Friday, December 03. 2010
Via BLDGBLOG
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by noreply@blogger.com (Geoff Manaugh)
[Image: From "Kielder Probes" by Bob Sheil].
Beginning in 2003, architect Bob Sheil began experimenting with a group of "micro-environmental surveying probes" that he was later to install in Kielder Park, Northumbria, UK.
[Image: From "Kielder Probes" by Bob Sheil].
The probes were "designed to act as dual monitors and responsive artefacts." What does that mean? Sheil explains:
The probes were designed to measure difference over time rather than the static characteristics of any given instance. Powered by solar energy, the probes gathered and recorded ‘micro environmental data’ over time. The probes were simultaneously and physically responsive to these changes, opening out when warm and sunny, closing down when cold and dark. Thus not only did the probes record environmental change, but they demonstrated how these changes might induce a responsive behaviour specific to a single location.
After the probes were installed, they were filmed by "an array of high-resolution digital cameras programmed to record at regular intervals."
[Images: From "Kielder Probes" by Bob Sheil].
The resulting data—which took note of the climatic and solar situations in which the objects began to change—offers insights, Sheil suggests, into how "passively activated responsive architecture" might operate in other sites, under other environmental conditions.
[Images: From "Kielder Probes" by Bob Sheil].
As DIY landscape-registration devices constructed from what appear to be off-the-shelf aluminum plates, they also cut an interesting formal profile above the horizon line, like rare birds or machine-flowers perched amidst the tree stumps.
[Image: From "Kielder Probes" by Bob Sheil].
Thursday, July 15. 2010
Via Pasta & Vinegar
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by Nicolas Nova
Roy Batty, in Blade Runner, who tells Deckard about the things he saw in his life and how all those memories would vanish. He is about to die and give this memorable final speech:
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I’ve watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those … moments will be lost in time, like tears…in rain.
Time to die.“
…when a replicant/robot loved his life and tells what it meant.
Why do I blog this? a curious quote to be used at some point.
Personal comment:
And a memorable act by holland actor Rutger Hauer!
Friday, May 21. 2010
Via Slash Gear
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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.
Friday, May 14. 2010
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Machines made of DNA could one day assemble complex--and tiny--electrical and mechanical devices.
By Prachi Patel
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DNA assembly line: An atomic force microscope image shows gold nanoparticles on a DNA track.
Credit: Courtesy of Ned Seeman |
Its precise structure and ability to bind with other molecules makes DNA an attractive scaffolding material for nanotech researchers. Scientists have already used DNA to construct two-dimensional patterns, three-dimensional objects, and simple shape-changing devices. Now two teams of researchers have separately made complex programmable machines using DNA molecules.
Researchers from Columbia University, Arizona State University, and Caltech have made a device that follows a programmable path on a surface patterned with DNA. Meanwhile, researchers from New York University, led by DNA nanoarchitecture pioneer Ned Seeman, have combined multiple DNA devices to make an assembly line. The nano contraption picks up gold nanoparticles as it tumbles along a DNA-patterned surface.
The two machines, described in today's Nature journal, are a possible step forward in making DNA nanobots that could assemble tiny electrical and mechanical devices. DNA robots could also put together molecules in new ways to make new materials, says Lloyd Smith, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Robots might have the ability to position one molecule in a particular way so that a reaction happens with another molecule which might not happen if they randomly collide in solution," he says.
In the past, researchers have made simple machines such as tweezers and walkers that have also been fashioned from DNA. Tweezers open and close by adding specific DNA strands to the solution. Walkers are molecules with dangling strands, or legs, that bind and detach from other DNA strands patterned on a surface, in effect moving along the surface.
The nano walker made at Columbia University is a protein molecule decorated with three legs--single-stranded DNAzymes, synthetic DNA molecules that act as enzymes and catalyze a reaction. The legs bind to complementary DNA strands on a surface. Then they catalyze a reaction that shortens one of the surface strands, so that its attachment to the leg becomes weaker. That leg lets go and moves on to the next surface strand.
The walker follows a track of strands that the researchers pattern on the surface. It can take up to 50 steps--compared to the two or three steps taken by previous walkers. It stops when it encounters a sequence that cannot be shortened. "We show how to program [the walker's] behavior by programming the landscape," says Milan Stojanovic, a biomedical engineer at Columbia University who developed the walker. "It enables us to think about adding further complexity: more than one molecule interacting and more complicated commands on the surface. What we hope to do eventually is to be able to [use nanobots to] repair tissues."
