Gallery: Maker Faire Bay Area 2012

Evan Ackerman
Monday, May 21, 2012 - 2:58pm

This weekend, we headed out to San Mateo, CA to check out the 2012 edition of Maker Faire, the giant festival where weird and cool people show off their weird and cool stuff. As you look through the gallery below, you might catch yourself wondering what the point of some of these projects are. Try not to waste too much time attempting to figure it out, since a lot what you'll see at Maker Faire only exists because someone with the right mix of creativity, talent and free time thought that it should.

If you don't live around San Francisco, there are Maker Faires and Mini Maker Faires all over the world. Odds are, you can find one near you, just check out this handy map to see where and when you can go see some of these things for yourself.

Via Maker Faire

All photos taken by Evan Ackerman for DVICE.

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(it's a big gallery, so it may take a second or two.)

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1. Land Sharks Todd Williams designed these remote controlled, drivable glowing sharks. Via Maker Faire

2. Wooden Robot Arm Designed specifically for strangling those two small children you can see in the background.

3. Brolly Flock Thirty-two feet of "renegade," flame-throwing umbrellas. Via Maker Faire

4. Jack SparX Electric Toys The latest in Maker Faire hairstyles. Via Maker Faire

5. Tapigami Danny Scheible spent seven years making these sculptures entirely out of tape. Via Maker Faire

6. Gon KiRin Teddy Lo and Ryan C. Doyle built this 60' long interactive dragon on the frame of a dump truck. Via Maker Faire

7. ArcAttack! The main stage was dominated by a pair of Tesla coils. Via Maker Faire

8. ArcAttack! The coils can be played by one seriously brave dude with an electric guitar. Via Maker Faire

9. ArcAttack! Is all that lightning dangerous? Absolutely. But it's cool, so who cares. Via Maker Faire

10. Animatronics for All This is Roy, an "experiment in lasercut animatronics." Via Maker Faire

11. Digit Grid A bunch of calculator displays and some cleverness results in full motion video. Via Skot9000

12. Intel's Computer Controlled Orchestra Intel and Sisu Devices turn an animated musical instrument into the real thing. Via Maker Faire

13. The Electric Giraffe Project "Rave Raffe" the electric giraffe was created by Lindsay Lawler. Via Maker Faire

14. Weird Puppet Thing It's a weird puppet thing that this guy controls with his fingers. That's all we know.

15. Funhouse Productions A pressure-sensing LED dance floor that you can build at home. Via Maker Faire

16. WALL-E Replica Project These WALL-E replicas are as fully operational as physically possible, and they're more realistic than the WALL-E robots created by Disney. Via Maker Faire

17. 3D Printed Sculptures Impossibly intricate work made possible by the age of the 3D printer. Via Maker Faire

18. The Viper A fully armed and operational simulator based on Battlestar Galactica Vipers, designed and constructed by a team of high school students. Via Maker Faire

19. DIY Magic Mirror An LED array shines through this two-way mirror, and you can control the picture with your smartphone. Via DIY Magic Mirror

20. ArcAttack! In between shows, ArcAttack kept the crowd entertained with much smaller Tesla coils. Via Maker Faire

21. Lunapillar This thing almost ran me over. Most. Humiliating. Way. To. Die. Ever. Via Maker Faire

22. Cochlea Fountain The Flaming Lotus Girls built this fire fountain, which features ambient flames and an interactive propane poofer. Via Maker Faire

23. Robot Petting Zoo MakerBot's 3D printed robots had no escape from hordes of destructive children. Via Maker Faire

24. DeLorean Hovercraft Here it is, in the flesh, the DeLorean Hovercraft. It works, it's awesome, and its designer (Matt Riese) is looking for a job. You should hire him. Via Maker Faire

25. Solar Thermal Popcorn Generator See that flying kernel of popcorn? This automated popper makes the tasty snack using a Fresnel lens to focus sunlight on a little pan with oil in it. POP! Via Maker Faire

26. The Serpent Twins This is one of a pair of mobile, 50 foot long glowing serpent vehicles. Via Maker Faire

27. Soap Bubbles Specialized bubble nets unleash flurries of soap bubbles. Via Maker Faire

28. Soap Bubbles Bubble clouds threatened to block out the sun. Via Maker Faire

29. Soap Bubbles A bubble-themed look at the soap bubble area of Maker Faire. Via Maker Faire

30. Digital Light Art with Bicycles MonkeyLectric's wheel light kits generate animated pictures and trippy abstract art. Via Maker Faire