Archive for June, 2006

Crowd power

Crowd Power is the idea of harnessing the energy generated by crowds, for example by capturing small vibrations in the environment. I’m skeptical as to whether the amount of energy produced would make this cost effective, but it’s still a neat concept.

tags: , ,
2006-6-27-10:34 PM #

via: Don't remember...

Holophonic sound

Holophonic sound

Holophonic sound, a demonstration of how you can get surround sound from only two speakers. We only have two ears, yet we can perceive location because they are slightly offset. Our brain compares the input from both ears over time and makes a guess as to how the sound is moving through space. A short sound is harder to locate than a long sound, because for a longer sound we can rotate our head and see the relative change for each ear. By subtly varying the timing and volume of sound sent to each ear, you can fool the brain into thinking it comes from a particular location. I bet the demo above works a lot better with the constant, repetitive sounds they chose than more varied sounds, where changes in volume and pitch might not correspond to changes in location.

Feet

A really original photo collection.

Software upgrades

An article on the usability of software upgrades. This is actually something that Google does really well – I highly recommend trying out Google Pack if you’re a PC user.

Bubbles

Bubbles

The ceiling of the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Unprocessed version.

Various cool pictures

A bunch of cool pictures: NASA, insects and salt flats. And as a bonus, some photography humor.

Long story short, I just got a new computer, I was out of town all day yesterday, and I’m leaving shortly for a Midsummer weekend party, so I won’t be posting until Monday. Enjoy the weekend!

Tefal Aquaspeed

Interesting article on the design of the Tefal Aquaspeed iron. A couple of key innovations lead to a successful product in an unassuming category [linked to the Google Cache because the Design Council site is really broken].

tags: , ,
2006-6-21-11:35 PM #

via: Don't remember...
Fire rainbow

Really cool picture from National Geographic of a strange rainbow phenomenon called a circumhorizontal arc.