Chris Pontius is blindfolded & handcuffed and is led to either a glory hole or to sit astraddle a chair where he is further restrained.A small young female chimpanzee or small young female orangutan is brought into the room. A second small young female chimpanzee or small youn ...more
The app that Lego demoed at this year's iPhone launch event is now available in the App Store, and it showcases several new capabilities available in ARKit 2.0. The Playgrounds app enables players to access augmented reality multiplayer games with ARKit's new shared experienc ...more
Karen Weisman shows you how to make this terrific hobby horse. It is a traditional toy, it is a horse head on a broom stick. It is a refreshing break from the beeping flashing toys that are so prevalent today. Part 1 of 25 - How to Make a hobby horse. Make a hobby horse - Part ...more
Seems just about anything can be constructed with LEGOs these days. You name it- a printer, an engine, an ATM, guns... even a house! Dave and John Xandega's circular saw is made with LEGO bricks, but the blade is definitely real: "She's got a Lego 9V Battery Housing and Moto ...more
Use two tin cans and wire to make a toy telephone for a child.
Want to play Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Disney/Pixar's Toy Story on your ukulele? Learn how with this free video ukulele lesson from Ukulele Mike, which presents a complete breakdown of the song and its chords. Whether you play the ukulele or bass kazoo, t ...more
The multi-talented Amy Sedaris (creator and star of TV show Strangers With Candy) has a new gut-busting venture, now available in bookstores near you. Simple Times: Crafts For Poor People is a tongue-in-cheek DIY guide to projects like seashell toilet seat covers and ringworm ...more
Here's a fun weekend project you can use to add to a common toy. Get a yo-yo with concave sides, a few pieces of thin plastic (like from a CD case) and a few lithium-powered LEDs. Then follow this tutorial and get a yo yo that lights up when you play with it!
Remember the Wonder Twins from DC Comics? If you're familiar with the extraterrestrial superheroes, then you know all about those rings they wore. They would touch rings and says "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" to ready their superpowers. This homemade set of rings is reminis ...more
Microsoft enjoyed a few months in the spotlight after releasing the developer version of the very first mixed reality (MR) headset, but now we're starting to see the competition jump in. The Meta 2 is finally out to the world, with the first wave of preorder shipments imminen ...more
After parting ways with Papa John's, the National Football League has drafted Pizza Hut as its official pizza purveyor, and the company has hit the field with an augmented reality game to entertain hungry football fans. After scanning specially marked pizza boxes using the Be ...more
Toy Story 3 has received rave reviews across the board. Curious, a couple of us here at WonderHowTo went to see it last night. We found it to be decent. Not fabulous. The opening was exhilarating. Full of action and humor and a thoroughly dynamic use of 3D, but the rest of the ...more
This video tutorial demonstrates how to make realistic rock faces on hills and mountains using flexible rubber molds and plaster. The process is easy and hopefully inspires other toy model train layout.
A Kinect is a great new toy for tracking motion, especially since it is more forgiving about lighting conditions and extraneous motion than most other cameras. Here's how you can set up your own Kinect as a motion capture camera.
What do you get when you take a run-of-the-mill kitchen knife and add a simple synthesizer circuit? Behold, the Syntheslicer! Creator Jonathan M. Guberman writes: The Drawdio is a toy that attaches to a pencil and uses the conductive properties of graphite to make noise from ...more
This short video shows how easy it is to cast a toy figure or anything else that matter from a RTV silicone mold!
It used to be that the best kind of swag was T-shirts and hats from your favorite music artists, but now the symbol of casual insider cool falls to the tech companies, and Snapchat has just joined the ranks of branded apparel purveyors. On Thursday, Feb. 1, Snap Inc. launched ...more
Snapchat is mostly credited as the first AR social network, and, like most social media companies, its revenue model is nested largely within advertising. As such, the company now has a new avenue for branded content. Of course, they are not the only mobile advertising game i ...more
Your amigurumi knit toy won’t be complete until you add a cute face to it. There are different ways to do this, the following video crocheting tutorial explain how to craft some of them. Learn how to add a face onto a Japanese amigurumi crocheted toy doll today. Add a face to ...more
Celebrate your Irish heritage, or just bring some beauty to your home with this Celtic chest, that's great for storing anything from linens to toys. You will need to have the cedar chest already made, a carving tool, and a pattern. Watch this video woodworking tutorial and lea ...more
Folding paper into shapes is fun. Folding paper into a toy that you an actually use is even better! Making a paper boat is not only a great rainy day activity but works just as well on a beautiful summer's day. Let your imagination float away with this classic paper boat. Yo ...more
K'NEX is the world's most famous constructive toy, which means you can build just about anything. You can take the K'NEX plastic pieces and build all kinds of contraptions, everything from boats to airplanes to robots to weapons. Watch this video tutorial to see how to build ...more
Watch to learn how to say the names of toys, like a rocking horse and a doll, in French. For intermediate French speakers--no English translation.
