Category Archives: Tech

kaleidoscope
kal

Inspired by this TEDx Summit video by  Big Productions Paris, Italian director Luigi Pane of design studio Abstract Groove combines  a vintage kaleidoscopic technique and the Italian Gymnastics team ‘La Farfalle’ to eye-candiful effect. Abstract Groove sez:

We designed and built 4 thaumascopes of different sizes and shapes. The biggest one was 9 metres long with a triangular opening of 2.5 metres and the smallest was 1.5 metres in length with a square opening of 60 centimetres.
In order to understand how to achieve the graphics patterns we wanted, we started by studying small scale models and then we went onto CGI simulations. All the effects have been obtained in camera without the use of added post production.

Here’s how it was done.

creatorsproject

felix

A newly released video of Felix Baumgartner’s historic freefall from space on October 15th 2012: the complete unexpurgated experience this time, with multiple angles, POV and mission data.

If you’re a Rdio member (hey, who isn’t?), you can watch the full length documentary Mission To The Edge Of Space: The Inside Story Behind Red Bull Stratos here.

dailywhat

laser

A timelapse filmed by Sean Goebel filmed over three nights at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii – the Northern Hemisphere’s premier astronomy location due its low light pollution and14,000ft (4267m) elevation.

The beams are laser guide stars, shot into the atmosphere by the observatories to correct for atmospheric light distortion and create artificial ‘stars’ that act as reference points.

Music: All is Violent, All is Bright by God is an Astronaut.

colossal/coudal

ECAL

A 3D illusion by Benjamin Muzzin of the University of Art and Design in Lausanne who sez:

I wanted to explore the notion of the third dimension, with the desire to try to get out of the usual frame of a flat screen. For this, my work mainly consisted in exploring and experimenting a different device for displaying images, trying to give animations volume in space. The resulting machine works with the rotation of two screens placed back to back, creating a three-dimensional animated sequence that can be seen at 360 degrees. Due to the persistence of vision, the shapes that appear on the screen turn into kinetic light sculptures.

Mmm. Rotasty.

Music: Murder! by Montgomery Clunk

awesomer

cubebot cubebots2

MIT engineers John Romanishin and Kyle Gilpin have invented a new type of modular cube robot – the M-block – that can propel itself forward with the aid of a spinning internal 20,000rpm flywheel, leap, climb and snap using magnets onto other similar bots to form larger arrays.  MIT News sez:

Inside each M-Block is a flywheel that can reach speeds of 20,000 revolutions per minute; when the flywheel is braked, it imparts its angular momentum to the cube. On each edge of an M-Block, and on every face, are cleverly arranged permanent magnets that allow any two cubes to attach to each other.

reddit/awesomer

merc merc2

The Mercedes-Benz S 500 ‘Intelligent Drive’ research vehicle recently completed its first long range test drive:

…100 kilometers from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany, under real traffic conditions and complex situations including traffic lights, roundabouts, pedestrians, cyclists and trams.

A convincing, if rather unnerving performance.

doobybrain