Author: John

Cat Attack

Cat Attack

This makes me wish I had a cat, or maybe a water proof version of this so I could use it with my fish…

Developed by chaos labs in Japan, and based on the neural network of a mouse, the Chaos Wand will stimulate your cat’s natural hunting instinct. Sit back and relax with the radio control for the ultimate game of Cat-and-Mouse!
… The Cat Attack uses the latest research in chaos theory and complex systems to emulate the movements and personality of a cat’s favorite prey. This “virtual mouse” technology utilizes algorithms based on a six-dimensional coupled nzmap system modeled on the neural network of a real mouse. What that all means is that the Cat Attack’s “virtual mouse” will become your cat’s new best friend!

Neural network of a mouse? It looks like a little floppy thing on an arm that is rotated by a motor in the radio controlled base. Maybe the arm is moved automaticly when the base is driven around the room and if the ‘virtual mouse’ is not active enough you can give it a virtual goose by pressing the ‘spin’ button. My experience with R/C cars and cats is that the cat will see the moving car and run away from it once it moves. Perhaps the rodent neural network makes up for this and the cat is drawn towards it like a fist to a well crafted lure.

Cat Attack

Rocket Cam On the Cheap!

rocket rocketcam
Here is an interview with Matt Campbell, why should you read it? Well he took a model rocket and adapted it’s nose cone to house a hacked CVS video camera. The videos of the launch are pretty impressive. The recovery phase of the launch wa a little rough, if there was a way to stabalize the nose cone during decent the video was be heaps better. It’s also of some not that the camera will do odd things to the image is it’s slewed too fast. Go take a look at the video to see that I mean.
The CVS Video camera is going to be showing up in so many projects that it’s bound to win some sort of DIY hackability award (hint hint MAKE, you should have one of these).
I know if I had a few (and yes, I’d want at least three of them) I’d put a zoom lens on one, and turn the other two into a stereoptic video system with variable ocular distance. That would be so flipping cool… Then there would be the ‘lets-make-you-sick’ three inches off the road camera for my car, an underwater housing for those times at the beach, and not to mention a pretty cool payload for an R/C car.

Medical Shipment Container

Medical transport

It looks neat, I wonder what they use as an insulator. Aerogel would be fantastic but might cost and arm and a leg.

Hitachi Transport System has developed a shipment container with its considerable transport experience and its workability concept. The container doesn’t need a temperature controller or a source of power, and at the same time it is simple and lightweight.
This new type of shipment container makes it possible to transport cultured cells by various methods, including by food, auto, train such as Shinkansen, or on a plane. The cultured cells could be kept at the same temperatures as culture experiments at the hospital where a transplant surgery is carried out.

Portable shipment container

TV FM DXing

Test

You don’t know what DXing is? Shame on you! Turn in your shortwave radio this instant! Ok, you might know what it is but not what it’s called. ‘DX‘ means ‘Long Distatnce’ or now days ‘Distant Station’, its an amateur radio term for hearing a station that is too far away to be listened to normally. The ionosphere and all sorts of other atmospheric conditions go into creating this sort of phenomenon, even the trails leftover from meteor showers. You might hear people talking about ‘skip’ as well, it’s the same thing. Radio waves skipping and reflecting from very long distances, like being in Phoenix and hearing a station in in Montana as loudly as a local station. The beauty of this is that you don’t need a real expensive radio to hear this, the one in your car is perfect. Go scan the AM bands late at night around the top and bottom of the hour and see if you can catch any out of state radio names.
Now, you might think, ‘big deal, it’s just radio… Yawn’. Well laddy, I bet you didn’t know that you can do the same thing with a TV, eh? Thats right, your TV set is pretty much a souped up radio receiver, a darn fine one at that! Now to do this you will need to unhook your cable (righty tighty, lefty loosy – don’t worry, its not illegal … yet) and attach an old fashioned UHF/VHF antenna to it. ‘Rabbit ears’ will do just fine. Get the antenna up as high as you can to optimize it’s reception, and tune to ch 2. If the conditions are right you may see a picture that’s not form a local station. The first link has loads more info on how to get the best results. It’s definitely an art form, timing is everything with this sport.

TV FM DXing
Wikipedia has a good write up on TV-FM DXing as well.