Mark Rober with the Case for His Glitter Bomb. It Contains a Rotating Container to Throw the Glitter and Space for Hidden Cameras to Capture Reactions
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Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article-pdf/141/04/42/6385320/me-2019-apr3.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 Mark Rober with the case for his glitter bomb. It contains a rotating container to throw the glitter and space for hidden cameras to capture reactions. Photos: Courtesy of Mark Rober 0419_MEM_FEA_Glitter Bomb.indd 42 3/6/19 1:45 PM MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | APRIL 2019 | P.43 GLITTER BOMBS Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article-pdf/141/04/42/6385320/me-2019-apr3.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 AREN’T ROCKET SCIENCE Ex-NASA engineer Mark Rober’s glitter bomb blasts onto the internet. BY CAROL LAWRENCE ark Rober was fed up. Packages delivered to his one of the anchormen. In roughly one month, his subscribers Northern California home began disappearing from skyrocketed by nearly one-third, to six million. M his doorstep. So, the mechanical engineer with a “That’s the cool thing about being a mechanical engineer,” mischievous sense of humor exacted what he called “engi- Rober said. “If you have an idea, unlike most of the people in neering revenge.” the population, you have a much better opportunity to build He built a “glitter bomb”—a booby-trapped fake package— something physical that achieves a task.” and left it on his doorstep for thieves to steal. When the un- The glitter bomb certainly did that, surprising and sham- suspecting criminal opened the package, it smothered them ing local package thieves. Yet it is only the latest success for with a pound of glitter and lots of foul-smelling spray. The Rober. Over the past seven years, he has parlayed his pen- glitter bomb also housed four hidden smartphones, which chant for complex and zany devices—and slick videos that tracked the package via GPS—and recorded the thieves’ explain how they work—into a career as a celebrity YouTube reactions getting pranked. personality. But Rober didn’t keep their humiliation to himself. He has It was a surprising turnabout for an engineer who had a talent for making cool videos and a highly popular You- spent years equipping Curiosity rover for Mars. Tube channel, so he shared it with the world. The result was a video titled “Package Thief vs. Glitter FUNDAMENTALS Bomb Trap.” Footage from security cameras showed thieves, The 39-year-old California native’s love of mechanical en- sometimes wearing backpacks, grabbing the package; gineering started with high school physics, where he learned smartphones’ video caught their reactions when the bomb nature was predictable, understandable, and explainable exploded after opening. through mathematical equations. He loved physics so much, Rober posted it on YouTube in mid-December. Within he still dreams of returning to it as a teacher. one day, it garnered nearly 12 million views. By late January, Instead, Rober pursued mechanical engineering because nearly 54 million people had seen it. It also aired on CBS Los of the way it embodied those natural laws: “I just feel that Angeles’s evening news, thanks to a family member who is what you see is what you get,” he said. “You can actually see 0419_MEM_FEA_Glitter Bomb.indd 43 3/6/19 1:45 PM Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article-pdf/141/04/42/6385320/me-2019-apr3.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 1 2 1. To make a glitter bomb, Rober 3-D printed a frame that held hidden cameras, a can of spray, and motors to spin a cup of glitter. 2. The electronics turned on four smartphones to track the device by GPS and capture photos of the attackers. the equations in action as physical things you can touch.” The success of the video also led him to launch in 2012 his He earned an undergraduate mechanical engineering technology-based costume company Digital Dudz. First- degree at Brigham Young University and joined NASA’s Jet month sales reached $250,000, Rober said. After a year, Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in 2004. While Rober sold Digital Dudz to the British costume company, there, he earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering Morphsuits, and became a creative designer. from the University of Southern California. Two years later, he took an R&D job with a Silicon Valley JPL’s creative environment ignited his own creativity, technology company as a new products creator/designer. Rober said. His job was designing mechanical parts and (The identity of the company is confidential.) instruments on CAD systems and testing them for projects Rober’s