Make: Online: News from the Future Archives

Archive: News from the Future

June 5, 2009

Next-gen POV bike-wheel display tech

I was stunned to see the MonkeyLectric folks' new persistence of vision (POV) bike-wheel video display at Maker Faire, and to see how far they've... er... driven this tech since the last time I saw it. The video does a good job of showing off all that it can now do. Dan Goldwater adds:

I didn't say it in the video, but this is cutting-edge tech! The notorious 'pimpstar' car wheels only do static images, not video. They also appear to have much worse color depth - their video shows only 8 colors while we have 4096 - this was a significant technical hurdle in POV and i have not seen any other POV system anywhere with more than 8 colors (or with full video).

MonkeyLectric.com

June 4, 2009

h+ Summer issue

h+ Magazine is edited by MAKE contributor R.U. Sirius. While it's not exactly a DIY magazine in the conventional sense, it's about making the future and about robotics, biohacking, brain-machine interfacing, space colonization, and other topics that may be of interest to MAKE readers. They have a digital magazine edition, a downloadable PDF version, and will soon offer a print edition as well.

h+ Summer Edition

May 16, 2009

Jet pack sets speed record

Video, via Laughing Squid Links, of Eric Scott, a Go Fast Jet Pack pilot, setting a speed record at the Knockhill Raceway in Scotland.

Go Fast Jet Pack world record
Jet Pack International

May 1, 2009

3D printing goes back to the Stone Age

This is really cool. According to ScienceDaily, group of researchers at University of Washington have come up with a formulation of artist's ceramic powder to replace 3D printing media, which can cost $30-50 per pound. They are distributing their recipe online for free (which can produce a pound of material for less than a dollar). The pots pictured above were made in a 3D printer using their ceramic mix.

About five years ago, Mark Ganter, a UW mechanical engineering professor and longtime practitioner of 3-D printing, became frustrated with the high cost of commercial materials and began experimenting with his own formulas. He and his students gradually developed a home-brew approach, replacing a proprietary mix with artists' ceramic powder blended with sugar and maltodextrin, a nutritional supplement. The results are printed in a recent issue of Ceramics Monthly. Co-authors are Duane Storti, UW associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Ben Utela, a former UW doctoral student.

The formula the team is using can be found in this article in Ceramics Monthly.

3-D Printing Hits Rock-bottom Prices With Homemade Ceramics Mix [Thanks, Alberto!]

April 15, 2009

Welcome to the (laser-cut) dollhouse

Fascinating little piece (no dollhouse puns intended) on the Ponoko blog:

Mass customization and rapid manufacturing are still considered to be in the early stages of popular usage, but there's at least one hobby that has embraced both from the beginning. Think Victorian architecture, painted lady grilles, miniature side chairs, and tiny four poster beds. For years dollhouses have been literal play grounds for laser-cut design and customization.

After the jump are five companies keeping the dollhouse tradition alive with current manufacturing technologies.

Early Adoption of Mass Customization and Laser Tech--Dollhouses [via Brian Jepson's Twitter feed]

March 27, 2009

Wire Glue, now made with Buckyballs!

ThinkGeek is now selling "Wire Glue," a conductive adhesive made with micro-carbons. They're selling a .3 oz bottle for $4. I like what BotJunkie said about it:

It looks like a neat product, and I'm sure it works well, but if you're thinking of getting this rather than learning how to solder... You should just learn how to solder. It's cheap, it's fun, and you get to melt metal and make stuff. Give it a shot, and then after you burn yourself, you can go ahead and buy the glue without feeling guilty.

"Wire Glue" Conductive Glue

March 13, 2009

SixthSense wearable data interface

The SixthSense project from the MIT Media Lab aims to seamlessly integrate digital information with our everyday physical world.

The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.

Though still very much in development, the device seems quite effective, using relatively little interface hardware - camera, projector, and gestural markers. The number of potential applications are a bit overwhelming. Imagine having the datasheet for a chip you're working with automatically displayed in front of you -- all without putting down your soldering iron ;)

March 12, 2009

Laser-etched Kindle 2

We miss Phillip loads already, as he enjoys his well-deserved MAKEcation. We figured he'd be far from idle. He writes:

Not too long ago there was an xkcd comic featuring the Kindle we knew someone would eventually laser etch a new Kindle 2 but we didn't expect it to be us! Here's the first ever laser etched Kindle 2! Sean brought his over to the Adafruit shop today and we "experimented" - it looks great!

First laser etched Kindle 2! The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - "Don't Panic"

March 4, 2009

Fabbing and digital art

Check out Rhizome's article about 3D printing (fabbing) and digital art, with plenty of links and pictures of inspiring works from artists around the world.

