Using Optical Waveguide Arrays To Make Sheets Sense Shapes

October 15, 2026 by No comments

Determining the shape of an object which can change dynamically is a bit of a challenge, one that especially vexes those who are really into Virtual Reality. Sensing the orientation of various limbs and appendages usually requires external sensors like cameras, or limit the focus to specific details like just the hands and fingers of the player. A more comprehensive and potentially flexible approach might be possible using optical waveguides, as demonstrated by [Qifan Yu] et al. in a recent article in Advanced Intelligent Systems.

Waveguides are structures that guide electromagnetic waves, with optical waveguides such as used here targeting EM radiation in the optical band. This can even allow for the use of cheap and plentiful optical fiber, though here custom elastomeric waveguides are manufactured. These are laid out onto the sheet in a double-sided, overlapping zig-zag pattern, which allows for easy reconstruction of the shape of said sheet based on how the wave propagation through the waveguide changes.

By characterizing the behavior of the signals through the waveguide, its shape and thus that of the sheet can be reconstructed. This was then demonstrated to be accurate by wrapping the sheet around a volunteer’s arm, elow and hand, detecting the flexing and movement of individual joints.

Although fairly bulky in the demonstrated configuration and with an unoptimized algorithm, it’s conceivably something that can be miniaturized to the point where it can be woven into regular fabric. This could make for sensor sheets that could track the configuration of everything from robots to human bodies for something like VR purposes.

45 Years Later, The Sinclair ULA Design Documents Surface

October 15, 2026 by 1 Comment

In the 8-bit home computer boom of the early 1980s, Sir Clive Sinclair’s machines were always among the cheapest on the market, often packing a surprising level of sophistication in their limited hardware. If there was one component that was key to their success it was the Ferranti ULA, or Uncommitted Logic Array, a clever way to make an ASIC from a chip containing a library of logic parts ready made. The Sinclair ULAs have been reverse engineered, but their full details have remained a mystery. Until now it seems, because here’s [Happy Little Diodes] with a treasure trove of original Ferranti design documents covering all the Sinclair parts.

The documents were picked up on eBay, and contain folders with printouts, engineering drawings, and hand written design notes. They cover the full range of Sinclair products of the era, including the ZX81 and Spectrum, the ZX printer, the Microdrive, the Spectrum Interface 1, and even the curious little flat screen TV. Oddly the IP is now held by the satellite broadcaster Sky as the holder of Amstrad’s portfolio, but fortunately Sky have recognised their historical importance and allowed their sharing with minimal changes. They’re all catalogued with download links in a Google spreadsheet, so dig in and see what you can find. Of particular interest are the ULAs that haven’t been reverse engineered yet, and the subtle differences between different versions of the same ULA as the engineers tried to fix bugs. The video is below the break.

If you’re curious about the ULA and Ferranti, we linked to a period film about it.

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Linux Kernel Drops AI Tag Requirement, Uses Meta AI For Code Reviews

October 15, 2026 by 34 Comments

Since we last covered the way that the Linux Kernel project has been dealing with the influx of code created using LLM-based coding assistants, all the way back in April, things have changed a lot, with most recently the Linux maintainers deciding to fully drop the requirement to mark LLM-assisted commits with the Assisted-by tag.

While not a fully uncontroversial decision – as also reported by Phoronix – with key maintainers already having made this decision it seems certain to proceed. This is not the only change made fairly recently, with a ‘Sashiko’ bot introduced that is supposed to handle code reviews.

In a July LKML post [Linus Torvalds] defends this decision, with a follow-up post in August by [Jakub Kicinski] it being stated that budget has been secured for using Meta’s LLMs, using said LLM-based resources for reviewing patches, as well as creating and editing commit messages. As noted by [Jakub] they’re running multiple frontier models on each patch to try and weed out confabulations.

Whether this will prove to be the right decision remains to be seen. Whereas most open source projects have firmly banished or heavily curtailed LLM-based contributions on slop, copyright as well as licensing grounds, the Linux Kernel project may be an interesting experiment in what the outcome of the exact opposite approach will be.

C64 Hardware Simulator Isn’t (Just) For Playing Around

October 15, 2026 by 8 Comments

If you want to play old Commodore games, there are C-64 emulators available for just about any platform– but most of them are so high level, they’re really meant for just that: playing games. [antirez] has a different goal with his c64-hw-sim project— it’s a lower-level emulation that simulates every chip and every connection on an ASSY 250407 motherboard, and all the chips on it, too. Ever wondered what happens when a specific chip is missing, or a random pin is shorted to ground or forced high? You can do all that in software, with no risk of harming antique hardware.

