[JC Doré] sent in this [english] interesting optics hack. The rubber grips are made from an old mouse pad, the springs for the clip were salvaged from zip drive floppy discs. A pair of old photo slide frames sandwich a diffraction grating slide. (Like this one) This simple mod allows the slide to be mounted to most cell phones, turning them into digital spectrometers.
the idea behind this project, which emanates from jean-pierre petit, is that by mass-distributing cheap diffraction grates or by convincing a phone manufacturer to include them, the chances of people taking a spectrographic photograph when they see a ufo will increase. the obtained spectrum can then be used to obtain information about the ufo. for instance, it should be theoretically possible to recognize the emission spectra of the navigation lights of a regular airplane.
Posted at 4:01 am on Feb 29th, 2008 by obd
Too bad my computer blocks the site. I’ll have to look it up at school. This looks really cool. I’ve always wanted a spectroscope.
Posted at 8:00 am on Feb 29th, 2008 by Skyler Orlando
Nice idea.
I just googled for refraction grades and they really are much cheaper than I thought. I could build a spectrometer for afew bucks.
Useful?
Yes. You can check white LEDs whether they are RGB or phosphor coated. Maybe analyze LED wavelength distribution to design a growth light, look how voltage changes influence the luminance distribution of your bike light, etc….
Posted at 11:46 am on Feb 29th, 2008 by tantris
so skyler, your computer is the dominant one in the relationship then?
Posted at 3:05 am on Mar 1st, 2008 by kamu
I usually don’t make off topic comments, but #4, that’s hilarious!!!
Posted at 10:50 am on Mar 1st, 2008 by fentanyl3
Now I’m imagining a rotatable wheel with a bunch of different filters- spectroscope, ND-grad, exposed negative style ir pass etc. that clips onto the camera phone . I’d like to see someone make one of those, actually.
re: #3, #4, #5, #6- skyler, if your computer is blocking stuff you can see at school then maybe it’s being unnecessarily restrictive. You should sit down with it and have a talk.
Posted at 5:55 am on Mar 3rd, 2008 by PKM
Hack a Day serves up fresh hacks each day, every day from around the web and a special How-To hack each week.
Powered by WordPress
Wow, I Always find myself in situations where I’m like “If only I had a portable spectroscope now!”. Thank you, Jc Dore!
I cant imagine to many practical applications for this, but its still a cool/fun idea.
Posted at 2:43 am on Feb 29th, 2008 by atrain