Hasta La Gadget!

As shown by the Kinect, today’s cameras are powerful and cheap enough to provide accurate motion tracking. The same feat can be achieved by making the subject carry a motion sensor or a tracking device of some sort. But a group at MIT CSAIL led by Dina Katabi have come up with a way to track motion and body parts in 3D using only radio signals.

Katabi et al call their technology WiTrack. The current prototype uses four antennas, one to transmit the signals and three to receive the signals that bounce back from subjects. The radio signals that WiTrack uses are apparently a hundred times weaker than Wi-Fi signals. Because it doesn’t require a camera to work, WiTrack can work through walls, assuming the wall lets the signal pass through. For instance, it can be used to interact with devices even if you’re not in the same room as them. Also, because the subject doesn’t need to carry any tracking device, it might be more suited to full motion gaming compared to the likes of the Wii, the PS Move and even newer tech like the PrioVR.

While WiTrack seems really practical, after watching that video I think we all quickly realized that it can be used to discreetly violate our privacy as well. Forget about tinfoil hats, we might need to make lead-lined houses.

[via MIT via Engadget]

Most of the nixie tube hacks and mods we’ve seen involve clocks, which isn’t surprising considering the tubes were primarily used to show numbers. But there are also tubes that display symbols, and those are the ones put to good use by Lasermad in its Nixie Chessboards.

Lasermad uses ex-Soviet Nixies from the 80s. They also designed a neat chessboard that uses induction coils to power the tubes. All you have to do is plug the board to an outlet and the tubes will automatically light up when you place them on the board.

Here’s a demo video of the board:

You can order the Nixie Chessboard from Lasermad either as a ready-to-assemble kit for $340 (USD) or as a fully built set for $759. Note that the DIY kit is not for beginners, although Lasermad does have a help forum for people who opt to get their hands dirty.

[via The UberReview]

I’ve found out about the untimely demise of several people not through friends or family, but through Facebook. It’s odd and a bit depressing to see messages of condolences sandwiched in between selfies and links to The Oatmeal’s latest comic, but it’s happening a lot more frequently these days as more people get into social media.

Grieving in person is one thing. Mourning on Facebook is another. With this in mind, Jono Milner founded Sanctri, a Facebook app where bereaved Facebook users can mourn and remember their loved one. It’s still on Facebook, but it offers tools and resources to go through the entire mourning process.

Milner explains: “Facebook is today’s public forum. People used to pay tribute in the classifieds section of the newspapers – now it’s on Facebook. Many people want to come together to remember someone online – especially given that we’re such a mobile population these days.”

He has a point. On Sanctri, users can create social memorials, a Lifebook, and make donations to charities. But is there a need for the app? Milner adds: “You’re still in Facebook, but a step away from the everyday chatter. Grief just doesn’t mix with photos from last night’s party. You don’t follow someone – you ‘remember’ them. You don’t ‘like’ something; you’re moved by it.”

You can find out more about Sanctri here.

[via C|NET]

He’s making a list and checking it twice. God help those who have been naughty instead of nice. Santa Cthulhu’s coming to town! Artists Amy Rawson and Brian East make a new needle felted Christmas Cthulhu almost every year and this is the latest. In fact, it’s the fifth Santa Cthulhu.

Santa Cthulhu is sitting in his Octi-Sleigh, ready to deliver toys to good kids and to drive the naughty one’s insane by just showing up. The Shoggoth pulling Santa and his sleigh is a nice touch. Who needs eight tiny reindeer when you’ve got a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light?

Cthulhu Santa is about 11″ tall and is made of 100% needle felted wool, while the sleigh is sculpted from epoxy clay and wire, and Shaggoth is needle-felted with epoxy clay teeth and glass cabochon eyeballs.

The whole sculpture is for sale through Rawson’s Etsy store for $595(USD). Even the pricetag is frightening, though it does look like it took a ton of work to make this, so it’s worth it. I’d love to have this on my mantle for the holidays.

[via Neatorama]

Unless you’re an invertebrate, you probably have a skeleton. But even though we all have these bony structures holding us together, we still find skeletons kind of creepy. French artist Chris Panda seems to have an obsession with skeletons, having created a series of illustrations which let us see the bones of cartoon, video game, and pop culture icons.

The image of Sylvester with Tweety Bird in his stomach is pretty amusing, and Batman looks quite majestic, but Ariel’s skeleton put me in the mood to eat fish for dinner tonight. Is that wrong?

The series of images includes everyone from The Legend of Zelda’s Link, to Fionna and Cake from Adventure Time to Popeye. But the most disturbing image of all has to be this one of Miley Cyrus twerking with Beetlejuice. That’s even harder to look at than the original – now that’s an accomplishment.

Check out the entire series of illustrations over on Chris’ Facebook page.

[via ufunk via Who Killed Bambi via Laughing Squid]