Hasta La Gadget!

We won’t get into the myriad ways to impress one’s audience while engaging in a live video podcast, but here’s one that slides into the ‘surefire’ category. The crafty folks over at MAKE decided to construct an automated On Air light for their new live sessions, and rather than automating it with a human hand flipping a switch at a predetermined time, they decided to wire it up to receive signals from a UStream API. In essence, the light is programmed to turn on when the podcast shows ‘online,’ and turn off when that status changes to ‘offline.’ It’s a beautifully simple concept, and yet, so illuminating. See for yourself after the break.

Continue reading Networked ‘On Air’ light illuminates when webcast begins, dims when it ends (video)

Networked ‘On Air’ light illuminates when webcast begins, dims when it ends (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You probably know that an incandescent light bulb uses a tungsten filament.

What’s even cooler is that it’s got 20 inches of double-coiled filament — and tungsten is a brittle mineral that, under normal circumstances, can’t bend at all.

How do they hammer out a brittle metal to a super thin ribbon and then coil it up not just once, but then coil up the first coil?

The answer is in this approachable video (below) by University of Illinois engineering professor Bill Hammack, aka “The Engineer Guy,” who not only dismantles a light bulb but also presents animations and other illustrations to show how this thing is manufactured.

This is the first in the third series of videos produced by Hammack, who earlier tackled such fascinating subjects as how an old-school, pre-digital flight recorder works.

“We specifically aimed the last series and this series toward the Wired/Slashdot/Make magazine community,” Hammack told me in an e-mail. “While we want it approachable to people who don’t have too much scientific background, we always try to put something in there that will surprise the person with more knowledge.”

Mission accomplished!

Solar power is the most egalitarian of all energy sources, yet residents in many parts of the world still lack access to electricity. Three University of Michigan engineering students have created an affordable solution to this problem — to the delight of camping geeks everywhere — with the Emerald, a portable solar panel that does double duty as both a cellphone charger and personal light source. We’ve seen the personal solar panel idea before, but the price of entry made it an untenable solution for developing nations. Solar-powered light bulbs have been around for a while too, but the Emerald’s light lasts for eight hours on a charge (as opposed to the bulbs’ two to six hours), and it’s able to fully charge a phone in the same time it takes an outlet to do the job. They aim to sell the device for the low, low, price of under twenty bucks for customers in the developing world, which is 90 percent cheaper than other solutions and 100 percent more awesome.

Continue reading UM students make cheap and portable solar charger / light source for developing nations

UM students make cheap and portable solar charger / light source for developing nations originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we weren’t busy kicking up dust on the CES floors, we sat down with Taiwan-based Yantouch to have a fiddle with its latest product, the Black Diamond. When not in use, it really is just a gorgeous spherical black diamond, or at least its faceted front half is; but slip in an iPhone 4 with the Black Diamond app enabled, and you get a funky sound sensitive mood lamp. On top of that, the dock also charges up your iPhone while it shows off its colors, and somewhere at the bottom there’s some black magic that channels out amplified audio from the phone, although actual speakers would be even nicer.

Ultimately, Yantouch sees the Black Diamond as a developing platform for potential applications like an outdoor temperature indicator, or some sort of caller ID color tagging tool for seeing from afar who’s calling. If all goes well, Yantouch will even consider making an Android version, but we’re not sure if the $79 price tag will immediately catch on. Anyhow, check out our hands-on video after the break.

Continue reading Yantouch Black Diamond 3D ambience iPhone dock hands-on

Yantouch Black Diamond 3D ambience iPhone dock hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Art Basel down in Miami has been the go-to place to see the best and brightest in design this past week, with Troika’s ‘Falling Light’ installation falling squarely into the latter category. This mechanical LED sculpture needed a room to itself, as it hosts 50 ceiling-suspended devices with each incorporating a custom cut Swarovski crystal optical lens, a computer programmed motor and a white LED. As you can see in the video down below, the white metal armatures rise in syncopation by rotating cam before gravity releases them earthward, which then activates the LED to move closer to the crystal lens. Through the magic of diffraction, you end up with a rainbow effect being flung to the floor, creating a perfect environment for… let’s say, a rave. Or, you know, your next bedroom.

Continue reading Troika’s mechanical LED sculpture lights up Art Basel (video)

Troika’s mechanical LED sculpture lights up Art Basel (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 08:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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