Year: 2005
Dark stairs was a problem for the cat; an easy solution would have been to install a night light. However having laser beam activated LED stair lighting is much cooler than a plug in night light any day! Videos and pictures are on the site. [
Laser-based tracking for real-time gesture acquisition
Off-the-shelf technology used in tracking fingers in high resolution for human interfaces…a simple active tracking system using a laser diode (visible or invisible light), steering mirrors, and a single non-imaging photodetector, which is capable of acquiring three dimensional coordinates in real time without the need of any image processing at all. Thanks Emeka! Link.
Make a plexiglas hard drive window
Chris writes “Well, we have seen this before – or have we? This project is not unique in terms of mounting a viewing window on top of the hard drive, but what makes this project stand out is the detail of it and the full description on how you should actually do it. And it comes with thirteen highres pictures. Not to speak of the end result. Wow!!! Very nice end result! And oh, did I mention that this hard drive is fully functional after the surgery?” Link.
Kurt, the tattoo-robot
Kurt is a machine with four injection needles and Chinese ink. Attached to the upper arm it tattoos an enduring symbol on the user’s skin. Kurt is an extreme example of the human-machine interface. The intervention is aimed at rising the awareness of the close connection between the individual and the machine, in a bond as long-lasting as the drawing itself. Link.
Court WoWs with Battle.net bypass ruling…
WoW. Earlier today, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against a group of gamers who wrote a work-around to Blizzard’s Battle.net multiplayer gaming service. The three programmers had written a program dubbed ‘BNetD’ that functioned similarly to Blizzard’s free service. The letter of the law may side with Blizzard, but it is hard to see how this is anything but a single-finger salute to their army of fans: play on our servers or not at all, is the message. Naturally it is Blizzard’s product, so they can do as they see fit, but this restriction is contrary to almost every multiplayer game on the market and only serves to limit their market. Link.
Don’t buy Blu-ray…
Here’s why…On top of that, consumers should expect punishment for tinkering with their Blu-ray players, as many have done with current DVD players, for instance to remove regional coding. The new, Internet-connected and secure players will report any “hack” and the device can be disabled remotely. “A hacked player is any player that is doing something it’s not supposed to do,” Setos said, adding the jury was still out if regional coding would be maintained or scrapped. [via] Link.
Making potable water…?
Awhile back we covered the LifeStraw – a 25 cm long, 29 mm diameter, plastic pipe filter purchased costs around US 2.00 that could possibly be a great and low cost way to get clean water. With a lot of people out of drinkable water in the south, I though it might be good to post up a list of ways to make drinking water- not a bad thing to know how to do…If you have resources, link, etc.. post them up. Link.