Smartphone gaming continues to improve with ever sharper displays and raw processing power to deliver console-quality graphics right in the palm of your hands. Nonetheless, you still stand to improve the gaming experience on any phone by adding the right accessories to the mix ...more
Want to know what the future holds in store for you? With this guide, you'll learn how to make a fortune-teller toy with origami, the traditional art of Japanese paper folding. For more information, including a step-by-step overview of the folding process, as well as to get st ...more
While not specifically an augmented reality conference, IFA 2017 packed a plethora of presentations with AR themes, including devices with AR features from Sony and Motorola, a smartphone-based AR headset from Lenovo, and a new processor from Huawei that will facilitate AR exp ...more
K'NEX is the world's most famous constructive toy, which means you can build just about anything. You can take the K'NEX plastic pieces and build all kinds of contraptions, everything from boats to airplanes to robots to weapons. Watch this two-part video tutorial to see how ...more
K'NEX is the world's most famous constructive toy, which means you can build just about anything. You can take the K'NEX plastic pieces and build all kinds of contraptions, everything from boats to airplanes to robots to weapons. Watch this video tutorial to see how to build ...more
Want to know how to patent an idea, but you just don't know how to go about doing it? It doesn't take a lot of money to get a provisional patent. The real thing you want to know is the process of taking an idea that you have all the way up to getting it patent. I will take you ...more
If you missed out on Black Friday this year, you've got a second chance at saving some big bucks on apps, mobile devices, HDTVs, and other tech. See below for all of the hot Cyber Monday deals from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other online retailers. This list will be ...more
Etsy seller TangBaby has faux happy birthday cake postcards for sale. Each postcard is made to order and has that deliciously satisfying plastic toy food texture (and smell, I'm hoping).
The video demonstrates how you should pack to be fully equipped and prepared for a backpacking trip that lasts 2-3 days. Gather all of your equipment including clothes, food, water, climbing gear, emergency kit, sleeping back, and more. When you start to pack, you want to make ...more
Video: . Potato Air Pen Gun an simple homemade toy airgun made just from a ball pen or water pipe, a chopstick, some potato.
We know it's fun to break stuff, but Santa sure isn't going to be as good to Michael Tompert next year. The San Francisco digital imaging and CGI artist destroyed a whole slew of brand-new Apple gadgets as a statement on "our relationship with fetish, fashion, freedom, and bon ...more
For those about to rock, Live Nation salutes you, now with augmented reality. This week, at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival of Creativity in France, the live entertainment giant unveiled a suite of AR experiences that music festivals and their sponsors will be able to d ...more
A quick tip that can be used to create solid joints and fill gaps in scale models. Learn how to easily fix flaws in model toy cars with basic household items.
Are you tired of having spills from overflowing sinks and bath tubs? Watch this video tutorial to learn how to make a water level detector. To make this detector, you will need: 2 wires, a sound signal from a toy, and a drill.
We already showed you the dark side of augmented reality in the form of a virtual girlfriend from Japan, but now the same country has given us something a lot less creepy that could be the future of virtual pop stars everywhere. Produced by Niigata-based studio Gugenka, HoloM ...more
From Farmville to selling a company to Google, Amitt Mahajan has been through the startup ringer. Now, as managing partner with Presence Capital, he's funding the future of augmented and mixed reality. With interest in 3D graphics, Mahajan started his career working on game e ...more
This fabric "yo-yo" is really not a yo-yo at all, but rather a feminine fabric rosette that does (sort of) resemble the beloved childhood play toy. These fabric rosettes are quite lovely and would look great adorning a card or bag. Kim and Kris will show you how to make a fab ...more
If you are the proud owner of a laser cutter, you had better be careful with your expensive new toy. Some materials can damage the optics in your laser or produce poisonous gas when you cut them, so you need to make a gas containment chamber to work in. Watch this video to fin ...more
Don't waste money on a poorly built piñata at the toy store or anywhere else they sell them. You can save money and give your party a much more personalized feel by making your own piñata. This video will show the simple, easy way to make your own piñata.