Seeman and his colleagues at New York University combine three different DNA components to make an assembly line. They have DNA path, a walker, and a machine that can deliver or hold back a cargo of a molecule of gold. The machine is a DNA structure that can be set up to either put a gold nanoparticle-laden strand in the path of the walker or away from it. The walker has four legs and three single-stranded DNA hands that can bind to the gold.
The researchers demonstrated a system in which the walker passes three machines, each carrying a different type of gold particle. Each machine can be set up to either deliver its cargo or keep it, giving a total of eight different ways in which the walker can be loaded, leading to eight different products.
The advances represent continuing success in creating nano devices with increasingly complex functions. "[We're] moving from individual entities that do something interesting to systems of entities working on something with a more complex behavior and function," Smith says.
Copyright Technology Review 2010.
Via dezeen
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Designers Kram/Weisshaar are to install a robotic “octopus” in Trafalgar Square during the London Design Festival in September.
Called Outrace, the installation will consist of six robotic arms normally used in the car-making industry.
Each will be controlled by members of the public to trace shapes in the air.
Here’s a little more information from the designers:
Kram/Weisshaar
The London Design Festival has commissioned Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram to design this year’s Trafalgar Square installation.
The installation titled OUTRACE consists of an immense mechanical octopus assembled from six industrial robotic arms on loan from Audi’s production line. Custom software developed by the designers will allow members of the public to temporarily take over the installation and render text input as light traces drawn by the synchronized mechanical tentacles. The resulting light paintings will be recorded using specialized high definition video equipment and published online.
Friday, April 09. 2010
Via GOOD via WMMNA
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by Andrew Price
The creature you see here is a "nomadic plant." It's the creation of the Mexican artist Gilberto Esparza, who specializes in thought-provoking robots and mechanical sculptures (his "urban parasites" got some attention from the internet a few years ago). This nomadic plant is part machine and part living thing. It walks around slurping up water from contaminated rivers to keep itself powered and alive.
Here's how it works, according to We Make Money Not Art:
Vegetation and microorganisms live in symbiosis inside the body of the Nomadic Plants robot. Whenever its bacteria require nourishment, the self-sufficient robot will move towards a contaminated river and 'drink' water from it. Through a process of microbial fuel cell, the elements contained in the water are decomposed and turned into energy that can feed the brain circuits of the robot. The surplus is then used to create life, enabling plants to complete their own life cycle.
Here are a few shots of the nomadic plant in the wild:
It's a fascinating idea: robotic plants that roam the polluted landscape, scavenging for their own energy and cleaning as they go. Esparza's robot is more art project than practical fix for polluted rivers, but it does make you think about the possibilities for plantlife and ways we might tune them to thrive in a dirty environment.
Images from plantas nomadas
Thursday, April 01. 2010
I’m Here is a 30-minute love story about the relationship between two robots living in L.A. The film is written and directed by Spike Jonze. Andrew Garfield and Sienna Guillory are in the lead roles, and the soundtrack includes original music by Sam Spiegel and original songs by L.A.-based art musician Aska Matsumiya and other emerging musicians. I’m Here is released on this website in March.
The film is a collaboration with ABSOLUT VODKA, and the partnership acknowledges the brand’s position as a pioneering and culture-shaping brand.
“It was a pretty incredible opportunity,” says Jonze. “They (ABSOLUT) didn’t give me any requirements to make a movie that had anything to do with vodka. They just wanted me to make something that was important to me, and let my imagination take me wherever I wanted. And it wasn’t like working with some huge corporation where I had to meet with committees of people. It was just a small group, and it seemed like creativity and making something that affected them emotionally was the only thing that really mattered to them. I got to make my first love story. It’s about the relationship between two robots living in Los Angeles”.
"Imheremovie.com had 230,000 unique visitors in its first weekend, which is far more than expected. Due to the enormous interest in this collaboration, we have increased the number of screenings in our online movie theatre," says Anna Malmhake, Vice President Global Marketing at The Absolut Company. "I'm Here marks an evolution of our commitment to creativity, and I'm very happy about the great interest in this film. It is a beautiful story and a fantastic piece of art."
