Dead drop letter boxes refer to secret locations sometimes used by spies to exchange items or letters without requiring them to meet or use official postal services. As part of his ongoing residency with EYEBEAM in New York City, the artist Aram Bartholl has updated the concept for the modern age. His Dead Drops project involves placing USB flash drives around the city; fastening them to walls, curbs, and buildings; and inviting strangers to plug-in their laptops and share their favorite files or data.
The end result, as Bartholl explains, will be an "anonymous, offline, peer to peer file-sharing network in public space." It will eventually include a documentary film about the process and files shared, as well as a map and a "how to make your own dead drop" manual. And, ultimately, it will serves as an object lesson in what happens when strangers share information in public.
There are airplanes and swimming pools that give prospective astronauts a taste of what a zero-gravity environment will feel like, but the sensations that they will feel upon returning from such an environment are also important to simulate. Astronauts coming back to Earth’s gravity often experience disturbances in their vision and neurological function, to the point that they can have trouble walking, keeping their balance, or even safely landing their spacecraft. By utilizing a Galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) system, however, scientists can give them a sneak peek of what to expect, so they can better compensate for it when it happens in the field.
The system was developed by Dr. Steven Moore of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI). It consists of a small box, which sends a 5 milliamp current to electrodes placed behind the subjects’ ears. Those electrodes deliver electricity through the skin to the vestibular nerve, which in turn sends signals to the brain that result in sensorimotor disturbances. Because the box is portable, subjects can carry it with them while attempting to walk – no doubt a big hit at the NSBRI’s office parties.
Moore tried his system out on 12 test subjects at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Each subject flew 16 simulated shuttle landings, half of those landings with the GVS and half without. He compared the results to data collected from over 100 shuttle landings. Subjects using the GVS, he concluded, experienced disturbances similar to those experienced by shuttle pilots on actual flights.
Without the GVS, subjects tended to land the shuttle at a simulated speed of 204 knots, which is right on target. With the GVS, the average speed increased to around 210 knots, which is at the upper limit of the safety zone. Likewise, GVS-using subjects also had more difficulty performing a routine landing approach braking maneuver that required them to bring the craft from a 20-degree glideslope angle to a 1.5-degree angle. This is a point in real shuttle flights at which pilots often experience sensorimotor disturbances.
Moore stated that his system could be used as an analog for other space vehicles and operations, and that it could even be used to prepare people with vestibular disorders for the effects following surgery. The NSBRI research team is now trying to determine if people can adapt to the effects of the GVS over multiple sessions.
What if you could simply run your hand across the wall to turn on embedded lighting or music? That's the thinking behind the Living Wall, an interactive wallpaper designed by a group called High-Low Tech.
In most homes you need switches for everything from controlling the lighting and audio system, to running appliances. The Living Wall is intended to take embrace that technology, while creating a much less obtrusive human interface. High-LowTech says you can even send a message to a friend with a simple swipe on the wall.
The Living Wall is on display at the Fuller Craft Museum near Boston through February 11 of next year.
I don’t know whether to be horrified or amazed, folks–seems that the crew out at the University of Calgary has managed to create a kind of biological microchip comprised of silicon…and human brain cells.
What this immediately will allow for is a better study of how brain cells work together, thus allowing for research at the cellular level on brain diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. There’s some word that says this will allow, eventually, for a host of other technologies to come about, including prosthetic limbs that behave like real limbs as they’re hooked directly into a brain interface, and possibly even implantable computer technology, thus allowing you to take your laptop literally anywhere you go and access the internet most any place you happen to be within range of Wi-Fi.
There’s a lot of possibility here, no mistake, but there’s just as much possibility for misuse here (Mind control implants, anyone? And why not? If they can make a computer that interfaces directly with your brain then surely they can make the computer that takes control of your body and controls it remotely.) so this is one development that leaves me with grave concerns.
McKinney also broke out both a Palm Pre and a Palm Pixi, but the most interesting thing he pulled out during his speech was a rolled-up flexible display. What you're looking at is something from deep inside HP's R&D, it's similar to E-Ink, printed on Mylar, and essentially can be made into any size you can imagine, from handset on up to an entire wall. It's full color and low-power, but more notably it's a far-in-the-future kind of thing, don't expect flexible display devices in the short or even medium term. The display that McKinney showed is still fairly fragile, even rolled up in a protective tube it managed to collect some kinds and flaws.
McKinney's goal for webOS is to break out of the spectrum of devices with television on one end and featurephones on the other, to create something that is both richly immersive and highly mobile with fewer tradeoffs than what current devices face. That asterisk off in the upper right, unbound from the line of non-mobile-but-rich televisions and highly-mobile-but-boring featurephones is the target.
Hook and loop fasteners have become commonplace features of both industry and households.
However, they have one snag: they are too weak for many applications.hook and loop
fasteners made of spring steel have now been developed at the institute of metal forming and casting of the technische universitaet muenchen (TUM).
