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Wesley's Weekly HOW TO: Futuristic Eyepiece

POSTED BY Wesley Scoggins, 10 September 2008

 
If you're a kid of the 90's like me, you're probably at least a little bit familar with the show Dragonball Z, along with totally overblown Anime-style fight sequences that would literally go on for days, the series also featured lots of neat gadgetry utilized by the characters. Probably one of the most famous pieces of equipment from the cartoon is the Scouter, an eyepiece computer that would give you a readout of the strength of anyone you were looking at. Well a few of you guys were interested in how to make your own, so I decided to try to figure out how for you.
 
 
 
Well there are two major parts to the build, the earpiece, and the eye screen. For the ear piece, I needed some kind of boxy shape that I could build onto, well I looked around for a while and found a pack of Sticky-Notes that was just about the perfect size, I picked them up for 2 dollars, and removed the front. But before we can continue, we've got to get started on the screen. 
 
 
 
 
 
I got this plastic lid from a food container, but you could easier cut a piece of plastic out of any kind of plastic bubble packaging or anything you can find that has relatively thin, yet hard plastic. (I heard someone suggest using a Compact Flash Card Case for this, because they are tiny plastic flip out cases, just look around and improvise. 
 
 
 
I cut out a piece about the size of my eye, the put a little fold on the edge. Then I mixed up some glossy acrylic varnish with just a tiny dab of green paint (you could use any acrylic color for the lens, just make sure to dilute it with plenty of clear glossy acrylic). 
 
 
 
I used a cheap foam brush to paint it on, try to use nice even strokes in the same direction to reduce any smearing, or uneven coloring. 
 
 
 
Next, I took the back part of a pack of plumbers epoxy I bought, and cut a couple of kind-of-crescent shapes out of the back to act as the bridge between the earpiece and the eye screen.
 
 
 
I then attached them to the front of the earpiece with some epoxy. 
 
 
 
Next, I took a piece of craft wire, and bent it to the contour of my ear, then attached it to the inside of the earpiece with additional plumbers epoxy. 
 
 
 
 Then I cut a rectangle out of the rest of the cardstock backing of the Epoxy container, and attached it to the half-crescents with additional epoxy. 
 
 
 
 
I then attached the eyepiece with some more epoxy, and put a white glossy paintjob on the body of the earpiece. You can stop here if you want, and modify it however you want, or you can continue to make it look even more Anime-ish. 
 

 I then cut up the back of the Sticky Notes packaging into strips. 
 
 
Using Epoxy, I started layering them along the side. 
 
 
 
After attaching them all on the side with the epoxy... 
 
 
 
I then paint them brown, and cut out a hollow square of foam board.. 
 
 
 
And capped off the side of the earpiece with it.
 
 
 
Then I just sealed and smoothed out the edges with a little bit of air-drying clay, and finished the paint job. And there you go, your own futuristic eyecomputer. 

This could easily be modified to look less cartoonish, with some dark silver paint you could make it look more gritty and futuristic for any kind of war sequences, or paint it with some bronze and copper paint (and toss a vacuum tube on top of that baby) and easily have some kind of steam powered eye computer for any kind of air pirate shenanigans.
Anime, eye computer, scanner, scouter, futuristic eyepiece, dragonball, over 9000

Comments

  • dac0705 wrote on September 11, 6:53 am

    1st

  • evmo wrote on September 11, 6:00 pm

    stop that its annoying and no one thinks its cool

  • Nintendo_Fanboy wrote on September 11, 8:03 am

    This build's level is OVER 9000!!!!

  • alffarr wrote on September 11, 9:32 am

    hahaha, I was waiting for that.

  • SeatonStudios wrote on September 11, 2:02 pm

    cool build Wes!

  • astalapitjes wrote on September 11, 3:45 pm

    super awsome,
    ...and still rising!

  • FarleyRoadFilms wrote on September 11, 5:02 pm

    just a question in the part where it talks about the plastic isn't it supposed to be food container not foot

  • AlyS (guest) wrote on September 11, 5:03 pm

    Always anxious to see what you will do. LOVE it :)

  • goombamaki (guest) wrote on September 12, 3:32 pm

    now i can build one of these and run around screaming "IT'S OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!"

  • Leix (guest) wrote on September 12, 4:32 pm

    goombamaki beat me to it, but oh well.
    This project's coolness level is OVER 9000!!!!!!!!

  • radioactivegamer wrote on September 13, 1:39 am

    thank you sooo much Wes, with a little modification it wil work perfectly!

  • craZred wrote on September 13, 1:13 pm

    nice

  • Gwiz wrote on September 13, 4:16 pm

    all you need now is one of those scout armor suits. "it's over 9000!"

  • SpecialEdMafia wrote on September 13, 10:10 pm

    sweet, im a huge fan of dragonball z and i always watnted to learn how to make on of these

  • Kreaden (guest) wrote on September 15, 1:30 am

    Cool. Just a little modification and some cool buttons and it will be sweet.

  • jkp wrote on October 2, 9:10 am

    looks alot like the one from dragonball,
    but awesome.

  • firis (guest) wrote on October 9, 9:37 am

    its not nice to be stupid. IT IS THE ONE FROM DRAGONBALL!