Make A Wish Foundation builds drivable R2D2 for boy living with leukemia
Asmita Prasad:
The good folks at the Make-A-Wish foundation helping hundreds of seriously ill children across the world realize their dearest wishes since 1980. Though each and every wish that the do-gooders fulfill is priceless to the recipient, every now and then this blessed bunch produces something so spectacular that it makes serious waves across the blogosphere. This time the foundation roped in the services of design studio Little Mountain Productions that specializes in creating unique products for children and youth, to fashion an enormous drivable R2-D2 model. The wish for the incredible creation was made by Matthew Grammer, a 7-year old suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Matthew was diagnosed with the illness in ’09 though he has responded well to treatment and could potentially be cancer-free as early as March. In a bid to encourage Matthew in his fight against the illness, the Make-A-Wish Foundation commissioned the larger than life R2D2 replica. Fitted with massive on/off buttons inside and a simple joystick drive mechanism, the R2-D2 comes with a cushioned driver’s seat and operated on a proprietary software run computer that is powered by a couple of rechargeable gel batteries.
The motorized droid is an exact replica of the iconic character from the Star Wars universe and comes with a kill switch on the outside for safe shut down when its little driver is having too much fun for his parent’s liking.
Via: Geekologie
