This video couldn’t be more awesome for sci-fi geeks. “Space Girl” by The Imagined Village is set to clips from The Outer Limits, Attack Of The 50-ft Woman, Contact, Star Trek and more.
This is going to be stuck in my head all day. I’m okay with that.
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan
This is the quote designer and director Chris Abbas recalls when discussing CASSINI MISSION, the film he created using stills from the NASA image archives. Abbas’s love for space is evident in his treatment of the footage (isn’t the soundtrack perfect?), but his statement on the matter solidifies his affection for the cosmos:
I truly enjoy outer space. It’s absolutely amazing that we now have the ability to send instruments out into the void of the universe to observe all sorts of interesting things. Asteroids! Moons! Planets! Dark matter!
If you’re interested in learning more about Cassini and the on-going Cassini Solstice Mission, check it out at NASA’s website.
This seriously impressive mini-fig scale Star Wars Sandcrawler was built by MarshallBanana and took over 9 months to finish.
With three interior decks plus a detailed cockpit, forward and reverse movement, remote steering, a working ramp and crane, and interior lighting, the Sandcrawler is about as faithful a model as LEGO can build.
Here are some of the latest and greatest Twaggies cartoons. In case you missed our last post highlighting some of our favorites, that’s right over here. Enjoy!
The above Twaggie is by the amazingly talented Sam Spratt, whose work you might recognize from Gizmodo.
New York-based designer Andrew Schneider spends about 80 hours each week stitching photovoltaic mini-panels into bikini forms with conductive thread. If you think you’d like an iKini (that’s right–an iKini), be prepared to drop about $200 for the custom-fitted swimsuit.
Each suit comes equipped with four hidden pockets for carrying anything from a cell phone to an iPod to… something else that needs charging. And if you’re worried about getting your iKini wet, don’t be–as long as you make sure the suit is dry before plugging in your device. “You wouldn’t even feel the charge,” says Schneider.
I appreciate smart solar design as much as the next person, but this swimsuit looks sort of clumsy to me. For 200 bucks I want the panels to lie flat against the suit bottoms. What do you guys think?
That giant, shiny black hamster-ball up there is the Immersive Cocoon, and geeks, it is a brilliant concept design. Taking all the best features of what used to be fake science and applying them to a room-sized spherical theater… well, it’s indistinguishable from magic, really.
Imagine having a personal Holodeck. Aside from all the pervy implications, there’s serious and appealing usefulness to a room that surrounds its inhabitant in light and sound, can detect their position and movements, and offers an isolated workspace. The designers, Tino Schaedler and design-and-ad firm NAU, predict that the Immersive Cocoon will be installed in airports and malls and available for rent (presumably on an hourly basis) for travelers and business conferencing types.
The photo gallery at Dvice shows the Immersive Cocoon’s flexible usability–movies, yoga, gaming, and full-out immersive virtual travel. Check it out and let us know what you think!
Stanford University chemical engineering Professor Zhenan Bao has developed a flexible, stretchable solar cell, which she envisions as a future component in artificial skin for robots, human prosthetic limbs, or even clothing.
The film stretches up to 30% from its original size along two axes without losing function or resulting in loss of elasticity. That kind of durability allows for innovative applications; Bao speculates that her film could be incorporated into soldiers’ uniforms as a bio-sensor, or into prosthetic limbs and digits that perceive touch and have better flexibility than current options.
The sensory-detection system built into the skin is so sensitive it can detect the presence of a housefly. With customized nanolayers, the film can also be used as a sensor for various chemical and biological compounds. One test performed already shows that a modified Super-Skin film can detect a certain kind of DNA.
Bao said she sees the super skin as much more than a super mimic of human skin; it could allow robots or other devices to perform functions beyond what human skin can do.
“You can imagine a robot hand that can be used to touch some liquid and detect certain markers or a certain protein that is associated with some kind of disease and the robot will be able to effectively say, ‘Oh, this person has that disease,'” she said. “Or the robot might touch the sweat from somebody and be able to say, ‘Oh, this person is drunk.'”
With applications testing and further developments underway, I’m interested to see where the Super-Skin ends up first. My prediction: military use. What do you guys think?