10 years ago

The Science Behind…
The Like Popper 

A lot can go wrong when popping corn. Moisture level, temperature, and cubic feet of air per minute are just some of the many variables that must be perfectly aligned to achieve a light, fluffy, silent crunch. What were we thinking when we promised a single popped kernel for each tumblr like? Knowing we could depend on IBM’s MQLight to relay Tumblr API data through the cloud to our 14.3 amp heat gun, we felt comfortable taking on the challenge. Watch your own little kernel begin its journey in a laser cut plexiglass wheel, travel through hand blown glass, then cross the finish line as a perfect piece of popcorn.

Make some Like-popped popcorn →
(best viewed on desktop + tablet)

10 years ago

Leftovers to LASIK
Tales from the IBM Playground

What will you do tomorrow with your Thanksgiving leftovers? Eating them would be an obvious choice, but not so for the pioneers of LASIK eye surgery, who had some other playful ideas. IBM Researcher James Wynne recalls, “My colleagues and I discovered excimer laser surgery by irradiating leftovers from a Thanksgiving turkey dinner. This was definitely not the primary research focus for which IBM payed us.”

So you see, sometimes for the sake of science and innovation, it’s more than ok to play with your food after all. Just not in front of your mother.

Have a happy and playful Thanksgiving, America!

10 years ago

The Science Behind…
The Reblog Chopper

With every IBMblr reblog, the Play Machine’s hand adze raises up a notch, that much closer to — WHACK! — a forceful 72 pounds per square inch blow of the 3/8" poplar wood dowel below. How’s it work? A custom API pulls your Tumblr reblog and sends it through IBM’s MQ Light messaging software. Next, a local machine tells the hand adze’s lifting mechanism to spring into action.

Reblog a post now and watch the dowel get what’s coming to it! →
(best viewed on desktop + tablet)

10 years ago

10 years ago

You say engineering, electronics, high voltage, and pyrotechnics; we say, the one and only Prince of Play, John Cohn. There isn’t much this IBM Fellow hasn’t dabbled in in the names of Science and Play. Take “Floorish,” the interactive floor he created for Burlington’s Firehouse Gallery in Vermont. By using Kinects, it lights-up in response to gallery visitors’ foot movements. It also lets you control the lights from your mobile device or desktop (have a play here). Other creations that have earned him nerd cred the world over: a gigantic pneumatic Pumpkin Robot, a humongous Mobile Art Car for Burning Man, a giant ‘touch sensitive’ keyboard for Phish bass player Mike Gordon.

10 years ago

The Science Behind…
the Share Globe

Our Play Machine takes globetrotting to a whole new level – one powered by play and robotic motors. Every share is pulled from the Twitter API or from Tumblr, which starts the globe a-spinnin’. Meanwhile, the longitude and latitude from a sharer’s location is sent to the globe’s arduino microcontroller to figure out where the 2mm laser should point – which if actual Earth size would be quite a ray, spanning a 28 mile radius. A command is sent to the motor controller in G-code and voila! (look, a share from France!), the world sees your location on the globe and the spinning LED fan!

Show us where you’re playing with a Share now →
(best viewed on desktop + tablet)

10 years ago

10 years ago