RSSArchives: January 2008
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January 9, 2008
Mother of all glass substrates
I like Bunnie's pick @ CES (Bunnie is an engineer, worked on Chumby also on the MAKE advisory board. CES is the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, USA) -
The most stunning thing I saw at CES this year was no gadget, however. It was a mock-up of the “motherglass” substrate that Sharp uses to make its 57″ LCD panels. That is indeed the mother of all glass substrates. There’s these huge frickin machines somewhere out there in this world that takes in that 9 foot piece of glass and deposits thin films of silicon on it, and images microscopic patterns into the films to make all those big, beautiful hi def LCD displays that the gadget freaks lust after. I lust after the machine that makes those panels–eight 57″ LCDs panels at a time. It makes those 12″ wafers at the Intel booth look well…small.Mother of all glass substrates - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 07:00 PM
Events, Gadgets |
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Spinal Rhythms
Spinal Rhythms by Eva Schindling -
The robotic art work Spinal Rhythms investigates the qualities and dynamics of physical movement performed by inanimate shapes. Abstract stick-creature are actuated by elastic shape memory alloy springs and perform slow and noiseless movements. The movements are the subject of an embodied evolutionary computation process that controls the robotic performance. The system evolves the actuation signals for the robotic muscles and tries to find efficient solutions for the sensitive dynamics between software, hardware and environment.Spinal Rhythms - [via] Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 05:00 PM
Arts |
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Homebrew sled out of skis
Jeff at Out Your Backdoor recreated his brother's fast sled design this winter:
What you do is take a plastic tub sled ($10 hardware store) and screw a pair of XC skis to the bottom of it---if it's a sled for kids---or a pair of metal-edge downhill skis if adults might use it. Use stout, short screws and big washers to avoid pull-thru. Then you glue foam-padding to the inside of the tub.Apparently the only problem is that you can't turn. If I lived in a place with snow, as I once did, this would be on my project list; great for recycling an old pair of skis! - [via] Link.
Posted by Becky Stern |
Jan 9, 2008 04:00 PM
DIY Projects, Transportation |
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HOW TO - Generate and identify random knots in a piece of string
The latest Citizen Scientist has a great article about knots Dorian M. Raymer! -
What governs the annoying formation of random knots in strings, cords, and garden hoses? Mathematicians have studied knots for more than a century, but only in the abstract. As physicists, we have also found this to be an interesting physics problem. What is a knot? How many different knots exist? How do knots form? The word knot has several meanings. Colloquially, a knot refers to a string that is tangled or interlaced with itself or another strand of rope.HOW TO - Generate and identify random knots in a piece of string - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 03:00 PM
Science |
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HOW TO - Build a Polar 3-D printer from LEGO
Gene writes -
Have you ever dreamed of having one of those replicators from Star Trek? Ever wanted to make just about anything at the flip of a switch? Well guess what? You're in luck, because in this Instructable I will show you how to make the closest thing to a replicator that current technology can manage; a 3D printer. Wait a minute, isn't there another Instructable on how to make a 3D printer from Legos? Yep, there is, but this 3D printer is different; it's a polar 3D printer and it's capable of printing out so much more than just chocolate. Now at this point in the intro you're probably thinking what do I mean by polar 3D-printer. Is it a 3D-printer that only works in the in the polar regions? A polar printer is a printer whose principal axes, or how it can move, are radius(in and out), angle(spin clockwise/counter clockwise), and as opposed to a Cartesian printer whose principal axes are X(left/right), Y(up/down). In other words, it moves just like a polar coordinate system.HOW TO - Build a Polar 3-D printer from LEGO - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 01:00 PM
DIY Projects, Instructables, LEGO |
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| Comments (4)
Make a "Push-ped"
Nice bike/scooter hybrid great project from a 13 year old maker, nice work! - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 12:00 PM
DIY Projects, Instructables, Transportation |
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| Comments (0)
Making Arduino sing, Part 4
Dave Fowler of uC Hobby continues his series on Arduino sound generation with an article on DAC (Digital-to-Analog) output options.
