Meet the Makers of a Times Square Olive Garden Compass
▼ Summary
– A team has created a specialized compass that points exclusively to the Times Square Olive Garden in Manhattan.
– The device was developed by Jason Goldberg and Steve Nasopoulos in collaboration with Glub Glub Labs.
– It uses an Arduino Nano, a GPS unit, a gyro sensor, and a stepper motor, operating offline with hard-coded coordinates.
– The creators cite the appeal of an analogue experience and Olive Garden’s lasagna side dish as their motivation.
– Over 2,000 people are on a waitlist for the small-batch product, though a release date and price are not yet finalized.
Finding your way to the Times Square Olive Garden is a problem most people never knew they had, yet a dedicated team has engineered a solution. The creators of the Times Square Olive Garden compass have built a device with a single, glorious purpose: to always point toward that specific restaurant. What began as a viral curiosity is, in fact, a real project from designers Jason Goldberg and Steve Nasopoulos, developed in collaboration with Glub Glub Labs.
The initial assumption that this was an April Fools’ joke proved incorrect. The motivation, according to the team, stems from a desire to move beyond smartphone reliance. “We were tired of guessing which way to go,” they explained. “Creating a more analogue experience seemed appealing.” Their restaurant choice was deliberate. “We chose Olive Garden because they offer lasagna as a side. Let’s see the M&M store do that!”
The technical execution required specialized hardware. The device uses an Arduino Nano microcontroller to manage a suite of components. These include a high-precision SAM-M10Q GPS unit typically used in drones, a gyro sensor for tracking rotation, and a stepper motor to physically turn the dial. Power comes from batteries salvaged from disposable vapes. Since the restaurant’s location is fixed, the system operates offline, using hard-coded coordinates and onboard trigonometry to calculate the correct bearing from any given point.
The project’s hilarious terms of service reflect its creators’ playful mindset. They imagined various absurd liability scenarios, explicitly warning users not to “walk off a cliff or into the ocean” while following the compass. “We were mostly just imagining scenarios we might want to not be liable for,” they noted, adding that walking into an active volcano was omitted, for now.
Public interest has far exceeded expectations, with a waitlist exceeding 2,000 people. Production will remain intentionally limited to maintain quality, with initial batches potentially as small as fifty units. A specific release date and price are forthcoming, though the team humorously hinted at grander ambitions, stating, “We plan to IPO in 2038 with a market cap of fifteen billion.” For now, the compass stands as a uniquely focused tribute to unlimited breadsticks and a landmark that, thankfully, does not move.
(Source: The Verge)