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Fibre Optic Clothing is Just as Horrid as You'd Expect
Posted by Mark Wilson at 11:45 PM on August 13, 2008
Remember those green LED suits that were part of the Olympics Opening Ceremonies? They were a bit alien, but boy did the outfits create a remarkable artistic effect. Who knows? Maybe this fibre optic and LED clothing by Lumigram would be equally wondrous if worn by 2008 club-going ladies. But on its own accord, our inner fashion designer voice is whispering "pass" ever so gently. Besides, US$250 is too much to pay for any piece of clothing that exposes our navel before we lose some weight. [LumiGram via InventorSpot]
These are the walls of a Human-Computer Interaction Institute lab at Carnegie Mellon, and as you can see, they provide plenty of opportunities to create such interactions on the fly when you snag your sweater on some spiky solder leads or that ZIF socket handle. 
The latest version of Lockheed Martin's FOPEN system--Foliage Penetrating Synthetic Aperture Radar--will make Predators happy, both the Unmanned Air Vehicles and the human alien hunters. The imaging system, which is part of the US Army's TRACER--Tactical Reconnaissance and Counter-Concealment Enabled Radar--program gives high-resolution, near-real-time video of any target areas through very dense vegetation, following people and vehicles in the jungle and woods with 10-metre accuracy. Its precision, even from a very high altitude, is impressive:
From Samuel Rhoads-Clarke, KitRadio is part DIY radio, part mini-artwork diorama. It's designed to teach you about the inner workings of a gizmo that we take for granted as a "black box" item nowadays, or "become familiar with the technology behind the product" as Samuel puts it. To that end, the wooden box and components with brass images attached are self-assembly, and create a tiny urban- or farm-scene diorama when they're completed. Sounds totally bizarre, and slightly cute at the same time... just the right thing to get techy kids interested. No word on whether it'll become a product rather than a prototype. [
As part of the 2008 World Expo, interactive floor designer Sensacell has built a 23 square metre installation from 1000 of their LED panels. Covered in strong, architectural glass, the floor responds to pressure by lighting up. And while that alone doesn't sound all that exciting, the system tracks the pressure over time, allowing users to create a transient series of footprints that, I dunno, looks all futuristic...like the Sahara in the year 2832 when man has used all the sand to make those bottled sculptures you see at the mall. Check out the clip:
Here's something that you might miss among all the crazy junk at SIGGRAPH. It's an interactive aquatic life table called Oasis, by designer Yunsil Heo, that is completely covered by fancy black sand. Why is it covered, you ask? Well, that's what makes it interactive. By moving the sand so it will show the LCD screen below you begin to grow aquatic life. At first only little guppies appear, but over time the guppies start to grow into fish and other crazy aquatic creatures. Make the sand-less hole bigger and it starts to populate with more life. Then once your little fishies are all grown up, just cover them up with sand and they'll be dead. [
Though Pico Z toy helicopters and their ilk are fun, they're bloody 
Hubble, without a doubt the most spectacular digital camera in the solar system, has completed its 100,000th orbit. To celebrate, scientists pointed the telescope to NGC 2074, a spectacular star birthplace 170,000 light-years away, right next to the Tarantula nebula, where Ming of Mongo is probably building a weapon of mass destruction. Like always, the image--taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2--is breathtaking, especially the high resolution version:
A chair made of 
Who doesn't want the ability to control robotic arms? Especially when the robo-arms are mapped directly to contact points and grasping-force from your own five fingers. Even though this wonderfully named MiesterGRIP does indeed give you robo-arm control, don't expect to be lifting cars anytime soon since it appears grabbing a balloon is the most exciting trick that's currently possible.
