If you're in need of a few brownie points at home – er, or just can't get down to the beach this weekend? – the Wii Balance Board/Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner mod could be your solution.
Using said Balance Board, hacker "Ron" Tajimahas found a way to control the circular vacuum through physical movements on the board. What a hero. No matter that the vacuum capabilities of the Roomba are frankly laughable, and probably won't leave your floor much cleaner: it's the thought that counts, right?
Race across Azeroth
If you've played World of Warcraft recently, you'll know there's a lot of running involved. For some reason, the chaps over at Mana Energy Potion decided to investigate what it might be like to run the same distance in real life as their avatars this week.
So they hooked up treadmills to their PCs, donned wigs (naturally), and embarked on their chosen route. Suffice to say, it soon transpired that pressing 'w' is not the same as actually running…
Gadget therapy
Bored of standard fog machines? Why not try your hand at the Smoke Turret: a 5-foot tall, 6-barrelled monster of a smoke machine – perfect for the imminent Halloween season.
Able to blast out smoke for an impressive 15-metres, it even has strobe lights concealed in the gun sight. It's not cheap, mind, at a wallet-wringing $2,400.
Speaking of oversized tech, this week also brought Martin Montesano's giant 'Walking Beast', a 6-ton walking robot spider.
It took Montesano three years and a tidy $50,000 to realise his vision. The 23-foot long arachnid can carry a number of passengers. Don't be expecting a rollercoaster ride though, the Beast maxes out at around 5mph. Although each step does shake the ground up to 500 metres away…
We also liked Vivien Muller's photosynthesis Solar Tree concept. With 54 mini photovoltaic panels posing as leaves, the idea is that you plug your gadgets in and let them soak up some sun-energy. It's better than a plant; you don't even have to water it. Ideal.
And finally…
Star Wars Landspeeder, anyone? This full-sized fibreglass replica landspeeder was built from the ground up by Daniel Deutsch, and boasts a periscope, smoke machine (sadly not the Turret) and DLP video projector.
Not to be outdone, Tuesday saw an 1989 Batmobile up for grabs on eBay. Allegedly one of the five Batmobiles made for the original Michael Keaton film, the starting price was pegged at a whopping $100,000. Unsurprisingly, the reserve wasn't met…
