Thank you Toronto Maker Faire!

The Mini Maker Faire Toronto was a smashing success! We’d like to extend our gratitude and congratulations to the organizers and volunteers who managed the event very smoothly. It was a perfect testing ground for all of our exhibits. We had a great time, and judging from the audience’s reactions, we think they did too.

Some more photos are on our Flickr feed.

We brought four prototype exhibits we’ve been working on for the Calgary Science Centre: Light Rope Walker, Magnetic Generator, Solar Panel Music, and Paint with Music. Dana, our exhibit designer from the science centre also joined us from Calgary and helped out at the event. After the end of the two days, we’re proud to report that nothing broke! (a big, giant YAY!) The Mini Maker Faire was a great way to get people’s feedback, observe their interaction with the pieces, test the robustness of our softwares, and learn some lessons about on-site, out-of-studio set up. All in all, it was a great experience for us, and we’re very happy to have received such positive responses.

Here are some videos:

Light Rope Walker

A solar panel robot that keeps traveling along a rope as long as the visitors help him out with some lights. Yes, it is actually generating its energy from the light!

Magnetic Generator

This hand-crank flywheel is a two-in-one device: a magnetic generator and a persistence of vision LED display. As the viewer cranks up the wheel, electricity is generated to power the LEDs which are programmed to blink and display a pattern.

Also check out our Magnetic Generator page for a detailed info of how a magnet generator works!

Solar Panel Music

Make music by shining lights on each solar panel.

Paint with Music

Paint with Piano! This was the star of the booth, receiving almost non-stop traffic throughout the entire event.

’til next time!