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Maker Faire New York 2013 photo essay
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The first Maker Faire was held in 2006 with more than 100 exhibitors. This year's New York event has over 650, and it's expected to draw some 70,000 guests.
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An open source, Arduino-powered Aeroquad drone takes to the skies. It's equipped with with a GoPro camera to record views from above.
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True to its name, Maker Faire feels like a science fair on a massive scale. Here, exhibitors show off creations inside the New York Hall of Science, which hosted the event.
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'Scale' presents visitors with the mangled remains of discarded electronics. It only activates once someone steps on a scale in front of the exhibit, highlighting the tension one feels when stepping on a scale in public with the ease at which people toss away old items, as the project's Leo Kang explained.
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3D printing was a major draw at Maker Faire again this year, with dozens of exhibitors in the 3D Printer Village. A student designed the 3DPrintMi, above, with the goal of using as many 3D-printed parts as possible to construct a printer for little more than $500.
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MakerBot is hoping to sell tens of thousands of its $1,400 Digitizer scanner, which uses lasers and a turntable to create templates for later 3D printing.
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Fred Kahl stands on the Scan-A-Rama, a body scanner he uses to create 3D printed figurines of people. He normally sells these 3D portraits on Coney Island for $60 a person.
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Those who have some familiarity with the Maker movement know that soldering is a key skill. Free lessons at the Radio Shack booth were a popular activity for kids.
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The final round of the Power Racing Series — which tasks teams to modify kids' power wheel cars into electric racers for under $500 — is held at the fair. A team called Ithaca Generator created The Dragon, above, which wasn't the quickest of the bunch, but it has mean looks.
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This fearsome machine, called the Flame Weeder, was made by farmers that are part of a national group called Farm Hack, which promotes clever farm tricks. As the name suggests the part-bike is equipped with a flame thrower to kill weeds.
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This drone is another Farm Hack project. Farmers use the camera-equipped plane to monitor crop growth. It flies 1,000 feet high and has a 30-minute range.
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Hasbro's Mousetrap board game was brought to life at Maker Faire. This 50,000 pound Rube Goldberg machine took 13 years to build and crews work for five days to assemble the contraption at each location.
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At Microsoft's tent, a Kinect sensor picked up two competing children's punches which were used to control life-size Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots.
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Texas Instruments showed off its Arduino competitor at Maker Faire. The LaunchPad microcontrollers are available with a series of "Booster Packs," like LEDs, a thermometer, or a capacitive touch sensor.
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Google+ made an appearance at the fair, though the DIY connection was weak: pitch in by writing reviews for local businesses and get free goodies like sunglasses and USB thumb drives.
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Major sponsors are joining in the Maker community. Disney is the primary partner for the entire fair, but Radio Shack, Kix, Microsoft, Time Warner Cable, Ford, Chobani, and others all had a presence. Coca-Cola Zero is even being used for EepyBird's famous Coke and Mentos show.
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Maker Faire is hosted at the New York Hall of Science, but most exhibitors are spread out over part of Flushing Meadows Park, the site of the 1964 World's Fair.
