This Mirror Shows Your Reflection in…Furry Pompoms

THOUSANDS OF YEARS ago, our ancient ancestors would look into vessels of still water and see a low-fi version of the world staring back at them. Human narcissism, being what it is, inevitably led us to develop more sophisticated forms of self-gazing. We’d use polished obsidian stone or metals like copper and silver to catch even just a hazy glimpse of ourselves. It wasn’t until the 19th century, when German scientist Justus von Liebig discovered a way to overlay a thin layer of metallic silver onto glass, that we were introduced to the modern mirror.

It’s fair to surmise that as long as humans have possessed consciousness, we’ve been transfixed by seeing our own image reflected back at us, in whatever form that might take. “The mirror is a magical object,” Daniel Rozin says.

Rozin, a New York–based artist, might be a little biased in his opinion. Since 1999, his work has centered around constructing mechanical mirrors out of unlikely materials such as wood, plastic, trash, and metal. For his most recent exhibition, Decent With Modification (now on view at bitforms gallery in NYC), Rozin built two new mechanical mirrors—one made from stuffed penguins, another from a hypnotizing array of black and white pompoms.

Rozin’s mirrors, while not a mirror in the hang-on-the-back-of-your-door sense, do reflect the humans standing in front of them. You might not see yourself per se, but you’ll see some form of yourself reflected in the poms and penguins. As Rozin puts it: “Hopefully it captures your soul, not your detail.”

The PomPom Mirror, for example, is a pentagon filled with 928 faux-fur puffs. Pairs of pompoms—one black and one white—are attached to 464 motors that push one pom forward as the other retracts, giving the mirror its dual-color effect. You could think of each puff as a pixel in a super low-res camera. “It’s less than an icon on your computer and it’s in black and white, not in color,” Rozin explains. “In terms of computation, this is a very, very light task.”

The display is dictated by the images a Kinect camera captures and feeds into the software Rozin built. Stand in front of the PomPom Mirror, and you’ll see a blobby outline of your body rendered in pompom material; wave your hand, and you’ll see that, too. The same goes for Penguins Mirror: Stand in front of the penguins, and they’ll follow you as you walk left and right.

It’s easy to classify Rozin’s work as reactive, not interactive, since the systems he builds are simply responding to an input. But it’s quite the opposite, he argues. The penguins’ movement prompts you to run and jump and test the boundaries of what the stuffed animals will react to. The poms, on the other hand, require you to move more slowly and deliberately. “So the question is, who is controlling whom?” asks Rozin.

Are you reacting to the technology, or is the technology reacting to you? I’d argue it’s a little bit of both. For his part, Rozin views this ambiguity as the basis for true interactivity. It’s only through a partnership between the piece and the viewer that you can create a truly interactive experience.

Maybe we’re making too much out of a bunch of stuffed animals and pompoms, but Rozin’s question feels particularly relevant today: Does our everyday technology respond to us, or us to it?

Inflatable Garage Allows for On-the-Fly Jet Engine Repairs

A RUNWAY IS a terrible place to repair an airplane engine. It’s outside, where you’re exposed to rain, snow, cold, and heat. You need dry, temperate conditions to do this kind of work, and of course want to keep your engineers free of heat stroke or frostbite, if not totally comfortable.

That’s why repairs usually are done in aircraft hangars. But hangars are not always available, and they are not cheap—meaning that when an engine needs unscheduled maintenance, they’re not always the best solution. Airbus has noticed an increase in delays around unscheduled engine maintenance, it says.

So it came up with a solution for airlines that fly its long-range jets: An inflatable tent that can be carried anywhere and set up in minutes. It’s portable mini-hangar for doing work on airport aprons (the areas where planes are usually parked for loading and unloading, refueling, and boarding). It works a lot like an air mattress: Unfurl the deflated structure, lay it on the ground, hook up the blower, and let it come to life. Four people can erect it up in just five minutes, Airbus says.

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Deflated, it measures just 40″ by 40″ by 60″ and weighs 308 pounds, small and light enough to be stored on any commercial jet. The inflator’s about half that size and weighs only 49 pounds.

The tent accommodates heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems, and can be used in temperatures from -40 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. It also can accommodate Airbus’ electric hoist kit to facilitate removing and installing engines. And of course the walls and floor are resistant to oil, acid, and hydraulic fluid.

When the tent’s inflated, the crew members pull it into place around the engine in need and its corresponding pylon, then zip the door closed. They keep it in place with ballast (like water containers or sand bags) placed on a specially designed skirt.

When the work is done, you just let it deflate, pack it back up, throw it in the trunk, and take off.

Qualcomm, Google to Make Project Tango Smartphone With Snapdragon 810 SoC

One of the world's biggest mobile chipset manufacturers, Qualcomm, has unveiled plans to develop a Project Tango smartphone with Google. The smartphone will be powered by Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 810 SoC, and will feature the 3D motion-tracking capabilities that Project Tango seeks to develop and promote.

The announcement comes shortly after Google put the Project Tango tablet on sale through the Google Store at $512 (approximately Rs. 33,000), half of its original price. Google did not speak of the Project Tango platform at the recently concluded Google I/O, but Qualcomm has gone ahead and revealed its upcoming smartphone powered by the platform. Project Tango is being developed by Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, which was formerly a division of Motorola Mobility. It is meant to enable devices to track 3D motion in real time, creating a 3D model of the environment around it.

Qualcomm's Project Tango smartphone is expected to be equipped with a camera, gyroscope, and accelerometer to provide the motion tracking that the platform is known for. Qualcomm will also give developers access to the Qualcomm Developer Network to take advantage of features included in the premium-tier Snapdragon 810 processor and enhance the performance of Android applications, such as access to the Qualcomm Hexagon DSP via the Hexagon SDK as well as the Qualcomm Vuforia mobile vision platform.

Qualcomm has also stated that the Project Tango smartphone will arrive later this summer. Qualcomm's complete announcement on the smartphone in development can be found on its dedicated page for developers.

New elastic, anti-shock batteries made from wood

Scientists have developed a new method for creating elastic high-capacity batteries from wood pulp.

Using nanocellulose broken down from tree fibres, a team from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and Stanford University in US produced an elastic, foam-like battery material that can withstand shock and stress.

"It is possible to make incredible materials from trees and cellulose," said Max Hamedi, who is a researcher at KTH and Harvard University.

One benefit of the new wood-based aerogel material is that it can be used for three-dimensional structures.

"There are limits to how thin a battery can be, but that becomes less relevant in 3D," Hamedi said.

A 3D structure enables storage of significantly more power in less space than is possible with conventional batteries, he said.

The process for creating the material begins with breaking down tree fibres, making them roughly one million times thinner.

The nanocellulose is dissolved, frozen and then freeze-dried so that the moisture evaporates without passing through a liquid state.

Then the material goes through a process in which the molecules are stabilised so that the material does not collapse.

"The result is a material that is both strong, light and soft," Hamedi said.

The material resembles foam in a mattress, though it is a little harder, lighter and more porous. You can touch it without it breaking.

The finished aerogel can then be treated with electronic properties.

"We use a very precise technique, verging on the atomic level, which adds ink that conducts electricity within the aerogel. You can coat the entire surface within," said Hamedi.

In terms of surface area, Hamedi compares the material to a pair of human lungs, which if unfurled could be spread over a football field.

Similarly, a single cubic decimetre of the battery material would cover most of a football pitch, he said.

"You can press it as much as you want. While flexible and stretchable electronics already exist, the insensitivity to shock and impact are somewhat new," Hamedi added.

Hamedi says the aerogel batteries could be used in electric car bodies, as well as in clothing, provided the garment has a lining.