John Park poses a kitty conundrum: Who's going to feed the cat while you're on vacation? Using a motor from an old VCR, he creates an automated feline feeder. While building this Make: magazine project, John learned that newer VCRs have safeguard technology, limiting access to ...more
In this video, John Park takes you through all the steps of building a Gakken Karakuri somersault doll. You can purchase the doll, but the instructions come in Japanese and not English. It's a good think John's here to help you out! You'll have the somersault doll built in no ...more
Check out this Make Magazine segment on building mini robots. Then you can move onto huge ones like Big Dog! John Park builds some lively and inexpensive miniature robots. Starting with a simple vibrabot made from a scrub brush, John assembles a solar junkbot and a slightly m ...more
In this tutorial, we learn how to make a pole camera with John Park. You can take some amazing pictures by just using a pole to mount your camera onto and take pictures with. Most cameras will work with a general pole as long as they have a tripod mounting pole. To help you pr ...more
John Park from Make Magazine hacks a Nintendo Wii controller and turns it into a personal flight recorder that can sense and measure the stomach-churning G forces of roller coasters and other high-speed, high-risk activities. This Maker Workshop episode will expand your uses ...more
MAKE magazine never fails to amaze. And this time, John Park tackles a DIY wind-powered generator—and he shows you how to do it! Before you start watching the video tutorial, make sure to download the PDF of this project for reference. So you want to build this wind-powered g ...more
Kick back with John Park as he demonstrates how to upcycle a no-longer-usable shopping cart into an easy chair. This Make: magazine-based project offers an introductory look at how to cut, bend, and shape metal using metal cutters, saws, vice grips, and other tools common to h ...more
Learn how to make a DTV antenna & a steadicam. Digital converter box? Check! Great reception? Not so much. John Park shows how to take a fistful of wire coat hangers and make a TV antenna that gives great digital reception. While he’s at it, he also makes a video camera stabi ...more
What is in store for the future? Flying cars? Maybe. Dinner in a pill? Perhaps. How about 4-legged army tank robot dogs? Hell ya! This delights both the Hummer loving He-men and the anti-war pacifists in us. Something that can kick ass and save lives! Perfect. BigDog is a me ...more
It's that time of year again when pizza boxes line the room and buffalo wings stain the couch. When cases of beer sit in the cooler and the big screen TVs are fired up and properly calibrated. When two of the best football teams vie for the championship title and the Vince Lom ...more
In this video, John E. Hiker walks you through the basics of building a campfire at a cold winter campsite in Olympic National Park. John shows you step by step how to gather the best wood and light a fire using a fire starter. Fire starters are considered to be one of the "te ...more
First off, don't be frustrated. YOU CAN DO IT! Contrary to the message in the image above, it's NOT over. It's just beginning. And when it comes to solving the New York Times crossword puzzle, the old cliche does apply: practice makes perfect. I've read quite a few books and ...more
How to Write a Wedding Invitation The wording you use for your wedding invitation is very important. Follow these steps to help ensure that your invite is as formal as the big day. Who Paid? The first names that go on the invitation are those of the parents that are paying ...more
Hot Hot Heat / Voxhaul Broadcast / The Union Line @ Bootleg ($12) Hot Hot Heat continues it's Wednesday residency at the Bootleg Theater and the shows are so good. I went last week and had a great time dancing to songs like this one! And yes, they played Bandages for the enco ...more
When John Ivers grew tired of the long lines at amusement parks, he decided to build his very own roller coaster - in his backyard. Called the Blue Flash, the roller coaster is said to have the same safety standards as official park coasters, and even has a 360 degree loop. " ...more
Local YMCAs: CRENSHAW FAMILY YMCA 3820 Santa Rosalia Drive Los Angeles, CA 90008 323-292-9195 Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm Saturday, 9am-5pm Sunday, Closed WEINGART YMCA 9900 S. Vermont Los Angeles, CA 90044 323-754-3191 Mon-Fri, 6am-10pm Saturday, 7am-6pm Sunday, Closed KE ...more
Get a little perspective on FarmVille hysteria, via FarmVille World, written by tenebrism: Did you know it only took five weeks to make FarmVille? That it currently has over 80,000,000 users? That FarmVille farmers outnumber real farmers in the United States by a ration of ...more
Did you know it only took five weeks to make FarmVille? That it currently has over 80,000,000 users? That FarmVille farmers outnumber real farmers in the United States by a ration of 80 to 1? Crazy, right? And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There's plenty of other od ...more
No time for elaborate practical jokes this April Fool's? Not a problem, it's 2011—meaning, apps can do just about anything these days. Measure beauty, check for STDs, even fix late night drunken social media stupidity. So why not pranks? Below, 10 digital solutions for your Ap ...more
In 1988, John Langley created COPS for the fledgling FOX network. 23 years later, the show is still running. It is the Energizer bunny of prime time television. Since John has followed more police officers and witnessed more crime than any human being on earth (absolutely no q ...more
Apple Pay has been available to use in stores, as well as in select apps and websites, ever since its first appearance in iOS 8.1. Now, with iOS 12, there are currently 13 different iPhone models that support Apple Pay functionality without the use of an Apple Watch, and the l ...more
Animatronics: the use of electronics and robotics in mechanized puppets to simulate life, mainly used in moviemaking, but also in theme parks and other forms of entertainment. (wikipedia) Incredible gallery of roboticist filmmaker John Nolan's animatronic creatures and their ...more
