Point Laser, Get Beer

[vimeo 777847]

Simply tag something with a laser and El-E will go get it for you. We know this is for the disabled, but we can’t help but think of how nice it would be to have around the house. The system is programmed to recognize the illumination from a green laser and is constructed to be able to reach things from the floor as well as tables and shelves. I wonder if they have programmed El-E to go get the laser for you if you leave it somewhere, kind of like when you leave the TV remote across the room.

[via Gearlog]

Laser POV Projector

[shakirfm] sent us this LED persistence of vision (POV) laser projector that can display dot matrix style text. The laser projector contains a rotating mirror assembly and 5 lasers. We’ve covered other POV projectors,but this one is a bit different. The mirror assembly rotates using two cooling fans. Controlling on/off times of the lasers along with the mirror speed, it is able to project 8×5 dot matrix ASCII text onto a surface.
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Turn Your Projector Into A Laser Guided Controller

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJgzwW2C6DQ&fmt=18]

[Alpay Kasal] of LitStudios as come up with an interesting way to use laser pointers as a wireless controller for games and applications. The process is currently being patented, which may explain why [Alpay]’s blog is a little slim in the details. We doubt they’re doing anything more than just using a camera to track the laser pointer; exactly like laser tagging.

If you’re just itching to get your hands on some wireless game play and can’t wait for this to go commercial you could always just get a Nintendo Wii.

[via Engadget]

James Powderly Released


Graffiti Research Lab’s [James Powderly] along with 9 other Tibet supporters were deported from China during the Olympic’s closing ceremonies. Detained on the 19th, the activists were to serve a 10 day sentence, but the Chinese government buckled under international pressure and deported them early. This brings the total number of deported activists to 53 since the start of the games.

Graffiti Research Lab is well known for its laser tagging research.

Laser Etching Printed Circuit Boards


While we hope you enjoyed our How-To: Etch a printed circuit board, toner transfer certainly isn’t the only way to get the job done. [Garrett] from macetech has recently been playing around with using an Epilog laser to etch PCBs. He started by applying a thin even coat of flat black spray paint to the copper board. The laser is used to remove paint in areas that you want the copper removed. Once that’s done, you proceed with etching as usual. He eventually removed the paint mask using acetone. The result has very fine, sharp traces, but most people that have tried this agree that using spray paint is less than ideal.

Radiohead Releases Laser Music Video With Data


Radiohead has released their music video for “House Of Cards.” We’ve already covered some of the tech involved. If making an entire video without cameras wasn’t edgy enough, they’ve released all the point data for people to play with and remix. The band is encouraging people to post their creations to their YouTube group.

Head over to their Google Code page to watch a making of video as well as view some of the datasets in 3D. There is a link to the entire dataset for download as well.