Obi-Wan the Cursor: little doll tracks your mouse movements
As we've noted several times before, sometimes the neatest DIY projects are also the least practical: in this case, why on Earth (or Tatooine, if you will) would you need an action figure to sit on your desk and point out where your on-screen cursor is? Nonetheless, a Star Wars fan named Russ has taken his Obi-Wan Kenobe (sp? If you look at the byline of this post, you'll see perhaps the only person to have never watched any of these films) doll, hooked it up to two servos and the Makezine Controller, and written a quick-and-dirty program to allow lightsaber-toting Obi to track the pointer across his four monitors. Now obviously a few jiggles of the mouse are just as effective at locating a lost cursor as a motorized avatar, but we suppose that if you're really into figurines like G.I. Joe, He-Man, or the MystiKats, mounting one of your old toys next to your mouse pad would probably provide you with some small amount of amusement throughout the day. Or, if you wisely left those collectibles in their original packaging, you could sell them on eBay instead, and use the proceeds for paying one of your unemployed friends to hunch next to your chair and follow the cursor around with his / her finger.
Update: According to several readers, the doll used in this project is actually named Qui-Gon, and not Obi-Wan. We sincerely apologize to all the Star Wars fanatics out there, and place the blame squarely on our woeful lack of "force."
[Via MAKE]
