Hasta La Gadget!

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon have developed a prototype smart headlight which blots out individual drops of rain or snow — improving vision by up to 90 percent. Made with an off-the-shelf Viewsonic DLP projector, a quad-core Intel Core-i7 PC and a GigE Point Grey Flea3 camera, the Rube Goldberg-esque process starts by first imaging raindrops arriving at the top of its view. After this, the signal goes to a processing unit, which uses a predictive theory developed by the team to guess the drops’ path to the road. Finally, the projector — found in the same place as the camera — uses a beamsplitter like modern digital 3D rigs. Used in tandem with calculations, it transmits a beam with light voids matching the predicted path. The result? It all stops light from hitting the falling particles, with the cumulative process resulting in the illusion of a nearly precipitation-free road view — at least in the lab. So far, the whole process takes about a hundredth of a second (13 ms) but scientists said that in an actual car and with many more drops, the speed would have to be about ten times quicker. That would allow 90 percent of the light located 13 feet in front of the headlights to pass through, but even at just triple the speed, it would give drivers a 70 percent better view. To see if this tech might have a snowflake’s chance of making it out of the lab, go past the break for all the videos.

Continue reading Carnegie Mellon smart headlight prototype blacks out raindrops for clearer view of the road

Carnegie Mellon smart headlight prototype blacks out raindrops for clearer view of the road originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhysOrg  |  Carnegie Mellon  | Email this | Comments

Despite the abundance of cables and wires in the gadget world, there is still an underwhelming number of devices associated with tentacled animals. The figures should at least be whelming. That’s why we should all welcome the PowerSquid Surge Protector: Calamari Edition. I’m sure some of you are ordering it right now based on its name alone.

In case its marvelous name didn’t clue you in, this is the flagship model of Flexity, LLC. The PowerSquid has 2160 Joules of surge protection and a 15 Amp breaker switch. Flexity is so confident in the abilities of the PowerSquid it comes with a $75,000 (USD) equipment warranty alongside a lifetime warranty on the surge protector itself. As you can see it has six grounded outlets, two of which light up to make it easier to find the outlets in the dark. There are also cable and Ethernet ports at the rear near the 6′ power cord.

If the thought of your gadgets getting fried by electricity makes you squirt ink, check out the PowerSquid Surge Protector: Calamari Edition. You can get it for $60(USD) on its official website. Now that I think about it, a calamari is fried squid. Maybe it’s not such a good name after all.

[via Fab]