While that might be a fun bit of faffing about for a certain sort electronics sadist, the real utility is to learn about the hardware, both in the abstract and to help you troubleshoot a board you might have. It’s likely that many given failure modes reproduce the same effects– lots of things can knock out the display output, for example–but at least if you’ve reproduced a flaw in software you can try testing the hardware to see if that’s the cause of your problem. Assuming the simulation covers your hardware issue, anyway.

There’s cycle-accurate chip emulation for the processor, CIAs, SID and VIC-II via code by [Andre Weissflog], a.k.a. [flooh]. Meanwhile analog circuitry in the video, audio and power sections are not simulated so not everything fault will be replicable here. Still, it might be a neat tool– just don’t try and run any games on it, because even on high-end modern hardware it only runs at about one-third speed. That’s fast enough for diagnostics, but not so much for Maniac Mansion, never mind Elite. 

Speaking of Elite, did you know the source– both of the port and the original– is available with comments? If you want an emulator you can play, you can get it on everything from microcontrollers like Teensy to your personal computer.

Thanks to [Salvatore] for the tip!

Hand-Machined Stake Sharpener Just In Time For Dracula Season

October 15, 2026 by 22 Comments

Vampires aren’t as common as they once were, but in most places they aren’t fully protected and it’s still possible to get a tag for legal hunting come October — at least if you’re using traditional weapons, like a good old wooden stake.

[This Old Tony] on YouTube didn’t have a good old wooden stake handy, but he does have a machine shop. Does he turn stakes on a lathe? Hardly. He turns an aluminum block into a giant pencil sharpener so he can use his drill to make vampire-removers out of any stick he finds.

If you thought that intro was too silly, you can skip the video. [Tony] is a funny guy, and is obviously enjoying himself in the voice over. He also obviously knows his way around a machine shop, and the 22 minute video shows every step of making a tool from a solid block of aluminum and some steel plate. It isn’t as soothing as some machinist’s videos are, though, as roughing out the 30 degree interior cone that will hold the stake against the steel blade is somewhat nerve-wracking to watch. Getting the blade mount tangent to the cone may have been trickier machining overall, but [Old Tony] nails every step. He’s now ready to dust any Nostferatu or Lasombra who darkens his door, assuming he has the strength to hammer the 3″ stakes he’s making through their undead ribs.

We’ve been enjoying [Old Tony] since we saw him build his own CNC table, only to ignore it in favour of his hard-earned skills. If you like that sort of thing, take a look — [Tony]’s cutting wit can make even videos about boring tools entertaining.

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So You Want To Make Your SDR Work On Other Frequencies

October 15, 2026 by 14 Comments

Perhaps the most exciting news of the past few weeks in the world of hardware hacking has been the unlocking of hidden SDR functionality in the Wi-Fi radios found on Espressif ESP32 microcontrollers. They can be used as both transmit and receive SDRs, and given that it’s early days for this hack we expect that great things are yet to come.

There’s one snag though, despite speculation that they might be dragged down to much lower frequencies, as far as we know they’re only proven to work around the Wi-Fi frequencies. Though the reality may be wider we’ll take that for a 2.4 GHz part as a 100 MHz slice from 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz. Plenty of possibilities there, and they might even work down to 1.8 GHz, but there would be so much more to do if it could work elsewhere in the spectrum. So it’s time to look at the converter, a tried and tested old way to make a radio work on a different frequency.

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A Thermal Camera That Uses WebUSB

October 15, 2026 by 13 Comments

When creating a peripheral for a mobile phone, an obvious path is to create a companion app with which to talk to it. But as we all know today’s app is tomorrow’s non-functional abandonware, so to give his infrared camera a long life, [Cezar Chirila] made it talk WebUSB to a browser instead.

The hardware is conventional enough, a FLIR sensor talking to an RP2040. There’s very little in the way of supporting circuitry save for a power supply regulator, as so much that might be on a standalone project is already present in the USB host device. Running the thing is as simple as going to a landing page in a browser that supports WebUSB, and using the camera. The whole lot is in a GitHub repository, if you’re interested.

We’re big fans of WebUSB, for exactly the reason it’s been used here. While there are a few browser features which have been deprecated over the years — who remembers the BLINK and MARQUEE HTML tags — it’s likely WebUSB won’t be one of them. This could only be topped by having the microcontroller share a small USB disk with the landing page as an HTML file.

Meanwhile if you’re strapped for cash, there are cheaper thermal cameras out there.