Make Detector

Understandably, the tragedy in Japan has substantially risen the level of worldwide radiation-related hysteria. So much so, as an alternative to stampeding health food stores for iodine tablets, crafty individuals and organizations are hacking together personal radiation detec ...more

There's a whole lot of brouhaha going on right now about the hidden plug-ins being installed unknowingly in the Mozilla Firefox web browser, with companies like Apple, Microsoft and even Google being named top offenders. Mozilla's own Asa Dotzler (pictured right) is fed up wi ...more

There isn't as much use for old-school four-function calculators anymore since we all have them on our cell phones now. If you've still got one lying around, you can hack it to play recorded sounds, use it to make a metal detector, or turn it into a custom name plate that says ...more

Our good friend Kipkay is at it again! He has earned six figures from videos like HowTo Unlock Handcuffs and HowTo Make a Stink Pen Here he teams up with Howcast to deliver the ultimate treasure hunter's secret weapon: a metal detector. This homebrew hack combines the AM freq ...more

Wouldn't it be awesome if your glasses could detect when it's bright outside and automatically darken? Well, the technology has been around for a while, but it'll set you back a few hundred bucks. Dean Segovis over on Hack A Week decided to make his own by hacking a pair of a ...more

With the FBI getting access to iPhones, and apps like Waze being used to track people's locations, you've got to wonder just how safe and secure your smartphone is... or isn't. When you consider everything you do on your phone, from taking and sharing pictures to mobile bankin ...more

It is well documented that what you say and do online is tracked. Yes, private organizations do their best to protect your data from hackers, but those protections don't extend to themselves, advertisers, and law enforcement. Whether you are a journalist, a protestor, or a hi ...more

With the Wigle WiFi app running on an Android phone, a hacker can discover and map any nearby network, including those created by printers and other insecure devices. The default tools to analyze the resulting data can fall short of what a hacker needs, but by importing wardri ...more

There are very, very few things better than a solid Hobbit songI mean, I was almost brought to tears when Pippin busted out this one in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Video: . Seriously, if that was on iTunes, I would definitely throw down a buck for it. Oh wait, ...more

If you've ever wished you could keep tabs on the fish in your aquarium, Justin of Antipasto Hardware Blog has just the mod for you! He created this DIY "shark detector" that sends out a tweet whenever Bruce the shark breaches a perimeter that he set up in the tank. Video: . He ...more

Until recently, brainwave-reading devices have pretty much only existed in science fiction. Sure, electroencephalography (EEG), the technology that powers these devices, has been used in medicine and psychiatry since the late 1800s, but diagnosing people's brains and reading t ...more

Fireworks are the best part about the Fourth of July and other celebrations, but they can easily cause accidental injuries. It's both safer and more fun to set them off remotely, so we'll hack some standard fireworks with nichrome wire, a relay, and an Arduino to ignite remote ...more

This tutorial shows you how to create an intruder alarm that sends you text message alerts when motion is detected. This may sound complicated but I am pretty confident any beginner with electronics should be able to do this just fine. The range sensor senses motion and tells ...more

As deeply as smartphones are integrated into our daily lives, it's no surprise that people are finding ways to use them to stay healthy. From detecting cancer and radiation to diagnosing STDs, phones have come a long way, baby. The latest advancement comes from Aydogan Ozcan ...more

Admittedly, we've been quite hot on Kipkay lately, but can you blame us? This guy just keeps rolling out the wild inventions and bold pranks! A motion triggered spy cam is high level 007 stuff. Here's the scenario. You suspect your new roommate is eating your food, but you n ...more

Check out this truly incredible redstone mechanism by Users Rezz and Psycho_ewt! It's an automated redstone game with a twist. You control the interactive screen using a retro NES controller. Let us know what you think or if you'd like to see us reverse engineer it. This build ...more

