By now we know everyone's doing it: celebrities, companies, politicians, the older generation, and lowly old you and me are flocking to microblogging site Twitter in droves. But the rabbit hole goes even deeper than that, people — even flora, fauna, and inaimate objects haven taken to tweeting now. In this Obsessable Ten we take a look at two fistsful of the most interesting hardware hacks interconnecting us with our appliances, our pets, and yes, even residents of the womb. Read on for a glimpse of this strange new world in which these walls can totally talk.

 

1. BakerTweet tweets your sweets

BakerTweet from POKE on Vimeo.

London bakery Albion Cafe is the testbed for the prototype of BakerTweet, a dangerous little bakery-proof Wi-Fi device that hastens confectional calorie consumption by alerting Twitter the moment baked goods emerge from the oven to clog your arteries.

 

2. Cat door for Twittering kitties

What's a programmer to do when the neighborhood cats come freeloading on one's sweet stash of premium cat food? Build a tweeting cat door to authenticate garage entries and exits, that's what. An RFID tag on each family cat's collar triggers an unlock event for the door, which sends an image and a message to Twitter with entertaining cat reports like "Penny is out to buy catnip from the dealer."

[Via Switched]

 

3. Fetal tweets, just for kicks

Expectant father and ITP student Corey Menscher wanted to have a greater awareness of the pre-natal movements of his and his wife's forthcoming baby; the solution? Kickbee, a wearable device made from a piezo-sensor adorned spandex band triggered by the baby's kicks that sends Twitter updates via the API. Now that's a kid already on the cutting edge.

[Via Hackaday]

 

4. Tweet-a-watt knows how green you are (or aren't)

The intrepid makers at Adafruit Industries took a Kill-a-Watt power meter, combined it with some off-the-shelf-hardware, the Twitter API and a little ingenuity to produce the Tweet-a-Watt open source hardware project — netting them a first place victory in the Greener Gadgets design contest. They've made kits available for purchase on their website, with which you're free to build your own, modify it, and even turn it into a commercial product if you like.

 

5. Tweeting teddy bear

How 2.0: Make a Twittering Teddy Bear from My Home 2.0 DIY on Vimeo.

Half cute, half terrifying, the Twittering Teddy Bear is yours to make and scar your offspring for life. Although sadly you won't get a glimpse of the deep spiritual ponderings of your animatronic toy, you'll get a stuffed animal that speaks aloud the tweets of the peeps you're following.

[Via Hacknmod]

 

6. Twitter home security

This is actually a twofer, with your choice of a Twittering burglar alarm or webcam-based motion detector. The former uses an Arduino embedded circuit board and Xbee modules to send Twitter updates from a home alarm system, while the latter employs a Linux application called Motion to detect movement via webcam and ping Twitter on motion events.

[Via MAKE]

 

7. Turn on your house lights via Twitter

Control Lights with Twitter from Justin Wickett on Vimeo.

Opportunities in home automation via Twitter abound, with a great and simple example above from Justin Wickett. He's connected a laptop to the light switches in his room and can send control commands via Twitter with a simple text message. We hope you have an unlimited SMS plan if you try this one out, otherwise you could be paying $0.10 a pop to outsource lighting control to your cell carrier... though stranger things have happened.

 

8. Let your plants tweet when they need water

If these plants could talk they'd say, "Dude, where's my water?" Luckily they can, thanks to a simple kit from Botanicalls you can put together yourself. Get to know your plant's personalities, from the needy high-maintenance peace lily to the stoic, silent cactus — and you'll never have to use that black thumb as a lame excuse for inadvertent plant-killing again.

 

9. Twittering toasters

What's nearly as bad as burnt toast? Cold toast. Even worse? Lonely toast. Instructables user nothans solves both problems in one fell swoop by socially-enabling his toaster so both he and the world can know precisely when that bread should be buttered. How long will it be before the toaster demands a Facebook account?

[Via Hackaday]

 

10. Washing machine tweets your clean

Washing Machine Twitter Hack from Ryan Rose on Vimeo.

TiVo programmer Ryan Rose addressed his absent-minded treatment of loads of laundry by modifying his washing machine to update Twitter when the clothes are done. With 523 followers, his PiMPY3WASH top-loader is actually more popular than approximately 73.5% of Twitter users.*

* numbers crunched by the Department of Totally Fictional Statistics

Did we miss your favorite tweeting inanimate object, animal or unicellular lifeform? Let us know in the comments!