Impact Lab – Page 1429 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Art, Breakthrough Thinking, DIY, Entertainment, Great Videos, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

A 33 Foot Touchscreen Built Using Off-The-Shelf Hardware and Public Domain Software

February 13, 2011

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlWFtF06RFo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

The University of Groningen in the Netherlands made this 32.8 ft. by 9.2 ft. touchscreen interface from six expensive cameras… and some “cheap” infrared emitters, 1000 LEDs, some old computers that were sitting around, and some free software.

The result is a positively enormous curved screen with a resolution of 4900 by 1700 that can track 100 different touches at a time… and that’s just at optimum speeds. Latency is between 30 and 50 ms.

Anyone up for a game of Pong?

Continue reading… “A 33 Foot Touchscreen Built Using Off-The-Shelf Hardware and Public Domain Software”

Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, New Viewpoints

Book Uses Colored Thread Between Pages To Make Hyperlinks

February 13, 2011

Hyperlinks on paper.

Maria Fischer’s “Traumgedanken” book is a collection of “literary, philosophical, psychological and scientifical texts” about dreams. The book uses threads pierced through the pages and affixed to other pages to make physical hyperlinks between ideas.

On five pages there are illustrations made out of thread. Their shape and colour relies on the key words on the opposite page. This way an abstract image of the dream about dreaming is generated…

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Animals, Art, Breakthrough Thinking, DIY, Green Friendly, New Inventions

Flypaper Clock Eats Flies, Uses Their Bodies for Energy

February 12, 2011

Carcasses Create Energy For Clock

Design student James Auger was inspired by carnivorous plants to make a clock that is powered by converting the bodies of dead insects into electricity. A roll of flypaper catches the flies, which are in turn scraped off and dumped into a fuel cell…

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Award Winner, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Current Events, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, Latest News

64-Year Old Man First to Cross the Atlantic in a Kayak Nonstop

February 12, 2011

Kayaking to the beat of a different paddle.

Aleksander Doba, 64, crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Dakar, Senegal to Acaraú, Brazil in almost a hundred days. He’s the first person to do so nonstop:

After 98 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes at sea, Doba and his custom 23-foot-long, 39-inch-wide human-powered kayak landed at Acaraú, a city on Brazil’s northeast coast. The trip covered some 3,320 miles in all, and Doba became only the fourth known person to accomplish such a feat, and the very first to do it nonstop…

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Science & Technology News

Wireless Industry Planning a Future Without Cell Phone Towers

February 12, 2011

Wireless industry is looking into smaller antennas, some tiny enough to hold in a hand.

As cell phones have spread, so have large cell towers — those unsightly stalks of steel topped by transmitters and other electronics that sprouted across the country over the last decade.

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Analysis, Brain, Culture, Internet, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Information Age Overload – Every Day Average Person Produces Six Newspapers Worth of Information

February 12, 2011

We receive 5 times more information today than we did in 1986.

If you think that you are suffering from information overload then you may be right – a new study shows everyone is bombarded by the equivalent of 174 newspapers of data a day. The growth in the internet, 24-hour television and mobile phones means that we now receive five times as much information every day as we did in 1986.

Continue reading… “Information Age Overload – Every Day Average Person Produces Six Newspapers Worth of Information”

Analysis, Science & Technology News, Space

Astronauts Could One Day Reach Mars by Riding Asteroids

February 12, 2011

In 2005, Japan’s unmanned Hayabusa spacecraft (illustration) successfully landed on an asteroid.

Getting to Mars is going to involve building a huge spacecraft and loading it up with tons of fuel and radiation shielding. Unless, that is, we could just tag along with a spacecraft that’s already headed in that direction, like an asteroid.

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Analysis, Insects, Science & Technology News

Leaderless Ants Create Super Efficient Transport Networks

February 12, 2011

Argentine ants connect three nests in an empty arena via the shortest possible network.

Ants are able to connect multiple sites in the shortest possible way, and in doing so, create efficient transport networks, according to a University of Sydney study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. The research also revealed the process by which the ants solve network design problems without the help of a leader.

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Animals, Food, Internet, Latest Trend

‘Prey Model’ Pet Diet – Surge in Illegal Internet Sales of Raw Wild Game

February 12, 2011

Trendy pet diet of raw wild game.

Feeding Fido or Fluffy a raw, all-natural cuisine could land you in the slammer for up to six months if you’re not careful where you buy the deer, duck or other meat.

Continue reading… “‘Prey Model’ Pet Diet – Surge in Illegal Internet Sales of Raw Wild Game”

Breakthrough Thinking, Culture, Current Events, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, New Discoveries

Anti-Crime DNA Sprays

February 12, 2011

New Ways To Use DNA

Jantine sez, “January 10th I received this letter from my district officials saying they;ve installed DNA spray in the area I live in. I’ve posted the letter, pic of the sign and some translated excerpts on my blog for the time being.”

Dear resident, to reduce the number of hold ups, the shopping streeds in West will be equipped with DNA-sprays from january 2011 onwards. The DNA-spray is an extra means beside the camera surveillance which district West in our effort to improve the safety in the shopping area…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, Human Behavior, Latest News, New Discoveries, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

Chinese Develop Gait-Biometrics Surveillance

February 12, 2011

Another way to be under surveillance.

A confidential United States embassy dispatch released by Wikileaks provides details about a new technology developed by the Chinese Academy of Science to identify people by their gait.

The technology is designed to be deployed beneath existent flooring. From there it measures pedestrian pace and walking pressure to create a unique biometrics profile which can be used to identify and track the movements of individuals without their knowledge…

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Architecture, Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Globalism, New Viewpoints

The Water-Scraper Habitat

February 12, 2011

Visions of water dwellings.

Taking advantage of the 71% of the Earth covered in water, the “Water-Scraper” is a partially submerged, self-contained habitat. A combination of tidal, solar and wind sources generate power for the floating behemoth while garden acreage just above the water line produces food for the structure’s inhabitants.

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