Brad Ideas - Inventions - Comments

As a side thought, I would

Kaytonk — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:14:04 -0800

As a side thought, I would prefer long term for it to be taken one step further and a generic docking station implemented. That way peripherals are also easily connected. It would have to suit various sizes, but as it is essentially just a platform with plugs at the back, it shouldnt be too hard.

I used to be an Optima repair agent, and the Stands they provided to schools used a single connector to a power board that then had fixed plugs at the back of the unit, so that you could easily charge them on stand and keep the normal power supplies on the desks.

The biggest stalling point

Kaytonk — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:06:16 -0800

The biggest stalling point is of course the manufacturers, selling replacement power supplies is acutally fairly lucrative, hence in manuals they strongly advise against 'inferior generic power supplies' (remind you of ink catridges?) citing all sorts of rubbish reasons. Having anything generic means better competition for sales of that generic product, hence the price is driven down, which is great for us, but poor for manufacturers.

There is of course the argument that with most manufacturers having the generic connection that the 'odd one out' would lose sales and be forced to join the mainstream connector, the problem will be convincing the majority of manufacturers to change to this connector in order to make it the standard.

The interum measure you have suggested is sound, it would be a convenient way for consumers to connect, but I can't see it forcing manufacturers to adopt the new standard long term, as long as we can adapt to whatever they are using there is no incentive to change

Pilot Explorer pen. The

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:36:35 -0800

Pilot Explorer pen. The process of opening the clipping the pen in your pocket retracts the pen. Genius design but the idiots a pilot never properly marketed it and discontinued it.

iPhone Webcam - Winterized

Scott Rock — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:19:37 -0800

I think stupid stuff all of the time... thats why having a workshop is so important.

As a web developer and bash script experience, I'm thinking about doing this with an old 2G iphone using a bash script to execute the command to take a camera snapshot every 10 minutes ---> scp to my production servers over Edge/3G... then write a quick web app using my framework and set up users to view latest and archived snapshots..

As far as power goes, it pulls very little.. and the screen will be off, so I expect any solar solution to keep it charged.
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-solar-iPodiPhone-charger-a...

I would probably build some type of grey or camo wood or metal box with some flame retardant insulation it it for winter and a 1x1 plexiglass window for the camera to peek out of. Mount it to a tree facing at the river.. maybe high up so you need a ladder.. once I know it works... Hah...

Snow? If I can position it right so the wind works to my advantage to keep snow off of the lens I'll be golden. The solor panel should keep snow off with heat.. or so I hear.

The reason I say iphone is simply because its the only real device with a camera that I can SSH into, setup Bash and have it SCP to a webserver over wireless network.

Even better, I can SSH into the iPhone from the truck nearby (or home) with my macbook/iphone using a DynDNS client.. unless it died or locked up.

Now only if there way a way to justify the monthly wireless fees? Possibly add it as a device to use my lot of allowance thru the phone I keep in my pocket?

Maybe I'll have a few fisherman chip and I'll built it. I could probably do it in a weekend.

I just hope no one steals it! I'll still force myself to get out and check out nature and the river.. but I have to say, it seems more "GREEN" than burning fuel for a drive.

If anyone wants links or more info, i'll dig them out.

I think that's just a Rube

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:40:29 -0800

I think that's just a Rube Goldberg machine. You could use what's being used on real pianos nowadays to replace lead weights: magnets. Electromagnets, actually.

Stirling Engine based hybrid car

Kwazai — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:09:06 -0800

I personally would like to see a biomass powered stirling hybrid. size the batteries for commuters (less than 125 miles or so per charge). use biomass fuel (gasifiers?) hooked up to a small stirling (1hp or less) to recharge the batteries while its parked at work. I would guess an enclosed bicycle type vehicle would probably work. (I've calculated my average speed to work at 35mph- even though a large part is 65mph speed limit- damn traffic...). My assumption here is that 10 to 30lbs of sawdust (corn, garbage, etc...-dry biomass...) would sufficiently recharge the batteries for commuting. The gasifier and stirling would need to be electronically controlled(charging cycle), because burning biomass is typically considered a stationary rather than mobile task. a 1hp stirling is still rather large... anyway my .02$.
L8r
Mike

If you wait two years...

Shava Nerad — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:53:41 -0800

My company will be producing a similar display tech with AMOLED panels. We're just waiting for the cost of large format inkjet produced AMOLED stock to come down in price. It's really not very far out there.

Also, a halfway point is M$'s Project Natal for interface ideas.

siggraph demo

drewp — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:24:54 -0800

Someone had a system like this at SIGGRAPH about 1-4 years ago. Their focus was actually on their ability to use a few graphics cards at once to render a scene in realtime, but to give them something to render, they were face-tracking people who came to the screen and adjusting their camera based on the position of your face. IIRC, they were moving the camera backwards (like you might do for a game, as opposed to a window?), and the guy there didn't seem to care. I think they were using OpenCV for the face tracking, which is a common free choice for that task. Here's my own OpenCV tester code, in fact: http://bigasterisk.com/darcs/?r=headtrack;a=headblob;f=/cap

Yup, that's it

brad — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:26:00 -0800

That’s the sort of thing that has been done in the lab. I’m interested in seeing it taken further, to working without special glasses or hat, and multiple monitors on a wall.

Remember the issue is that video walls have seams, and thus are imperfect, and today’s main market LCD panels have bezels too large to make a nice small-seam video wall. So the idea is to create the illusion of seamlessness by making the bezels and gaps part of the whole thing.

3d head tracking

Adam Drew — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:34:46 -0800

You mean... like this?

Re: Good luck getting a stirling

Nefarious Wheel — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:20:07 -0800

You don't directly turn the wheels with one. Torque is immaterial - you run the armature of a generator at the speed where you get maximum rpm. The generator either drives electric motors directly (you want torque?) or charges batteries that drive electric motors. You don't whack a clutch on it and drive it like a conventional car.

Stirling Engines and narrowboats

Nefarious Wheel — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:06:49 -0800

It is about the most efficient engine on the planet, yes. But the size of the piston isn't the only determinant. The actual temperature differential that you're mining has a large part to play. The rest is basically plumbing.

Stirling Engines and narrowboats

Nefarious Wheel — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:02:24 -0800

I believe WhisperTech is a New Zealand firm, not Australian (much as I'd love to claim them). Their main product is branded Whispergen. And I can easily see them used in that application - they're small, and you could (depending on the draft of your narrowboat) potentially run them with the cold sink in the water and the hot side exchanger plumbed above a small, cozy peat fire.

The major advantage of Stirlings is not their size:output ratio so much as the fact that their fuel is essentially free. Often the simple thermal differential between a body of water and the air above is enough to keep them spinning. Might be enough for your application - Narrowboats aren't exactly the sort you'd use for water skiing. Zero carbon footprint, very easy on the operating budget.

Firmware for Canon Cameras

Joel Upchurch — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:15:50 -0800

I found a alternative firmware for Canon cameras that might be useful for this camera. You load the firmware from the SD card. Another feature is that you can use the usb connection for a remote shutter release.

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

The cheapest new camera I could find to use the firmware is the A470.

http://www.adorama.com/ICAA470GY.html

They may not swim, but in my

Anonymous — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:37:12 -0800

They may not swim, but in my experience they drown and then others walk on their dead comrades...