Source: http://gizmodo.com/5494485/tokyoflashs-e+ink-e+clock
The following designs are just concepts. However, if you (and others) like them enough, esoteric watchmakers at TokyoFlash will put one into actual production.
Each watch contains ePaper, sure, but it also syncs with your cellphone over Bluetooth, displaying message, mail and call notification (if you can decode the information). Luckily, they've included this helpful chart to demystify the UI:
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5494788/in-case-self+assembling-machinery-didnt-scare-you-before
Self-assembling chips aren't new, but up till now, people have used electron-beam rays to carve grooves where molecules get cozy. Electron-beam guns are damn expensive and damn slow. This breakthrough—which relies more than ever on molecules doing their own thing—will lead to a cheaper way to make the smallest physically possible microchips, and probably increase hard drive capacity and current chip performance in the meantime.
The news, published this week by MIT researchers Caroline Ross and Karl Berggren, is that they can now use an electron gun just to make "hitchin' posts" for the molecules to identify then wrap around. The trick? Using two separate kinds of molecule strands—described by Ross as spaghetti and tagliatelle, and by Berggren as DeNiro and Grodin in Midnight Run—that keep each other in line. Once the molecules are in place, a plasma charge dissolves one set, and turns the other set into glass crucial to processing. Berggren and Ross have shown they can fake a chip; their next step is to make a pattern that actually functions as a genuine circuit.
We've reached the limits of my understanding, but not my appreciation. This stuff will one day be used for making ever smaller microprocessors, but in the meantime can be used to streamline current chipmaking methods, and also to pack hard drive data in tighter. I'm relieved to hear there's still a need for someone to say where the posts go, but let's face it, with self-assembling chips like these, who needs ham-handed humans anyway? Queue the excitement—and paranoia. [MIT]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5494912/cardking-iphone-app-scans-and-stores-all-your-membership-cards
Sure, it might be a bit awkward to hand my iPhone to sales people so that they can scan the barcode and maybe the reflection on the screen will prevent things from scanning properly—in which case I'm sure the barcode can be hand-entered—but darn it, at least I'll be able to claim that I didn't forget my random cards. [CardKing]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5494913/diane-birch-lives-in-a-projector-screenand-now-in-my-head-too
Diane Birch is very very very cute. She's also a lovely singer. Her song Valentino is chirpy and sweet, and her music video—with its ghetto augmented reality—is quite ingenious. Watch it. You'll like it. Then, watch the how-to:
The video looks deceivingly simple, but it was hell to choreograph and produce to perfection. It kind of reminds me of the spirit of OK Go's videos.
The song was featured in the movie Valentine's Day, and the movie was created by Dennis Liu—the guy who made the Again and Again music video, then went on to make some other videos for Microsoft. [Thanks Dennis]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5495118/how-to-make-organic-leds
These instructions were written up by the folks from the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin and could very well be the blueprint for my next weekend project. Anyone have any pointers though? [University of Wisconsin via Erik de Bruijn via Open Materials via Make via GooHack]
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