Meet Melvin: The Socially Connected Travelling Rube Goldberg Machine

newstech

3 May

We all love seeing a Rube Goldberg inventions, with a simple task being executed in the most unnecessarily complex of ways. While it's quite fair to say this form of entertainment is rather timeless, nobody has really brought the formula into the 21st Century.

With that in mind, this is where we introduce Melvin the Mini Machine: a Rube Goldberg machine that also connects with social media.

This extremely portable contraption (fits into two suitcases) has the simple tasks of writing a message on a postcard via a rubber stamp, and attaching a postage stamp ready for delivery. Though the 38 step process including but not limited to an alarm clock, a pipe, and balls of various sizes, makes the task anything but a doddle.

To match the portability of this machine, Melvin needs to keep connected to the world and hence, it has a smartphone. A HTC Desire to be precise, with a custom-built app that captures photos of Melvin's travels, Geotags them and uploads them to Facebook and Twitter. So far he's not made it that far in Europe; but this is the start of Rube Goldberg's inventionist vision being combined with a social internet (a combination none of us expected to see).

Rather nifty.