Arduino Audio DAC Options - Link
Related:
- Making Arduino sing, Part Three: Playing a melody - Link
- Making Arduino sing, Part Two - Link
- Making Arduino sing - Link
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jan 9, 2008 12:00 PM
Arduino, Electronics, Music |
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Walking in solid air
Anthony McCall's "Walking in solid air" as io9 said, it almost like a teleporter! -
In blacked-out rooms filled with dry ice, McCall's projectors trace slowly moving white lines - an undulating wave, two lines extending and intersecting - across the walls of the gallery.Walking in solid air| Arts & Exhibitions | This is London - [via] Link & more.The artificial smoke turns the beams of light into quasi-solid geometric shapes of cones and ellipses, through which visitors can pass. It creates the illusions of being able to walk through solid objects and of one's body becoming transparent.
These are terrifically original and intellectually solid works of art, which could be described as installations, sculptures, drawings and "dematerialised", all at once. But they are also thrilling in the way that works of art that convey the sensation of transcending the limits of the body are. It's art as science fiction.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 11:00 AM
Arts |
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Automaton restoration site
Automatomania is a site run by a UK couple who restore antique automata and wind-up signing birds. The site has videos of the wind-up machines in action, a gallery of their restoration work, and a workshop, which so far, has precious-little content.
Automatomania - [Thanks, Patti!] Link
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jan 9, 2008 11:00 AM
Makers, Retro |
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Light bulb creativity
Nice round up of light bulbs in many shapes, sizes and permutations - [via] Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 10:00 AM
Made On Earth |
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Pedal powered tennis ball launcher
Andrea sent in this awesome pedal powered tennis ball launcher!
This is a chimera tennis ball cannon made from a bike that you can pedal. It is both cleanly powered and built from recycled bicycles. It allows players varying in skill levels to practice to be better at both tennis and cycling. The launcher is towed to the court on its built-in bicycle trailer. A bike is secured to it and functions to drive the device. Pedaling the cycle as one would on a trainer drives the two launcher wheels. The cyclist then aims and pulls the lever to launch balls to the hitter.
Pedal powered tennis ball launcher - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 09:00 AM
Bicycles, DIY Projects |
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Uber tracker and GPS eval boards...
Some new GPS action over @ SparkFun -
It's not quite small enough to track your cat, but the Uber Tracker is a beast of a product. This device may seem simple enough: get GPS coordinates and broadcast those coordinates over the cellular network - but it's so much more! The Uber Tracker has open firmware and hackability. It's also completely PTCRB and FCC certified meaning it is fully licensed to operate on any GSM network in North America. Configure the unit, power it up, and you'll get an update every few minutes of the device's position to your phone, your website, or your SQL database. Could you track your car? Sure. Ever wonder where your donated clothing goes? What about biological samples? It's 'big brother' - but you get to play the older sibling's role.SparkFun Electronics - Link.
The evaluation board using the ET312 SiRF III GPS receiver is finally done! This board will allow you to play with this very small but powerful GPS receiver.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 09:00 AM
Electronics, GPS, Kits |
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"Flight thru Instruments" and the fine art of instructional illustration
Telstar Logistics writes -
While paying a visit to the studio of San Francisco artist Alanna Spence recently, Telstar Logistics was introduced to a lost gem of a book called "Flight thru Instruments."- Telstar Logistics: "Flight thru Instruments" and the Fine Art of Instructional Illustration - [via] Link & more.Flightthruinstr09_2 Published as a pilot-training manual by the US Navy in 1945, "Flight thru Instruments" teaches proper aeronautical navigation techniques through the use of elaborate illustrations -- the kind of stuff that today might be called "info-graphics."
But oh, what info-graphics these are! Produced entirely by hand, the illustrations in "Flight thru Instruments" possess a richness and accuracy of detail that -- if we may say so -- puts the majority of today's graphic artists to shame.