Several years ago, while making the lecture circuit rounds, American architect William Massie described a key goal within his practice as moving towards a more direct translation between bits and atoms. Architecture has always thrived on the tension between representation and material assemblages and what he was addressing with this comment was the dawning of an era characterized by a new proximity between digital models and physical output. In selected contexts, artists, architects, and designers have been exploring these accelerated development cycles for a decade but the involved technologies are descending in price so quickly that, for example, 3D printers are now cheaper than laser printers were in 1985. A key question: how does the looming ubiquity of these tools and workflows apply to the production and display of new media art? This article will explore digital fabrication (aka fabbing) at a variety of scales which include the curatorial questions raised by these new hybrid industrial design/sculpture objects as well as the implications on the practice of individual artists.

March 2, 2009

Build a house with a computer, a ShopBot, and a rubber mallet

Imagine pulling up to an empty lot with a CNC-controlled ShopBot router, a rubber mallet, and a pile of 600 sheets of plywood. Add in some unskilled labor and a few days, and you could end up with a livable, permanent structure. Ok, you will need to add electricity, plumbing, and lighting, but thanks to Larry Sass's construction technique, precise interlocking notches and grooves keep the house together tightly without the need for screws or nails. Even the furniture can be built in to the design!

A prototype house was assembled for a MoMA show this summer in New York City.

Here's more information on the project website. Also, previously, this related Maker Faire presentaion: Digitally Fabricated Housing: Build a house with a computer, a ShopBot, and a rubber mallet (Austin, 2008)

February 26, 2009

Jay Leno will lead the 3D printer revolution

Jay Leno will lead the 3D printer revolution via Fabbaloo.

Company makes prosthetic mermaid "legs"

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Mermaid dream comes true thanks to Weta - New Zealand news via jwz.

Ms Vessey's mermaid tail was created by Wellington-based film industry wizards Weta Workshop after the Auckland woman wrote to them two years ago asking if they could make her a prosthetic tail. She was astounded when they agreed.

She lost both legs below the knee from a medical condition when she was a child and told Close Up last night her long-held dream had come true. "A prosthetic is a prosthetic, and your body has to be comfortable with it and you have to mentally make it part of yourself," she said.

Ms Vessey told a little boy: "I'm a little mermaid" when he asked what happened to her legs and the idea stuck.

Weta Workshop director Richard Taylor, more used to winning Oscars for visual effects from movies such as Lord of the Rings, was delighted to make it happen.

February 24, 2009

Phone sniffs your breath to detect diseases

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Phone sniffs your breath to detect diseases...

Applied Nanodetectors Ltd (AND) of the UK prototyped a mobile phone that can detect various diseases from user's breath and exhibited it at the International Nanotechnology Exhibition & Conference (nano tech 2009).

The handset was manufactured by Nokia Corp of Finland. AND is aiming to do businesses with Japanese mobile carriers, the company said.

The mobile phone is embedded with AND's chip that integrates sensors to detect various gases such as CO2, NOx and ammonia (NH3).

This chip determines the composition of the user's breath and tabulates the density of each gas. By matching the results with characteristics of various diseases, it can detect diseases. The matching process is similar to fingerprint matching, said Victor Higgs, managing director of AND.

February 17, 2009

3D scanning with a web cam and projector

@NYC Toy Fair 2009 - One of the more interesting companies was 3D3 solutions, they use off the shelf web cams and presentation projectors to make a 3D model, you can see me getting 3D scanned above - good stuff and not as expensive as many of the other commercial packages.

FlexScan3D is an innovative non-contact 3D scanning software system that takes 3D measurements and creates digital 3D models directly from physical objects. The software is ideal for measuring complex shapes quickly. FlexScan3D is the world's only fully customizable 3D scanning system that scans objects using off-the-shelf hardware components. It is a cost effective solution that is versatile in many applications. How FlexScan3D scanning works: Using one or two digital cameras and a white light (presentation) projector FlexScan3D will scan a wide range of objects, faces, and body parts quickly and accurately. The projector or laser puts reference patterns on to the scan target to aid accurate digitalization. The scene is captured using a camera or video camera. FlexScan3D's 3D triangulation engine takes these images and creates millions of measurements of the scene. The process to acquire the data needed to create a 3D model is then completed in seconds. The 3D scan data is used in industrial design, reverse engineering, visual effects, and biomedical industries. Automated 3D capture drastically reduces the time and cost in capturing complex physical measurements.

February 13, 2009

5 companies building the "Internet of Things"

Tikitag
Sarah writes -

The "internet of things" is a concept that describes a wireless network between objects. In a way, it parallels the current network of addressable web pages (aka the "world wide web"), except "the internet of things" would include addressable inanimate objects that could be anything from your home's refrigerator to the shoes on your feet. Although this world of web-connected things has been much discussed for years, we've seen little movement pushing the concept forward. At least, until now.

