Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
This is like a performance art piece from space. The decent of the Huygens probe on to the surface of the moon Titan took almost four hours but this video compresses it into 5 minutes. The visuals give you information on what the cameras were seeing, how the parachute moved (handy for telling wind conditions), and what sensors were doing what.
[via boing boing]
NASA – Titan Descent Data Movie with Bells and Whistles – Movie
I was checking out the World Pinhole Photography Day page on Flickr today and I saw that someone is going to be using an 8mm movie camera fitted with a pinhole to take some shots. A very cool idea. Even cooler is that Flickr member (and great photographer) Nicolai_g mentioned that there is a TV commercial that was shot with a pinhole equipped movie camera. He even noted a technical discussion about the process of using a pinhole on a motion picture camera. A very fascinating read if your into a very alternative way of capturing life around you.
Here is the post that started this little post:
This could trump the Apple Big Brother LCD screen:
The eyes of insects such as bees and dragonflies are made up of tens of thousands of tiny components called ommatidia. These all point in different directions to give the insect a very wide field of vision.
Inspired by this, Luke Lee and colleagues developed an artificial compound eye consisting of a moulded polymer resin dome filled with thousands of light-guiding channels, called waveguides, each topped with its own miniature lens.
The artificial eye could be used to create surveillance cameras, cellphone cameras, and surgical endoscopes with a much wider field of vision, the researchers say. The whole eye is 2.5 millimetres in diameter. Each artificial ommatidia consists of a lens attached to a polymer waveguide that directs light towards the centre of the eye.
Sounds like an amazing device.
I see that a professional camera company has figured out what amateur astronomers have known for a long time. If you take a photo of the same object lots of times, stack them together, pour on a smidg of math and presto! You get a nice sharp photo. I doubt it will hit consumers cameras any time soon but one can wish.
Sony Announces Plans to Develop High-Speed CMOS-Based Imaging System – Emerging Technology
Hum, digital pictures can be tracked back to their comeras? Pretty cool, except that it looks like the technique can be messed up if the image has been altered. I think this will be a boon to UFO searchers as it may help prove if that digital snapshot of the bug eyed monsters are real or the product of a late night Photoshop fest.
This kit allows you to make your own holograms in your own home, even with the lights turned on! You get enough self developing plates to create 20 images so you can let your imagination go and make holograms of just about anyhing. It’s amazing just to thing that 20 years ago doing this at home required more equipment just to dampen the vibrations than parts that come in this kit to make the entire ‘gram.
[via OhGizmo!]