News from the Odd Side of Technology
A physical build recreates the post-capture motion of the ball from Pokémon Legends: Arceus, actually jumping and releasing smoke. The ball also includes automatic opening and closing.
Kiara's Workshop built the working replica of the game's older-style Poké Ball. Hackaday's article also includes the creator's build video.
Details： Hackaday ↗ · Open video or post ↗
A soft robot has been developed that, under infrared light, twists to store energy, kicks itself off the surface, lands and resets its shape on its own. The NC State University design uses a teardrop-shaped liquid crystal elastomer.
As long as the light continues, it repeats a cycle resembling charge → jump → reset. Adjusting the tail angle changes whether it crawls, jumps forward or hops nearly straight upward.
The energy cycle is beautifully engineered, while the result looks like a mysterious desk object that occasionally remembers to jump. Hard not to watch.
Details： NC State University ↗ · Open video or post ↗
A split-second game animation—hop, puff of smoke—becomes a real mechanical engineering problem when you insist that the prop actually do it. Screen logic gets expensive in the physical world.