Not only is it a Dalek and a pumpkin, it’s also radio controlled! EXTERMINATE!!!!
[via MAKE]
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories – Building a Robotic Dalek Pumpkin
Category: Cool
Robots Are Getting Smarter
Ok, the title is a little misleading, its not that the robots themselves are getting smarter it’s that the programming is getting better.
A "swarm" of simple-minded robots that teams up to move an object too heavy for them to manage individually has been demonstrated by robotics researchers.
The robots cannot communicate and must act only on what they can see around them. They follow simple rules to fulfil their task – mimicking the way insects work together in a swarm.
See? Nothing to worry about, no robot revolt is on the horizon. Well, the horizon is a long way off at any rate. But I will say, let me be the first to welcome our new robot masters. Let their reign be long and benevolent.
Robot swarm works together to shift heavy objects – tech – 17 October 2006 – New Scientist Tech
Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro
Mumm… This may make me re-think my choice of Nikon as my main camera. I love the idea that the image sensor (CCD) is split between normal imaging units and ones that are set to capture a broader range of light. This gets the medium of digital photography closer to the tonal range that chemical photography has. If your lost, this means that if your taking pictures at the beach on a sunny day you will have a better chance of getting details in the shadows then you normally would. I have some examples of high dynamic range images here if you want to take of look. The camera won’t take photos like these but you can see what you get when you have more data across the full range of light values in a photo.
Fujifilm has today announced the Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro, or at least the development of it, due to be available in ‘early 2007’. The S5 Pro features the same SuperCCD SR design sensor although now called ‘SR Pro’, it features 6.17 million ‘S photodiodes’ (normal DR) and 6.17 million ‘R photodiodes’ (highlight DR) for a total photodiode count of 12.34 million.
Project Orion: Unpublished Documents
When I read the book Project Orion
[via boingboing]
Ikea Pinhole Camera
I love this, I had the same idea a while back but just haven’t finished the project.
Homemade 5×4 pinhole camera. Made from an Ikea plant pot. holder. The pinhole is made from a Coke can, the shutter is a tap washer. All the finihing materials found around the house. Also shown is the first 5×4 paper neg I made during the camera’s construction.
The camera’s aperture is f-256 so the images are pretty crisp and a film holder has been added to the design. Very cool what you can do with a bit of creative spirit.
[via ikea hacker]
The Rudiments of Wisdom Cartoon Encyclopedia
Another brilliant work by a master of the arts and sciences, Tim Hunkin. His cartoons that cover, well pretty much everything you can think of, are a joy to browse through and are sure to get your mind a churning.