Category Archives: Technology

hologram for you, sir!

Technology

3D image projected in mid-airSo you take a laser and you shoot it into the air, creating a true 3-D image that anyone can view from any angle. Can’t be done, you say? Science fiction, you say?

Well, the Japanese Institute for Doing The Impossible[1] has proven you wrong again by creating just such a device. Take that! It’s no trick, either. The device uses a high-powered laser to ignite the atmosphere[2], tracing its trail of destruction into pleasing shapes for us. Better yet, while I wasn’t looking they improved the contraption, making the image brighter and apparently giving it the ability to display Japanese. In Japan, no less!

Will wonders never cease?

[Thanks, Nick!]

[1] a loose translation
[2] tiny parts of it, admittedly

your choice of space hotels

Space, Technology

Galactic Suite designLooks like Bigelow Aerospace has some new competition. A company called Galactic Suite has plans to build an orbiting hotel by 2012. Details are a bit sparse, but they already have $3 billion in funding to make it happen:

Galactic Suite began as a hobby for former aerospace engineer Claramunt, until a space enthusiast decided to make the science fiction fantasy a reality by fronting most of the $3 billion needed to build the hotel.

An American company intent on colonizing Mars, which sees Galaxy Suite as a first step, has since come on board, and private investors from Japan, the United States and the United Arab Emirates are in talks.

The company’s blog has a few early design ideas, but no details on how they’re actually hoping to get to orbit.

How walkable is your neighborhood?

Environment, Technology

Just found out about a site called Walk Score today. It uses Google Maps data to calculate a walkability score for any address based on how close it is to services like grocery stores, restaurants, schools, etc. For instance, my house got a “walker’s paradise” 91 (out of 100), while my work got only a 63. Still, not bad for San Diego.

It’s a simple but powerful idea; now I have a benchmark to use when deciding between hotels on vacation or (eventually) deciding which house to buy. Perhaps it’ll encourage more neighborhoods to become walkable…

DeLoreans go back into production?

Fun, Science fiction, Technology

The appeal of the DeLorean doesn’t seem to have diminished, according to a recent BBC story. On the contrary, the revived DeLorean Motor Company (based in Texas this time) has been doing a swift business in parts, accessories, and in some cases complete refurbishment (new parts on an original chassis).

As it turns out, demand has gotten high enough to warrant building new ones:

Demand for DeLorean cars is so high that it may go back into production, according to a US firm.

Mr Espey added: “There are guys who were in their teens when they first saw the movie, who are now in their late 30s or early 40s, who are at that point in life when they can get the car they wanted when they were a kid.

“We feel quite confident that there is a market for between 20-25 hand-built made to order cars each year, without question. Right now, we have a nine-month waiting list for cars.”

Ah, just in time for 2015 to come around! OK, who’s working on the hoverconversion technology? Mr. Fusion, anyone?

MIT team designs skintight spacesuit

Space, Technology

BIOsuitGolden-age sci-fi fans, rejoice! The future is finally here. Your skintight spacesuit has arrived:

Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT… is working on a sleek, advanced suit designed to allow superior mobility when humans eventually reach Mars or return to the moon. Her spandex and nylon BioSuit is not your grandfather’s spacesuit–think more Spiderman, less John Glenn.

Newman’s prototype suit is a revolutionary departure from the traditional model. Instead of using gas pressurization, which exerts a force on the astronaut’s body to protect it from the vacuum of space, the suit relies on mechanical counter-pressure, which involves wrapping tight layers of material around the body. The trick is to make a suit that is skintight but stretches with the body, allowing freedom of movement.

Key to their design is the pattern of lines on the suit, which correspond to lines of non-extension (lines on the skin that don’t extend when you move your leg). Those lines provide a stiff “skeleton” of structural support, while providing maximal mobility.

Let’s see… private spacecraft, check; personal cleaning robots, check; skintight spacesuit, check; wrist computer with videphone, check; bionic limbs, check; OK, who’s working on the jetpacks?