the smoke coming from the teeth of my watermelon. The empty eye socket was carved to a thin shell so it lit up nicely without being open to the interior.

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Wagometer

wagometer

A joint project between James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau, the Augmented Animals Project seems like a joke gone nearly right. With ideas ranging from stealth jackets for whales to acorn locating wrist worn GPS for squirrels, these guys couldn’t possibly be serious, but amidst all the projects that suggest there were too many joints in this joint project, there are a few winners. Most notably this wagometer tail ornament for dogs. Ostensibly a translation device, this LED stick uses the same persistence of vision trick seen in novelty clocks, and dozens of other recent devices. In the end it really just makes your dog look even goofier than usual, but it will also get them a lot of extra attention which will not only make them happy, but could also keep them safe from drivers on their daily walk.