Jay Silver wants the world to gain what he calls ‘invention literacy’, allowing users to understand the inventions of others and make their own inventions. Silver and his team at Joy Labs are running a Kickstarter campaign for Makey Makey GO, a new device that allows users to invent anything at any time in any place.
Makey Makey GO is a smaller version of the MaKey MaKey project, funded by Silver in 2012. This new version plugs into a standard USB port and connects any object that can conduct electricity to your keyboard. The basic idea is to transform a banana, slide or another person into an input for the computer.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joylabz/makey-makey-go-invent-everywhere-invent-now
Joy Labs exists to promote the idea that everyone is creative, inventive and imaginative. This redesign of their most famous product is meant to proliferate that idea in a small portable size and simple direct utility. They wanted the feel to be more like a kitchen gadget, magnet included, and less like a complicated circuit for construction.
This campaign feels like less of a way to raise necessary funds and more of the best method for the creators to publicize their work and sell their new product. It took 69 minutes yesterday for the team to hit their goal of $10,000 and the funding level is at $40,000+ now with 58 more days to go. The campaign video is more full of examples than hard technical data.
Silver and his team have created several apps for use with the Makey Makey GO and there are several forums dedicated to moving the software forward and celebrating its open source philosophies. The product has always been a great tool for invention (I even wrote my first ENGINEERING.com article about one of Silver’s TED Talks) and this is a great new extension of the idea that everyone is an inventor when presented with the right tools.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joylabz/makey-makey-go-invent-everywhere-invent-now