Bikini Girl Shadow Illusion

Earliest Known Sound Recording Discovered

Thomas Edison has long been credited for the invention of sound recording, thanks to his phonograph. However, researchers have recently discovered a a 10-second recording that was created 17 years before the phonograph was invented. It is believed to be history’s earliest recording of sound.

Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville was a French typesetter who invented a device called a phonautograph in 1857. The phonautograph recorded sound by directing it through a large barrel, where the vibrations would cause a stylus to move, etching the sound onto paper blackened by smoke. It was through this invention that history’s first recordings of a human voice were made.

Scott’s invention had recorded sound a few times, but it was an April 9, 1860 recording that was the most clear. This recording was of a person singing a song called Au Clair de la Lune. The result – called a phonautogram – was merely a visual recording of sound. In fact, sound reproduction in any other format was still inconceivable at that point in history. It was only very recently that audio historians and sound engineers were able to translate the phonautogram into more than just an etching. Working with a high-resolution scan of the phonautogram, they used optical imaging along with a “virtual stylus” to turn the recording into something that could be played back. This is impressive, considering the inventor of history’s first sound recordings never intended for them to be heard. – inventorspot

Cyber Goggles: High-tech memory aid

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a smart video goggle system that records everything the wearer looks at, recognizes and assigns names to objects that appear in the video, and creates an easily searchable database of the recorded footage. Designed to function as a high-tech memory aid, these “Cyber Goggles” promise to make the act of losing your keys a thing of the past, according to head researcher professor Tatsuya Harada.

Cyber Goggles are equipped with a compact camera that feeds video to a computer worn on the user’s back. The computer records the footage and relies on ultrahigh-speed image recognition processing software to analyze, name and file the objects that appear in the video. Later, when the user types in a keyword to search for a particular item, the corresponding video plays on a tiny LCD screen attached to the right-side lens, helping the user remember the location of the item in question.

In a demonstration at the University of Tokyo last week, 60 everyday items — including a potted begonia, CD, hammer and cellphone — were programmed into the Cyber Goggle memory. As the demonstrator walked around the room viewing and recording the various objects, the names of the items appeared on the goggle screen. The demonstrator was then able to do a search for the various items and retrieve the corresponding video.

In addition to functioning as a memory aid for the elderly, Cyber Goggles have a number of other potential uses, says professor Harada. For example, the image recognition processing technology can be used to sift through enormous amounts of video in search of specific images. It might also help in the development of robots with human-like abilities, he says.

[Sources: Asahi, Sankei]

What it is like to take a ride in the Space Shuttle

I’ve wondered what the ride is like during lift off. A bit bumpy but you are in space before you know it.

from www.random-good-stuf posted with vodpod

Simroid (a.k.a. ‘Pain Girl’)

from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod

New Google Office!

No wonder people want to work for Google. Brilliant. Relaxed happy workers are more productive.

from photowebs.blogspot.c posted with vodpod

The first new $5 bill was issued by the Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve banks will begin distributing the redesigned $5 bills to customer banks, which will then distribute them to businesses and consumers. The new $5 bill designs will circulate first in the U.S. and gradually spread to other countries as international banks place orders for them from the Federal Reserve. You don’t have to trade in your old bills for new ones. Both the new $5 bills and the older-design $5 bills will continue to maintain their full face value.

The new $5 bill incorporates new security features:

Watermarks: There are now two watermarks on the redesigned $5 bill. A large number “5″ watermark is located in a blank space to the right of the portrait replacing the previous watermark portrait of President Lincoln found on the older-design $5 bills. A second watermark – a column of three smaller “5″s – has been added to the new $5 bill design and is positioned to the left of the portrait.

Security Thread: The embedded security thread runs vertically and is now located to the right of the portrait on the redesigned $5 bill. The letters “USA” followed by the number “5″ in an alternating pattern are visible along the thread from both sides of the bill. The thread glows blue when held under ultraviolet light.

Lichtinfusion – the Horror Intravenous Lamp

Intravenous Lamp by Christian Maas looks like an intravenous units.

Via blogpcnews

Self cleaning Windshield doesn’t Need Windshield Wipers

Nanotechnologies just keep on getting more and more popular nowadays. They are a true marvel of technological progress, and can aid us in many ways usual things cannot. When it comes to cleaning, nanotechnologies do their best because of size. We already wrote about self-cleaning fabrics earlier, now it is the time for another way of using those modern helpers – to clean the windshield from water and dirt without any need of windshield wipers!

The Italian automobile designer Leonardo Fioravanti from the Pininfarina design studio has made a prototype of a windshield that uses nanoparticles to clean itself. All dirty work is done by micro layers that cover the windshield. First layer has water-repellent and sunrays-shielding capabilities. The second layer consists of microscopic nanoparticles, which will repel the dirt to the sides of this windshield. Third layer is control one, which detects the dirt and when finds it on the windshield, it will activate the nanoparticles to do the cleaning. And the fourth layer, which acts as energy source for others three, brings them electricity to operate. The air will aid the cleaning process, because of good aerodynamic design of both windshield and the car “Hidra”.

Fioravanti thinks that this technology will be widely spread among new cars in five years. It is hard to believe that modern machines will be fully without any wipers, but who knows, maybe he is completely right, and the windshield cleaning will be completely done by nano particles? This new nanoparticle windshield is a working prototype now, exists only in a unique quantity and can be seen on a concept car “Hidra”.

It is interesting how this technology will be introduced in mass production. Will it be a proprietary feature of some car manufacturer, or it will be widely spread among all new cars? However, we can be assured that as the time passes, nanotechnologies will play bigger role in everybody’s life. -gr

Yoda Pizza

It’s even better if you squint a bit… . From Mbw