Introducing: My Brother

This seems like a very good time to introduce ye who may be reading this to my brother, Derek, because he will be appearing in the news locally and online today and on radio stations this week.  And not for horrible crimes or anything, either.  For those of you who don't know, my brother is a robotics expert (as in worked on U.S. Defense Department tentacled robots, seriously cool stuff) with a special interest in animatronics who started his own company called GOLEM WORKSHOP, to which I have contributed some work.  Anyway, he's getting some local news exposure this week that is pretty cool.

(edit: you can see his interview, with some cool footage including the big monster above, here)

This is called the Crackerneck, which you may have seen over in my 'Portfolio of Fun' section.

Crackerneck concepts above, and the finished lil' dude below.

The crackerneck operates as either a hand puppet or with the Pup-Bot, which is essentially a 3 fingered robotic device that can operate inside the effect to make the puppet seemingly operate on it's own, either moving in pre-recorded patterns or being puppeteered in real time by remote control.

Hand Command

 Above is a rendering (I don't have a physical example) of the the remote control he invented, called the hand command.  The 3 shapes on top are finger harnesses, so your finger movements can be recognized and recreated by the pup-bot or any robots, even large ones like what is in the big mamma-jamma below.

The Brute Golem, a.k.a. 'Arkus', work in progress.  expression kind of reminds me of the Gorilla Armorvor head... Notice I designed the eyes so they seem to follow the viewer, which I thought was necessary so he would always seem to be roaring at you and not past you.  Eye contact is skeerrrry.

                   

Undoubtedly, the biggest project I did with Dirkle was the Brute Golem, I was shocked to see that although the Crackerneck is in my portfolio section, I had apparently failed to put any images of the Brute Golem there.

The Brute Golem could be used for lots of purposes, even as a costume, but was primarily intended for haunted attractions.

This morning, Wednesday, he can be seen by people in the Kansas City area on KSHB 41.  For those of you who don't live around town (I figure most people who read my blog don't) he can be seen online by going here.

If you live in the Kansas City area, you can also hear him in the morning, probably around 9:00 or later Thursday on 94.9 FM (KCMO) and 9:00 or later Friday on 710 AM (KCMO) and 980 AM (KMBZ).  It sounds like there isn't really a definite time, unfortunately.

You can get more info and follow his tweets at twitter.com/derekscherer

The finished 'Brute Golem', about six feet tall in a severe crouch and maybe 8  if it were to stand straight up.  Derek designed it so it could be controlled in real time, 'on the fly', with a futuristic hand interface called the 'hand command'.  This way it could either perform live movements or pre-recorded routines in haunted house attractions and similar situations.

Also, not to ignore the Glyos universe, I will show a new head that Marty will be molding soon for you Armorvor collectors, so check back soon!  There is a hint hidden somewhere on this page, but it is pretty cryptic.

In the future, I may divide up my blog into sections that are related to Glyos and the Armorvor, Personal sculpture, GOLEM related projects, etc.  What do you think?  Good idea?