Harbour Patrol

prostheticknowledge: Prototype Real / Digital Info Interface...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:46:56 -0700

Prototype Real / Digital Info Interface System

Using projection and gestures to create interactive relationship with information - video embedded below:

Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a next generation user interface which can accurately detect the users finger and what it is touching, creating an interactive touchscreen-like system, using objects in the real word.

“We think paper and many other objects could be manipulated by touching them, as with a touchscreen. This system doesn’t use any special hardware; it consists of just a device like an ordinary webcam, plus a commercial projector. Its capabilities are achieved by image processing technology.”

Using this technology, information can be imported from a document as data, by selecting the necessary parts with your finger.

More at DigInfo here

RELATED: This is very similar to a concept developed in 1991 called ‘The Digital Desk’ [link]

Sooooooo Goooooooooooood

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:55:27 -0700

Sooooooo Goooooooooooood

YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:54:51 -0700

YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

This New Camera Stabilizer Could Change Cinematography Forever

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:10:22 -0700

This New Camera Stabilizer Could Change Cinematography Forever

kqedscience: Scientists Figure Out What You See While You’re...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 04:28:52 -0700

kqedscience:

Scientists Figure Out What You See While You’re Dreaming

”In today’s science-so-weird-it-absolutely-must-be-science-fiction contest, we have a clear winner: a new study in which a team of scientists use an MRI machine, a computer model and thousands of images from the internet to figure out what people see as they dream.”

Brave new world….

apogeesystem: diarrheaworldstarhiphop: 100 duders are building...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 03:50:53 -0700

apogeesystem:

diarrheaworldstarhiphop:

100 duders are building a 1:1 scale model of the continent of Westoros in Minecraft

Are you FUCKING kidding me?!

http://mc.westeroscraft.com/map/#/2280/64/9805/-9/0/0

LOOK

LOOK AT THIS SHIT

APPARENTLY I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS UNTIL NOW BUT HOLY SHIT. IM IMPRESSED, BUT WHY THO

wH

AT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT THE FUCK

[loudly screaming at screen]
gives up on minecraft forever holy fucking shit no way no fucking way

unknownskywalker: Mercury by Eimer

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 02:18:55 -0700

unknownskywalker:

Mercury by Eimer

itsfullofstars: sagansense: NASA Mega-Rocket Could Lead to...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:56:47 -0700

itsfullofstars:

sagansense:

NASA Mega-Rocket Could Lead to Skylab 2 Deep Space Station

NASA’s first manned outpost in deep space may be a repurposed rocket part, just like the agency’s first-ever astronaut abode in Earth orbit.

With a little tinkering, the upper-stage hydrogen propellant tank of NASA’s huge Space Launch System rocket would make a nice and relatively cheap deep-space habitat, some researchers say. They call the proposed craft “Skylab II,” an homage to the 1970s Skylab space station that was a modified third stage of a Saturn V moon rocket.

“This idea is not challenging technology,” said Brand Griffin, an engineer with Gray Research, Inc., who works with the Advanced Concepts Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

“It’s just trying to say, ‘Is this the time to be able to look at existing assets, planned assets and incorporate those into what we have as a destination of getting humans beyond LEO [low-Earth orbit]?’” Griffin said Wednesday (March 27) during a presentation with NASA’s Future In-Space Operations working group.

A roomy home in deep space
NASA is developing the Space Launch System (SLS) to launch astronauts toward distant destinations such as near-Earth asteroids and Mars. The rocket’s first test flight is slated for 2017, and NASA wants it to start lofting crews by 2021.

The SLS will stand 384 feet tall (117 meters) in its biggest (“evolved”) incarnation, which will be capable of blasting 130 metric tons of payload to orbit. Its upper-stage hydrogen tank is big, too, measuring 36.1 feet tall by 27.6 feet wide (11.15 m by 8.5 m).

The tank’s dimensions yield an internal volume of 17,481 cubic feet (495 cubic m) — roughly equivalent to a two-story house. That’s much roomier than a potential deep-space habitat derived from modules of the International Space Station (ISS), which are just 14.8 feet (4.5 m) wide, Griffin said.

The tank-based Skylab II could accommodate a crew of four comfortably and carry enough gear and food to last for several years at a time without requiring a resupply, he added. Further, it would launch aboard the SLS in a single piece, whereas ISS-derived habitats would need to link up multiple components in space.

