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Games

Turn Absolutely Anything In The World Into A Button With MaKey MaKey

MIT Media Lab comes out with a simple item with immense possibilities for application.

MIT Media Lab continually yields creations that will one day make our lives easier, better, and more fun. A new development that just passed its Kickstarter funding mark, MaKey MaKey, clearly lands in the “more fun” category.

MaKey MaKey is a board laden with a number of ports that connect directly to your computer. Connect just about any item to one of these ports using an alligator clip, and you’ve created a button. For example, you can make arrows out of little gobs of clay, connect each to the directional controls on your MaKey MaKey, connect the device to your computer, and boom!—you’re executing controls on your computer using little arrow-shaped gobs of clay.

The applications of MaKey MaKey are pretty much endless, and the best part is that it requires absolutely no programming or circuitry know-how. You can create your own interactive installation, turning anything at all into an input device with just your computer, a MaKey MaKey, a few wires, and whatever you can come up with for a control surface. If you’re a novice and dabbling in circuitry with a MaKey MaKey sparks your interest, you can use it as an Arduino as well. Or forget that, let’s just keep turning Jelly Beans into Super Mario Bros controllers.

Check out MaKey MaKey on Kickstarter.

@ImYourKid