In 4.74 seconds, I can barely bend over to tie my shoes, and somehow this guy managed to crush the human world record for solving the Rubik's Cube in that time exactly. Update: Rubik's Cube World Record Gets Beaten... Again. New Record Is 4.737 Seconds! Video: . Mats Valk, a ...more
This is an easy project where you make a piñata shaped like a dragon. Add a wooden or toy sword and you can bring the dragon down from the air. A very fun pinata!
Your childhood "social networking" may have been to go outdoors to the neighbor's — and outdoors is a great place for kids to be. But these days, the terms educational, digital media, entertainment, and toddlers don't have to be mutually exclusive. Like most things in life, it ...more
If you're a regular reader of Next Reality, you're more likely to spread the joy of augmented reality than most others. But it can be difficult to introduce newbies into the AR fold if you don't give them exactly the right starting point in terms ease-of-use and affordability. ...more
This tinkerer's tutorial will walk you through the process of assembling a house frame from plastic toy LEGO blocks, a necessary component of any LEGO house. For detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video how-to.
How to build a toy gun that actually fires out of K'NEX.
Most homemade toy guns made from construction toys like Legos and Knex are big, cumbersome affairs. For toy weapon enthusiasts looking for something smaller and sleeker, this video will teach you how to make a very small, maybe even the world's smallest, Knex gun. It only uses ...more
In a world filled with video games, arts and crafts is more important than ever. It's important to make sure kids are getting the right stimulation needed to help them later on in life. This video tutorial helps not only achieve that, but give them a great toy to play with as ...more
"Lego Racers" was a 1999 video game where players could assemble their own go-karts using virtual Lego pieces and then race them. This short video employs stop-motion animation to show you how you can use Legos to make a toy go-kart for Johnny Thunder, one of the game's charac ...more
If you grew up playing the video game "Lego Racers" you probably wished you had some of those Lego go-karts for real. This short video uses stop-motion animation to show you how you can use some of those old Lego pieces under your bed to make a toy go-kart for Gypsy Moth, one ...more
In this how-to video, you will learn how to perform basic circuit bending. You will need a screw driver, alligator clips, solder, a soldering iron, wires, a wire stripper, a button or switch, and a drill. Open up the device you want to circuit bend. Once the side of the board ...more
For all intents and purposes, Google could have called its 2023 developer conference A/I instead of I/O. Capitalizing on the artificial intelligence hype, Google devoted most of its keynote address to AI research, experiments, and developments. But there's some substance behin ...more
Electroluminescent substances have become more and more popular lately in all kinds of projects, from toy glasses to EQ t-shirts. They allow you to create incredibly thin circuits that can be silkscreened onto a clear flat substance. Watch this video to learn how to layer circ ...more
With so many companies announcing news or demonstrating technologies at the Augmented World Expo 2017, it can be a challenge to see it all. In fact, we are still unpacking some of our in-depth on-site coverage. So, this edition of Brief Reality is focused on the news we did no ...more
Graffiti— do you have the guts to get out there and tag some property? There's a whole lot more than just spray paint involved. To be great, you'll need things like a sketchbook, pencils, pens, markers, spray can tips, latex gloves, legal (or illegal) wall, and most importantl ...more
This tutorial video will teach you how to make a bottle blast off toy, which will fly into the sky with the aid of a very simple rocket launcher. This activity is great for children, and can help them learn about flight and flying. Make a bottle blast off with a simple rocket ...more
This is an awesome mini cross bow that will really shoot. You just need some tape, a rubber band and a pen and you’ll be on your way to making this cool toy. It’s not very difficult and can be done in just a few minutes. Step 1. To begin making your own crossbow, boil water o ...more
As people experiment with mixed reality software, we're seeing applications that cover the entire spectrum of human interest. Anything that can exist in the physical world has a place in the holographic one. And just as we enjoy building various contraptions with real parts, a ...more