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Evil Mad Scientist's "BristleBot" project boosted by Scholastic / Klutz for book, no credit in sight
In an upsetting -- though somehow not surprising -- turn of events, it appears that Scholastic and partner company Klutz have ripped off the work of two Makers, Windell and Lenore Oskay. The duo (also known as Evil Mad Scientists) created a charming little droid called a BristleBot which can be easily constructed using the head of a toothbrush, a pager motor, and a tiny amount of elbow grease. Apparently, Scholastic liked the idea so much that they turned it into a kit and book for kids (with the help of Klutz), but failed to involve or even credit the gadget's original creators. Knowing how open and excited the Make crew (and friends / cohorts) are about sharing their ideas, this comes as a particularly disheartening piece of news. Check out the read link for the whole story, and we're including Scholastic's media relations page below if you want to get in touch. Video of the original project after the break.Read - Sad day for makers - unauthorized book from Klutz and Scholastic "BristleBots"Read - Scholastic media contact
'E-paper' drawbot uses old school analog data recorder
It's no secret that we're big fans of completely impractical mods; sure we like the ones that look good or do something useful, but at the end of the day, all we really want to do is watch a cool video that doesn't make us think too hard. Take "Evil Mad Scientist" and atomic physicist Windell Oskay's DIY "e-paper" drawbot, basically an Allen Plotomatic 715 analog X-Y data recorder directed by an off-the-shelf microcontroller to sketch letters and shapes on a stripped-down Fischer Price Doodle Pro. The video below describes this build much better than we ever could, although the lack of specific programming instructions makes this less of a how-to and more of a mini-documentary. Oskay refers to his creation as e-paper, and though it is based on magnetics and not electronics, he points out that it does indeed share many of the same qualities as the Sony Readers and iRex iLiads of the world: high-contrast, daylight-readability, flexibility, and the ability to erase images or maintain them without electricity. Still, even though this rig is hundreds of dollars cheaper than commercial e-books, we'd rather spend the extra loot in exchange for pages that render in under five minutes.