February 2, 2009

3D printed remote controlled helicopter

3D printed remote controlled helicopter via Beyond the Beyond...

Shapeways member buho29 printed out parts for a tiny remote controlled helicopter on Shapeways. The parts cost $25 and there were some issues with one of the connection points, balance and with the model getting dirty from oil. But, he 3D printed a helicopter! Of course he still had to do the assembly, and will need some more R&D to get it just right and added off the shelf parts to his design. But..he 3D printed a helicopter. I for one can not wait what the next versions will look like!

January 29, 2009

Printable stepper motors?

I am absolute mesmo-rized by this video depicting a printable integrated stepper motor and controller to be built with a RepRap machine.

Going high risk steampunk [via ladyada]

January 22, 2009

Cool Liquid Changes Color in UV Laser Beam

While researching a new project (as us mad-scientists-types are prone to do), I found this amazing video. It's basically a clear chemical that undergoes a reaction in the presence of UV light that makes it very quickly turn green. But, the key here is that the reaction is also quickly reversible - in about a half second after the light is removed, the liquid reverts back to the clear state.

This reminds me of a fictional Dr. Seuss invention, the "flash-dark" (from "The Cat's Quizzer"), that's like a flashlight except it shines a beam of darkness instead of a beam of light.

Practical uses? I can imagine this being used with large video projectors.

Traditional projectors are neat because it's easy to make large images - just use a large screen. A major drawback, though, is that the darkest color that they can produce is the color of the screen -- and that screen is usually white to reflect the most light. As a result, projectors must be used in low-light situations, or with exceedingly bright bulbs.

Reflective LCD displays (like the kind found in watches, not TVs) work differently - instead of creating light, they just block out the ambient light in areas to create dark spots - as a result, they are low-power and work great in bright light. But, LCD displays don't scale up to large sizes easily because they can't be projected.

I think that you could get the benefits of both of these technologies by painting this chemical on a wall. An ultraviolet projector would project an inverse image, creating a large dark green image that is visible even in bright light. There are two main drawbacks, though, that would probably limit the use of this technique to informational and artistic displays: First, the very slow response time (600 msec, which is slower than eink) prevents it from displaying full motion video. Second, it's only one color - turning it in to a full-color display will require a lot more work.

So, what would you do with something like this?

More information:

Research report: "Photochromism of a Radical Diffusion-Inhibited Hexaarylbiimidazole Derivative with Intense Coloration and Fast Decoloration Performance"
(restricted access, but I included the link because I love the title)

Wired Science Blog

The Chem Blog

January 21, 2009

Print your kid out in 3D

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Print your baby via Fabbaloo

A clinic is offering mothers bronze models of their unborn babies.

The London Ultrasound Centre, near Harley Street, is the first in the country to offer the service, which allows parents to 'celebrate' their babies in the womb.

A 3D printer uses ultrasound images to build a cast of the child. The models cost £1,200, take up to two-and-a-half weeks to make, and are created when the mother is at a safe stage of pregnancy at 24 weeks.

Doctors say the technology could also help improve survival rates for sick babies.

January 12, 2009

Stealing Good Ideas: Transmaterials

I read a great article a few years called "Where to Get a Good Idea: Steal It Outside Your Group". Sociologist Ronald Burt argues that creative ideas aren't magically created, but rather, they are well-known concepts re-applied in new arenas. Maybe that cool paper punch found in the stationary store will become the next best thing in pizza cutters - all it takes is someone to connect the two. My favorite quote in the article is "People who live in the intersection of social worlds are at higher risk of having good ideas."

To this end, I enjoy putting myself in that intersection of social worlds. I'll ask my taxidriver about how he does his job; learn the ins and outs of the starting a small business from my hairdresser friend. Matt Blaze famously applied this when he brought techniques that were well-known among the computer security community to the world of physical locks.

So, I come to one of my favorite little websites: Transmaterial. Every two weeks, it describes an innovative new physical material.

Now, you ask, new materials are useful, but how does that website help the DIY hobbyist?

I love it for two reasons:
1. It exposes me to new ideas outside of my usual sphere.
2. A lot of the new materials seemed to have been formed by the same kind of cross-discipline thinking.

For example, the surface of a Lotus leaf has zillions of tiny bumps to repel water more effectively than a flat surface can. Sure, that's interesting, but how is it practical? Kenya Hara created a new kind of humidifier by selectively applying a coating that mimics this response to a sheet of paper. The result is a pattern of thousands of tiny drops of water with a greater surface area than found on other humidifiers -- leading to more effective evaporation without the need for electricity. Biologists knew about this effect; it took a creative leap to find a use for it in the HVAC world.

So, there's my first post. I hope to bring you lots of other cool information, but I probably just gave up some of my favorite ideas.

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