Hate Yellow Skittles? This Contraption Sorts Your Candy by Color

I'm not sure what it is about red skittles that are so good, or what it is about the yellow ones that I'm averse to. Or why blue M&Ms seem to taste much better than the brown ones. Engineer and artist Brian Egenriether likely had these same deep thoughts when he invented the appliance that certainly every household needs: the Skittles Sorting Machine. Tinkering around in his lab for about five weekends straight, he created this genius device that uses a sensor to detect colors and then sorts them, at a rate of about 37 Skittles per minute.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL1Nv1j3bWQ

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Egenriether created it using a wood base, with a funnel made from a hummingbird feeder, and the rest from telescope parts and PVC. Egenriether says it will work for Reese's Pieces as well as M&Ms, "However since it was originally designed for Skittles, there are only five bowls, but six colors of M&Ms. I put the blue and brown M&Ms in the same bowl." Is the Skittles Sorting Machine a device that will change the world for the better? Probably not, but at least it will allow us all to have a little mindless fun in the meantime, while gaining easy access to those coveted red Skittles.

Images via Mechatronic