Mar
28

Binary For Teh Win!

01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100000 01100110 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011 01110011 00100001 00100000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110011 01100001 01110111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100111 01101001 01110100 01100001 01101100 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100100 01101110 01100101 01110011 01110011 00101110 00100000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100110 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100100 01110010 01101111 01101111 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 00111010 00101001

  

Binary is our friend. 

Mar
27

Barcode Scanning For The Masses

AURA: Advanced User Resource Annotation. Their motto appears to be ‘Annotate the Planet’.

It’s a Microsoft Research prototype feature designed for Windows Mobile devices to resolve barcodes for the purposes of description lookup (what is the item), actioning (what to do with the item), and batch uploading (how to persist items on a web site). These 3 types of item resolution are collectively called Resolution Services. MSR has a developer doc here (word format) that defines the resolver schema and explains how to implement the resolver service.

A.U.R.A. requires close, focused pictures of barcodes to convert the image into a decoded string. Many Windows Mobile devices have cameras that cannot focus at the close distances required by A.U.R.A. To work around this you can apply an A.U.R.A. Lens Kit to your phone and MSR will send a lens kit to anyone who sends a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

Project A.U.R.A. Lens Kit Request
Microsoft Research, Community Technologies Group
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
United States of America

For more details:

Mar
27

Inner Life Of A Cell

I actually caught this a few weeks ago, and lost track of it until last night.  This is a fantastic and educational view to the internal workings of a single cell.  Running at about eight minutes, the animation will be sure to spur your imagination and keep you mesmerized, as it did me when I first watched it.  Even my 12yr old son sat fixed on this (and he’s a perpetual busybody).  If only there were more interesting movies like this available back when I was in school, I just might have gotten better grades in biology ;)

Cell Stuff

Created by XVIVO, a scientific animation company near Hartford, CT, the animation illustrates unseen molecular mechanisms and the ones they trigger, specifically how white blood cells sense and respond to their surroundings and external stimuli.   Now there’s a mouthful!

EDIT:  Haha!  Even writers have brainfarts.  I forgot to add the link to the animation after writing about it :)   It just goes to show that we’re human here at Geeknews!  Stab here for the animation.

Mar
26

The Dot Clock

Useful?

It’s a silly question, of course it’s useful! :smile:

Mar
25

How Bad Is It, Doc?

Zephyr Tech is a NZ based company that specializes in ‘Smart Fabric Technology’. They combine patented Smart Fabric sensor technology with novel algorithms and system design. Flexible and formable sensors detect and measure displacement, distance, force and pressure, strain, impact events and bio data.
Their latest product ‘Impact SF‘ holds promise for soldiers in the battlefield, or rather it will greatly assist the battlefield medics. Impact SF is a new solution for measuring impact – from slow collisions to ballistic impact. Using sensors and wireless connectivity, Impact SF is robust enough to withstand extreme environments.

Graphical diagnostic tools quantify an impact’s severity, direction and type, providing instant status updates and allowing evidence-based trauma diagnosis. Information is available in real time or can be stored for later use.

Impact SF Capabilities:

  • Measures position of impact and energy
  • Allows quantitative analysis of an impact’s severity, type and direction
  • Enables blunt force human trauma diagnosis
  • No restrictions to wearer of Impact SF garment
  • Technology can be integrated into existing composite structures
  • Real time and trend analysis via graphical display
  • Wireless connectivity to other user interfaces

You can read their brochure (pdf) for a few more details and pretty pictures.

[Found via DefenseTech]