Over at 
A fire broke out in Apple's Cupertino headquarters last night, starting on the roof of a two-story building, and severely damaging it. Initial reports suggest that the three-alarm fire at Valley Green 6 started at or near an air conditioning unit, and was phoned in by workers on site. About 66 firefighters were on scene ultimately—they put the fire out in approximately half an hour. Currently there's no details about what Apple uses the particular building for, so the repercussions are unclear. But luckily it looks like no one was hurt. CBS5.com has some video of the aftermath. [
Just on 
Many laptop users prefer mice instead of trackpads. The promise of the laptop is untethered portability, and in that spirit Logitech has a new wireless mouse that helps keep your busy hands free, attaching to a dock mounted on your laptop when not in use so you can more easily take it from place to place. The mouse comes with a small dongle for your USB port, that means you don't have to wrap twelve inches of plastic around your wrist. Even if this doesn't solve all your problems it will solve the lack of pockets you must have. [
This was unexpected. Today Telstra, through its 
There was a game that used various tiles laid down in a certain order to control battling robots. It was a board game and it was a lot of fun. The idea was to make a path that would let your robot run a program, and that's the (very) basic idea behind littleBits: snap-together micro-circuit boards that allow you to use Lego-like pieces to make larger structures that can do a lot more than their individual pieces. In theory the potential is as limited as the pieces people can put together and the software it can run. We see this as more of a prototyping toy than a professional modelling tool, but either way it seems very, very fun. [
This past weekend, a NASA-sanctioned 400-mile (643km) "personal air vehicle" race was held in Santa Rosa, CA, to see who had created the quietest, most fuel-efficient plane that's still reasonably fast. Those involved hope pushing these ideas forward will make personal airplanes cost effective someday. These PAVs run as quiet as a pickup truck while averaging a fuel efficiency of 25 to 30 miles per gallon (10-13 km per litre). Four planes showed up for the challenge and US$100,000 in prize money was awarded, though the most intriguing craft of them all, a modded DA-20 that runs partially on biodiesel, was unable to compete because of a faulty sensor. In the end, the big winner was the Pipistrel Virus, a two-seater with tech-happy features such as three GPS modules, terrain visualization screen and a rocket-propelled parachute that deploys in the event of a mid-air collision. Here's a look at all four contenders:
Phones with built-in fingerprint scanners for locking down your data have been around for years, and normally we wouldn't care about a China-only handset from Lenovo, but it's not every day you see a phone that packs call recording capabilities out of the box. There are apps for recording for Symbian and Win-Mo phones, and it's something 
Chrysler is poised to be the first car manufacturer to offer built-in Internet access in its vehicles. The service, called Uconnect Web, uses existing wireless data network for Internet access it then shares with devices in the car via Wi-Fi, essentially turning your car into one big hot spot. The core device, which costs US$499 to install, can take advantage of WiMAX or EV-DO networks where available through a service called Autonet. The service will sell for US$29 a month. We like the idea for some things, like getting traffic and weather updates on the fly, but is the world ready for motorists that are even more distracted while driving? [
While the tears spilled mourning 
AppleInsider 
Atmospheric conditions were just right early this morning in the Chicago area for the weather service to pick up motorists driving down Interstate 55 and 57 using Doppler radar. Apparently, one of these motorists was late for an important meeting because a car was clocked doing around 210 kph. It's hard to see, but the green and blue specs in the area circled above indicate the high speed vehicle.
Dell's offering up a 128 GB SSD for their XPS M1330 and M1530 laptops and even with the dwindling prices of SSDs, US$450 doesn't sound like a half-bad deal. [
It's not quite as cool looking as the 
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is suing e-voting machine maker Diebold, 
In case you needed any extra warning, do not leave your iPhone 3G in the rain. It's not waterproof. According to routine testing by the Fédération Romande des Consommateurs:
To celebrate the not-so-bad-but-really-not-great film The X-Files: I Want To Believe, Fox has partnered with Apple to release these special edition iPod Classics and iPod Nanos. The pair consist of a regular 80GB Classic and 8GB Nano but with nice portraits of Mulder and Sculley looking very serious and mysterious etched on the back. You can also have your name or a personalised message inscribed for free. But these collector's items don't come cheap, as you'll be paying US$80 over the regular 80GB iPod Classic's price and US$70 more for the Nano to show your fanboyism. But then that's what it's all about, right? [
Flash! An inflatable catastrophe second only to the Hindenburg disaster has occurred in Bern Switzerland at the Paul Klee Centre art museum. A house-sized inflatable turd designed by American artist Paul McCarthy broke free from its moorings in high winds after the security system designed to deflate the installation failed.
Every so often, another OCD nerd realises they've wasted their life collecting things and/or meets a girl who refuses to cohabitate with someone who dedicates an entire room to 20-year-old video games. At that point, we see 
Digital dowloads taxes might be breathing