Quickie Roundup

Tea Serving robot kit

This kit is made of computer designed precision modern materials, but is as close to the original design as possible. The driving force of the original tea-carrying doll came from a spring made of whale whiskers (actually whale teeth). All the other components, such as its gears, body and escapement for speed adjustments, were made of wood. How does it work? When a tea cup is placed on the tray, the stopper is released by the whale spring attached to the doll’s arms; the spring forces the stopper to engage again when the cup is lifted from the tray. [via] Link.

Make your own Readymechs!

Readmechs are printable (8.5" x 11") little paper box creatures and novelties like UK Johnny, Astro Julie, Pal 9000, Papercut of death, Skeletron and other clever designs surely to delight a drab cubicle. Link.

Translator may allow you to "switch your mouth to a foreign language"

Mr. Jou, a graduate student in language technologies at Carnegie Mellon University, was simply mouthing words in his native Mandarin Chinese. But 11 electrodes attached to his face and neck detected his muscle movements, enabling a computer program to figure out what he was trying to say and then translate his Mandarin into English. The result boomed out of a loudspeaker a few seconds later. [via] Link.

Slot car with wirelesss video camera

Here's a site about putting a tiny wireless video camera into a 1/32 scale Scalextric slot car. There are pictures of how it was done and an 11MB film from inside the car to download. Zoom! It's like a mini NASCAR. Link.

Die Dulci Fruere