Kinect-Powered Jedibot for Star Wars Dueling

 

Seems like the Xbox Kinect has provided lots of opportunities for programmers and engineers to produce products that when combined offer an excellent gaming opportunity. Take today’s hack for example called the Jedibot.

The Jedibot is robot designed by students at Stanford University; it utilizes an articulating arm connected to an Xbox Kinect to produce a sword fighting enemy. The students created the Jedibot by combining mathematical formulas and programming skills they learned in the Intro to Robotics course.

Able to swing a sword or lightsaber every 2-3 seconds the Jedibot can track the movement of an enemy weapon and produce an attack or defensive movement. This ensures you can recreate some of those lightsaber fighting scenes from the Star Wars films.

Currently in development with the students and professor of the course, hopefully fingers crossed they can increase the speed of the Jedibot and make it available to buy. I would get one, would you? If you are not sure check out the video below.

Star Wars: The Blueprints

 

This may not be a Star Wars gadget but I am sure the Star Wars fans amongst us will fully appreciate it, it is called Star Wars: The Blueprints.  The original blueprints for the star wars films has been produced from Lucas films archives and combined with excellent commentary from best-selling author J. W. Rinzler. Within the blueprints are specific and accurate details on the story, maps, and designs from the Star Wars saga.  For any Star Wars fan this product is a must to fully appreciate and understand the designing and artistry that made the film what it is today.  Incorporated into the Star Wars Blueprints is information regarding the special effects used in the film which propelled the film into one of the most technologically advanced of its era.

The number of Star Wars: The Blueprints manufactured will be limited to 5,000 English copies therefore making it a limited edition Star Wars item.

The blueprint will come with a custom-made (dyed) cloth to hold the book which is quite large and heavy (39.4 cm wide by 47 cm tall and 10kg). 10 gatefolds produce an open page of 4 feet in size. Passionate fans can get this 336 page, 70,000 words, 250 blueprints, and 500 photographs for either $500 for a Hand-numbered copy or for $1000 for a Signed and hand-numbered copy.

[Source: Epic Ink]

Operation Game Star Wars Style with R2-D2 as the Patient

 

Operation if you didn’t know was a battery-operated game first released in 1965. The game tests players fine motor skills along with their hand-eye coordination, the better skills you have the more likely the patient was to survive.  Initially manufactured by Milton Bradley, manufacturing has been taking over more recently by Hasbro.

John Spinello was the inventor all those years ago and since then the design has changed quite a bit although the principles remain the same. An operating table with an illustrated patient is the main focus of the game. Within the body of the patient are cavities which contain an object that must be extracted using tweezers without touching the sides of the patient.  If the sides are touched with the tweezers an electrical circuit is closed which sets a buzzer off. Typical objects and areas for extraction are; Adam’s apple, Broken Heart, Wrenched Ankle, Butterflies in the Stomach, Spare Ribs, and the Funny Bone.

Well if you like the original game and you are a Star Wars fan then you will love this game, Operation R2-D2. The original game has been given a Star Wars makeover with R2-D2 as the patient. Simply follow the original rules, use your steady surgical skills to extract the mechanical maladies with in R2-D2 and you will win the game. This Star Wars gadget will be available for $26.99 from Toywiz.

The Voice Activated R2-D2

 

Now you have the Star Wars light saber, why not have a loyal companion to help you fight against the dark side and dark forces of the Sith? The motorized replica of the droid from Star Wars responds to your commands as you speak and it can navigate rooms, hallways and it also makes your home look very interesting with a droid lurking in your hall. The Voice Activated R2-D2, also affectionately called the R2, will obey and can identify up to 40 different kinds of commands such as move forward, turn around, come here and etc. and he can also play games such as tag by using its infrared sensor to look for people in the room.

The sensor for the Voice Activated R2-D2 makes it follow you from behind or you can set it to detect any motion as it guards your room from other people. You’ll have your own personal guard that will inform you if there is a person coming towards your room.

This Star Wars gadget has other features such as emotion changes and the lights on his body will flicker and change when he’s in a certain mood. If he is in a bad mood, a simple command like “R2, stop that nonsense” will bring him back to his normal joyful self again. The Voice Activated R2-D2 can also play back sounds from the Star Wars movies and mention certain dialogs. He can answer a yes or no question and even dance to the cantina music.

R2 will need four AA and four D batteries in order to bring him to life and the retail price for R2 is about $200. It is better than a pet dog because you don’t have to feed it!

Available: Hammacher

Price: $199.95

Star Wars Force FX Lightsabers

Every kid dreams of being a Jedi Master and when the first Star Wars Episodes came out, all we had was a long stick as a make believe light saber and sound effects that came out from our own mouths. Those were the days when it was fun being Luke and Obi Wan fighting the dark side and its lord, Darth Vader.

Since the year 1977 when the first star wars series came out, every kid knew that someday they will own a light saber and the force will be with them. Well if you were that kid, your dream came true thank to the Star Wars Force FX light sabers!

The Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber is an authentic replica of the actual light saber from the Star Wars series. It has a number of cool features towards it and has a good quality as well. There are five lightsabers that characters in the Star Wars movies used that you can choose from including Mace Windu, Luke ROTJ, Darth Vader, Darth Maul and Anakin Skywalker. Features consists of glowing blades with realistic power up and down effects, authentic sound effect, a four motion sensor controlled sound effect feature such as power down, power up, clash and hum. It has a durable metal hilt that makes it feel as if you are holding a real light saber.

The Star Wars FX Lightsaber uses three AAA alkaline batteries to operate and all the sabers are roughly about 44 inches long. The retail price for each saber costs about $100.

 

Available: ThinkGeek

Price: $99.99