Twitter-powered robotic popcorn machine: media snacker deluxe

Reading people's annoying "I'm eating such-and-such" tweets gets pretty tiring (though we're just as guilty as the next guy when we have a particularly impressive petit four). Someone with even more time on their hands than us had taken it upon themselves to make a little contraption that, it could be argued, increases Twitter's usefulness just a little. Popcorn Tweets (as it's called) was built using Lego's Mindstorm NXT and is powered by Labview software. Triggered by a #popcorn tweet, the machine's motor is driven by a belt which turns an Archimedes' screw, which in turn moves a kernal of unpopped corn from the hopper to the popper. Of course, you could always just get a bag of Orville Redenbacher's microwave corn, but then... where's the fun in that? The semi-annoying video is after the break.

[Kaboof Posted Feb 7th 2010 10:39AM]

Video is not available in my country (Germany) because of content from Sony Music Entertainment... i think i miss nothing?

[Echuu Posted Feb 7th 2010 11:40AM]

@Kaboof The music is probably copyrighted.

[Indyaner Posted Feb 7th 2010 1:00PM]

@Kaboof
Das ist Deutschland.

Benutze einfach einen Proxy im Ausland dafür. z.B. youtubeproxy.org. Die Adresse des Video bekommst du raus indem du unten rechts im Video auf das Icon klickst und dort dir den text aus dem URL-Feld kopierst (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HsE6tkWCzM&feature=player_embedded) Das feature=player_embedded kannst du abschneiden wenn du es bei youtubproxy eingibst.
Normalerweise reicht es auch auf das Video drauf zu klicken um zur Seite zu gelangen wo man die Adresse aus der URL kopieren kann, aber das hat Youtube mitlerweile encryptet damit wir es nicht so leicht habe das beschissen neue Urheberrecht zu umgehen.

[derekisthematrix Posted Feb 7th 2010 1:15PM]

@Echuu It's Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" (he did the Pink Panther Theme as well)

[Kaboof Posted Feb 7th 2010 5:23PM]

@Indyaner oh danke für die Seite :)

[MooMooChu Posted Feb 7th 2010 10:45AM]

I will forever wish lego's Mindstorm products were available when I was growing up.
Time to have some kids already so I can buy this. Y'know, for the kids to learn. And stuff.

[aforty Posted Feb 7th 2010 12:27PM]

@MooMooChu

+1. I want kids so that i can buy cool toys... for them!

[tavisjohn Posted Feb 7th 2010 1:46PM]

@MooMooChu You need to get over that. If you have a kid, you will have to SHARE it with them.

Just go get it for yourself! Nothing is stopping you from lying to the cashier about it being for a cousin, or nephew. Or just admit you are getting it for yourself! That is what I do.

[xDewfrostx Posted Feb 7th 2010 11:01AM]

Huh, I guess that'd be useful if you worked at a movie theater. Or nearly lived at one. =\

[TSIG Posted Feb 7th 2010 11:08AM]

#popcorn #popcorn #popcorn #popcorn #popcorn #popcorn #popcorn #popcorn

[sourav Posted Feb 7th 2010 1:32PM]

@TSIG

They are not checking Engadget.

[NeoJew Posted Feb 7th 2010 11:36AM]

It's POWERED by Twitter? How the hizzle does that work?

[Echuu Posted Feb 7th 2010 11:40AM]

Cool device, but the video was terrible.

[aforty Posted Feb 7th 2010 12:24PM]

I didn't understand how a demo video of this could possibly be "annoying," but... now I understand.

[dan Posted Feb 7th 2010 1:44PM]

@aforty Oh yes, oh so annoying. 3 minutes that should have been 1.

[Borgh Posted Feb 7th 2010 12:45PM]

It's weird how people with iPhones can't tilt their phones to the right or the left instead of filming in portrait mode

[Mr Coffee Posted Feb 7th 2010 12:54PM]

That poor NXT servo, he didn't even brace the other side of the axle ;_;

[BuzzKill Posted Feb 7th 2010 1:01PM]

Video - horrible. Seriously.

Hacker cred - mid to high. Nice mix of diciplines and pieces parts. And the "It was my idea and I wanted to see if I could do it for no other reasen than because" gets bonus points.

Practicality - none. Could be bonus points depending on your point of view. You are certainly not going to leave 1000watt popper running all day on the dining room table.

Missed points - There is no feedback loop to twitter for the popped corn. The light bulbs seem to do nothing else except waste more electricity. Also the box and bulbs seem like a 1/2-azzed attempt to make it "steam punky".

[justingoeres Posted Feb 10th 2010 8:29AM]

@BuzzKill Thanks for your comments. I hope that in spite of your criticisms you enjoyed the video as much as we enjoyed making it.

If you're interested, I've posted a technical overview of the system here: http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-9456

You can also follow the co-creators on Twitter if you want. Dave Britt is @_clevermonkey_ and Justin Goeres is @justingoeres

[cosmicinglewood Posted Feb 7th 2010 3:31PM]

Perhaps next they will make a (Tweet Crack Matic)

1. Place fairy dust in hopper one.
2. Place distilled water in hopper two.
3. Place sodium bicarbonate in hopper tree.

To produce a rock simply tweet your TCM, and $10 worth of drywall like felony action will fall into the collection dish.....

[calrouge Posted Feb 7th 2010 3:35PM]

Someone going be running out of popcorn soon...

[Landonr Posted Feb 7th 2010 11:39PM]

I 1-up this with my tweetea tea robot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Ojt-lXqlU

[mypiehole Posted Feb 8th 2010 11:55AM]

a particularly impressive petit four
http://beavertonbakery.com/?view=buy&lot=620