The device consists of hook tape and loop tape 0.2 mm thick. These fasteners are resistant to chemicals and can withstand a tensile load of up to 35 tonnes per square meter at temperatures as high as 800°C.
photo credit: TUM
spring steel hook elements deform elastically under light pressure to glide into openings in a perforated tape, once inserted, they return to their original form and resist back pull like an expanding rivet. Numerous steel hooks can attach at any angle to the loops in the perforated metal loop tape.
it can be mass-produced
photo credit: TUM
'metaklett' is a hook and loop fastener system developed by researchers at TUM,
the technische universitaet muenchen, under the leadership of professor hartmut
hoffmann (and as part of a joint project launched in 2005 with the federal ministry
of education and research / BMBF) in close cooperation with partners from industry.
'metaklett is a portmanteau of 'metall' and 'klettverschluss', which is the german generic
for velcro®. like velcro fasteners, 'metaklett' devices can be easy to secure and release,
yet they can withstand very strong mechanical stresses, high temperatures and harsh
chemicals. the unbeatable advantage of this hook and loop fastener is that it is easy
to close and open again, the principle therefore is put to a very wide range of uses,
for example air-conditioning and ventilation systems in building services engineering
and automotive construction.
hook HF 1 and loop LF1 combined
photo credit: TUM
the researchers created various three-dimensional models for the optimum interlocking of the fastener elements on the computer.they then built the most promising candidates as prototypes and subjected them to comprehensive tests. around 40 variations of the geometry referred to as 'flamingo' alone were tested on the computer. they studied its adhesive strength and reaction to extreme temperatures to establish the limits of its resilience.
'entenkopf" fastener
photo credit: TUM
a hybrid version with synthetic strap
photo credit: TUM
after testing, the institute settled on two variations: the 'flamingo' and 'entenkopf" (or duck's head) models. the hook forms of the two systems are vaguely reminiscent of a duck's head and a flamingo standing on one leg... the entenkopf uses fine steel hooks and loops, while the flamingo uses wider hooks that snap into openings in the tape. Depending on the direction of the applied force, this fastener can withstand a load of 7 to 35 newtons per square meter.
'entenkopf' fastener
photo credit: TUM
close-up of 'entenkopf' fastener
photo credit: TUM
a car parked in direct sunlight can reach temperatures of 80 °C, and temperatures of several hundred degrees centigrade can arise around the exhaust manifold. aggressive disinfectants are used for cleaning purposes in hospitals, and traditional hook, and loop fasteners are too weak for use in the construction of building façades...temperatures in excess and aggressive chemical solutions do not pose any problem for 'metaklett', which also offers adhesive strength of up to 35 tonnes per square meter when tensile force is applied parallel to the fastener surface. when it is applied perpendicular to the fastener surface, 'metaklett' can still withstand a force of seven tonnes per square meter, and, like a standard velcro® fastener, it can be opened and closed without the help of any tools.
up and close on velcro®
more than 60 years ago, the swiss engineer and inventor george de mestral was trying to painstakingly remove burrs from his dog's coat after a hunting excursion, he stumbled on an ingenious idea. based on the model he had observed in nature,he constructed a fastener from numerous small hooks and loops, which he subsequently named velcro®. unfortunately, standard synthetic hook and loop fasteners are not very resistant to heat and aggressive chemicals.
Could it be love at first sight? As soon as I saw his tubby little body and wide eyes, I knew I had to make him mine. No, not my clandestine and short-lived love affair with Elton John, but the Qbo robot. Having teased us with an open-source ethos and design schematics, project lead TheCorpora have followed up with some proper details about what this DIY ‘bot should do.
That includes stereoscopic high-def webcam vision in a moveable head, complete with three microphones and even motorized eyelids. Meanwhile the base section has various ultrasonic and infrared sensors, a status display, stereo speakers and the brains of the Qbo, a Mini-ITX board with Intel Atom CPU and NVIDIA Ion graphics.
Altogether that supports stereoscopic vision, speech recognition and synthesis, and object avoidance, with the ‘bot using WiFi and Bluetooth to communicate. Being a big robot geek I’m really looking forward to seeing this project grow.
A group of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, in Tubingen, Germany, has the beginnings of a real world answer. The Cyberwalk platform is a large omni-directional treadmill that allows you to walk naturally through virtual worlds without experiencing any spacial limits. Using a Vicon motion-capture system, the platform has the ability to adapt in real time to the direction and speed of the walker.
The handiwork of German product designers and engineers Martin Fussenegger, Michael Haas and Julian Adenauer, the inkjet-with-attitude is capable of precisely firing individual colored dots from up to 20 feet away, creating huge – and surprisingly accurate – murals on whatever wall is unlucky enough to get in the way.
The printer was constructed from a converted paintball system, hooked up to an industrial PC running custom software. Using the touchscreen, images in SVG format can be loaded from a USB drive and overlaid onto a digital photo of the blank wall; that allows the artists to frame the painting exactly. A laser is then used to indicate on the wall exactly where the paintballs will be fired – useful if you discover you’re currently standing where some high-speed Dulux will soon be approaching – before 5-10cm dots are created by the 200km/h colored balls.
Thanks to nifty paint technology the end result can last on the wall for as long as months or as little as a few hours, reacting to UV light to fade away. Meanwhile the paintball shells are made of gelatine and will decompose in rain.
This blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research.
We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings.
Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations.
This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.