From the bright boys at NASA., a simulator for your model rockets. Very cool! Plug in numbers for body size, type of nose cone, motor type and launch conditions and it will simulate the altitude your ship will obtain.
Category: Design
DIY Analog Video Synth
Who says that you can only circuit bend audio devices?
Video synthesis tends to be dominated by digital technology these days however analogue video synthesis techniques can still offer a great many advantages in terms of aesthetics, performance, simplicity, and adaptability. Not to mention the non-linear surprises which can come from working in the analogue domain. This "VGA Expropriator" will be the first in a series of proprietary analogue hardware devices which seek to explore the possibilities of digital/analogue hybrid technology in video/audio performance and studio production contexts. The first offering here is essentially a new design with its creative process making ample use of circuit-bending methodologies.
[via Retro Thing]
Sensorama: Virtual Reality from 1962
Who says that virtual reality is anything new? Inventor and cinematographer Morton Heilig had a firm grip on it back on the early 60’s:
(Sensorama was) an immersive 3-D virtual reality motorbike ride, in a form factor resembling an arcade game. Heilig saw Sensorama as the future of cinema, an immersive experience, complete with nine different fans to simulate the wind blowing on the user’s face, vibrating seat (to simulate driving over cobblestones), and the aromas of jasmine and hibiscus as the driver passed a flower garden, or the smell of baking pizza as one passed by an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. (Rheingold, 1991) It never received the funding necessary to scale up to commercial production, and quietly disappeared, although Heilig persisted, patenting improvements over the next decade.
[viaNeatorama]
TRON Lightcycle Papercraft Model
Paper + classic movie Tron = COOL! Thats right, another paper project. From the same guys that brought you the Aliens pulse rifle they give you a crisp Lightcycle to build.
VictorioNixie Tube POV Display
I’m liking the looks of this…
This "electrochemical and electromechanical apparatus for the display of illuminated messages" is really a (heavily) modified persistence-of-vision toy. This toy was a pen i picked up at the local pharmacy (Walgreen’s) with a spinning head that displayed whatever message you programmed in. It was only $5.00, so i picked up a couple and let my imagination fly.
This is by far the most sculptural of all my creations, as it really serves no practical purpose 🙂
All in all, it cost me about $20US and two weeks worth of spare time (about 10 hours)
To see the device in action, go to:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BMAc6 jfG0M
Olympus Wood Camera Casing
I love this idea. I hope that this process is easy to do so we see more things have something unique to them. I wonder if it would work with bamboo.
Olympus just announced their three dimensional compression molding process for wooden materials at the Photokina show. Accordingly, the processed wooden material has the feel and grain pattern of natural wood and proves to be harder than engineering plastics such as ABS and polycarbonate resins.
[via core77]