Make Technology on You Time

 

 

O'Reilly Media, Inc brings us the most current and useful technology information in various formats including books and magazines. One of magazines, called Make: Technology on Your Time is now in it's 27th volume. This "Makezine" is perfect for those who love to tinker with technology to make it better or simply to just have more fun. Make is published quarterly and contains lots of DIY projects for you to complete or to use as your inspiration from your own design. The 27th edition is the Robots! issue--but it has tons of other project instructions as well. 

Here is all the information about Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 27 — Robots! from the press release I received:

The bots are back in Make: Magazine Volume 27 (O'Reilly Media, $14.99 USD), hitting newsstands July 26. This latest issue shows you how to build robots that can walk, roll, grab, spy, dance, chase a ball, and come when they're called. They're better than a puppy.

 

Some of the buildable bots you'll meet include:

• Yellow Drum Machine, which roves in search of things to drum on and then plays, records, and accompanies itself 

• Roomba Recon a robotic vacuum with a wireless router and webcam that drives around and lets you spy on whatever it sees, from any web browser;

• Spazzi a simple but lively dancing bot that bops to music, designed by the makers of the Keepon robot used to help autistic kids;

• The Teleclaw, a dirt-cheap remote gripper designed by Gordon McComb, "the father of hobby robotics";

• And Chopsticks, the eight-legged winner of MAKE's Most Entertaining Robot contest.

"Robots are a kind of a holy grail for makers, because they incorporate many different technologies: mechanisms, sensors, microcontrollers, and software," says Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of MAKE. "This makes them tremendously fun to build and interact with. The rate of progress in hobby robotics is incredible, and this volume of Make really captures the movement's state of the art."

 

Our special robotics section also brings you the latest in hobby innovations (hamster power, anyone?), and shows you how to use the EZ-Robot controller board to turn any animated toy into a smart bot able to recognize objects and respond to voice commands.

 

Elsewhere in Make: Magazine Volume 27, you'll learn how to create:

• A jellyfish aquarium (these mesmerizing creatures are too delicate for standard fish tank filtration);

• A budget version of the "virtual camera" used to film Avatar, by special-effects guru Glenn Derry;

• A lightweight, portable LED sign with full keyboard that instantly displays any text in bright lights;

• A treadmill desk that keeps you fit while you push papers and pixels;

• A motion-sensitive Do-Not-Touch Box to surprise your friends;

• A $30 gobo arm for capturing smartphone video from workbenches and countertops;

• A solar backpack and wood-gas camp stove to technologize your camping;

• A beer-pong cup that scoots around to increase degree of difficulty;

• And a primer on ImageJ, the free open source program that manipulates video and photos to create brilliant and beautiful visualizations.

Try these projects and show off your build in our Make project wiki.

I have a feeling that Make will be a magazine of interest with my son in a few years--when he is old enough to really start experimenting with technology. You can already tell at 4 that he has a very mathematical and scientific mind. I am sure it won't be long and I will be finding various components within my home dismantled because he was trying to see how they worked or to fix them or even to make them work better--he has always studied items intently to see how they worked. So, I loved looking through this edition of Make. I think for me--my favorite projects would be the jellyfish aquarium and the treadmill desk (I wonder if I really would be able to walk and type a review at the same time). 

If you or someone in your life is a technology junkie --especially one who loves to tinker and create. Make: Technology on Your Time is the perfect magazine for them, be sure to investigate everything they have available online as well. 

 Thank you to O'Reilly Media for my sample used in this review, opinions are honest, review by Michelle.

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