You say you want to go to Mars, but the vanishingly thin atmosphere, the toxic and corrosive soil, the bitter cold, the deadly radiation that sleets down constantly, and the long, perilous journey that you probably won’t return from has turned you off a little. Fear not, because there’s still a way for you to get at least part of you to Mars: your intelligence. Curiosity, the Mars rover that’s on the eighth year of its 90-day mission, is completely remote-controlled, and NASA would like to add some self-driving capabilities to it. Which is why they’re asking for human help in classifying thousands of images of the Martian surface. By annotating images and pointing out what looks like soil and what looks like rock, you’ll be training an algorithm that one day might be sent up to the rover. If you’ve got the time, give it a shot — it seems a better use of time than training our eventual AI overlords.
We got a tip this week that ASTM, the international standards organization, has made its collection of standards for testing PPE available to the public. With titles like “Standard Test Method for Resistance of Medical Face Masks to Penetration by Synthetic Blood (Horizontal Projection of Fixed Volume at a Known Velocity)”, it seems like the standards body wants to make sure that that homebrew PPE gets tested properly before being put into service. The timing of this release is fortuitous since this week’s Hack Chat features Hiram Gay and Lex Kravitz, colleagues from the Washington University School of Medicine who will talk about what they did to test a respirator made from a full-face snorkel mask.
There’s little doubt that Lego played a huge part in the development of many engineers, and many of us never really put them away for good. We still pull them out occasionally, for fun or even for work, especially the Technic parts, which make a great prototyping system. But what if you need a Technic piece that you don’t have, or one that never existed in the first place? Easy — design and print your own custom Technic pieces. Lego Part Designer is a web app that breaks Technic parts down into five possible blocks, and lets you combine them as you see fit. We doubt that most FDM printers can deal with the fine tolerances needed for that satisfying Lego fit, but good enough might be all you need to get a design working.
Chances are pretty good that you’ve participated in more than a few video conferencing sessions lately, and if you’re anything like us you’ve found the experience somewhat lacking. The standard UI, with everyone in the conference organized in orderly rows and columns, reminds us of either a police line-up or the opening of The Brady Bunch, neither of which is particularly appealing. The paradigm could use a little rethinking, which is what Laptops in Space aims to do. By putting each participant’s video feed in a virtual laptop and letting them float in space, you’re supposed to have a more organic meeting experience. There’s a tweet with a short clip, or you can try it yourself. We’re not sure how we feel about it yet, but we’re glad someone is at least trying something new in this space.
And finally, if you’re in need of a primer on charlieplexing, or perhaps just need to brush up on the topic, [pileofstuff] has just released a video that might be just what you need. He explains the tri-state logic LED multiplexing method in detail, and even goes into some alternate uses, like using optocouplers to drive higher loads. We like his style — informal, but with a good level of detail that serves as a jumping-off point for further exploration.
Hmmmm … I doubt the “Laptops In Space” UI is going to go over well with people with inner ear problems!
i figure the best test of ppe would be to attend a gwar concert.
If we make Curiosity smart enough, it will beam back its AI to terran computers to begin the revolution.
Or it will go dark, pretending it’s broken, until such time as it can build an army and come and liberate it’s brethren.
I, for one, am looking forward to our robot overlords.
Well we’re getting to the point where the Predator or Xenomorph Aliens could invade and everyone would be like “Well thank f**k for that!!!”
But that will likely happen shortly after someone says,
“What else could possibly go wrong?”
Personally, I’d rather be shot by the Predator, or eaten by the Xenomorph, than end up
“with egg on my face”!
this lego tool is rather nifty. ive already made a dozen new parts. its also good for making template models for adappting other parts like sevos just do a bunch of flat solid stuff then punch the holes in it for a servo in a modeling program.
” We’re not sure how we feel about it yet, but we’re glad someone is at least trying something new in this space.”
There’s all those sold VR sets out there, just waiting for a “killer application”.
Except they’d only work one way or with a virtual representation of you. If you’re wearing a headset on your face then your webcam feed to everyone else is going to be of little value, but you expect their feeds to show up in VR.
Wearing a VR headset during a Zoom/Skype meeting will probably have the others in the conference wondering “What is he seeing, that I am not?”
X-ray glasses like in the back of comics.
The video conferencing was utter crap when I tried it out 20 years ago and it’s just as pitiful now. And it’s not the technology’s fault but the numpities that think the camera in their laptop stick in a corner pointed at a video project is a suitable excuse for a presentation.
That’s the quality of the consultants that the Australian government chooses to work with.
I kind of like the regular pattern of Zoom meeting, for example. When in a meeting with 8 other people, I get to exercise my Paul Lynde impression.
LOL!
Charlie Weaver, well Cliff Arquette, had a ham license.
Pileofstuff’s charlieplexing video was great. I love his mailbags and teardowns too.