TheMightyEthan Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 Yeah, that's really cool but my first thought was that it will probably kill you in some horrible way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted May 24, 2012 Report Share Posted May 24, 2012 (edited) http://www.fastcoexi...ketchup-flowing Its non toxic since the team worked with a list of FDA approved materials. They are currently trying to market it to companies. I wish them best of luck since if I call anything magic, this is indeed one of them. I would look at a company in a better light if they used something like this. Also, my avatar is my reaction to seeing the videos. Edited May 24, 2012 by MaliciousH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchikoma Posted May 27, 2012 Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 (edited) NHK and TV manufacturers are working on a system to enhance TV broadcasts with extra information that streams along with the show. Not holding my breath for this since various "sideband" data stream technologies have been pushed since around 1990 with little success - but the demos here do look kind of cool. I don't really do live TV anymore, but if I did, it'd be cool to see toggleable nametags on athletes, map positions and the like.(BTW, Japan has done some crazy things in the past with live interactive programming already...) Edited May 27, 2012 by fuchikoma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted May 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 Looks pretty neat. I know there's a few apps around n about (maybe UK only given the shows) that act as companions to watching. Though they're more a kind of Foursquare/twitter type thing for TV from what I remember of them. I think X-factor (n similar) would let you vote on the show from within the app, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted May 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2012 http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/05/26/us-climate-germany-solar-idUKBRE84P0FI20120526 So Germany has supplied nearly half of it's electricity via Solar the other week. Not bad, especially considering there's not much sun in northern Europe. Helps make their "close all of our nuclear down" last year in reaction to fukushima seem a bit less silly. (There's obviously still the whole "geographically stable" thing Germany has that Japan doesn't mind.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted May 31, 2012 Report Share Posted May 31, 2012 http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/31/11983318-spacexs-dragon-splashes-down-ending-historic-space-mission Successful splashdown of Dragon. At the moment it appears the mission was a complete success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 http://singularityhub.com/2012/06/05/buttons-morph-out-of-your-touchscreen-with-tactus/Looks pretty neat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchikoma Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 That is really cool. I'll be able to play a game and not jab the spot beside a button I meant to hit because I had to keep my eye on the action... I wonder how it will look after popping a button in the same spot every day for 3 years? Also, it will definitely not be as tough as treated glass. Still, lots of people still swear by button pads because they hate typing on touchscreens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 Well even in that video the buttons were clearly visible even when they were flattened. It looks to me like it's not entirely dynamic, it can only make buttons in fixed locations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 Of course, if you’re not using the buttons you don’t want to know that they’re there. The company had to make sure that their technology, when not in use, was truly invisible to the user. Ciesla explained, “Two important factors for our tactile product: it has to be flat in the down state and it has to be invisible. We have been able to fine tune the invisibility of the micro-channels through our proprietary fluid formulation. This allows us to have a network of channels running throughout the panel that can’t be seen. Additionally, we have developed unique fabrication processes that allow us to create buttons that go completely flat without any residual optical effects.” Right now the patterns will be configured by the device manufacturers. But Tactus says in the future users will be able to configure Tactus themselves. The company expects the first Tactus products to be out sometime in 2013. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 They say they're invisible when flattened, but in that video I can clearly see them when flattened. In this situation I'm going to believe their video over their talk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 You apparently have better vision than I. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 Watched it again, and it looks like they're only visible when flattened when viewed from an extreme angle, which is basically irrelevant for normal use. But if you want to see it watch the keyboard part from like 0:25-0:30 when they're going up and down you can still see them when they've flattened. They're not clearly outlined, but the surface is distinctly wavy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchikoma Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 I definitely saw the buttons after they flexed down from a shallow angle too. I just didn't say anything because they were flexing so quickly I wasn't certain if it was creases in the membrane, or video compression (delta frame) artifacts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 I wonder what happened to the rumours for the haptic feedback on the wiiU gamepad? I thought Nintendo bought a steak in a haptic feedback company and everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 ^Hope it was tasty. Also, wrong thread? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 well that screen button thing reminded me of it and finding the WiiU thread would require extra clicking and all sorts. I CAN'T BE DOING WITH THAT NONSENSE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 It's okay, we all make misteaks. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchikoma Posted June 6, 2012 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 I've seen some haptic touchscreen stuff before, but it was based on tugging or vibrating a hard screen surface sideways when your finger goes over certain elements. Nothing as "real" as 3D buttons - though some who have tested it say the illusion is really good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchikoma Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 Sandia labs have made a fancy fan... Ok, so that's selling it way short, but not quite untrue either... I wonder what the MTBF is on it, and how its life is affected by starting and stopping it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 I don't understand how it's different to current fan designs. Also it's still noisy too, in fact at least current fans are a low hum n not a high pitched whine. edit: Herp Derp. It's putting the heat sink on the motor, not a fan. It's th exact same design as a heat sink so threw me off a bit when he's going on how amazing the design is n the fins and I'm like "well that's what we've had for years..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 It's still a fan. A fan is just something that spins that moves air. I want to hear more about how it gets the thermal connection with the CPU. He just kind of mentioned an air bearing off hand, but air is an insulator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 Yeah it taking off means it isn't in connection with the CPU and thus can't transfer the heat. Which is how the current heat sinks work, heat sink is attached to the CPU, heat from CPU goes into heatsink, the fan then blows cool air on/hot air away. Because this combines the duty of the fan and heatsink and also raises up from the CPU plate it means heat goes from the CPU, into a thin layer of air then supposedly into the heatsink-fan. Also most CPUs are on the side these days, this fan would only work in laptops (Where the CPU is horizontal) but it's freaking huge. Maybe it's mainly aimed for use in servers, but I'm to understand these days most of those are water cooled, and as no one works in them due to the heat issue, there's not really a bother with the noise output unlike a consumer PC in a home. A decent and quite CPU cooler can be had for like £15 with practically zero n highly efficient water cooling coming in around £50+. So they've got a pretty low spot to hit to be commercially viable. btw from the youtube snapshot I thought it might be one of those invisibility cloaks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchikoma Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 I had the same first impression. "I'm SURE we have fans like that already..." I'm guessing that the air gap is extremely small between heatsink and fan, and maybe the fan surface is even coloured to increase its absorption? I'm sure for things like laptops they could cut the fins down (then maybe run advanced physics simulations and alter the fin spacing and angle...) though I wonder how well this 2000 RPM fan holds up to being moved about while it's running, or how much power it uses to begin with. As for the noise, I really agree... the thing sounds like a Maxtor hard drive, and while motorless it's very quiet, I'm not sure how they plan to run it without a motor. They could put some kind of sound-absorbing cap in the middle, but I'm certain that would screw up their carefully crafted airflow. They could put the motor in a box underneath the fan and turn it with a driveshaft... but they couldn't center the fan on a chip and might even need a hole in the circuit board (which is, well... not so hard, looking at the concessions for big heavy copper coolers.) My money is on adding magnets to the rotating part and base and turning it into a motor itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 It doesn't matter how small the air gap is, you need a solid connection with a highly thermally conductive material or the chip will fry itself. Even putting two pieces of metal up against each other isn't good enough, you have to have thermal paste in between. And changing the color of the fan to increase absorption wouldn't increase the radiation of the chip, and there's no way the radiation would be high enough to dump all that heat. If it were you wouldn't need a fan at all. I'm not saying they haven't solved the problem, I'm just wondering how they did it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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