Rogue Inventor Saul Griffith Is Radicalizing R&D — With Inflatable Arms

Wmw-Inventor-1-Large

Rogue Inventor Saul Griffith Is Radicalizing R&D — With Inflatable Arms | Wired Design | Wired.com.

As an inventor of large, innovative devices, it only makes sense that Saul Griffith also has a resolution to create a new sport every year. They’re not just any sports, either; he’s most interested in sports that use technology in new ways. Also, most of them can kill you.

That’s how he found himself trapped under water, his foot strapped to a kitesurf board, with a friend dangling from a kite dozens of feet above him. The idea was to use the force between a kitesurfer and his kite to hoist a partner, like a parasailer. But then the nose of the board caught the water.

“The board, when it was put under tension under water, dove down into the bottom of the ocean, and got stuck in the sand,” says Eric Wilhelm, who was recording the event. “So [Saul’s] got the board stuck in the sand, tied to him, and then he’s tied to Tim [Anderson], who’s up in the air.”

Griffith couldn’t cut himself loose, because the tension was what kept Anderson from plummeting into the surf.

That story may not make Griffith — a MacArthur “genius” Fellow and co-founder, with Wilhelm, of Instructables — sound like your prototypical maker. But it’s his creative spirit bleeding over from his day job running Otherlab, an independent research and development company in San Francisco.

Saul has gone rogue.


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



1 Comment

  1. If you want to learn more about the arms… I wrote about them extensively on Hizook.com a while back:

    http://www.hizook.com/blog/2011/11/21/inflatable-robots-otherlab-walking-robot-named-ant-roach-and-complete-arm-plus-hand

    Cheers!

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.