Digital camera sensors are typically sensitive to infrared light, but camera manufacturers install a infrared cut-off filter to block these wavelengths. If you have an old Canon point and shoot camera and want to try out infrared photography, Matthew Petroff has posted a guide to modding a Canon PowerShot SD400 for this technique.
We’ve covered a couple of clever len-cap-retaining tricks before. My favorite is probably the “lens cap buckle” strap attachment Adam covered back in June, which I like because it requires no modification of the lens cap itself. But this recently crowd-funded stick-on Nice Clip product has a lot going for it, too: It’s cheaper, for one, and…
Instructables user dimovi took an old LCD monitor and moved the top polarizer from the surface of the screen to a pair of glasses worn by the user. Others who look at the monitor, without the polarized glasses, see only a white rectangle. Besides the übergeek cool factor, the mod could be quite useful if you’re concerned about folks looking over your shoulder at the coffee shop.
Brown University Engineering and Visual Arts lecturer Ian Gonsher’s Generative Construction Toy is a set of snap together shapes that you can cut out on a laser cutter and use as building blocks to design and build compound three dimensional objects. It’s like an evolving desktop fab version of tinker toys or LEGO, but more organic. What’s most interesting about the GCT is that you are encouraged to modify and create your own shapes through an iterative process of design and play.
Childrens’ Technology maven and playful tinkerer Scott Traylor came up with this whimsical mod for used movie theatre 3d glasses. With his simple PDF template everyone can go green in more ways than one. From his site:
John Graham-Cumming created this sleek 7×7 LED display by hacking up a string of addressable Christmas lights from GE. Starting from Robert Quattlebaum’s excellent tutorial, he mounted an Arduino Pro and GE Color Effects G-35 Christmas lights inside a frame and diffused the light with a cutting board. I especially like how he used servo arms to secure the backing to the frame. He coded the Arduino so that custom messages and patterns can be displayed and in the video above he shows it displaying “Thanks GE” for making these hackable Christmas lights.
We’ve previously covered a popular mod to the Panavise Jr., which makes it easier to quickly open and close the tool. Even the people at Panavise liked the idea so much that they started manufacturing it. Chris from The New Hobbyist has taken this mod to “a whole ‘nother” level with his 3D printed drill bit which allows him to use the speed of his drill to open an close the vise. Getting the design right on his so-called “Panavise Jr. Speed Winder” took six revisions, but his persistence paid off and now Chris is sharing his design with us slow-winding folks. Thank you, sir!
