Category: Technology

Elektor USA

3-USA-IssuesSoon versions of the British electronics enthusiast magazine will be hitting American book store shelves.

Elektor Electronics is a British magazine that aims to inspire people to master electronics at any level by presenting construction projects and spotting developments in electronics and information technology. Every issue is packed with innovative articles, simple and complex construction projects, news, reviews, columns, and more.

I’m looking forward to reading it, hard to find good electronics projects magazines these days.

Elektor USA

No Lens Lasers

No lens laser stack

Impressive, technology like this might lead to all sorts of wonderful things. I’m thinking video projectors that use lasers and that have no moving parts of nasty super hot lamps (just super hot lasers, have to work on that…)

Researchers have now demonstrated a plasmonic collimator that utilizes grooves etched directly into the semiconductor laser facet. If the technique is adopted — Harvard University has applied for a patent on the process — then semiconductor lasers can be downsized to a bare die without a lens.

Lasers need lenses no more

Coming Soon, Eagle Eye Vision for the Blind

Bionic eyes coming soon

Telescopic eye implantWell not quite the blind and not quite ‘Eagle Eye‘ vision. I refer to the way cool Bionic Dollar Man action figure (NOT a doll I tell ya!) that had a wee telescope in Steve’s head. However, the idea is pretty close. There is a new medical device that can return some sight to people who suffer from macular degeneration. To give a little bit of an idea what it’s like to have MD make two fists and put them in front of your eyes so they block most of your field of view. Now keep them in the center of your vision wherever your eyes point at. Not fun is it. The 4mm long telescope fits in the eye where the natural lens would be and projects a magnified image of what the person is looking at on to their retina.

“These cells are normally involved in peripheral vision and normally generate low-resolution visual information compared to the macula cells–you can’t read a sign in your periphery, for example. But magnifying the image also has the advantage of making it easier for the cells to interpret.”
… “The device is implanted in only one eye–patients use this eye for detailed vision and the untreated eye for peripheral vision. That takes some getting used to, says Peli. “Instead of using two parts of the same eye, they must switch between two eyes; if they see someone coming but can’t tell who it is, they need to switch to other eye.””

Even a low level of vision is better than none at all. Should be available as soon as the FDA approves it.

[via slashdot]
Implantable Telescope for the Eye

When Satellites Collide

Like a scene from the Japanese TV series “Planetes“, a Russian and US satellite have collided in orbit. Early in February a non functional Russian military satellite (Kosmos 2251) and a US Iridium communications satellite occurred temporarily disrupting the Iridium communications network. An on orbit spare will be brought into service within the next 30 days. So far this isi the first accident of it’s kind, where a satellites has struck another satellite and not just orbital debris (paint chips, fuel tanks, etc) hitting working space hardware. There was that Chinese missile test where they destroyed a non functional weather bird but that was intentional (and also caused quite a mes up there). Hopefully the junk left from the recent accident will burn up, if not it will become part of the cloud of over 17,000 objects that are currently tracked by ground stations.

Original story:
Russian and US satellites collide

Mechanical TV, Steampunk Style

Steampunk mechanical television

Steampunk Mechanical TV
This is a wonderful project to build a working Baird mechanical television (televisor) that uses, among other things, a real working steam engine and a record as it’s ‘Nipkow disk’. It’s a great idea, Steampunk with real steam, I can’t wait to see some stills from it.

Mechanical TV has been an interest of mine for years now. The very idea that in  the primordial age of television the best solution was a big spinning disk and a flickering neon lamp. I have a model of a Baird Televisior that I built from a kit. It benefits from modern electronic timing and low voltage parts (LEDS not neon bulbs). It clearly works but only produces the most rudimentry of moving images. I have transcoded a few video clips to play on it (it comes with an audio CD of video sequences) and for what it is I’m impressed. I still want to build a camera that I can use to display live motion on it. Perhaps I’ll design it with a Steampunk theme.

SteamTV Part 1 — first looks at my newest project

DIY Plane from a Broken Helicopter

I had a toy helicopter that had lost it’s tail rotor in an unfortunate accident. I didn’t want to part with it because the main rotor still spun and heck it’s a remote control helicopter. I proceeded to turn the once state of the art in toy chopper technology (OK, once of state of the art) into a regular airplane. This is a photset of my ‘proof of concept’ adventure.
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