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Stinky, the underwater robot

Wired has a fascinating story on how four young Mexican immigrants went up against the big engineering teams from MIT and other big names in the Marine Technology ROV championship.

$800 raised from local supporters goes a long way against the >$10.000 received in support by the bigger teams if you have imagination and dedication. The built Stinky from PVC tubes (it go it name after a marathon gluing session) and solved a last minute water leak the in a novel way:

"Excuse me, madam," he began. He wasn't used to approaching women, let alone well-dressed white women. He saw apprehension flash across her face. Maybe she thought he was trying to sell magazines or candy bars, but he steeled himself. He explained that he was building a robot for an underwater contest, and it was leaking. He wanted to soak up the water with tampons but didn't know which ones to buy. "Could you help me buy the most best tampons?"

Way to go Carl Hayden Community High School Falcon Robotics Club; Cristian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, Luis Aranda, and Oscar Vazquez!

Support them with the La Vida Robot Scholarship Fund

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Smart trash

After smart toilets that come out of the ground,

it is time for smart trash cans:

The solar powered BigBelly compacts the trash and can contain10 times as much trash; reducing the number of times it has to be emptied, reducing pollution by the pick up trucks etc.

The really cool feature? It contacts the company when it is almost full to let them know it has to be emptied.

Via Wired news letter

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Microsoft Reader for Pocket PC 2.4

Microsoft has released version 2.4 of Microsoft Reader. It contains bug fixes and a couple of new features:

• Rotate books on Windows Mobile 2003 SE


• Pan and zoom graphics

English, French, German, Italian and Spanish versions are available

Via Pocket PC eBooks Watch

 

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Transparent screen illusion

I have to bring my camera to the office after easter so I can make a transparent screen as well:

The best would be to have a high resolution web cam that can update the background image at run time. Difficult to get the perspective right but it be one cool hack.

Via [Boing Boing]

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DIY RFID implant

A guy implanted a small RFID tag into his hand and posted the pictures on flickr.  The device is passive and stores an ID which he will use to open the car door, the house, log onto the computer etc. By operating the RFID tag into the hand he solved the main problem; loosing the keys RFID tag.

I would love to use RFID to automatically log into the computer as well but I am not ready to implant one (yet). Since the device is only a couple of millimeters it would be cool to have a passive RFID tag that can be embedded in a ring or a nice bracelet. It has to be waterproof of course so it never has to be taken off.

Synometrix makes wristbands but they are not waterproof:

They also make bracelets but fluorescent green is not really my color:

Maybe I should try to convince the local watch repair shop to insert RFID labels inside the watches I used the most?

Via [Boing Boing]

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Solar Death Ray

Dreaming of world domination? Get started by building your own Solar Death Ray

The Solar Death Ray works by reflecting the light of the sun from 112
mirrors onto a single spot. Anything in the spot (the target) starts to get
hot.
…
Using some basic principles of Black Body Radiation, I estimate that the
Solar Death Ray can heat things up to between 500-600 degrees Celsius
(930-1100 degrees Fahrenheit) under good conditions

Several targets like a America Online CD, one rubber ducks and a mobile phone have already been eliminated and more target suggestions are requested

Via [Hack a day]

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Chalk Mug messenger

Make sure your friends and colleagues get the message with the chalk mug:

Leave notes, insults or write messages for colleagues on the bottom your own the chalk mug. I wonder if anyone ever proposed via a mug before?

Neat gift idea.

Via [The Red Ferret Journal]