Category: Design

‘Aeon Flux’ Who?

Aeon Flux

When I first found about a live action version of the cult cartoon ‘Aeon Flux‘ I was all for seeing it. I even blogged in here. However, after hearing that the film was not screened for critics I have a strong feeling that this is going to be an  instant crapper of a film. Other things support this too, like the fact that the star Charlize Theron is going to be dressed more like Trinity than the character she is playing. That bites. Second, in an interview with Peter Chung (the original creator of the character, the shorts on MTV’s Liquid Television and the cartoon series that aired on the same network) he said that he had little to do with the movie and wasn’t all that happy about the story being set in a definite time frame. He also said that the stylistic design of his world was better suited to animation than the big screen. (I wish I could find the link to this interview – I’ll post it when I do. For now you can read this one. )

I’m going to go out on a (short) limb and say that this movie will suffer from the same thing that kills any movie that has been ‘re-envisioned’ by a director. The universe will be changed, the look will be altered, the characters will act differently so it’s going to be a movie with things just loosely based on the original. For fans of the old series it’s going to be a big let down and for people that have never seen the original it’s just going to look like a Hong Kong action flick that has a chick that looks like she was taken out of the Matrix. Yawn.

For those that have no idea what the heck I’m talking about when I say that the original rocked in a special ‘kinky-leather-BSDM-kill-an-army-with-one-clip’ sort of way go read this. Think of it as your homework before you go to the movies this weekend. 

CulturePulp 041: The Not-So-Secret History of ‘Aeon Flux’?

The Cyberhand

Cyberhand

Amazing advancements are being made in the area of prosthetic limbs. I have always thought that if I were to lose a hand or a foot I’d want to enlist the aid of some of my friends that build robots to help come up with a mechanical solution to my dilemma. From what I’ve read about body replacements such as these its hard to do better than the old fashioned spring loaded claw/hook. I think that a real solution will only come when battery technology reaches the kilowatt per gram range, or a motor that uses picowatts of power yet still delivers foot pounds of torque are available.

These guys are getting there though. As you can see by the quoted article below, they have movement down:

Funded by the Future and Emerging Technologies initiative of the IST programme, the CYBERHAND project aims to hard wire this hand into the nervous system, allowing sensory feedback from the hand to reach the brain, and instructions to come from the brain to control the hand, at least in part…So far, the project is racking up an impressive list of achievements. It has a complete, fully sensitised five-fingered hand. The CYBERHAND prototype has 16 Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) made possible by the work of six tiny motors. Each of the five fingers is articulated and has one motor dedicated to its joint flexing for autonomous control. It features that miracle of evolution, the opposable thumb, so the device can perform different grasping action

 
They also have a working solution to the feedback needed to accuratly use a prosthetic hand. This is in the form of Thin Film Longitudinal IntraFascicular Electrodes. Lets hope that testing begins soon for this device, I’m sure that there are more than enough people who would be willing to test this for them. Next they should work on a prosthetic foot. It would have to be cheap enough to be given out by aid orginizations around the world.

[via Engadget and Slashdot ]

Cyberhand Project

The Air Sack Alarm

 

 I remember seeing this on an episode of ‘Hey, Spring of Trivia‘ not all that long ago. There is was being used by Japan Rail to wake up their conductors at the station so they wouldn’t miss their shifts. The idea is that when the alarm sounds and air bag inflates and will wake even the most sound of sleeper. When you fist see this you thing it has to be a ‘Chindogu‘, or a an invention that has no real utility. Nope, it’s a real product that you can buy for your loved one or kid that is always late for the bus.

[via Red Ferret]

Air Sack Alarm (translation by Babelfish) 

Flexible Braille e-Paper

 

Researchers have come across a method for producing a flexible braille display that uses about the same power as a cell phone. The display can be refreshed in about one second and could be used to indicate the amount of money left on a prepaid card, household appliances, or even an e-book. It uses a plastic film with organic transistors and plastic actuators that expand when triggered. So far it will display 24 characters but researchers hope to take this up to 576 in a few years. Look for this to be on the market in five or six years.

[ via we-make-money-not-art]

Takao Someya Group–Organic Transistor Lab