Light Touch projector makes any surface a touchscreen A previously little-known company from the UK called Light Blue Optics has demoed a projector at CES which allows users to interact with the light image as if it were a touchscreen. The Light Touch throws a 10-inch image at WVGA resolution at incredibly short distances thanks to the holographic projection technology involved. At the same time the infra-red touch sensitive system allows users to interact with social networks, multimedia sharing and any other applications that can use the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth support in the device to connect to the Internet. It comes with 2GB of onboard flash memory, a microSD card slot for expanding the storage and the battery life will last 2 hours. UPDATE: Two years on and although Light Blue Optics doesn't seem to have come up with the goods, others have. - Prodigy projection keyboard iPhone case turns any surface into a keyboard
You Shall Have Bike Lanes Wherever You Go Some cities are slow getting around to approving bike lanes; others don't bother. Here is a way to carry your bike lane with you wherever you go: project it onto the road with fricking lasers. Alex Tee and Evan Gant of Altitude write: Our system projects a crisply defined virtual bike lane onto pavement, using a laser, providing the driver with a familiar boundary to avoid. Light Lane via GOOD A commenter pointed us to another idea to promote bike safety: The SPEED-VEST is a bicycle safety device and advocacy tool which displays the wearer’s current speed on their back in easy-to-read lighted numerals. Mykle Systems LabMore Bike Safety in TreeHugger: Turn Signal Jacket For Cyclists How To Be Seen On Your Bike at Night
Microscopic Solar Cells Could See More Sunlight Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have shrunk silicon solar cells down to the micro scale, opening new possibilities for improved efficiency. Multi-crystalline silicon, currently the gold standard for solar-cell efficiency, is expensive and produces cells that are heavy and brittle. Sandia’s microscopic silicon solar cells use 100 times less material while operating with the same efficiency. In addition to lower materials costs, the smaller scale of these cells means they could be incorporated into compact optical systems for cheaper light-tracking and concentration. “In microsystems, you’re looking for things that become cheaper, perform better, and gain new functionalities,” says Gregory Nielson, head scientist on the project. So far, the Sandia researchers have assembled and tested a single micro solar cell as proof of principle. Sandia’s cells are between 0.25 and one millimeter in diameter.
Lucid dreaming sleep mask Helios 700W lighting by Christian Stapelbroek One Light to Rule Them All One billion events, millions of lighting experts. That’s what happens. When you’ve got an event that needs lighting, you see a specialist. This light is made for events, but it’s not too much of a stretch to think you could use it for other things, like radical two-person disco parties, or that kittie-rave you’ve always had planned. It’s a moving head light sliced down to the minimum weight, size, and price. Designer: Christian Stapelbroek
Cod inspire potentially life-saving cold storage tech for human blood Polymers similar to the proteins found in this Arctic cod could dramatically improve the cryogenic storage of blood How is it possible that cold-blooded fish such as cod can live in Arctic waters without just freezing solid? As it turns out, they've got proteins in their bloodstream that act as a sort of antifreeze. British scientists have now copied the fashion in which those proteins work, to create a process by which donated human blood could be frozen for storage, then quickly made available for transfusion. Although it is already possible to store blood cryogenically, it requires the addition of an organic solvent in as high as a 1:1 ratio, before the freezing occurs. As an alternative to such solvents, researchers at the University of Warwick are instead looking to polyvinyl alcohol. Like the solvents, it keeps cell-rupturing ice crystals from forming as the blood thaws. Additionally, less of it is required – about 0.1 percent of the volume of the blood. About the Author
Create a 60′s Psychedelic Style Concert Poster In this tutorial, we will go through the steps to create a retro 1960s psychedelic concert poster. This tutorial relies heavily on the use of the Warp Tool, but includes a few other techniques as well. Let's get started. Create a new document with a poster-like size ratio. Visualize how you want the document to be laid out and draw some rough guides with the Brush Tool (B) on a new layer called "guides". I drew several different compartments that will each contain a different piece of text and one that will contain an image. Make a solid color adjustment layer and fill it with a deep purple. Now to set the first bit of text. Go Edit>Transform>Warp and warp the text to fit the compartment. Now let's go back in and change the color on some of this text. Many of these old posters were screen printed. The thing that is really going to make this look good and realistic is some texture. Now let's move on to our image that will fill the rest of the poster. Now, let's get back to the poster.
Biolite camping stove The Light Bulb Effect - Bulb Candles by Helbert Ferreira & Remi Melander - SYSTEM DESIGN STUDIO ? Yanko Design The Light Bulb Effect Let me put on my monocle and tell you a story. You see long ago before Swan or Edison invented the lightbulb, people used candles. When lightbulbs became the norm, the candle went the way of the wind. Designers: Helbert Ferreira, Remi Melander – SYSTEM DESIGN STUDIO