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Tag: Rube Goldberg devices

  • This Magnetic Rube Goldberg Machine Changes the Game

    Consider the gauntlet thrown down on all future homemade Rube Goldberg devices…because magnets. Magnets, of course, make anything better. You didn’t think Breaking Bad could get any more awesome but then they introduced a giant ass magnet. You didn’t think ICP could get any worse but then they started talking about magnets.

    See? Magnets make everything more interesting – espeically Rube Goldberg devices. If you don’t believe me, check out this short video from 2dphotography and see for yourself:

    For more Rube Goldberg goodness, check here.

  • This Rube Goldberg Machine Is Powered by Athletes

    Fresh off of dropping a guy from 24 miles up in the stratosphere, Red Bull has now created a pretty incredible human-powered Rube Goldberg device, or according to them, a Kluge. Either way, various athletes from various sports serve as part of the machinery in the video, which features skydiving, biking, skateboarding, hurdling, and drifting.

    Check out “The Athlete Machine” below:

    Sure, it’s a giant ad for Red Bull – the extremely simple task executed by the complex machine was cracking open some ice to unveil the energy drink. But as far as advertisements go, this one is pretty hard to beat.

  • World’s Largest Rube Goldberg Machine Pops Balloon In Just 300 Steps

    I’m a big fan of Rube Goldberg machines. There’s just a level of excitement and conversely calm and comfort that comes over me when I watch one function successfully. I guess since so much of my life is punctuated by actions that boil complex tasks down to a simple mechanic – the click of a button, the turn of a car key, etc – it’s oddly refreshing to see the opposite in action. Making something so simple into an incredibly complex series of mechanical happenings just gets me all giddy.

    And this latest attempt by The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers doesn’t disappoint.

    According to the World Records Academy, what you’re about to see is the new official world record holder for largest Rube Goldberg machine – in terms of number of steps. Below, 300 steps are required to achieve the goal, which just happens to be the inflation and popping of a balloon.

    In order to get so many steps into the relatively small space of the machine, they came up with that impressive spinning wheel of stages.

    The team spent more than 5,000 hours constructing the machine that accomplished every task ever assigned in the competition’s 25-year history, including peeling an apple, juicing an orange, toasting bread, making a hamburger, changing a light bulb, loading a CD and sharpening a pencil.

    Packing so many steps into one machine required inventing a novel platform that consisted of two rotating paddlewheels that revealed new sets of modules to chronologically accomplish a quarter century worth of tasks.

    Check it out below:

    This machine broke the old world record, held by – The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers. Last year, they jumped into the record books with a Rube Goldberg device with 244 steps. This year’s device blows that one out of the water.

    [h/t Gizmodo]

  • Minecraft 1.2 Explained With Rube Goldberg Machine

    Minecraft was updated to version 1.2 last week which brought a number of new features to the game. An intrepid gamer going by the name of Generikb has created an in-game Rube Goldberg machine that shows off all the new features that came with the update.

    While the official Minecraft 1.2 trailer was abstract and funny, it didn’t really explain a lot of the new features of Minecraft 1.2. This video does a much better job at explaining the updates in a unique and creative way.

    I may not be a huge Minecraft fan, but the community always floors me with how creative they get. This video definitely falls into the list of the best fan made videos. Here’s hoping he makes videos for each new update.

    Check it out and tell us what you think:

  • A Valentine’s Day Rube Goldberg Device For Your Wining, Dining, And Sexy-Timing

    A Valentine’s Day Rube Goldberg Device For Your Wining, Dining, And Sexy-Timing

    Tuesday, February 14th is Valentine’s Day and let’s face it: all of your posturing about “corporate holiday” this and “let’s be untraditional this year” that is probably not going to fly with your significant other. You’re going to have to do something – so why not make a quick little Rube Goldberg device? Nothing says “I love you” like intricate planning.

    This video, courtesy of 2D Photography, shows what a successful date night Rube Goldberg device would look like. Not only does it pour the wine and set both the mood music and the mood lighting – but it does something particularly spectacular at the end. Let’s just say that it helps guys with a certain mechanical problem that many of us seem to have.

    Check it out below:

    The folks behind the video have made other Rube Goldberg devices that have gone viral. Apparently, this one didn’t take too long at all:

    Here’s our latest Rube Goldberg video. We had this idea really last minute and wanted to pump it out before V-day. This was a completely in house project and by far our fastest Rube. They’re usually quite time consuming and so getting this done in a few days was a nice treat for us.

    Impressive, I’d say.

    If you’re like me (and most of the YouTube commenters), one of the first things you noticed (other than the device) was the borderline creepy laughtrack. 2D Photography says that they added all of that awkward giggling after the fact just for the hell of it.

    Today, YouTube unveiled their Valentine’s Day Slam where users can vote on the best proposal videos across the site. Part of me thinks the bra-magic was the best way to end this, and the slightly more romantic part of me thinks a ring would have been even better. Now that would have been a proposal.

  • Siri, Your Next Bartender

    Siri, Your Next Bartender

    Here’s what Apple says you can do with their new Siri voice assistant program; you can ask for directions, schedule an appointment, make dinner reservations, find the nearest locksmith, play your favorites tunes, set an alarm, and other practical tasks.

    And I’ve heard that Siri can provide hours of fun – just ask her if she wants to marry you, or where you can find some drugs or dispose of a dead body. Like I said, I’ve heard that she provides some interesting answers to creative questions…I definitely don’t know anything about having a few drinks and testing Siri’s capabilities.

    But speaking of Siri and beer, the folks at RedPepper have developed a new way to utilize Siri: The Beeri bot.

    Using an RC truck, a Twitter account, and Siri, they developed a physical/virtual hybrid Rube Goldberg device of sorts that in the end, produces a nice glass of beer. All you have to do is ask Siri to pour you one.

    Here’s how they did it:

    First, they made a Twitter account @beeribot. Then, they used the tweet via text message ability to tweet out “could you pour me a beer” from that account.

    The Beeri device is the RC truck. It’s strapped with a beer and aimed at a “puncture wall.” They “rigged her up an Arduino Uno w/ WiFi shield and set it up to poll @beeribot’s stream via the Twitter REST API every 10 seconds.”

    When Beeri sees a new Tweet containing the word “pour” she triggers the sequence of preprogrammed pour commands (go, stop, adjust) that interface with the truck’s circuit board to control her movement. Her route is preprogrammed (drive straight) until her two proximity detectors sense her moving away from the puncture wall after impact. This allows her to halt the driving sequence and adjust to a 6 inch depth in order to get the beer to enter the funnel.

    And the tasty, tasty beer funnels into the glass sitting below. Check out the process:

    Beeri from redpepper on Vimeo.

    Yes, I know the yield is low. But come on, you’ve gotta credit the vision. If Siri really wants to be my personal assistant, she’s gotta know that there is no way to help me out more than pouring me a beer. And that’s a fact.

    If beer isn’t on the top of your priority list, this concept still has potential. The basic structure of setting up the Twitter account and using Siri to activate a device with the text-to-tweet functionality is pretty neat. You could wire the device to do other things besides popping open a can of beer.

    But really, why would you want to?