AI-Powered Eyewear, Russian Raspberry Pi Rivals, CNC Hacks, and Satellites: The Maker Revolution Just Cranked to Eleven
If you thought the future was coming for your job, your face, and your favorite gadgets, buckle up—because this week, it’s coming for all three at once.
Let’s start with the sizzle: Google just gave its AI video engine, Veo 3, the power to generate not just stunning visuals but real, lip-synced dialogue and ambient sound. No more silent movies from the bots—these clips talk, breathe, and pretty much dare you to tell them apart from Hollywood’s best. Paired with Imagen 4 for hyper-detailed images and Lyria 2 for music, Google’s Flow suite is basically a creative death ray for anyone still paying for stock footage. If you can type it, AI can now make it—audio and all—with a price tag that’ll make your accountant sweat and your inner Spielberg roar[1].
But here’s the kicker: all this multimodal AI goodness isn’t happening in a vacuum. Google wants you to wear it—literally. Enter Project Aura, a new AR glasses project cooked up with Xreal, designed to slap Android XR right onto your face. These aren’t your dad’s chunky VR goggles. We’re talking glasses light enough for daily wear, with a Qualcomm brain in your pocket and a future so seamless, the only thing missing is a heads-up reminder to blink. Google’s not just chasing Apple and Meta in the AR arms race—they’re using their AI arsenal to fill these specs with content that’s smarter, richer, and more interactive than anything Meta’s Orion or Apple’s Vision Pro can muster. And with a price point that could embarrass the competition, Google and Xreal are betting the next computing revolution will be both wearable and affordable[2].
If you’re the kind of maker who loves tweaking hardware, don’t think AI or AR is going to leave you out in the cold. CNC machinists just got a fresh hack for plasma cutters: a clever add-on to turn dirt-cheap HF-start models into CNC-ready pilot arc beasts. No need to shell out for pricey pilot arc machines—just a toroidal current sensor, a relay, and some old-school ingenuity, and suddenly your plasma table is cutting like a pro. It’s a classic case of hackers leveling the playing field, proving once again that with a soldering iron and a plan, you don’t need Silicon Valley’s blessing to build something brilliant[3].
Speaking of building from scratch, Russia’s ELTAY SC single-board computer is storming the market as a homegrown answer to the Raspberry Pi. Made in Novosibirsk and powered by the “Scythian” SoC, it’s got all the bells and whistles: quad-core ARM, 4K video, USB 3.0, and enough GPIO to power your next robotics project. Sure, the docs are all in Russian, but for local engineers, it’s a lifeline in a world of sanctions and supply chain chaos. The ELTAY SC is proof that innovation doesn’t stop for geopolitics—it just finds new circuits[4].
And while we’re talking about global ambitions, Amazon just lobbed 27 new satellites into orbit, starting the real rollout of Project Kuiper. The goal? Blanket the planet in broadband, taking on SpaceX’s Starlink in a cosmic bandwidth brawl. These satellites are smarter, stealthier (thanks to a special sunlight-scattering film), and built for mass production. For makers dreaming of remote IoT projects or just craving reliable internet off the grid, Kuiper’s constellation could be your new best friend—assuming the sky doesn’t get too crowded first[5].
So whether you’re hacking plasma cutters, building your own Pi alternatives, waiting for affordable AR, or just hoping your next AI-generated video has sound, one thing’s for sure: the future is being built, worn, and launched—right now.
1. https://winbuzzer.com/2025/05/21/googles-new-veo-3-model-adds-sound-to-ai-video-generation-imagen-4-image-model-enhances-stills-xcxwbn/
2. https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/05/21/google-xreal-debut-aura-ar-glasses-to-rival-meta/
3. https://hackaday.com/2023/09/30/simple-add-on-makes-cheap-plasma-cutter-suitable-for-cnc-use/
4. https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/05/21/eltay-sc-sbc-russian-alternative-raspberry-pi-elvees-skif-scythian-soc/
5. https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/amazon-launches-27-satellites-to-begin-building-huge-project-kuiper-internet-constellation