Ingress, the godfather of location based-AR games developed by Pokémon GO creator Niantic Labs, is getting a new lease on life via Ingress Prime, a reboot of the game built on the Niantic Real World Platform. After teasing the reboot late last year, Niantic launched the new g ...more
If we were to assign a theme for the 2019 edition of the Next Reality 30 (NR30), it might be something along the lines of, "What have you done for me lately?" Many of the top names in the industry from the 2018 edition remain the same, but their positions have shuffled. The p ...more
Apple has some great features aimed at making the lives of globetrotters and mall aficionados significantly easier, such as having detailed floor plans for airports and shopping centers in its native Maps app. With this feature available in Apple Maps, you no longer need to re ...more
With plans to compete with Niantic and other augmented reality game developers, game developer WarDucks has closed a $3.8 million funding round. According to Venture Beat, EQT Ventures led the round, with Suir Valley Ventures and other investors also participating. The fundi ...more
If there's one thing you'd never think to play music on, it's probably a coffee stirrer, right? But that didn't stop this guy from playing one of my favorite theme songs on one — "Darth Vader's Theme," aka "The Imperial March." One of the things I love most about the Star War ...more
The wildfires that spread across Northern California for two weeks in November were among the deadliest and most destructive in the state's history. Ultimately, the incident claimed 85 lives, and hundreds of people are still missing in the wake of the disaster, which impacted ...more
It looks like the Harry Potter version of Pokémon GO won't appear in 2018 after all, as the company has decided pushed the game's release to 2019. "Get ready for some exciting and fun adventures ahead," the company said in a blog post. "We've been hard at work with our partne ...more
It is finally happening. After not having a major update since August of 2016, HoloLens owners everywhere will soon get a number of new features added to their devices. At least if they are members of the Windows Insider program. Throughout 2017, the Mixed Reality Team at Mic ...more
Nissan has confirmed reports that the Nissan Leaf's Propilot option will go on sale in the US in September, but when it does, don't expect it to compete against the Tesla Model 3's driverless features. Ahead of the Propilot's launch in the US, details revealed about Nissan's ...more
A new case of the still-mysterious Bourbon virus was confirmed in Missouri, likely originating within the state, local authorities said in a June 30 press release. The virus, which researchers think is spread by ticks, was unknown until 2014, and both knowledge and treatment ...more
Augmented reality is quickly becoming a popular tool for marketing use cases, as demonstrated by new projects serving the automotive, entertainment, and tourism industries this past week. Blippar Cranks Up Automotive Recognition to Deliver AR Content Last week, Blippar intro ...more
Location Services, a native feature on iPhones since iOS 6, is used to pinpoint your approximate location using a combination of GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cell tower information. Apple uses this on their smartphones for many useful reasons: so that you can tag locations in In ...more
Niantic's most successful app, Pokémon GO, has become the first app to integrate the company's Real World Platform, the developer's AR cloud technology that enables multiplayer AR, persistent content, and occlusion with physical objects. "RAD!" you say to yourself. "Now Pikac ...more
Two of the three entities behind Pokemon GO, the reigning champion in mobile augmented reality gaming, are joining forces again to see if lightning can strike more than once. This week, AR developer Niantic and gaming giant Nintendo announced a partnership that will see a ser ...more
With the brand new SMS-based ordering service called Magic, anyone with a mobile phone can order whatever they want—really, anything—by sending causal text messages. Who says magic isn't real? WIRED shelled out $500 to one of their writers, Brent Rose, to spend on Magic. In t ...more
It's not so difficult to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown when there's so much free entertainment to take advantage of. That seems to be the M.O. for many studios and streaming services, as they've made so many shows and movies available to the public for free. Tha ...more
While the world is only recently becoming aware of its existence, augmented reality has been around in some form or another since the '90s. In the last decade, with the advancement and miniaturization of computer technology — specifically smartphones and tablets — AR has becom ...more
Food labeling is a tricky beast. For instance, when I read the words "cage-free" on an egg carton, I think it means that happy chickens frolic in a sunlit meadow all the livelong day until they're gently herded into a clean, sweet-smelling coop to lay a few dozen eggs—which I ...more
As a company, Facebook is not shy about talking up its AR smartglasses plans. The latest missive comes from two executives in charge of developing AR software and hardware. As far as we know, Amazon doesn't have plans to make AR smartglasses yet (and audio-only smartglasses d ...more
Welcome to the first annual Next Reality 30, our list of people who've made the biggest impact on the augmented reality space in the last 12 months — and what a 12-month roller-coaster ride it's been. Apple introduced ARKit-powered apps last fall, Google launched ARCore for An ...more
The private automobile has been an intrinsic part of our lives for around a hundred years. But over the last decade, car sharing has gained a very small but growing part of the mobility market. The more recent rise of companies like Uber and Lyft is witness to a more dramatic ...more