Fallout's Pip-Boy 3000 Gets Functioning Version With Geiger Counter

StewShearerOld

Geekdad News Writer
Jan 5, 2013
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Fallout's Pip-Boy 3000 Gets Functioning Version With Geiger Counter

[Vimeo=92454819]

A team of designers has created a functioning Pip-Boy 3000 as an entry for a NASA Space App Challenge.

Despite the fact that they take place in a literal nuclear wasteland, the Fallout games aren't lacking for cool stuff that we'd very much like to have and play with in the real world. Chief among these, of course, is the Pip-Boy. With you pretty much from the word go, the Pip-Boy serves as your wrist-mounted guide to pretty much everything involving yourself in-game. It's a device that's understandably earned itself a lot of fans who, in turn, have spawned some <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110420-This-Nifty-Pip-Boy-3000-Replica-Will-Save-Your-Life-in-the-Wasteland>nifty replicas over the years. That said, while many have looked the part, most have been a step or two shy from delivering the real deal.

Enter NASA Space Apps Challenge centered on creating wearable tech for astronauts. Unlike previous Pip-Boy replicas, the group's iteration features several custom programs and gadgets to help it function as an actual useful tool.

The team's Pip-Boy feature's real-time mapping, a working Geiger counter and other environmental sensors that the wearer can use to quickly learn information about their body and their surroundings to determine their well-being and the condition and safety of their environment. The Pip-Boy is furthermore able to transmit all of its collected data to a Web HQ so it can be viewed by others at separate locations. The team intends to update the current model so personnel using the Web HQ can send the wearer messages that can be responded to with simple touch screen responses. The Pip-Boy casing itself was created from a 3D printed model <a href=http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:109716>available here.

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Now, of course, when you get down to it, unless you actually were an astronaut with an understandable need to keep your hands free, this custom Pip-Boy probably wouldn't be necessary. Most of us don't need a Geiger counter and Google Maps generally hits the spot when it comes to getting people from point-A to point-B. That said, after seeing such a full realization of the gadget, it's hard not to want one. Arguments of impracticality only go so far when they're up against something so cool.

Source: Space Apps Challenge

[http://pv.webbyawards.com/2014/web/general-website/games-related]

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Zontar

Mad Max 2019
Feb 18, 2013
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This is something that I can see why it took so long to create, but also in hindsight seems like it should have been done some time ago given the genius of the idea.

Now if only I had my hands on a 3D printer....
 

Voulan

New member
Jul 18, 2011
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Well, I'd buy one. The best version I've seen before this was one with an iPhone taped inside the plastic casing. At least it was interactable.

I love that they've still got a level display on this one. How exactly does the Pipboy read XP gain? Can you actually level up?
 

Lazy Kitty

Evil
May 1, 2009
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This looks useful for people who keep dropping their phones, forgetting it's not a Nokia 3310.
 

Easton Dark

New member
Jan 2, 2011
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Voulan said:
Well, I'd buy one. The best version I've seen before this was one with an iPhone taped inside the plastic casing. At least it was interactable.
That's basically what a pipboy is though, right? Just a touch screen encased in plastic with only a few functions. It's creating the authentic looking pipboy programs that'd take awhile.
 

Mr. Q

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Apr 30, 2013
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Science and video games, working side-by-side. =) It looks amazing and way more functional than the average "iPhone taped to a Pip Boy mock-up". I would love to see it used in the space program.
 

tangoprime

Renegade Interrupt
May 5, 2011
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I just want it for the awesome green scale google maps layer that the app uses.