Robots, Diaper Monitors and Putin: What We Saw at Maker Faire Shenzhen 2015
Now in its fourth year, the Maker Faire Shenzhen was bigger than ever. Aside from ever-larger booths and robot sculptures (see above), there was also a much larger corporate presence from sponsors, and, given Premier Li Keiqiang’s recent interest in “maker culture,” probably a great leap in government support. In short, Maker Faire Shenzhen has grown up.
As with Maker Faires in the past, we had multiple booths selling various:
- 3D printers
- Drones
- Modified Arduino boards
- Things with LEDs on them
There was, as expected, an uptick in drones, and probably a slight decrease in 3D printers (though still a lot). But, since none of us are experts on 3D printers/drones/arduino/LEDs, what interested us were the inventions at the margins.
Highlights from Maker Faire SZ
The most original and Chinese booth was undoubtedly 老李的创作坊 (“Old Li’s Creative Corner”), which debuted their LED Abacus Clock. It’s a digital clock that displays digits as beads on an LED abacus (bottom left of photo):
Conversely, the most absurdist display was from a 3D printing booth that managed to fit the Incredible Hulk, Vladmir Putin and the QQ penguin all in one glass box:
People really liked this robotic hand demonstration – hand on the right mirrors what the hand on the left does:
Looking Glass had a really neat display set up of their L3D cube (full disclosure: I’m friends with one of their founders):
This diaper/baby monitor was also a hit, despite some seriously scary-looking baby mannequins:
This mysterious “sports toy” booth did so well they sold out and closed shop:
We also stumbled upon a poster for a group for women in tech:
We learned that there is now a Chinese Uber for… calling in people to bathe your dogs:
Last but not least, our very own, Lyn Jeffery, gave a talk about a rosy future for Shenzhen in 2025 as a learning rather than maker city, as automation eats away at the jobs of today:
