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Star Wars Stormtrooper Bluetooth Speaker Lets You Rock Your Tiny Corner of the Death Star

stroop1Star Wars fans can get their geek audio on via the Force with this small, yet powerful Bluetooth speaker that takes the form of a Stormtrooper’s head mask. The 5-watt speaker has a chargeable lithium battery inside and comes with a USB charging cord.

The trooper comes with an indicator light as well.

The Ewoks on Endor are still harvesting the masks off the defeated stormtroopers – but they are due for release by October – just in time for Chanukah and Christmas gifts for your favorite fanboy or fangirl.

He may be a little short for a Stormtrooper, but he makes it easy to listen to your tunes or podcasts with far more umph than the speakers built-in to your smartphone.

You can pre-order these babies from The Fowndry. You can follow The Fowndry on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and Tumblr.

The Star Trek Tractor Beam is Here. Kinda. Sorta.

tbeamRight when Obi-Wan Kenobi stated, “that’s no moon. It’s a space station!,” Han Solo decided to reverse engines, but it was too late. The Death Star already had the Millennium Falcon in its tractor beam. Whether it’s Star Wars, Star Trek, or name your favorite sci-fi – if it’s got space in it, it’s got a tractor beam thingy somewhere.

Scientists Yoichi Ochiai, Takayuki Hoshi, and Jun Rekimoto, from the University of Tokyo and Nagoya Institute of Technology have figured out how to levitate and even move (albeit very tiny, tiny) objects in 3-dimensional space. The size of the wee object being levitated and moved is determined by the size of the sound wave being used. So… will it hold the Enterprise at bay? Not unless it’s being flown by Ant Man… but then again, not in space at all. Sound requires an atmosphere – so no atmosphere means said tractor beam is earth bound until they figure out how to do this another way. Just remember – every historic journey begins with one small step.

The video below shows the items (including an LED light and a resistor among other objects). If you’re a font snob like me, however, you may need a barf bag handy – there is heavy use of Comic Sans (shudder). At least the instrumental is pretty. 🙂

You can read more about this from the University of Cornell’s Library website – but you will definitely need to be wearing your pocket protectors to read it. 🙂