These Glorious DIY Wolverine Claws Automatically Extend When You Flex

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Remember those absolutely insane Wolverine claws from last year? The ones that were preeeetty much guaranteed to take someone’s eye out?

The latest take on the ever-evolving DIY Wolverine Claw concept (sadly?) makes the whole thing a bit less absurdly dangerous, but brings an awesome twist into the mix: flex your arms, and the claws auto extend.

So, how do the claws know when you’re flexin’?

They were actually built as a demonstration of a sensor called the MyoWare, which is currently in the middle of an already-successful Kickstarter campaign.

Strap a few pads to your arm and flex. As you do so, the MyoWare detects whether or not you’re flexing (or even how hard you’re flexing) through electromyography. It converts your flex into a digital signal, then fires that off to an Arduino for whatever commands you might have wired up. In this case: Arm flexed? FIRE THE CLAWS!

Interested in building your own? The company behind MyoWare (Advancer Technologies) plans to release a tutorial in a few weeks, though they’re committing to releasing it immediately if their Kickstarter surpasses $20k. It’s currently sitting at just under $16k, so that goal seems pretty feasible.

Update: Strike that! Looks like they’ve released the full tutorial on Makezine. Get to building!

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