Here’s a solar water heater setup that augments your home’s water heater instead of replacing it. The system monitors a solar collector panel on the roof for temperature. If the temperature is warm enough, a photo voltaic cell powered pump circulates cold water through the system. The heated water returns to the top of the home’s water heater. Unlike the warm-climate solar heater we saw earlier, this one can withstand freezing because it uses silicone tubing in the collector.
[Thanks Marius]
There have been a couple companies that have shown off full-sized 3D displays, but Fujifilm had a couple of products that caught my eye. The first was a stereoscopic camera called the Finepix Real 3D W1 that not only functioned as a 3D Camera, but also featured a glasses-free 3D display on the back. The camera was capable of using the separate cameras in different functions, allowing you to zoom one in, and take a wide angle with the other simultaneously.
They featured a miniature 3D display as well, which was the size of a regular digital photo frame but contained the same technology as the camera screen. As far as getting into hacking a 3D display, this would be a good place to start, though the ~$400 price might be a bit of a put off.
After posting about our visit and interview with [Vemund], the Atmel rep at CES. We got the feeling you needed to know some more. The thing that has got us pretty excited is the ATmega128RFA1(pdf) single-chip microcontroller and Zigbee radio module. It can be found in the ATmegaRFA1-EK1 development board. We look forward to seeing future projects and products involving this chip. How would you use this chip?
Sure, we’ve talked about some internet celebrity fans, but we also met a lot of great fans around the show and at events we’ve covered. In the future, we are looking to cover more live events and cons, as well as starting coverage of hackerspaces. Keep an eye out at your local hacking event for the HackaDay team. Gallery of fan photos after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYGCeBcaD7Y]
As were wandering around South Hall, we just so happened to stumble upon Taser International‘s booth. Being the adventurous guy that he is, [Caleb] decided to volunteer to get tased. Not being able to pass up such a great opportunity, we instantly broke out our cameras and recorded the video above. Enjoy, we know we sure did.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB-kZmq0syc]
I got my hands on a set of augmented reality glasses that were displayed with a Monkey-Ball style game. This wasnt anything too new as far as the augmented reality goes, however the glasses that were used with the game featured stereo cameras on the center of the outside of the lens, which allowed a true 3D augmented vision that you wouldn’t have to stare into a screen for. These glasses were still in the demo stage, but if they ever make it out into retail, I think that they would be exactly what could bridge AR from a fun toy to a useful tool. Another review video after the break.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ9PPhRQKLs]
We got to talk to an ATMEL representative showing off the RZ600 Zigbee system for AVR systems. The system was also displaying the QTouch slider and wheel devices, all combined to create a wireless controller for a tetris game running on the development board. It was great to talk to a representative with a lot of respect and interest in the university and hacking communities.