Because of this, Skylab II would require relatively few launches to establish and maintain, Griffin said. That and the use of existing SLS-manufacturing infrastructure would translate into big cost savings — a key selling point in today’s tough fiscal climate.

“We will have the facilities in place, the tooling, the personnel, all the supply chain and everything else,” Griffin said.

He compared the overall concept with the original Skylab space station, which was built in a time of declining NASA budgets after the boom years of the Apollo program.

Skylab “was a project embedded under the Apollo program,” Griffin said. “In many ways, this could follow that same pattern. It could be a project embedded under SLS and be able to, ideally, not incur some of the costs of program startup.”

Living beyond the moon
Griffin and his colleagues envision placing Skylab II at the Earth-moon Lagrange point 2, a gravitationally stable location beyond the moon’s far side.

Over the past year or so, NASA has been drawing up plans for a possible manned outpost at EM-L2. A station there would establish a human presence in deep space, serve as a staging ground for lunar operations and help build momentum for exploring more distant destinations, such as asteroids and Mars, advocates say.

The Skylab II concept could also help ferry astronauts to these far-flung locales, Griffin said.

“You can build multiple vehicles,” he said. “If we were to send this one, the first one, out to Earth-moon L2, you could build another that that could be a transit hab. So rather than having to go back and use space station parts, you would be able to pick these off the line.”

I love Skylab.

this is awesome.

spaceplasma: Gemini 9A

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:39:04 -0700

Cdr. Cernan's EVA camera, view of Gemini IX

Ethiopia (Eritrea) and Sudan (Kassala)

spaceplasma:

Gemini 9A

kqedscience: More happy endangered frog news: “the...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:36:17 -0700

kqedscience:

More happy endangered frog news: “the endangered limosa harlequin frog (Atelopus limosus) has been bred in captivity for the first time. This unbelievably groovy-looking character is native to the tropical lowland forests of eastern Panama.”

Read more here from Mother Jones.

scanzen: Wish I Was Rich As The Stars Tests at ILC’s...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 09:58:59 -0700

scanzen:

Wish I Was Rich As The Stars

Tests at ILC’s laboratories into the flexibility of various forms of space suit. (animgif: me)

architizer: Check out Dubai’s Amazing Cloud Scape!

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 09:40:27 -0700

Photo: Sebastian Opitz via The Daily Mail

Photo: Sebastian Opitz via The Daily Mail

Photo: Sebastian Opitz via The Daily Mail

Photo: Sebastian Opitz via The Daily Mail

Photo: Sebastian Opitz via The Daily Mail

Photo: Sebastian Opitz via The Daily Mail

architizer:

Check out Dubai’s Amazing Cloud Scape!

theremina: Living Wall These vegetated surfaces don’t just look...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 09:35:29 -0700

theremina:

Living Wall

These vegetated surfaces don’t just look pretty. They have other benefits as well, including cooling city blocks, reducing loud noises, and improving a building’s energy efficiency.What’s more, a recent modeling study shows that green walls can potentially reduce large amounts of air pollution in what’s called a “street canyon,” or the corridor between tall buildings.

For the study, Thomas Pugh, a biogeochemist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, and his colleagues created a computer model of a green wall with generic vegetation in a Western European city. Then they recorded chemical reactions based on a variety of factors, such as wind speed and building placement.

The simulation revealed a clear pattern: A green wall in a street canyon trapped or absorbed large amounts of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter—both pollutants harmful to people, said Pugh. Compared with reducing emissions from cars, little attention has been focused on how to trap or take up more of the pollutants, added Pugh, whose study was published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

That’s why the green-wall study is “putting forward an alternative solution that might allow [governments] to improve air quality in these problem hot spots,” he said.Compared with reducing emissions from cars, little attention has been focused on how to trap or take up more of the pollutants, added Pugh, whose study was published last year in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

That’s why the green-wall study is “putting forward an alternative solution that might allow [governments] to improve air quality in these problem hot spots,” he said.

Full Gallery

kqedscience: Google adds street views inside Japan nuclear...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 09:30:33 -0700

kqedscience:

Google adds street views inside Japan nuclear zone

This image shows Google’s “camera-equipped vehicle as it moves through Namie in Japan, a nuclear no-go zone where former residents have been unable to live since they fled from radioactive contamination from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant two years ago.”

thegrazing: Treehouse Community Finca Bellavista (FBV) is a...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 09:27:58 -0700

thegrazing:

Treehouse Community

Finca Bellavista (FBV) is a sustainable treehouse community situated on 600 acres of land in the mountainous South Pacific coastal region of Costa Rica. FBV is the brainchild of Mateo and Erica Hogan, a married couple from Colorado who fell in love with Costa Rica.

