
Turn anything into a videogame controller, even a banana - verganileonardo
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joylabs/makey-makey-an-invention-kit-for-everyone
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tnorthcutt
This looks awesome.

That said, it seems like they already have production figured out, all the
research done, etc. Why not just sell the product, instead of running a
Kickstarter campaign? Is this just functioning as a pre-order, so they can
make a big batch of them?

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verganileonardo
Big batch will make the average production cost go down.

"If we raise $25,000 then we can do a large first run, which brings the retail
cost down significantly, so that we can sell the kit to you for $35 (including
shipping)."

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ahuibers
Even though I can program an Arduino just fine, this is so low-friction that
it will encourage me do short projects and experiments I otherwise might not.

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mrjd
I think it's a great idea. They're making electronics fun and interesting
which will hopefully attract people that would otherwise run a mile! Good luck
guys!

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Impossible
Looks like a great gateway project. You can start using it to make simple
custom controllers, but it's also a fully programmable Arduino with everything
that comes with that. Really cool project and great price point.

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debacle
I can think of a thousand cool things you could use this for, outside of a
keyboard. It takes the controller abstraction up one level, making it
accessible to magnitudes more people. With this + a raspberry pi, the sky is
the limit.

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jeffpersonified
It's interesting that both this and raspberry pi's intent are to be
educational in nature. And fun at that.

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tbundy
What a delight. I look forward to playing GTA with a cheese controller.

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K2h
The collaboration with SparkFun (a well recognized and respected group) was a
very good choice.

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verganileonardo
Have you worked with SparkFun before?

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K2h
nope, but i have a lot of respect for how they run their business. the only
experience i have is when i asked them to add a product, and they were very
professional.

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apitaru
This project has tremendous potential for children with special needs. I've
basically had to build a similar device from scratch in 2006 as part of my ITP
(NYU) thesis project [1]. This could have saved me so much time! Backing it,
and hope you will too!

[1]
[http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/dmal.9780262...](http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/dmal.9780262693646.067)

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nemo1618
The first thing I thought of was CamSpace:
[http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/control-any-game-with-your-
webc...](http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/control-any-game-with-your-webcam-using-
camspace/)

I remember using it a few years ago and it seemed pretty buggy (though maybe
it was just my low quality webcam). This seems like it has a lot more
potential.

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hsshah
Very creative indeed. I have been using Picoboard
(<http://www.picocricket.com/picoboard.html>) for teaching with Scratch. This
gives so many ideas for the resistance sensors. Awesome job guys. Will back
you up.

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rosstafarian
I as a software hacker/tinkerer I have been wanting to get into hardware
hacking for quite a while and this looks like a perfect starting point "kit"
to play with, with the perfect price.

Thank you for making the world a bit more interesting :)

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userdeveloper
This is what I call "user interface".

Will it be possible to modify this to work with other OS's such as BSD,
GNU/Linux, Solaris, etc.?

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gorloth
The microcontroller being used can be setup to appear as a standard USB
mouse/keyboard, so this should work with anything that supports a USB keyboard
and mouse.

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sweetdreamerit
using this device in interaction with a kinect could be a killer application:
the kinect gives you the coordinates, the MaKey signals when the user really
touch something. Everything could become a touchscreen ...

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malkia
I call this INPUTATION, and the device INPUTIZER!

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vibragiel
Just look at this banana game controller!

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Roboprog
Is there an accompanying karate game, so that you, like Woody Allen, can beat
a man senseless with a banana? (Sleeper)

Looks like a fun way to make familiar, intuitive controls for your friends.

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silentscope
banana phone???

