Dedicated to Jim Ruxton - maybe we will make some together
Here is a look primarily at digital gadgets. A number of Dan Zen features are hard to categorize any other way!MOT (2013) ▲ Multiple Organ Tester. Dan Zen gave this physical gadget to Jim Ruxton when he moved into Hamilton. Two people look in each end and see one another's eye. Except it the ends are mirrored so you are seeing your own eye. If you put a finger in the side and press the plunger, it looks like something would hit from the top but it swings around and gets you from the bottom. And if you blow in the other side, your breath goes through a tube and out the same side from a passage behind the Dan Zen logo to hit you in your ear. Press the picture for a larger view.
Trippy (2013) ▲ Trippy is an augmented reality app that applies effects to your cam as you look through it. These days we have Google cardboard but Zen was wearing his Trippy helmet made from a cardboard box velcroed to a bike helmet before Cardboard came out. It is Zen's philosophy to let people make their own things. This took less than an hour to make and cost pretty well nothing compared to virtual reality helmets in the nineties that were a couple hundred thousand dollars. Of course it uses a mobile device which was the bulk of the price in the past. TRY TRIPPY
Hangy (2012) ▲ Hangy lets you wear your mobile devices or tablets as a mobidallion. The Hangy software allows you to express yourself with a variety of pictures, phrases, emoticons, etc. TRY HANGYWavy (2011) ▲ Wavy is a Theremin-like sound instrument that makes pitch changes as you wave it around. Until there are more sounds available, it is rather annoying! Good for grade sevens bugging each other. An early tilt / accelerometer app. TRY WAVY
Physical Creations ▲ There are a few physical gadgets shown in the Physical Creations Exhibit as the rest of this exhibit is digital. GET PHYSICAL
Kirputnik Cam (2002) ▲ The Kirputnik Cam is a Flash interface into the world of Dan Zen inventions. It presents the digital creations as physical in a sketched laboratory through which the cam is guided by the robot Webmaster, Kirputnik. The trip is rather bumpy and Kirputnik runs out of power a lot. Kind of a fun, drone-like feel to the app. VISIT KIRPUTNIKMuseum Explore (2012) ▲ The Museum Explore section has a Gadgets button that will use the Kirputnik Conveyor to bring up the various Dan Zen gadgets which are listed below in this exhibit. There are info links which will tell you more about the creations. The Museum also has Tours that discuss both physical and mechanical gadgets, the creative process and the biographical influences on Zen's gadget creations. VISIT EXPLORE
Opartica (2001) ▲ Opartica is an online op art making tool and as such is part of the Dan Zen Tool Exhibit which may have other gadgets. Opartica has two versions - an early one with limited shapes (pictured above) and a later one called Opartica Tunnel that lets you fly through a variety of shapes with all sorts of settings in 3D! VISIT OPARTICATilator (2004) ▲ Tilator is a short series of Flash apps where you tile different images. It started off as geometric shapes but then went to little themed drawings. A new version has been planned for some time but Opartica Tunnel came along and allows for tiling as well. VISIT TILATORDarth Detector (2004) ▲ The Darth Detector detects how close Darth Vader is to the Website address you type in. This is a self modifying app where [SPOILER] where the more your URL is entered, the closer Darth Vader is - a commentary on the corruption of popularity ;-). VISIT DETECTORInfiZoom (2004) ▲ This prototype Flash app allowed viewers to constantly zoom in on pictures while moving your mouse to aim. Find the location on the picture where you see another picture and keep zooming! Hold the shift key to zoom out. VISIT INFIZOOM
Spirogram (1998) ▲ This Director / HTML app allowed you to send spiral encoded messages and decode them as long as you knew the keyword. 30,000 messages have been sent with Spirogram over the last twenty years or so. TRY SPIROGRAMTeleporters (1996) ▲ Rollover technology! This was very early rollover technology made in Director where you would rollover a Teleporter and it would take you to a site right away. Zen recreated the experience in JavaScript when that became popular in the 2000s. Zen imagined these little things on sites all over where you would have to avoid them if you wanted to stay on the site! Still a potential future. VISIT TELEPORTERSGrim Reaper's Age Guesser (1996) ▲ The Grim Reaper's Age Guesser uses adaptive AI to guess ages of participants. Over 10,000 people have had their age guessed and the Grim Reaper guessed 5% correctly, 35% within three years and over half within 5 years. One of the earliest Dan Zen features, it made it to a TV review show and was the most popular search result for Grim Reaper in Google for years! VISIT GRIM REAPERWord Warp (1996) ▲ The very first Dan Zen creation (aside from Moustache Mysteries which were delayed in launch as deals were worked out). Word Warp is an anagram making took where you drag around tiles to make words from words! Looking a little dated now primarily because these features were 16 colors. VISIT WORDWARP
A long trip through twenty years of online gadgets. There are also gadgets in the Sketches Exhibits SKETCHES 1, SKETCHES 2, SKETCHES 3. Enjoy and make some gadgets yourself!
Gadgets
