Inspiringly beautiful video of cloud-to-ground lightning – You can see all steps of lightning. First the stepped leader (clound-t-ground), second the upward leader (from tower), third the attachment between these two leaders, 4th the RETURN STROKE (the main stroke of a discharge) and after, the subsequent strokes. The capillary-like pattern of the stepped-leader seems particularly […]
GRIP (Group for Interdisciplinary Psychology), a multi-professional workgroup at Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg, Germany, has several detailed tutorials on adding a “spycam” to Pleo, to create a facial recognition system (via off-bot processing on a PC), and an XBee Module for RF communications to/from Pleo. Working with the Pleo Platform [Thanks, Robert!]
This week, EMS Labs has a nifty piece on Lissajous figures which Windell was able to generate using an LED display on one of the EMS Labs’ breakout board business cards suspended from an oscillation rig built from a file folder frame, wooden dowels, and BBQ skewers. Lissajous figures are interesting curves that occur in […]
Fig. 1 (a) Architecture of the optofluidic microscope (OFM); set of three arrows: illumination; single arrow: flow direction. (b) Photograph of the OFM prototype compared with a U.S. quarter. The actual nanoaperture array is 600 µm long. (c) The top view of the OFM; denotes the isolated aperture; denotes the corresponding aperture, as explained in […]
Here’s a pretty cool tutorial on how to mod a Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 to use as a mini telescope to monitor the stars and take pictures (aka “astro imaging”) of the view. Check out the step by step instructions at the link below. Instructions for Converting Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 for Telescope Use
Jason writes – When you take pictures with the built-in flash on your digital camera, it’s common to get a washed-out, deer-in-headlights result from your subject. This is particularly noticeable with portraits and close-range photography. To obtain a softer, more natural look from your photographs and eliminate the glare, you need a flash diffuser to […]
This time we are going to be making a Zoetrope from a bunch of junk. What is a Zoetrope? Here is what I found on Wikipedia: The earliest elementary zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD by the prolific inventor Ting Huan. It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. […]
