Let there be light: students turn “grade 12 physics” into giant multi-touch screen

While many students would surely like to own a 48-inch multi-touch screen, most don’t have the cash to buy a Microsoft Surface device. But a group of engineering students at the University of Waterloo in Ontario didn’t see that as a problem: they just built their own.

Their device does not strictly work on touch, but rather light. It’s based on the concept of total internal reflection, which the students kindly describe as “grade 12 physics”. For those of us who didn’t quite master that level, it’s the optical effect of the way different surfaces have different refractive indexes (that is, they reduce the speed of light at different rates.)

If you’re underwater, for example, and look up, you’ll see a mirrored reflection on the “underside” of the surface, instead of seeing through to the open air. Light is reflected back rather than passing through to the air above.

In the specific case of the touchscreen, the students took advantage of this phenomenon by layering a sheet of Plexiglass (which traps the light like the surface of water does) and another material with a higher refractive index to create a sort of “surface.” Pressing down on the screen disrupts the refraction and allows light to pass through. In our swimming example, if you float a rubber ducky on the surface, the underwater swimmer will be able to see the rubber ducky “pass through” the mirror seen on the surface.

With the students’ touschscreen, the fingertip disrupts the light at the surface. This is then detected by a camera which takes an image and then works out where on the screen the disruption took place, and thus where you are touching. Set the camera to repeat this process fast enough and you have an operative touchscreen with very little logistical limits on its size.

(One last thing: Normally we wouldn’t mention the demographics or background of a scientist or engineer unless it was strictly relevant: geekdom is an equal opportunity awesomeness. But in this case, while gender really isn’t the story, it’s kind of cool to note that the student posting the report did so on an all-female engineer students blog, which specifically has goals including “tackling the stereotype of engineering as a male-dominated profession.”)

Why Pi is Called Pi.

Yes, it all makes perfect sense now! Pies are circular and Pi is often referred as the circular constant. No need to dig further, this has to be the truth.

Edit: Before I get another email telling me I’m an idiot for posting this *sigh* , here’s a quick explanation of the true origin of the symbol:

The Greek letter ?, often spelled out pi in text, was adopted for the number from the Greek word for perimeter “??????????”, first by William Jones in 1707, and popularized by Leonhard Euler in 1737. The constant is occasionally also referred to as the circular constant, Archimedes’ constant (not to be confused with an Archimedes number), or Ludolph’s number (from a German mathematician whose efforts to calculate more of its digits became famous). Source: Wikipedia

[Via Neatorama]

Neil Gaiman Facts

Jim Hines is a fantasy writer who writes about goblins and princesses. Neil Gaiman is, of course, famous for writing awesome comic books and creepy stories and a blog before it was super trendy. Oh, and Chuck Norris is a guy who spawned a list of facts and has another fist under his beard.

Apparently Hines considers Gaiman the Chuck Norris of the writing world, which is probably not entirely inaccurate. But he wrote 20 Neil Gaiman Facts, many of which made me crack up:

  • Neil Gaiman once wrote a Nebula-winning story using only the middle row of his keyboard.
  • Most agents charge a 15% commission. Neil Gaiman’s agent pays him an extra 15% for the privilege of saying “I’m Neil Gaiman’s agent.”
  • Some authors write in omniscient point of view. Neil Gaiman lives it.
  • Neil Gaiman has never written a deus ex machina ending. However, God once wrote a Gaiman ex machina ending.

I would add a few of my own:

  • One of Neil Gaiman’s words is worth a thousand pictures.
  • Sandman is based on a true story; Neil Gaiman writes your dreams.
  • Neil Gaiman hides under his monsters’ beds.
  • Neil Gaiman can write a haiku in one syllable.
  • Neil Gaiman just plays Tetris with his writer’s blocks.
  • They say writers should write what they know, but the best ones write what Neil Gaiman knows.
  • Chuck Norris is actually a draft of one of Neil Gaiman’s short stories.

Is there anyone else that you think deserves their own facts?  William Shatner, maybe?  I hear he saves on travel because he can just create wormholes with his mind.

School prepares for book-free library

How many books would you expect to see in a New England prep school library? Until recently, the correct answer in the case of Cushing Academy was 20,000. But soon the answer will be zero.

The school has decided to replace its stock of physical books (pictured) with a collection of internet-enabled screens and electronic reading devices. According to the Boston Globe, the academy’s headmaster says “When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books.”

It appears the days of checking out a book could be over for most students as the project will only involve buying 18 Amazon Kindles and Sony Readers for use beyond the library walls. The main purpose of the library (or learning center as it may be retitled) will be as a quiet place for working on laptops.

The academy says the $500,000 revamp will mean replacing 20,000 books with access to “millions of titles”. And it insists the idea of students taking books away from the library is already outdated. It says that on average only 48 books are checked out at any time, 30 of them children’s titles.

It does have to be said that the academy isn’t helping its case by announcing that while it’s spending only $10,000 on the electronic readers, it’s shelling out $12,000 on a cappuccino machine where the reference desk used to be. While many college students may find caffeine as valuable a study aid as the printed page, that’s an odd message to send to schoolchildren.

For a project involving so much language, it’s a shame staff have chosen to use some particularly ugly phrases to describe the changes. The library will apparently become a “center for collaboration, communication, and experiential learning” full of “community-building areas.”

And those flat-screens with access to the internet (and possibly other electronic databases)?

Why, naturally they are “Portals of Civilization.”