Maker Media, the parent company to the Bay Area Maker Faire, expects more than 150,000 people to walk through the San Mateo Events Center exhibitor halls this weekend.
Click through to see some of the cool stuff on display this year.”This is a giant flame-throwing mechanical man that greets visitors near the entrance. He’s just begging the crowd to step a little closer.”This little visitor is too young to remember the famous quote from the lovable artificially intelligent robot inu00a0Short Circuit, but he seemed to get a kick out of this Meccano Maker System robot lookalike all the same.”Sixth-graders from St. Paul’s Elementary School in San Francisco hooked a bunch of bananas up to a keyboard program on a computer to play a few songs for the crowd.”Burning Man attendees will recognize this type of vehicle as the preferred choice for getting around on the Playa in Black Rock City, Nevada. This one was carefully engineered to look like a rhinoceros and hold a crowd of folks safely up top as it motors around.”NASA displayed this super strong, humanoid space robot called the Robonaut, alongside info about the Mission to Mars program at Maker Faire this year. A spokesperson for the team tells us the roboman helps astronauts with the heavy lifting and other daily duties on the space station.”This one-person operation traveled backward and forward to show its might to the crowd of bewildered onlookers.”Watch the flames dance with every musical note played on this fancy organ made by special commission for science event management company Guerilla Science.
Creator Michael Kearney took a bunch of Rubens tubes and then added even more Rubens tubes, because, as he told us, “More fire is always better unless you are the one on fire.
Creator Michael Kearney took a bunch of Rubens tubes and then added even more Rubens tubes, because, as he told us, “More fire is always better unless you are the one on fire.
.”True Doctor Who fans will recognize this robot instantly as a Dalek, a robot race constantly trying to destroy humankind. Someone created au00a0real-life replica that can move back and forth, turn around and threaten to obliterate you at any moment.”Microsoft, one of the major brands at Maker Faire, offered this giant light-up piano, courtesy of FAO Schwartz. Toddlers squealed with delight as they watched the keys light up at every step.”Microsoft connected with the maker community by generating 3D-rendered virtual reality likenesses of individuals.”To say there were quite a few 3D printers at Maker Faire is an understatement. It seemed like there was some material or other getting made on one of these machines around every corner of the festival.
This one is the DittoPro from Tinkerine, a Canadian 3D printer company.”Travel around on this giant robot chicken as you gaze upon the glorious creations at Maker Faire.”Most booths at Maker Faire are sponsored by some sort of brand. However, 13-year-old Saurabn Narain mannedu00a0his own booth at the festival to show people a little robot he made to solve the Rubik’s cube in minutes. His mom hung out in the background, watching her son with pride.”There were a lot of robots throughout the faire grounds. Kids took a turn controlling this one from DFRobot, an online, open-source robot and hardware shop, with an app they could download on their iPhone.”Roy, the gruesome-looking animatronic, laser-cut robot from Roemotion, frightened children as they passed by.”LittleBits, a system that allows little creators to use their imaginations to create robotic objects that dance and light up was a pretty popular booth at Maker Faire this year.nnPictured here: littleBits employees help a brother and sister duo make some objects in its traveling bitLab.”Visitors peep into this tiny traveling abode to see how homey it really is. With a floor space of 21″ by 21″, you’d basically need to sleep sitting up.”This little dude can make all sorts of drawing patterns, using the MESH platform, which lets kids make their own “inventions” by connecting various smart tags with real-world objects.
MESH recently closed an Indiegogo campaign for just under $65,000. Those interested can find out more here.”
The tenth annual Bay Area Maker Faire is in full swing this weekend in San Mateo, California, bringing out steampunks, robot enthusiasts, and little engineers in training from all over Silicon Valley. Here we present to you some of the inventions, in no particular order, that piqued our interest this year.
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