Archive for the ‘Mad Science’ Category

Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera

36 fixed focus cell phone cameras and a peak sensing accelerometer make for a novel way of taking a 360 degree panoramic image.

 ”We used the camera to capture full spherical panoramas at scenic spots, in a crowded city square and in the middle of a group of people taking turns in throwing the camera. Above all we found that it is a very enjoyable, playful way to take pictures.”

[Via MAKE]

Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera // Jonas Pfeil.

Clever Kinetic Sculpture

Nice little kinetic ball sorting thing. The video (might take some time to load, it’s coming from China) has enough close up shots that is would not be that tough to duplicate this. I need to find a good supply of that brass wire he uses, looks like it’s brazing rod so it shouldn’t be too hard to locate some. I see a trip to Harbor Freight in my future!
Funny DIY Device With Subtle Control of Steel Balls’ tracks

See larger image Creative Kinetics: Making Mechanical Marvels in Wood (Paperback) By (author) Rodney Frost List Price: $14.95 USD New From: $22.87 In Stock Used from: $22.00 In Stock

Human Eye Like HDR Video System

I’ve long been a fan of the HDR image. Shooting full motion video has never seemed to be an option until now:

Anyone who regularly uses a video camera will know that the devices do not see the world the way we do. The human visual system can perceive a scene that contains both bright highlights and dark shadows, yet is able to process that information in such a way that it can simultaneously expose for both lighting extremes – up to a point, at least. Video cameras, however, have just one f-stop to work with at any one time, and so must make compromises. Now, however, researchers from the UK’s University of Warwick claim to have the solution to such problems, in the form of the world’s first full High Dynamic Range (HDR) video system.

World’s first full HDR video system sees like the human eye.

See larger image Practical HDR: A complete guide to creating High Dynamic Range images with your Digital SLR (Paperback) By (author) David Nightingale, Steve Luck List Price: $24.95 USD New From: $16.55 In Stock Used from: $19.89 In Stock

Photovoltaic Hornets?

Researchers have discovered that a species of hornet might be able to convert sunlight directly into energy via pigments in it’s exoskeleton…

Ishay found that shining light on the hornets—live, anesthetized or even dead—could produce voltage differences of several hundred millivolts across their hard exoskeletons, which suggested that the cuticle material making up the exoskeletons was effectively an organic semiconductor converting light into electricity. Indeed, Ishay even found that shining ultraviolet light on an anesthetized hornet would wake it up faster, as though the light were recharging the insect.

If this proved to be an accurate assessment of the insects abilities it might be possible to ‘grow’ photovoltaic cells.
(Thanks to special field researcher Greg for this link)

via Bug Juice: Hornet May Turn Sunlight Into Electricity

Giant Insects For Science, Honest!

I’ve waited a long time for someone to run this experiment!

The giant dragonflies of ancient Earth with wingspans of up to 70 centimeters (28 inches) are generally attributed to higher oxygen atmospheric levels in the atmosphere in the past. New experiments in raising modern insects in various oxygen-enriched atmospheres have confirmed that dragonflies grow bigger with more oxygen, or hyperoxia.

I can hardly wait for more work to be done in this field. I expect that after many generations of insects being raised in a hyperoxic environment there might be some substantial differences between them and their low O2 brothers. Maybe they should try this on fruit flies due to they rapid reproductive rate. The stated goal should be a humming bird sized fruit fly within 20 years. Quite safe outside the lab due to the extra oxygen needed unless someone invents a tiny SCUBA system for them to wear… Please don’t tell DARPA about this one!
Raising giant insects to unravel ancient oxygen

World Sky Race

Having long been a fan of lighter than air ships I find the prospect of a round the world race quite intoxicating. Read the rest of this entry »

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