Eddie.com

Tickles the keys and play me a drink

I’m finally plowing through the massive amounts of footage I shot at Roboexotica in Vienna. This cocktail robot, the K&K Kavalier Klavier by students at FH Joanneum in Gratz, is a piano that allows one to “compose a drink”. You’ll notice a bunch of liquors and mixers mounted at the top. They connect to a series of tubes in the back that connect to valves controlled by a microcontroller that magically determines the right mixture of liquids based on the song you play. Here’s Astera making Red a drink with a little Bach piano concerto.

Astera plays a drink on the Kavalier Klavier from ekai on Vimeo.

Geek | Travel | Video

30 ways to die electrically

Bre Pettis posted an amazing photoset of old Austrian illustrations of how one might die by electrocution that he discovered last week while we were checking out the Technisches museum in Vienna.

Also in the energy section of the museum was an interactive model of how to move radioactive objects around. Here’s Bre giving it a whirl.

Bre knows how to handle unstable materials from ekai on Vimeo.

Travel | Video | Weird

Big wheels keep on turnin’

They both begin with an A, but that’s about all Austria and Alabama have in common. Don’t let Austrians and Alabama mix. The results can be quite… wrong, yet somehow still entertaining.

Community | Geek

Soup.io is good for the soul

So I was just turned onto Soup a week ago and in a weird twist of San Francisco-Vienna convergence, Soup is now where Pownce users are going to not die. Soup is like Tumblr but with an easier interface, also it seems to plug into just about every social network or web service out there. Try it, friend me. It’s good for your soul.

Geek | robots | Self Promotion | Travel | Weird

My Roboexotica 2008 post on Laughing Squid

I’ve got a guest post up on Laughing Squid on what I’ve seen at Roboexotica this past week. Includes links to tons of photos and some video. Pop over and have a read.

Travel | Weird

Enter the Wellness Skull

Located in Karlsplatz in Vienna, Austria, this "wellness skull" created by Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout, opens up to reveal a public hot tub & sauna. It’s only open on Saturdays and I missed it, so no inside photos. If anyone has any, I’d love to see inside the cranium.

Travel | Video | Weird

Ride the space elevator

A cool installation by Peter Kogler at the MUMOK in Vienna, Austria. It’s a large square room with a bunch of projectors synced up projecting this. It feels awesome.

Riding the space elevator from ekai on Vimeo.

Community | Geek | robots | Travel

RoboVox speaks your mind

RoboVox stands proudly in front of the Museumsquartier, greeting visitors to Roboexotica. RoboVox is no ordinary 25 foot retro deco happy robot. If you look closely, you’ll notice those two big black circles on his chest are speakers. If you send an SMS text message to +43 681 10679782, RoboVox will speak your message loudly in his best robo-synthesized voice. RoboVox was conceived by prolific Slovenian artist and all around good guy Martin Bricelj, who is also an artist-in-residence here.

Geek

Administering the Voight-Kampff Test to a Spammer

I was minding my own business on Twitter when I noticed a random spam @ reply from an unknown user.

Encouraged by this user’s random drive-by direct spamming behavior, I decided to determine whether the user was a robot or human spammer. Inspired by a similar thing that recently happened to Bre Pettis over IM, I administered the Voight-Kampff Test to find out. Here’s the exchange:

Roboexotica uprising on track

It’s the day before the big opening of the main event here in Vienna, Austria, the 10th annual Roboexotica Festival for Cocktail-Robotics. Lots of preparation action going on in the Freiraum with several of Johannes’ students collaborating on a few delightfully rude drink dispensing bots. I’m happily joined here by many bot friendly pals from the States including Bre Pettis, CTP, Kal Spelletich, Al Honig and Mitch Heinrich to name just a few, all on track with their creations. Here’s some pix to whet your appetite of the madness to come.