grinding.be

Here’s Your F&$*ing Jetpack

Kevin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:15:07 +0000

According to Alex Eichler over at io9, the New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft Company is officially producing the world’s first commercial Jetpack. As an ultralight aircraft you don’t even need a license to fly it in the United States. For only 90 grand you can zoom around at 60 miles an hour and get yourself about a mile high with nothing but a jet strapped to your ass. (Provided you and your ass, as a package, weigh between 140 and 240 pounds.)

Sunset over Asheville

Spiraltwist — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:28:41 +0000

Stare off into the distance, watch Heavenside appear….

Photo taken by Derek Olson, link via David Forbes.

Augmented Sculpture

Spiraltwist — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:17:53 +0000

Augmented Sculpture by GROSSE8 & LICHTFRONT / Passagen 2010 from Lichtfront on Vimeo.

augmented sculpture is an art installation that combines three-dimensional sculpture and 2-D projections by lichtfront and grosse8. the project was recently presented at imm cologne 2010 where viewers could see the piece in action. the project consists of an abstract geometric form that is spiky and jagged all over. the sculpture itself is white making it the perfect canvas for colourful light projections. an array of digital projectors is beamed onto the form in accordance to the specific shape of the sculpture. the projection can illuminate each facet of the form individually making the sculpture appear to be illuminating from within.

Via designboom.com.

Zombie Candle

Spiraltwist — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:59:52 +0000

From technabob.com.

Facial recognition phone application

Spiraltwist — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:53:34 +0000

From textually.org:
Swedish software developer, The Astonishing Tribe, is testing a iPhone application called Reconiizr that will enable the user to find names and numbers of complete strangers.

The user simply has to take a picture of a person and hit the ‘Recognize’ button.

The photo is then compared to shots on social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter before personal information, which can include phone numbers, addresses and email addresses, is sent to the user.

The app works on phones with a camera of five or more megapixel resolution

Via textually.org.

Braun Tube Jazz Band - Japan Media Arts Festival 2010

Spiraltwist — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:44:17 +0000

From we-make-money-not-art.com’s coverage of the Japan Media Arts Festival - The Arts Division.

The artist Wada Ei talks about the Band:

One day, a spectacular picture popped up in my brain. It was an image of abandoned electrical appliances being played as musical instruments on a street in a town. Using this image as a starting point, I set up the same number of tube televisions and PC-controlled video decks correspond to the number of notes in a musical scale to create a set of gamelan percussion instruments. Tapping TV tubes produces primitive and cosmic electrical music.

Video: Tokyo/Glow

Spiraltwist — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:51:01 +0000

A short little movie showcasing Tokyo, from pinktentacle.com:

tokyoglow-low from Nathan Johnston on Vimeo.

Anti Self-medication

Spiraltwist — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:07:48 +0000

Via scaryideas.com.

The Facebook Tomorrow

Kevin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:17:10 +0000

At this year’s DICE 2010 Expo, Carnegie Mellon’s Jesse Schell gave a fantastic presentation that starts with why Facebook *shouldn’t* work in the way that it does and extrapolates forward into a half-creepy and half-inspiring vision for the embodied internet, the network of things, the culture of games and the SPIMEworld to come.

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2010 - Guitar Hero 5

New polymer to give robots sensitive skin

m1k3y — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:05:45 +0000

From Technology Review:

The UK company Peratech, which last month signed a deal to develop novel pressure-sensing technology for screen maker Nissha, has announced that it will use the same approach to make artificial “skin” for the MIT Media Lab.

Peratech makes an electrically conductive material called quantum tunneling composite (QTC). When the material is compressed electrons jump between two conductors separated by polymer insulating layer covered with metallic nanoparticles. QTC has already been used to make small sensors for NASA’s Robonaut and for a robotic gripper made by Shadow Robot Company.

QTC robot skin could perhaps let a robot know precisely where it has been touched, and with how much pressure. It could also be helpful in designing machines that have better grasping capabilities, and for developing more natural ways for machines to interact with humans.

The company says QTC can be screen-printed as a flexible, robust sheet as thin as 75 microns or made into a coating just 10 microns thick. Because the material reacts only when a force is applied, it consumes little power. And it’s flexibility will let it conform to unique robotic shapes.

First factory robots, then better prosthetics and in the future, whole new sensory organs for posthumans, I say.

(OK, fine, and better sexbots..)