Tag: Cheap

Paperformed makes a variety of papercraft models that it sells as DIY kits. Two of its most advanced kits are the Changeable Robots. They’re scale models clearly inspired by Transformers, and like Hasbro’s toys these bots have humanoid and vehicle forms. The Racing Warrior is made of 202 parts and transforms into a race car and a dual sword-wielding warrior.

Three Rice University freshmen are working on a simple device that could make injections less painful. They call their device Comfortably Numb – a small ice pack that quickly cools down the spot to be injected. Greg Allison, Andy Zhang and Mike Hua are currently extracting ammonium nitrate from ice packs for their prototype.

If you’re into board games or tabletop games chances are you’ve been disappointed in the quality or appearance of the tokens included in your games. Board game maker Stonemaier Games has a solution in the form of its Treasure Chests – sets of detailed resource tokens. Stonemaier Games already has one Treasure Chest on the market.

Between the Arduino, Raspberry Pi and other development boards, it seems like makers already have more than enough small computers to choose from. But Onion Corporation believes its upcoming Omega will be welcomed with open arms because it will be familiar to both experienced programmers and people who have no knowledge of programming. The first thing you notice about the Omega is that it’s tiny.

Like many makers, Instructables member Gizmologist was running out of room on her workbench because of all her projects. So she decided to make a compact and self-contained toolkit to test electronics. She ended up packing an Arduino Uno, a breadboard, a voltage regulator and a capacitor substitution board in a small plywood box that still has lots of room for other tools. Gizmologist’s portable work station measures 8″x 6″x 1.75″.

Last year, HemaImaging made thermal vision accessible by creating an affordable smartphone add-on for both iOS and Android devices. But the company wanted something that’s more versatile and even more useful, so it’s working on the HemaVision, a standalone thermal imager that will be able to give you measurements in real-time and tell you if that’s within normal parameters. The HemaVision has an 82×62 thermal sensor, a 5MP CMOS sensor, a 320×240 touchscreen, an SD card slot, a Wi-Fi chip and a battery that lasts up to 4h per charge.

UberBlox Systems has designed the industrial equivalent of LEGO Mindstorms. Uberblox lets you make machines such as 3D printers, CNC mills and robots using modular parts and controllers that are based on Arduino or Raspberry Pi. The magic of UberBlox lies in its aluminum nodes, bars and connectors.

Scissors and cutters are indispensable crafting tools. They’re versatile, straightforward and cheap. But Perry Teri Toys thinks it has a better alternative – a colored pen with a small blade on its tip. Called the ColorCutter ShapeShark, the marker and blade combo makes cutting as easy as drawing. The ColorCutter ShapeShark comes with an attachment called a spinner, which appears to help angle the blade into paper. 

We may quickly be solving how to show virtual reality effectively, but we’re still figuring out how to move in it. We’ve seen pseudo–treadmills and full sets of motion sensors, but Stompz claims its eponymous motion controllers are all we need to move around in virtual spaces. Each Stompz controller has a 9-axis motion sensor.

When USB Type-C gadgets and ports become commonplace, sticking a USB connector wrong side up will become a thing of the past. Personally I don’t mind. It’s one of those things that remind you that you’re alive.

If you thought Mad Catz’ LYNX transforming gamepad was the bees knees’, check out the Grifta. It makes the LYNX look like an SNES controller. The Grifta can be used as a normal gamepad or split into two halves.

Head-mounted displays (HMD) have been around for years, though they tend to be prohibitively expensive. Caputer Labs is touting its Seer as an augmented reality display, though it could end up simply being a cheap HMD instead. Seer is meant to project and magnify a smartphones’ display and will work with smartphones that have screens between 4″ to 6″.

Lumoid is an online store that rents and sells consumer electronics, from prosumer cameras to the Google Glass. Recently the store opened up a new kind of service that’s solely for wearable devices. Lumoid can ship you up to five fitness or sleep trackers so you can try them out for a week.

The Vikaura is the polar opposite of the huge and expensive digital picture frames that have come up in the past couple of years. It’s simply a small E-ink display that receives messages or images from your mobile device via Bluetooth. You or your friends can send messages or images to Vikaura via its mobile app.

Mobile phone 3D or virtual reality headsets are one of the newest tech accessories. Like Google’s Cardboard, the Viewbox is on the cheap and low-tech side. But instead of paper it’s made of neoprene, a synthetic rubber used in many products, from wetsuits to laptop sleeves. According to maker Evomade, despite its simplicity Viewbox offers several significant benefits.

Aside from its name’s distracting spelling, Gaems is known for its specialized suitcases for Xbox and PlayStation consoles. The suitcases come with a monitor, speakers and the requisite cables, so all you need is to strap in your console.