Homemade Iron Man Glove Fires Lasers

In his latest project, laser enthusiast Patrick Priebe, owner of a company called Laser Gadgets, constructed a homemade Iron Man glove that lets him hold some pretty impressive superhero powers in the palm of his hand.

He can shoot a laser from his palm that’s powerful enough to pop a balloon or sear patterns into wood. He can also blast another laser from his knuckles, fire an aluminum slug and with an accompanying Iron Man arm piece, launch a missile made from cardboard and plastic.

The glove’s lasers are pretty substantial. A blue, 700mW laser blasts from his palm and is activated by the flex of Priebe’s hand. A 300mW laser comes from the top of his glove, deploying through an attached controller.

Priebe used aluminum to make the glove and spray-painted it with primer, metallic red and candy red on top. He made the inside firing mechanism with brass.

 

Priebe constructed the glove in anticipation of the new “Avengers: Age of Ultron” movie. He said it took him about three weeks to make.You can watch the glove in action here.
 

Haptic Glove Lets Gamers Feel the Virtual World

Rice University

With the imminent arrival of the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Morpheus, the era of virtual reality gaming is nearly upon is. Video game industry watchers expect the arrival of viable VR headsets to be the biggest revolution in gaming since the first generation of console machines some 40 years ago.
No matter how sophisticated, though, virtual reality headsets are still limited to the audio-visual experience. As such, several commercial and research groups are hoping to augment headsets by designing force feedback peripherals that replicate the sense of touch in the realm of virtual reality.

      

And whaddyknow, we have an example right here. A group of engineering students at Rice University introduced a prototype gaming glove this week that would let gamers literally feel the objects they touch in the virtual world.

The Hands Omni glove uses force-feedback design to approximate the sensation of touching, pressing or gripping a surface or object. If your avatar picks up an apple in the game — or more likely, a grenade — you’ll feel the object in your hand. The idea is, down the line, game designers could work with the Hands Omni software, programming touchable elements into new game titles.

The proprietary system uses a network of small inflatable air bladders in the glove to deliver the pressure to your fingertips. The glove is wireless and lightweight — abut 350 grams — and designed to be as unobtrusive as possible.

The Hands Omni glove was developed at Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen and sponsored by Virtuix, a Houston gaming technology company. Here’s a quick demo video from a recent design showcase.
 

Rare Turing Notebook Sells for $1 Million

A page from a notebook of British mathematician and pioneer in computer science Alan Turing is displayed during an auction preview in Hong Kong March 19, 2015.


A long-lost notebook owned by British mathematician and World War II code breaker Alan Turing sold at auction in New York on Monday for $1 million, Bonhams auction house said.

 

A chat-bot named "Eugene Goostman" made headlines for "his" good showing during a Turing test, in which he was able to fool human judges into thinking he was a real person.

DCI

The sale of the recently discovered notebook comes at a time of enormous interest in Turing's life and work generated by Oscar-winning movie "The Imitation Game".

The manuscript, which sold for $1.025 million in two minutes of bidding, dates back to the mid-1940s when Turing was working to break the Nazi Enigma code at Britain's Bletchley Park.

An original 1944 Enigma Machine, still fully operational, sold for $269,000 at the same auction, smashing pre-sale estimates of $140,000-180,000.
Both winning bids were in the room, but both buyers wanted to remain anonymous, the auction house said.


Turing was a computer scientist, philosopher and cryptologist ahead of his time who played a crucial role in breaking Enigma.
"We have no idea how many lives he saved. It is estimated that he shortened the war by two years," said Cassandra Hatton, director of Bonhams' history of science and technology department.
The notebook is believed to be the only extensive Turing autograph manuscript in existence and gives an insight into the man whose work, when he was just 24, led to the universal computer machine.
It features 56 pages of Turing's notes on the foundations of mathematical notations and computer science, made during his leisure time at Bletchley Park.

It shows that Turing was examining the works of German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes, among others.

Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality in 1952 when it was a crime in Britain. Forced to undergo chemical castration, Turing killed himself in 1954 at the age of 41.
He was officially pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II only in 2013, six decades after his death.

British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, nominated for an Oscar for portraying Turing in last year's film, has described the prospect of being able to hold one of his manuscripts as "thrilling".

 

What Chat-Bot's Turing Test Triumph Means for AI

A chat-bot named "Eugene Goostman" made headlines for "his" good showing during a Turing test, in which he was able to fool human judges into thinking he was a real person.

DCI

The notebook was bought from a stationers in the English university city of Cambridge, where Turing was a fellow at King's College.

It was among papers left by Turing after his death in 1954 to friend and fellow mathematician, Robin Gandy.

On blank pages of the notebook, Gandy wrote a journal in which he called Turing a "dead father figure." Bonhams said the document remained hidden among Gandy's personal effects until his death.

Before the sale, Hatton told AFP that she hoped the notebook can be made available to researchers.
"What I really, really hope for is that a collector buys it and makes it available to an institution, at least loans it for a few years and makes it available to scholars," she said.
Andrew Hodges, who wrote the biography that inspired "The Imitation Game" said Turing was "parsimonious with his words and everything from his pen has special value.
"This notebook shines extra light on how, even when he was enmeshed in great world events, he remained committed to free-thinking work in pure mathematics."

Bonhams said a portion of the proceeds will be donated to charity.

"The Imitation Game" won an Oscar in February for best adapted screenplay. It had been nominated for eight Academy Awards.

Cool Motor cycle stunts in IET, Lucknow

Motorcycle(bike) stunts

Manually controlled robot in a hurdle race.

Cloud Lamp Brings Thunder and Lightning Inside

Interiors designers frequently speak about bringing the indoors outside to expand the living space. This designer wants to bring the outside in.

Richard Clarkson has conceived Cloud, a computer-controlled lamp that creates an audio-visual sensation for the homeowner. When a hidden sensor detects the motion of people around it, the lamp flashes and booms in realistic thundercloud manner.

In addition to bringing the weather indoors — sans rain — users can stream music through the fiber-filled cloud via a Bluetooth-compatible device. And the lights are able to change colors and brightness to adjust to your mood.
The Cloud is not for the budget-conscious. It costs $3,360 for the tricked-out model, which has a wireless remote, color-changing lights, two speakers plus a subwoofer and the motion detection. An additional $240 will get you a satellite add-on that makes the visual aspects of Cloud more realistic.

A less expensive version goes for $960 but doesn’t include the bells and whistles.

Credit: Richard Clarkson Studio