An ad company is experimenting with ways to make exercise and “doing the right thing” fun! With art!
Maybe I’m a nerd, and even though this is being done by an ad agency, I just find this so inspiring – using technology to create interactive public art. Plus, it worked: putting sounds on the stairs (making the stairs fun) made 66% more people take the stairs!
An object printed from powdered glass, using the Solheim Lab’s new Vitraglyphic process
U. WASHINGTON-SEATTLE—
A team of engineers and artists has developed a way to create glass objects using a conventional 3-D printer. The technique allows a new type of material to be used in such devices.
Named the Vitraglyphic process, the method is a follow-up to the Solheim Rapid Manufacturing Laboratory’s success last spring printing with ceramics.
“It became clear that if we could get a material into powder form at about 20 microns we could print just about anything,” says Mark Ganter, a University of Washington professor of mechanical engineering and codirector of the Solheim Lab. (Twenty microns is less than one thousandth of an inch.)
Three-dimensional printers are used as a cheap, fast way to build prototype parts. In a typical powder-based 3-D printing system, a thin layer of powder is spread over a platform and software directs an inkjet printer to deposit droplets of binder solution only where needed. The binder reacts with the powder to bind the particles together and create a 3-D object.
Glass powder doesn’t readily absorb liquid, however, so the approach used with ceramic printing had to be radically altered.
“Using our normal process to print objects produced gelatin-like parts when we used glass powders,” says mechanical engineering graduate student Grant Marchelli, who led the experimentation. “We had to reformulate our approach for both powder and binder.”
By adjusting the ratio of powder to liquid the team found a way to build solid parts out of powdered glass. Their successful formulation held together and fused when heated to the required temperature.
The farmhouse has been designed to blend in with its surroundings in the south of Scotland as much as possible
It is highly unusual for anyone to welcome being “fleeced” during the building of their new home.
Yet that is one key part of a green farmhouse scheme which has recently been approved in southern Scotland.
Among the elements which will make the Cairn Valley farmhouse near Moniaive “carbon neutral” is using the nearby sheep to help keep the humans warm.
Their wool will be used to provide insulation in a scheme which is proud of its eco-credentials.
Dumfriesshire farmer Neil Gourlay, 49, said the project had been a “lifelong dream”.
He said he was keen to do “something different” that would also be environmentally friendly.
One element he was particularly keen on was to use sheep’s wool as insulation rather than selling it for what he described as a “pittance”.
He admitted: “I’m a miserable Scotsman in some respects.
“We could do a lot more with reclaimed materials that are just as good as brand new.”
That means that wool sheared from his sheep will be used as insulation – a practice he hopes might catch on with other farmers.
That is not where the use of elements from the Dumfries and Galloway landscape ends.
Locally reclaimed timber is intended to form part of the farmhouse design.
Existing external dry stone walls will be extended to come into the building.
While the sloped roof to the main living area will be covered in turf and also feature a variety of low-growing plants.
Spook all your trick-or-treaters and keep all the candy for yourself!
From GeekDad:
GeekDad perennials Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have been thinking up neato Halloween projects forever.
Who could foret the Jack-o-Dalek, light-up Lego headless horseman or Punkin’ Cylon? Well, Lenore and Windell are at it again. This time they’ve dreamed up a simple part-Lego robot that fits inside a pumpkin. The Rovin’ Pumpkin is a simple robotic pumpkin. After a minute, its green eyes start to glow, and it creeps… moving about one foot to the left… and stops.
Click for video and more details on the spooky creation. Or just skip that and go directly to the project page.
Becky Stern (CC)
Cool, huh?
It’s an entry into an Arduino Contest.
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. “with one simple controller, you can make almost anything!”
