If you like our previous posts on the Multi-Touch Interaction Screen and Future Office Table, you'll love this interactive mirror:
The installation consists of three 8’ high by 3.5 ’ wide panes of mirrored glass placed side by side, each displaying rear-projected content from a high-lumen projector. A user standing in front of the mirrors has the unusual sensation of seeing their reflection and the projected content simultaneously.
Sensors embedded in the structure above each pane register when a user reaches out to a “hot spot,” allowing users to navigate the projected content without ever needing to touch the “screen” or press a “button.” This combined with scale of the system, and the projected image being captured on the inside surface of the glass creates a unique spatial experience where the content appears organically before the viewer. An additional sensor recognizes when a user approaches and automatically activates the mirror to welcome the visitor.
The interactive mirror is created by Nikolai Cornell of madein.la and Phil van Allen of Commotion New Media, with content by Designory and Mindflood. It was commissioned by The George P. Johnson Company.
Behold the world's smallest guitar, made by Dustin Carr and Harold Craighead of Cornell University's Nanofabrication Facility. The nano-guitar is 10 micrometers long, about the size of a single cell human blood cell. Each of the six strings are 50 nanometers wide, about the width of 10 atoms.
Newly discovered fossils of Castrocauda lutrasimilis, a beaver-like animal, suggests that mammals swam with dinosaurs during the Jurassic era.
"Its lifestyle was probably very similar to the modern day platypus," Zhe-Xi Luo, curator of vertebrate paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, said in a statement. "It probably lived along river or lake banks. It doggy-paddled around, ate aquatic animals and insects, and burrowed tunnels for its nest."
An interesting collection of photos and short articles from Delaware's Public Archive 100 Stories Online Exhibition. From this particular photo:
Governor Elbert Carvel and Delmarva Chicken Festival Queen Jane Mustard flash their smiles as she pretends to place a chef’s hat on the Governor’s head at the 1950 Delmarva Chicken Festival.
The scarves from this new company are designed by Eve Reaven who is a cell biologist in Palo Alto, California.
Dr. Reaven has used an electron microscope for much of her professional life and has continuously marveled at the intricacy and beauty of the natural patterns found inside cells. She shares what she has seen with others through designs for scarves and other textiles. In the current selection, she captures the essence of structures related to cell movement, cell traffic, energy and performance. The cell structures represented in these patterns are magnified 50,000 to 1,000,000 times their original size, allowing us to experience the amazing designs created by nature.
Very Cool: http://www.asliceoflifescarves.com/index.html
Generated by water pressure, LED attached to a shower head glows. Since the color of LED changes depending on the water temperature, you can tell the water temperature intuitively.
It turned out that J. Edgar Hoover, perhaps the most famous director of the FBI, loved the classic TV show "I Love Lucy".
He wrote a fan letter to Lucille Ball:
"I got quite a kick out of your reference to the FBI and myself and I don't believe that I ever laughed as much at any TV program as I did at yours on Monday evening."
Ars Electronica Futurelab is developing what promises to be a very cool table for both collaborative work and communications.
The prototype features a personal workspace for each member of the group as well as a shared virtual working domain that enables participants to organize, process and exchange documents with one another.