I'm Here is screened every two hour on www.imheremovie.com, with a total capacity of 12,000 viewers a day, increasing from a previous capacity of 5,000 viewers per day. Visitors to www.imheremovie.com are offered a highly realistic cinema experience with Facebook integration, making it possible to see the film together with friends.
Personal comment:
Site créé en Flash avec video interactive. Film de qualité et interaction ludique. Magnifique projet.
Tuesday, March 30. 2010
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Newly outfitted robo-planes will monitor the Earth's upper atmosphere in greater detail.
By Brittany Sauser
For the first time, NASA has begun flying an unmanned aircraft outfitted with scientific instruments to observe the Earth's atmosphere in greater detail. The agency has partnered with Northrop Grumman to outfit three aircraft, called Global Hawks, which were given to NASA by the U.S. Air Force. Unlike manned aircraft equipped with Earth observation tools, the Global Hawks can fly for up to 30 hours and travel for longer distances and at high altitudes; they can also gather more precise data than satellites and can be stationed to monitor an area for extended periods of time.
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Robo-plane: NASA and Northrop Grumman have developed this unmanned aircraft equipped with scientific instruments for earth science missions. Called Global Hawk, NASA acquired the airplane from the U.S Air Force and modified it to carry instruments to monitor the atmosphere more precisely than satellites can.
Credit: NASA |
"There are certain types of atmospheric and earth science data that we are missing, even though we have things like satellites, manned aircraft, and surface-based networks," says Robbie Hood, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's ( NOAA) Unmanned Aircraft Systems program. NOAA has formed an agreement with NASA to help construct the scientific instruments and guide the science missions for the Global Hawks. Hood will evaluate the aircraft to determine how they could be best used. For example, she says, they could fly over a hurricane to monitor its intensity changes or fly over the arctic to monitor sea ice changes in higher detail.
The Global Hawks' first mission launched last week--an aircraft flew from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California over the Pacific Ocean. The project scientists will launch approximately one flight a week until the end of April. The drone is outfitted with 11 different instruments to take measurements and map aerosols and gases in the atmosphere, profile clouds, and gather meteorological data such as temperatures, winds, and pressures. It also has high-definition cameras to image the ocean colors.
"The first mission is mostly a demonstration mission to prove the capabilities of the system," says Paul Newman, co-project scientist and an atmospheric physicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. The aircraft will also fly under the Aura Satellite, a NASA satellite currently studying the Earth's ozone, air quality, and climate, to validate its measurements, making a comparison between its readings and what the new aircraft can do. "Satellites give you global coverage every day, but they can't see a region very precisely. The aircraft can give you regular observations and very fine resolution," says Newman.
The robotic airplanes operate completely autonomously--scientists program the plane prior to departure with the intended destinations, and the plane navigates itself. However, scientists can change the aircraft's flight path once in route or remotely pilot it in an emergency. Because a Global Hawk flight can last 30 hours (compared to 12 hours for a manned flight), the aircraft can travel to regions, such as the arctic, that are typically too dangerous for manned missions.
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Autonomous flier: The airplane’s first mission is to monitor the atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean. It can fly for up to 30 hours, reach an altitude of 19.8 kilometers, and travel a range of 22,800 kilometers.
Credit: NASA |
NASA acquired the aircraft from the U.S. Air Force in 2007. They were originally developed for surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Now researchers are modifying them for their first extensive earth science missions. "We can get high resolution in situ measurements, and that is really the gold standard, and something that we have never before been able to do," says Randy Albertson, director of NASA's Airborne Science Program in the earth science division at Dryden.
The instruments onboard for the first mission include: a LIDAR instrument that uses a laser pulse to measure the shape, size, and density of clouds and aerosols; a spectrograph that measures and maps pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and aerosols; an ultraviolet photometer for ozone measurements; a gas chromatograph to calculate greenhouse gases; a handful of other instruments that can accurately measure atmospheric water vapor and ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons ; and high-definition cameras to image the ocean colors and learn about their biological processes. (See a full listing of payload here.)