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories and the Arduino Team have teamed up to put on an Arduino contest. More explained on Wired and Instructables:
Use those nifty microcontrollers to build an cool project and maybe win a prize! The rules are simple: to enter you must make a new Instructable that involves the Arduino IDE. You can use any hardware that you like, or none at all. Be sure to provide the code you used so that others can follow in your footsteps. Make something amazing and win a sweet Meggy Jr RGB from Evil Mad Science or an Arduino Mega from the Arduino Team to power your next project!
Deadline is November 15th!
Contest Starts: Oct 1, 2009
Entry Deadline: Nov 15, 2009
Voting Starts: Nov 16, 2009
Voting Ends: Nov 22, 2009
Judging Starts: Nov 23, 2009
Judging Ends: Nov 30, 2009
There are so many dancing robot competitions these days, from LEGO to Soccerbots, it’s almost not even worth mentioning anymore…but I can’t help myself:
Robo-One Competition write-up from Gadget Lab:
This year’s event showed some interesting new robots such as a thought-controlled robot, a robot that can flip its head back so you can ride it, and a mini-Gundam robot.
Check out the videos at GadgetLab
September 26th is Annual Museum Day, and lots of museums and parks are offering free admission in celebration. Read on for more:
On Sept. 26, as part of the fifth annual Museum Day program, Smithsonian magazine has convinced more than 1,200 other museums, zoos, and arts and cultural attractions across the country to also welcome visitors for free.
In California, you’ll can use your Museum Day admission card to visit the classic cars displayed at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento (regular adult admission: $8), in New York City you can use your pass at the South Street Seaport Museum (regular adult admission: $10), and in Dallas, your pass will get you into the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza (regular admission: $13.50), which explores the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy.
To see the full list of all the participating museums so you can plan your day, visit the Smithsonian’s Museum Day 2009 Web site and poke around. Be ready to be a bit overwhelmed.
No, the title does not reflect any case of dyslexia on my part. I decided rather than focus on Astrophotography (which I tend to do), today I’m featuring Stratophotography. And, on Wired they’re featuring a DIY success story for taking your own strato-photos. From Wired:
For $148 in off-the-shelf parts, two Massachusetts Institute of Technology students have taken pictures from the edge of space.
Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh’s DIY dirigible launched on September 2 from Sturbridge, Massachusetts and rose 18 miles before popping. It was recovered, photographs intact, upon landing in a nearby construction site.
Team Icarus ready for launch
According to the team’s website, there is a third space-photographer: Eric Newton. The team ”will be posting a step-by-step illustrated guide on how to do a launch for $150 shortly. Also, we will be posting a Youtube video of the time-lapse photographs,” any day now (no date on their news bulletin, so not sure if “today” actually means “today” if you catch my drift).
They also give credit to some other launches that have come before.
Just a feel-good, space story for all you avid DIYers or space lovers.
LED DIY gets trendy! In the New York Times, a story about the latest fashion craze: Light-up fashion!
IN Alison Lewis’s girlish, pale-blue living room here, pillows light up when you sit on them and the sofa fabric has a dimmer switch; teacups moved along acrylic coffee tables will play videos on the giant flat-screen television, and a mechanical bluebird nestled in the white plastic boxwood surrounding the television trills erratically when its eye detects movement in the room.
This is an environment that will always acknowledge you, but it’s a cozy interactivity, the softer side of technology.
Ms. Lewis, 35, is part of a wave of young product designers intent on embedding electronics into “soft” areas like fashion or home furnishings. She has the can-do spirit that defines the modern crafter and hopes to engage other young women in her blinking, D.I.Y. world. Threading LEDs, she claims, is akin to knitting. (LED beads are like tiny glowing sequins; Ms. Lewis uses conductive thread to sew them onto fabric.) “I do it to relax,” she said.
Her work can involve some unlikely materials: perhaps a length of electroluminescent wire or yards of conductive fabric; the motor prized out of an electric toothbrush; a motion sensor.
Read the full article at NYT.
Check out Lewis’ website: http://iheartswitch.com
Ceramic teacups have radio frequency ID tags on their bases; when placed on a '"reader," they signal videos to play on the television.