In fairness, however, "Flight thru Instruments" wasn't produced by an average group of 1945 artists, either. Not at all.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 08:00 AM
Arts, Retro |
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The stribe - touch-sensitive mixers with a LED matrix
Interesting touch-sensitive mixers with a LED matrix under the faders, Soundwidgets writes -
The Stribe's original name was "xenome" - a nod to Brian Crabtree's amazing monome 40h project, which inspired me to build the first Stribe in the summer of '07. For many years, I'd been thinking about and experimenting with alternative interfaces, but it was Brian's monome 40h that made me realize such a project could be successful without needing to be "discovered", then manufactured and marketed by some huge conglomerate. Along the way I changed the name to avoid confusion and to more accurately describe the Stribe's function. Stribe means "stripe" or "striped cloth" in Danish.The stribe - touch-sensitive mixers with a LED matrix, thanks Felixe! - Link.Because Brian's monome is an open project, monome.org contains tons of great information including schematics for their circuits, the firmware source, the Max/MSP applications... everything is there to study and learn. By poking through their designs, circuits and code, and the freely provided
"how this works" Max/MSP examples, I was able to understand the basic ingredients that would be needed for my own project.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 07:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Music, Open source hardware |
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| Comments (4)
DIY Tangible user interface for performing a chemical search by just putting real objects down on a real surface
Andrew writes -
A while back, Roo Reynolds posted about his experiments with Reactivision. Reactivision is a really neat way of building what’re called tangible user interfaces; it’s a bit of software which reads in video being captured by a webcam and tracks the position (and rotation) of special blobs called “fiducial markers”. In other words, it can work out where, in the camera’s field of vision, these objects are, and what way they’re facing.DIY Tangible user interface for performing a chemical search by just putting real objects down on a real surface, thanks Attila! - Link.I’ve mentioned this thing in passing before, actually, but I didn’t think anything more of it at the time. Roo’s post mentioned that the core vision library was open source, though, and there’s a Processing library, so one night on my way home from work, I decided to buy a cheap £20 webcam from Tesco.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 06:00 AM
DIY Projects, Science |
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HOW TO - Make EDIBLE googly eyes!
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories write -
After more than a year of painstaking directed research by our Experimental Foods Division, we have finally achieved one of our most important longstanding goals: the production of edible googly eyes. Like many other great inventions, it seems almost simple in retrospect, but in this write up we walk through the process and show you how to make your own.HOW TO - Make EDIBLE googly eyes! - Link & photos.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 05:30 AM
Crafts, DIY Projects |
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| Comments (1)
Drag bike micro-controller shifter and NOS control
ChrisP writes -
This started as a project about 2 and a half years ago when I started drag racing motorcycles with a friend who has a bike shop. The original project started as how to make things more efficient, easier on the motorcycle and of course more constistant. Of the bikes we race the fastest when pushed to the edge has been 7.92 seconds at 181mph if I remember the mph correctly, it consistantly runs 8.05 to 8.15 seconds in the 170's so obviously safety is paramount. Now of course this is the disclaimer that has to come with posting a project like this. Racing, Air Shifters and of course Nitrous Oxide can be very dangerous even in a well maintaned and planned system. I highly recommend that only individuals with full understanding and experience work on or operate either of these systems and claim no liability for there use. With that said, on with the project.Drag bike micro-controller shifter and NOS control - [via] Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 05:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Transportation |
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Wearable sleeping bag
A lot of our makers send in camping gear and equipment, while they're not "MAKEs" there seems to be a lot of makers who camp - so when I saw this wearable sleeping bag I couldn't help but put it on the blog, it's awesome! - [via] Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 04:00 AM
Wearables |
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iPhone audio recognition
iPhone hacker extraordinaire Erica Sadun made an application for the iPhone that will listen to music and identify it! She writes -
Download a copy of the Listen beta. It’s still *very* beta. Install it on your iPhone, get near music and run it. It will sample the music for 5 seconds and then attempt to contact the id server. If it succeeds, great, you’ll see the song, artist and album. If it fails, nothing happens. You just wait 30 seconds and if you haven’t gotten an ID, quit and restart the program.iPhone audio recognition [via] - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 03:00 AM
Cellphones |
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| Comments (5)
OMNIBOT fan book
Frankie writes -
I found this new book in a bookstore in Shibuya. Omnibot Fan Book, published by Mycom, has been written by Techn'o'taku (a famous Japanese otaku who loves design, techno and toys). The book covers the history of toy robots from the early sixties to the just released i-Sobot (that's the natural evolution of the Omnibots produced by Takara Tomy more than 20 years ago). In the next few day will try to take some photos of the beautiful designed pages of this book.OMNIBOT fan book - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 9, 2008 03:00 AM
Robotics |
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| Comments (4)
Page 21 of 26 << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 >>
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MAKE @ The NYC Toy Fair 2008 - Covering DIY!HOW TO - Build the arms of assistance.
MADE in Japan - Part I.
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MADE in Japan - Part III.
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Make store - Loud Objects Noise Toy Kit
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