Maker Faire 2011, in pictures: Arduinos, Androids, and angry robots

The rapture has come and gone, but the Maker Faire powers on. Despite warnings of a May 21st doomsday, folks came out in droves for the annual celebration of all things DIY, and we were there to bring you the best in homespun inventions. This year's Maker Faire was light on robots and big on corporate sponsorship. Among the giants supporting the little guys were Google, ASUS, and HP, but El Goog's presence extended beyond its dedicated tents. The new Android ADK was big with at-home tinkerers this year, spawning a number of little robots and at least one DIY alternative.

Perhaps no other trend proved more pervasive than 3D printing, however -- every time we turned around there was another MakerBot or RapMan pumping out everything from statuettes of attendees to cutesy salt shakers. There were robotic building blocks, a Heineken-themed R2-D2, DIY drones, custom keyboards, and a ton of repurposed gadgets, but it was an arena of destructo-bots, tucked away in the farthest corner of the San Mateo County Event Center, that really blew us away. We came away sunburned and bedraggled, but lucky for you, we did all the dirty work so you don't have to.

Maker Faire 2011

Fully working Super8 film projector built totally out of Lego, well almost

Projecting Super8 film is a largely unnecessary hassle these days, but those words are clearly meaningless to camera nut Friedemann Wachsmuth. His painstakingly constructed Lego projector runs at a rickety 24fps without mangling celluloid, and with only the most minor use of non-Lego components (lens, lamp, spindles, bah who's counting?). The contraption serves no purpose other than to hurl photons of pure geek passion at white-ish walls, and previous Lego viewfinders and shutter releases are mere pecks on the cheek by comparison. Turn up your volume before you hit the video because the rattliness of this thing is all part of the love.

OHGIZMO!

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LEGO STAR WARS III: THE CLONE WARS - THE FORCE FLOWS STRONGLY IN THE LEGO BLOCKS

The guys from the Telltale Games go back to the origins with the Lego blocks, willing to always improve themselves. Every fan of the precedent Telltale productions will find the strongholds of the typical gameplay in this sequel, whose story is inspired to the cartoon saga “The Clone Wars” and some part of the last trilogy.

The game presents many good innovations, like much more combat sessions and many new weapons. Anyway, classical features like the “Puzzle Solving” are still present.

But there are some bad sides: for example, it is difficult to understand what you have to do to go on in the game, and you have to continue anyway under the fire of the enemies. This lack ruins the new goals of the Telltale guys. Anyway, the dynamic of the game is funny and good. The graphic level is very improved in comparison with the precedent chapter, but, after all, what really makes Lego Star Wars III a good game are the classical elements of the saga, like puzzle solving, action phases and finding secrets.