personal inventions are typically mechanically such as the Curiosity rover. complex—a dartboard that moves to catch or avoid a player’s But it was rats—dead rats, specifically—that prompted one darts (which took three years to build); a rock-skipping ro- of Rober’s first inventions. The rats would get caught and die bot; a lemon-powered car. But there’s a zaniness to them too, in traps set under the building Rober and his boss worked like something out of a child’s fantasy—the world’s largest in. The potent smell would penetrate the building, so Rober super soaker; a snowball machine gun. They come alive in wired the traps to send him an alert him via his smartphone Rober’s slick videos, which he writes, shoots, narrates, and when a carcass needed extracting, said Brian Okerlund, JPL’s edits to tell how he built each invention. group supervisor for mechanical engineering and design. Their combination of wild exuberance and deep technol- It became clear to Okerlund that Rober was not your typi- ogy have earned him guest appearances on Jimmy Kimmel cal mechanical engineer. “He’s way out there,” he said. “He Live, two TEDx talks, and a slot as a host on Discovery’s was a very creative individual who brought a lot of fun to the Science channel. workplace.” “I really do get as stoked and excited about these projects Rober’s zany Halloween costume—and the video he made as it hopefully comes across on camera,” he said. about it—launched his next career. The costume was a T-shirt in which Rober cut two holes, GLITTER BOMB one in front and one in back. He taped an iPad to the inside The glitter bomb is clearly Rober’s greatest hit. It is also of each hole, then FaceTimed the two iPads with each other. among the most complex of his creations: a combination of With their cameras pointing outwards, the effect made it mechanical components, four smartphones, and a custom- look like you could see through the shirt. Rober painted fake printed circuit board attached to a 3-D printed chassis. blood around the large holes and the “iPad 2 Halloween One mechanical component released a pound of multi- Costume-Gaping Hole in Torso” video was born. More than colored glitter from a cup embedded into the device’s top. 8.2 million viewers have seen it on YouTube. Basically, it consisted of a motor and gear box attached to the “That was just an idea I had that I thought was cool, and cup, which faced upward to the sky, Rober explained. “When it went pretty viral,” Rober said. “I decided I would make you spin it, the centrifugal acceleration then pushes the glit- monthly videos. That was seven years ago. And I’ve literally ter outwards in a very uniform pattern.” made one video a month since then.” But Rober did not just want to fling glitter at thieves who 0419_MEM_FEA_Glitter Bomb.indd 44 3/6/19 1:45 PM MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | APRIL 2019 | P.45 Downloaded from http://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article-pdf/141/04/42/6385320/me-2019-apr3.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 3 4 3. He filled the cup with one pound of fine multicolor glitter. 4. Opening the package released a simple mechanical that spun the cup, releasing glitter in every direction, followed by bursts of noxious fart spray. Photos: Courtesy of Mark Rober stole his package. He wanted to humiliate them by posting Brilliant, WIX.com Inc., HelloFresh, Toyota Motor, Volkswa- their response in a video. That meant recording their expres- gen Group of America, and NordVPN. The companies pay sions and cries as the glitter coated their pants and car seats. Rober a flat fee to make a short pitch about their products or Working with an electrical engineer friend, Rober designed a services—and sometimes a personal testimonial—at the end printed circuit board that activated the four smartphones to of the sponsored video. The fees offset the cost of producing record the action. When thieves opened the box, a mechani- the video. cal trigger-activated the circuit board. “This is just an example of influencer marketing because “The printed circuit board was the brains of the opera- I have a brand and people trust me,” he said. “So if I say nice tion,” he said. “It would know when the package was being things about their thing ... in a lot of ways it’s a lot better than shook, and it would send a message to the phones to start a TV commercial because they can track how well it does recording or stop recording.” through referrals,” he said. It also turned on a motor that turned a cam that pushed The videos often include shots of items and technology he down on the button of a can of foul-smelling spray. This uses in his creations. Rober says those are coincidental and released the aerosol six times every 30 seconds.