These guys are living the dream.

Awesome Lunar Mining Vehicle Concept Art by AdamBurn D.S.I...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 09:23:37 -0700

Awesome Lunar Mining Vehicle Concept Art

by AdamBurn

D.S.I Surveyor Vehicle

The third image in my own series of Lunar mining is this fun looking thing, the Surveyor Vehicle is one of the smallest vehicles used by the mining team and is considered a general purpose vehicle but it also has one very important task, it is tasked with moving ahead of the main mining fleet and surveying the areas to make sure the giant harvester and H3 transports are not met by impassible terrain.

These vehicles also double as general maintenance units outfitted with a robotic arm with multiple attachments and an assortment of tools and replacement equipment they can conduct repairs on drones, communication arrays, and even minor repairs on the larger transports.

With a top speed of 60 mph and advanced multi direction suspension they are often used by the mining staff during down time taking them out for joy rides.

D.S.I Heavy Harvester Platform

Two things inspired this monstrosity, one was the movie Moon where they have set up a mining operation on the moon to harvest Helium 3 (needed for fusion reactors) and the announcement from Deep Space Industries (D.S.I) that they are going to start mining asteroids and the Moon in the near future.

I thought that seeing as it’s on the Moon you wouldn’t really need to worry about things like pollution and noise so you can build them big and loud. So as part of a running series about strip mining the Moon bare I give you the H.H.P (Heavy Harvester Platform) this one is called Leviathan and is number 2 of a fleet of 10 that slowly move over the surface of the Moon at about 3 mph and rip up the surface extracting the Helium 3 in its on board processing plant. Smaller transports take the Helium 3 to nearby depots where it’s fired at the Earth in large containers.

It’s damn dirty as behind each machine is several miles of dust that takes some time to settle and also it leaves behind a trench about 20 metres deep, but damn does it look awesome… Also it has no brakes.

D.S.I Helium 3 Transport Vehicle

Continuing with my Lunar Helium 3 mining project this image shows the Helium 3 Transport Vehicle. Each one of the huge harvesting platforms has a fleet of 6 H3TV’s which can hold a huge amount of refined Helium 3 ferrying it between the constantly moving behemoths to the transport docks dotted around the Lunar surface. Each of these vehicles will make around 6 trips a day and a fully automated but still hold a small crew for safety and maintenance reasons.

Like the giant harvester these vehicles are fitted with polarising plating which prevents the course and dangerous Lunar dust from sticking to the hull and damaging components, despite these methods each vehicle has to undergo a total deep clean once every month to prevent massive systems failure, to make sure the Helium 3 keeps rolling in on time a stand by fleet of H3TV’s are located at each transport dock.

Visit AdamBurn for more awesome space concept art.

garyschroeder: Flown Saturn V Engines Recovered from...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 09:20:32 -0700

garyschroeder:

Flown Saturn V Engines Recovered from Atlantic

So I just learned that bazillionaire Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos funded a salvage mission to recover spent Saturn V parts from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Bezos’ team has indeed located two Saturn F-1 engines from a depth of almost three miles. The specific engines have not yet been positively identified but they may belong to S-1C-6, the first stage of the Saturn V which launched Apollo 11. If so, this would be amazing. The only hardware to return from that mission are some pressure suits and the Command Module Columbia. Having more physical remnants by which to remember that historic mission would be wonderful.

News release from Bezos Expeditions.

camasaurus: theomeganerd: Little Golden Books Featuring...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 08:11:00 -0700

camasaurus:

theomeganerd:

Little Golden Books Featuring Portal, BioShock, & Skyrim by Joey Spiotto

Can these be real?

johnrossbowie: brain-food: Artist Jay Shells channeled his...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 07:52:36 -0700

johnrossbowie:

brain-food:

Artist Jay Shells channeled his love of hip hop music and his uncanny sign-making skills towards a brand new project: “Rap Quotes.” For this ongoing project, Shells created official-looking street signs quoting famous rap lyrics that shout out specific street corners and locations.

thanks to my twitter friends for tipping me off to some contemporary hip-hop. Now enjoy these rhymes …

orientaltiger: Full Moon by Sotirios Papadopoulos is a credenza...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 07:50:12 -0700

orientaltiger:

Full Moon by Sotirios Papadopoulos is a credenza painted with luminous moon which glows in the dark.