The Hobbit WiFi-detecting WarSting Sword by Spark

As cool as Bilbo Baggins‘ Sting sword is, it will never see real life application outside of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Even if the sword was actually available, I am sure you won’t want to be carrying around because, who knows? You may end up unraveling some Orcs disguised as human roaming the streets of New York, or maybe, just New Zealand. Yucks. I think I don’t need to know that. Anyway, this hacked replica of Baggins‘ Sting known aptly as WarSting still grows blue, but not because of Orcs, but because there is an unsecured WiFi network nearby. While someone has already done something similar before, this hack by Spark takes Orcs, sorry I mean WiFi detection a notch up, allowing the bearer of WarSting to slash the sword to ‘battle’ the vulnerable network.

The Hobbit WiFi-detecting WarSting Sword by Spark
Image: New Line Cinema

Armed with the sword, the bearer will swing and clang till it acquires an IP from the DHCP server and subsequently sending a “Vanquished” message to Spark’s cloud, which will also tells the sword to ignore that particular “defeated” WiFi. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Well, now here’s the good and bad news. First, the bad news: you can’t buy WarSting of the shelf, but the good news is you can sure make one for yourself. All you have to do is to follow the guide on Maker: and needless to say, you will need to have the knack of tinkering with electronics and codings.

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But before you jumped into it, it is worth noting that not many locality tolerates such intrusion into unsecured WiFi, so you may want to be mindful of where you wield the sword and that’s beside the fact that unsheathing a toy sword may also run you into trouble with the local law enforcement agencies. Just saying… Keep going for a video to see the WarSting in action.

via Hackaday