Maker Faire 2010, Part 1 Pictures

The 2010 Maker Faire was another smashing success. The Faire is a DIY festival where you can find geeky projects and traditional craft demos. It is for people who like to tinker, build, and blow things up.

On Friday, setup day, a friend of mine asked me to help her set up her booth. There were seminars for the makers and volunteers. Dale Dougherty, founder of Maker Faire and publisher of Make magazines, spoke about his vision of bringing together the makers so they could inspire each other and others, and to get feedback about their projects and inventions.

Then Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, talked about the Next Industrial Revolution, where every garage can be a micro-factory with entrepreneurial opportunities. I took so many pictures that I will split them into several postings. The following are some of the geeky techie projects:

R2-D2 was actually moving around and "talking".

Athletic stick robots that exercise for me - this one does arm curls and leg curls (above)

Robots doing push-ups.

The original Russell, the Electric Giraffe

Now, at 19 feet tall. Russell can walk, raise his neck, and moves his head. He has sensors so that when you stroke the top of his nose, he "talks" and tells you his name. Each year, he has added features.

Solar powered sewing machine that also embroiders.

Music by ArcAttack. They used 2 hand-built Tesla coils that throws out electric charges (like lightening bolts). The band was on the right side, and the robotic drum was on the left. It was really amazing.