Escher’s “Relativity” in LEGO! “…our fourth Escher picture rendered in LEGO. Once again, no camera tricks, but the picture has to be taken from exactly the right place, and boy did we get tired of trying to find where that place was. The whole thing took five or six evenings spread over two or three weeks. Most of the last evening was taken up with setting up the lighting the way we wanted it and trying to get the camera position just right…” Thanks Techhat! Link.
Doh! er, Play Doh! “Fingerprint scanning devices often use basic technology, such as an optical camera that take pictures of fingerprints which are then “read” by a computer. In order to assess how vulnerable the scanners are to spoofing, Schuckers and her research team made casts from live fingers using dental materials and used Play-Doh to create molds. They also assembled a collection of cadaver fingers. In the laboratory, the researchers then systematically tested more than 60 of the faked samples. The results were a 90 percent false verification rate.” [via] Link.
Interesting and sorta gross “epiSkin jewelry extends biological identity by combining technology and design into a new decorative body surface. This project is an exploration into the decorative technological control over biology to create an artifact which is a hybrid of both. Cultured in a lab, this biological jewelry is made of epithelia cells which grow to create an artificial skin. The cells are grown into custom designed forms, controlled by the artist. The cells are incubated for a period of time, following which they are stained with a custom dye. The skin is then visibly sealed into a wearable object.” [via] Link.
Starting Monday, you can get Rocketboom on your TiVo – this is amazing news. Dave Zatz has the scoop – “Rocketboom is a three minute daily videoblog based in New York City, covering a wide range of information and commentary from top news stories to quirky internet culture. With a heavy emphasis on international arts, technology and weblog drama, Rocketboom is presented via online video and widely distributed through RSS. Now, Rocketboom is available on TiVo as part of the TiVo Video Download Trial.” [via] Link. You can listen to our interview with Andrew Baron from Rocketboom here.
There are not a lot of details on this, but I’d like to see how hard it would be to make a DIY version of this outstanding water droplet picture maker “This installation works like a flat shower that shoots out water droplets with different frequency. The difference in distance between droplets results in an image.” Link.
These would make a fun project to recreate, maybe I’ll use the cover of MAKE – “these sturdy foam-core flip-flops are built into a sheet of printed foam. the foam sheet, and the soles of the flip-flops, are printed with advertisements taken from chinese newspapers, which creates a fascinating grid of numbers and characters. available in two sizes, these versatile shoes are suitable for indoor, outdoor, or shower use. shoes have soft plastic thong portion designed to lie flat against the feet. the frame has a portion that pops out for hanging on a wall.” [via] Link.
Cool idea, this little device samples and stores the color of something you like – “RGBy, by Shinya Matsuyama and Makoto Hirahara, is a cube-shaped lamp that senses color and glows with the sensed color. For example, when you find a nice color at a flower garden or a designer clothes store, you can use RGBy to capture the color to appreciate it.” Link.
