Bio is an urn for ashes, which transforms the ritual of death into an act of regeneration and life. It is made of compacted organic material (coconut shell) which is then covered in a layor of celulose containing organic fertiliser. Inside this there is a seed which will later germinate and grow into a tree. Thanks to the Bio-Urn graveyards would turn into forests filled with life and meaning and the end of our lives would become an act of reconcilation with nature itself. [via] Link.
Nice example from Dave- Well there is a new rom floating around for the Sony PSP which enables full web browsing. That being said I wanted to try out the capabilities of downloading podcasts using this new rom update. What I find amazing is that you now can download any podcast anywhere if you have your Sony PSP with you and a Wifi connection. Watch the video and be amazed… Link.
A clever new telescope design could allow engineers to pack larger folding space telescopes into smaller spaces on rockets, dramatically reducing their weight and launch costs. Inspired by amateur telescopes which can be disassembled for transport, this design could allow fleets of low cost space telescopes with bigger mirrors than Hubble. They could be used for detailed Earth observation, astronomical observations, or even be sent to other planets and moons to examine their surfaces in extreme detail. Link.
We like to cover the Roomba projects here and all things robot so here’s something you’ll probably read here first- iRobot is going IPO! iRobot Corporation today announced that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. This is almost as good as the news about the Roomba having an API! Link and Link.
The iTRC is a two-part application. The remote control software runs on a hacked Zipit device under Linux. The simple iTRC Server application is lauched on your Mac and relays messages between iTunes and the iTRC. A basic protocol is used on top of TCP/IP for communication across WiFi. Link.
The LED series/parallel array wizard is a calculator that will help you design large arrays of LEDs. The LED calculator was great for single LEDs–but when you have several, the wizard will help you arrange them in a series or combined series/parallel configuration. The wizard determines the current limiting resistor value for each portion of the array and calculates power consumed. All you need to know are the specs of your LEDs and how many you’d like to use. Link.
This project consists of three circuit boards with a row of 32 LEDs on each (actually 64 LEDs because they’re double sided). The circuit boards are mounted radially in the spokes of a bicycle wheel and batteries near the hub supply power to them. The LEDs are controlled by a microcontroller that measures the rotational speed of the wheel by way of a hall effect (magnetic) sensor. As the wheel rotates, the microcontroller turns the individual LEDs on and off in such a way that a static image appears to float inside the wheel.
