POPMAN POP Video Player

POPMAN POP OEM

I saw this in an issue of Nuts and Volts magazine a few days ago. Its device that will let you play JPGs and MPEG I/II videos from media cards (CF, SM, MS, MD) out to any device that takes PAL.NTSC video and audio in. Perfect if you want to make your own LCD picture frame or want to loop a video clip in a store display or art install. The price of the retail unit is $119 but looks like the OEM board is around $69 (don’t know if that is in a large count or not).

POPMAN POP Video Player, POP Video Player OEM Board
LCD, JPG, MPEG, video, picture frame,

Non-Acoustic Sensors Detect Speech Without Sound


( Image from Flickr.com – ‘Infidelity’)

These would be so darn handy to have.

Just think how eerie it would be, yet also how peaceful – people all around having conversations on their mobile phones, but without uttering a sound.
Thanks to some military research, this social nirvana just might come true. DARPA, the US Department of Defense’s research agency, is working on a project known as Advanced Speech Encoding, aimed at replacing microphones with non-acoustic sensors that detect speech via the speaker’s nerve and muscle activity, rather than sound itself.

Non-acoustic sensors detect speech without sound

(Thank you agent Greg for this handy bit of news)

audio, acoustics, DARPA, microphone

PARANOIA – THE CONSPIRACY READER

PARINOIA
Do you see TV news programs are telling you just what your supposed to know? Do you roll your eyes when your hear something called a ‘weather balloon’? Never believed all the lone gunman crap? If so, then this is the magazine for you! Cover to cover it’s chuck full of … information.. yeah.. information on all those things that just have to be more complex than they are. So put your investigation hat on and get to the bottom of it, after all, amateurs are better at researching this stuff, professionals have too many preconceived ideas…

PARANOIA – THE CONSPIRACY READER

conspiracy, paranoia, bigfoot, ufo, JFK, coverup, magazine

Sculpting Geometry

Gyroid120 CellDNA

This is a beautiful joining of computer aided simulation, rapid prototyping, mathematics, and artistic beauty.
He takes a mathematical model and creates a steel powdered laser sintered model of the design, dips it in molten bronze to add strength to the sintered piece (it was 60% steel powder and 40% air before that) and then it it ‘smoked’ with sulfur and ammonia vapor to add color and then polished and textured with hand tools. Finally they are acid washed to produce a nice patina.
His work with laser-etched glass blocks are amazing as well. I’m surprised that he doesn’t crack the crystals with the density of the etch points…
Any one of these would make a fantastic gift for the science fan in your life. (hint hint!)
Bathsheba Grossman – Sculpting Geometry

art, sculpting, prototyping, matamatics, gifts