The researchers will also be able to sample parts of the atmosphere that they have not been able to reach or monitor for long durations--the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The aircraft can fly at an altitude of 19.812 kilometers and travel nearly 22,800 kilometers. That part of the atmosphere is "a crucial region that responds to and contributes to climate change at the surface, and we have come to realize that it is highly undersampled," says David Fahey, a research physicist at NOAA's Earth Science Research Lab in Boulder, CO. "If you don't know what is going on in certain regions of the atmosphere, you will misinterpret what is going on at the surface."
NASA and Northrop Grumman modified the aircraft to be a plug-in-play system, so that instruments can be easily taken off and new ones installed, depending on the mission. The plane can also be redesigned for a specific mission, if necessary.
"The planes are really robotic satellite-aircraft hybrids that are going to revolutionize the way we do science," Newman says. The next mission will be to study hurricanes in the Caribbean, and will include a new suite of instruments for the planes.
Copyright Technology Review 2010.
Friday, February 05. 2010
London-based Steven Chilton of Marks Barfield Architects, the designers of the London Eye, has sent us fascinating images of Villa Hush Hush, an innovative high end residence they are currently developing. The project has been privately commissioned and currently has planning permission.
Images + project description after the jump.
Villa Hush-Hush - by Steven Chilton of Marks Barfield Architects, designers of the London Eye
Specifically created for sensitive sites and affording sensational views, Villa Hush-Hush is designed as a spectacular new home concept that can disappear into a landscape, but at the touch of a button be lifted above the treetops to provide wonderful panoramic views.
Project Architect and designer Steven Chilton said: “The inspiration comes from a fascinating brief to create an individually crafted and beautiful home. The design derives from a simple cubic composition inspired by the work of Donald Judd. Unique in design and function, and unlike any other home in the world, it will offer a memorable, moving, living experience.”
In plan, the villa is divided into four clearly defined zones, of which it is possible to elevate two, depending on the internal arrangement and client’s requirements. The clean simplicity of the forms concentrates the relationship between the villa, the viewer and its environment.
Externally the moving element transforms the villa into a kinetic sculpture creating a unique spectacle with an assured quality. Inside, bespoke designs by interior specialists Candy & Candy will frame spectacular views that would slowly be unveiled as part of the villa rises up above the surroundings bringing the horizon into view, creating a unique, memorable, and heightened feeling.
Engineers Atelier One designed the lifting mechanism which pushes a support column up out of the ground raising the moving element of the villa from its lowered position to the required height. The lifting mechanism has been designed such that the lifting, at around 10cm per second, is gentle and steady. The moving element of the villa can be lowered more quickly as it is easier to drop the structure than lift it. This means it would take about five minutes to reach its full height above ground and about three minutes to descend.
The support column and the moving element of the villa are balanced by 260 tonnes of steel plate acting as a counter-weight suspended in a cradle and guided within a central inner steel tube structure, and are driven by eight 22kW drive motors, equivalent in total to an energy efficient family sized vehicle. Redundancy is designed into the system of motors and gearboxes such that in the event of failure of a single drive unit the mechanism will function as normal, with no reduction in performance.
Working with dynamic specialists Motioneering, dampers have been designed into the structure to limit the dynamic response of the structure at various heights and wind speeds to ensure the highest levels of comfort.
To maximise the economic efficiency of the structure, the structure is restricted from being elevated during very high winds. The high wind limit for this is around Beaufort Scale 7 which is described as when whole trees are in motion and effort is needed to walk against the wind. In these cases the moving element of the villa would remain comfortably in its lowered position.
About Steven Chilton, Associate Director MBA
Born in London in 1971, Steven first made his mark on the environment as a graffiti artist prior to pursuing a career in architecture. After studying at Manchester University where he received a Distinction in design, he joined MBA in 1997 and spent the first three years working on the design and construction of the London Eye.
Since then he has designed the award winning Millbank Millennium Pier outside Tate Britain, collaborating with acclaimed conceptual artist Angela Bulloch and recently created the competition winning sculpture to mark the entry point into Wales called the Red Cloud.
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Via Archinect
Tuesday, October 13. 2009
Pe Lang et Zimoun Leeraum, deux artistes suisses (qui ont travaillé ensemble) qui réalisent des installations sonores, motorisées et cinétiques plutôt intéressantes. Leur travail rappelle sous certains aspect celui de Carsten Nicolai (l'aspect plastique essentiellement, la facture minimale). A suivre!
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Pe Lang:
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Zimoun Leeraum:
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