Lasers Archive

  • World-famous industrialist and philanthropist turned into an inflatable doll, stuck into a river

    World-famous industrialist and philanthropist turned into an inflatable doll, stuck into a river

    Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the Allegheny, Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and founder of Carnegie Mellon (my alma mater) goes and screws it all up. This giant head is currently floating amid the feces and detritus ensconced in that mighty river and was created by artist Stephen Antonson. He designed the head by taking old pictures along with images of a 3D bust of Carnegie to a fabricator who then painstakingly built up the noggin.

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  • Old Man Laser: Officially over the hill

    Old Man Laser: Officially over the hill

    Amazingly, the laser is 50 years old today. When it was originally discovered, many scientists felt that the shiny red light didn't have any practical use. Of course now days, lasers are almost everywhere.

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  • Review: GelaSkins for iPad

    Review: GelaSkins for iPad

    Short Version: GelaSkins for iPad do everything they promise, and they do it well. For 30 bucks a pop, it'll wrap your iPad up in a work of art -- be it one of GelaSkin's roughly 200 pre-designed pieces, or one of your own. It also does a fine job of protecting the back of the iPad from whatever grit and grime might be sitting between it and your desk.

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  • Video: The world’s biggest yacht sets sail. It has lasers.

    Video: The world’s biggest yacht sets sail. It has lasers.

    When you math types go to school and get your engineering degree, do you ever dream of working on something like the Eclipse? It's the $1.2 billion yacht owned by Roman Abramovich (who also owns Chelsea FC), and it's the biggest yacht ever to sail the open seas. It has lasers, people!

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  • Laser beam clock tells time with mirrors

    Laser beam clock tells time with mirrors

    Those wacky artists at Art Lebedev are at it again. This time, they've created a concept clock that uses a single laser beam directed by 60 rotating mirrors to tell us what time it is.

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  • GM’s Enhanced Vision System brings augmented reality to vehicle HUDs

    GM’s Enhanced Vision System brings augmented reality to vehicle HUDs

    Heads-up displays are far from new. They’ve been around in GM vehicles since the late-80s and they’ve gone from a just displaying a speedometer, to night vision, and soon to augmented reality thanks to lasers, cameras and navigation. The Enhanced Vision System is designed with safety in mind just like previous implementations, but takes it to a whole new [...]

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  • Microvision’s ShowWX pico-projector goes on sale today

    Microvision’s ShowWX pico-projector goes on sale today

    Ready to get your pico-projector on? The Microvision ShowWX goes on sale today at 12:00 EST. Get excited.

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  • Concept watch tells time with frikkin’ lasers

    Concept watch tells time with frikkin’ lasers

    One look at what this watch does will tell you that it's just a concept, and will most likely never see the light of day (no pun intended). The Aurora Watch was designed by Jihun Yeom, and features a hollow face that makes it look like you lost part of your wristwatch, until you push a button and two lasers come out of the bezel to show you the time.

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  • Photos: The birth of an HTC Legend unibody aluminum shell

    Photos: The birth of an HTC Legend unibody aluminum shell

    Just last week, HTC announced the Legend. As the epic name implies, it's essentially the "Hero 2"; its got the jutting chin, the rounded corners, and HTC's software signatures all over it. The primary difference, outside of a minor (but still worthwhile) hardware spec bump, is the design of the body; carved from a single block of aluminum, it's ridiculously light weight, super strong, and drop dead gorgeous. While we somehow managed to over look it whilst roaming (almost absurdly) huge halls of Mobile World Congress, our buddies at MobileBurn spotted a display case showing off examples of the unibody shell as it steps through the manufacturing process.

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  • Daily Crunch: Scary Tomes Edition

    Daily Crunch: Scary Tomes Edition

    What is this? The Sing-A-Ma-Jigs from Fisher-Price: Hold your ears Cute: grass blade bookmarks Next Mars rover to have frikkin’ lasers Korea building all-robotic theme park; I don’t need to tell you how this will end

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  • Next Mars rover to have frikkin’ lasers

    Next Mars rover to have frikkin’ lasers

    Apparently NASA saw something when they sent up the last Mars rover, because the next one is going to be packing heat. The next rover, named Curiosity, is scheduled to launch next year and will be equipped with an analysis system that uses high-energy laser pulses to help find out what Mars is made of.

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  • How did we miss this laser-scanning super robot vacuum?

    How did we miss this laser-scanning super robot vacuum?

    Not sure how we missed this robotic vacuum but this bugger uses lasers to scan your room and grab dust and lint as it goes. It’s quite cute how this little fellow does everything the Roomba does but, seemingly, it does it better. One more video after the jump. You can pick the robot up right here [...]

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  • DIY: Portable laser light show

    DIY: Portable laser light show

    So here's another little DIY project. This one involves making your own little laser light show. Now obviously it's not going to make shapes in time with Dark Side of the Moon, but it still looks really cool. I might even have to do this one myself, if I knew how to solder. It's definitely worth your time to take a look at this thing if you have any interest at all in DIY projects involving lasers and sharks.

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  • Mobile “Human Assist Guidance Robot”

    Mobile “Human Assist Guidance Robot”

    Tokyo-based (and globalized) bearing supplier NSK has announced [JP] the development of an autonomous mobile robot that one day will be able to assist people in wheel chairs. The main selling point of the so-called "Human Assist Guidance Robot" is that it can detect obstacles and guide users through them. And uneven surfaces or slopes aren't a problem either.

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  • Japan to operate solar energy station in outer space

    Japan to operate solar energy station in outer space

    The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has big plans: It wants to conquer outer space to generate solar energy by 2030. The idea is to collect solar power in space and beam it down to earth, in the form of lasers or microwaves. The so-called Space Solar Power System project is led by big corporations such as Mitsubishi, NEC, Fujitsu und Sharp.

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