Want to learn how to build a robot out of Snap Circuits? I'll show you how to combine Snap Circuits parts from three different sets (the Snap Circuits rover, Snap Circuits Micro, and the Snap Circuits motion detector) to make a simple programmable motion activated robot. For a ...more

"Photo Grandpa" aka Fotoopa (that's photograndpa in Dutch) has created an amazing laser rig for ultra-high speed photography. Says Gizmodo, "His setup includes his own custom shutter—which can fire at five microseconds—made around an Arduino controller and custom aluminum pa ...more

It'd be nice to see what a penny will buy these days. Maybe you could draw something showcasing the many uses still available today for a penny (if any). With gas prices rising, it'd be nice to know you can still get something out of one cent. Some ideas? Make a wish in a fo ...more

Although it's impossible (at least for now) to travel back in time to see the Big Bang, The New York Times has provided its readers the closest simulation of the experience via its latest augmented reality feature. On Friday, the Times published "It's Intermission for the Lar ...more

While Magic Leap World gets its share of fun apps for playing with Porgs, watching TV, and exploring the ocean's depths, developers are making a strong business case for the Magic Leap One as well. Cue BadVR, a Los Angeles-based startup that was recently highlighted as one of ...more

Despite making great phones for years, Sony continues to struggle to penetrate the US market. Sales volume has fallen year after year, with 2019 limited to only 5 million units sold globally. To help alleviate this drop, last year, Sony released the Xperia 5, the return to com ...more

Speeding tickets suck, and I don't know a single person that can tell me otherwise. But the reality is, most of us will break the speed limit for one reason for another, regardless of the pricey risk. If you don't want a bulky radar detector (which only somewhat works), but w ...more

There have been plenty of headlines recently about fake followers in both politics and entertainment. Everyone gets hit by a spam account here and there, but when a large percentage of someone's followers are fake, it can look pretty bad, especially with influential people bei ...more

Can you tell when your friends are serving up a bunch of BS, or are you constantly oblivious, unsure if they're spinning a valid story? With so many ways to lie and fake information floating around, it can be impossible to tell what's the truth from what's complete BS. Here's ...more

A newly-filed patent application from Disney Enterprises, Inc. teases more augmented reality lightsaber duels, either for at-home gaming or for the media behemoth's forthcoming Star Wars theme park. The patent, titled "Augmented Reality Interactive Experience," describes a sy ...more

When you want a helpful task manager on your iPhone or iPad, any of the nine apps in this guide should be at the top of your list. But we'll review each app's features to help you determine which one might be best for your workflow. Using a task manager on your iPhone or iPad ...more

There are going to be tons of great Black Friday deals on electronics in stores like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc. But if you can't endure another holiday of standing in lines and running over people to get what you want, shopping on Amazon from the comfort of your own home ...more

With Apple preparing to bring a slew of new features to its Animoji app this fall, Samsung has updated its AR Emoji imitator with the ability to create more realistic digital doppelgängers. The update gives users more control over customization of their personal AR Emojis wit ...more

Augmented reality could come in very handy for those of us prone to losing things—namely, our wallets. Pixie Technology, a company from Los Altos, California, has developed a way to locate your lost wallet and keys using AR technology and tracking chips, a platform they call t ...more

Who's ready to let future Facebook augmented reality smartglasses read their brain? Well, ready or not, the tech giant is making progress in the area of brain control interfaces (BCI) by funding research. This week, Facebook shared some of the progress its Facebook Reality La ...more

BUD switches (short for Block Update Detector) can be triggered without levers, buttons, tripwires, or any other traditional switches. Instead, they're triggered by changes in block status. That is, placing a block, destroying a block, hoeing grass, clearing snow, etc. These ...more

In this episode we're using the Tibbo EM1000 to create our own web-serving-BPM-sensor! Video: . For the code: http://www.mikepieters.com/codes/BPMv1.zip The pin overview: http://docs.tibbo.com/phm/index.html?ic1000.htm Thanks to AudioMicro for the music!