DIY Bullet Time, Calling Business Cards and Build Your Own Laser Cutter

by Brady Forrest | @brady | Comment | 6 February 2008

Instructables (Disclosure: an OATV investment) held a contest for a laser cutter and announced the winner on Monday. Graffiti Research Lab handily won with a DIY Bullet Time camera system (ala the Matrix). They built the system with 24 digital cameras (all with a remote cable release shutter cable), compact light stands and wood and steel structure. Instead of renting a bullet-time camera system for $100,000 they built one for $8,000 in two days. I've included some samples of the DIY Bullet Time System after the jump.

You can see a list of the other contestants on Instructables. Here are some of my personal favorites:

Under Fifty Dollar Laser Cutter
I would love to have my own laser cutter. Sounds like it could be a good substitute. Here's the materials list:

This project demonstrates a simple hack to create a large format laser cutter utilizing all the scrap electronics you may have lying around. If you have a broken scanner or two, the cost can be just about 30 dollars for the entire project.

Extreme Business Cards
These cards have a chip in them and will dial your phone number into a waiting phone (using DTMF tones). I really like the concept though I would not want to be the person behind that much waste.

The MadyLight
A very cool lamp that uses an LED color changing light bulb to make a very cool looking TRON-style lamp.

Sprial Data Tato
This is very cool origami CD-holder. As they describe it:

The Spiral Data Tato is an origami CD or DVD case of the origata or tsutsumi ilk, that is, a complicated presentation model, intended as a gift for an honored recipient. Tato is a Japanese word that means purse or wallet.
The Spiral Data Tato opens and closes, using a charming innovation we like to call The Origami Zipper. It is available in American letter paper and in A4 versions and I have made some .DOC files (editable in MS Word or in OO Writer), in case you want to make a mix CD or display the contents of the disk on the outside of the model.

As promised here's a looping image that shows the GRL DIY Bullet Time system in action:

grl diy bullet time