At the Flash Forward Conference I stopped by the Making Things booth *again*. Their company makes sensors and motors that connect to your computer through USB and then interfaces with Flash.

Every time they have exhibited, I’ve thought to myself “hey, that looks like a lot of fun, I need to get the starter kit.” I get home though, remember I didn’t ever study electronics, get confused by their unfortunate website, and never end up buying anything. This time though I placed my order with the very friendly person at the booth that talked to me about each of the sensors I was getting. Now I just have to impatiently wait while they catch up after their post-conference bump so I can get my order.

These gadgets can be used to make interesting kiosks and other tangible, “non-virtual” interfaces. It makes me all goose-pimply to think of fun Flash things that can affect from real I-can-reach-out-and-tough-it sensors. I have no idea what I am going to make, but I can tell you now that I am going to get a warm fuzzy feeling inside as I do it. Now let’s just hope that playing with pre-fab sensors and servos does not lead down the path to the total glorious electronics obsession that is Philip Torrone.

Seriously, he is amazing, but I really don’t need that much clutter in my house and I don’t think my cats would really like the competition from a flock of Aibos.