(Update: Thanks cb for telling me that this is really an april joke)

Via, this 2005 april joke news (though I did not manage to find any other references about it). As the blog mentions:

Researchers from Belgium have been able to extract voices and sounds from a pottery that is 6,500 year old. The person making the pottery at the time was using something very sensible to vibrations which recorded the sound vibrations on the pottery. This amazing video is in French so I hope you will not mind. However at the end of the video there is a recording shown and you can hear somebody laughing from 6,500 years ago.

The group of is led by belgian researcher Philippe Delaite. Check the video on youtube (in french though).

BUT, after a quick scan in some scientific articles, it seems that other persons are working on that issue: Bart Lynch for instance:

In architecture, natural harmonies occur in Renaissance structures. Harmonic relations of form and space were often based on the golden section and the ratios therein. These same ratios occur in the growth patterns of flowers, fish and other components of nature. I am currently concerned with understanding why these ratios occur and why they are pleasing to us.

I have been translating sounds into three-dimensional pottery using several computer programs in order to see if pleasing sounds make pleasing pottery and vice versa. Using the sound program Sound Edit Pro, I can get a visual representation of a sound that is time dependent. That visual is saved as a picture and imported to the program Swivel 3D where the sound form can be lathed to resemble pottery and used as a template to create actual ceramic works. Using these programs, I have also been animating the figures so that the pottery forms on the computer screen dialogue with the sounds that created them. I see these processes as data-gathering exercises that help me to understand the nature of the harmonic relations so that I will be able to use them more effectively in the future.

Why do I blog this? … curious sunday browsing found… but it’s unfortunately not a real thing a good fake project for regine’s collection!

This drawing is somehow recurrent in Geneva (among lots of others, like this one which found also in Lyon and Barcelona), located in various places; even on a door left on a tree in the city.

Just felt it was inspired by the sayajin armor from dbz.

Via nxtbot, How to Survive a Robot Uprising by Daniel Wilson is a funny resource on how to behave in case if robots rebel.

If popular culture has taught us anything, it is that someday mankind must face and destroy the growing robot menace. In print and on the big screen we have been deluged with scenarios of robot malfunction, misuse, and outright rebellion. Robots have descended on us from outer space, escaped from top-secret laboratories, and even traveled back in time to destroy us.

Today, scientists are working hard to bring these artificial creations to life. In Japan, fuzzy little real robots are delivering much appreciated hug therapy to the elderly. Children are frolicking with smiling robot toys.

It all seems so innocuous. And yet how could so many Hollywood scripts be wrong?

So take no chances. Arm yourself with expert knowledge. For the sake of humanity, listen to serious advice from real robotics experts. How else will you survive the inevitable future in which robots rebel against their human masters?

Of course it’s humour but we might see this kind of stuff in the future:

DESTROY OR DISABLE EXPOSED SENSORS

Sensors are by far the most vulnerable, exposed parts of any robot. Destroy or disable outward-facing sensors such as cameras. A handful of dirt, mud, or water will suffice. It is hard for a robot to wipe mud from its eyes when it has whirring buzz saws for hands.

My favorite advice is certainly “SEARCH THE HOUSE FOR UNUSUAL ITEMS: Check the robot’s quarters for stashed weapons, keys, or family pets“.

Why do I blog this? apart from the funny aspects and the fact that I like this kind of drawings, some slogans (’resistance is futile’) made me think about Anti-Pop Consortium (scifi hip-hop from NYC). In addition, it’s interesting to see how underlying messages about technology and robots like this are beginning to be disseminated in various ways.

I’m in Barcelona (for this) where I just discovered this Flotarium concept: a spaceship-looking sensory deprivation capsule full of water and salts to create optimal buoyancy so that people can float and relax.

The design is impressive. And few minutes after discovering this, I ran across this amazing napmosphere (via): a modular system meant to be like a cocoon - providing a place of shelter.

This seems to be an intriguing trend.

A picture of what astronauts had to wear when flying to the moon: undershorts layered with absorbent material:

At that time it was really lowtech, now it can recycle fluids into drinkable water.

The Wow item creator (designed by Krigaren) seems to be a good way for Chuck Norris fans to express themselves in MMORPG worlds. There are indeed various norris-esque tool such as:

• The Orange dagger of mighty Norris: Use: You become famous, shiny and every female elves all around just take their clothes off and throw them at your feets. Equip: Make you look like Chuck Norris
• The Eye of Chuck Norris: Call forth the eye of chuck Norris to Roundhouse kick your ennemies. Equip: 50% Chance for an ennemy to flee at the sight of the Eye of Chuck Norris. Equip: 100% Chance when In melee for the eye to say ” HOW DARE YOU LOOK AT CHUCK NORRIS ???” Equip: 20% chance to call Chuck norris to your aid

Check also this interesting Chuck Norris Fact Generator that can post random Chuck Norris facts found on ChuckNorrisFacts.com

There are some good folks who are designing a machine to do dreadlocks using mechanical engineering. It seems to be a university project. The first step they choose is to run a quick survey about the need for this.

I did not find any picture of this device, only a bunch of dread tools like the one below:

There is, of course, the supa-dupa kit but it’s still not an automated process:

General Management - Technical Services Vatican Telephone Service:

The Telephone Service of the Vatican State is responsible for the study, installation and management of the telecommunications infrastructure of the Vatican. It has been run since 5th July 1948 by devout members of the religious order of the Society of St Paul (la Società S.Paolo), employs over 30 laymen, a few priests and numerous nuns (suore Pie Discepole del Divin Maestro) who, on account of their distinct qualities of seriousness, reserve and in-depth knowledge of foreign languages are employed as operators in the day-to-day running manual switchboar

As a matter of fact, the network has very importance connections: “ the first Italian link via radio connecting the Holy See and the Papal Residence at Castel Gandolfo“.

Other facts about it here.

Nam June Paik, is a korean artist who designed (in 1964) a robot that can shit in the streets of New York and call/mingle people who pass-by. According to an interview in Wired (back in 2000), it seems that it’s the only pooping robot (well except Wim Delvoye’s Cloaqua which is more a machine than an anthropomorphic robot). It’s called “Robot 456″ and the antropomorphism in this case was related to its innovative capacity to XXX.

(Picture Photograph: Hanns Sohm | © Nam June Paik taken here)

Why do i blog this? I like some of his statements like “I make technology ridiculous”, the way he manipulated technology and humour is fantastic.

Via the Presence-L mailing list, many High-Definition TV owners report that their pets are having trouble distinguishing the realistic picture from reality itself.

I first noticed this phenomenon in 2001 when I brought home my first high-def set. Surfing the dial, I stumbled upon a HDTV channel that was showing a documentary on the American Bald Eagle. Snoopy was taking a cat nap in a chair to the left of the TV, but suddenly looked up and saw an eagle soaring across the screen. She immediately walked over and began watching — and she hasn’t stopped yet.

As the caption in the article says: “Snoopy tries to catch a fish in a PBS documentary in high-def“.

Why do I blog this? well, I don’t want to design TV programs for pets but this is an intriguing fact.

People interested in physical interaction MUST check this incredible resource: the Ultimate Guide to Shooting Rubber Bands by Tim Morgan.

we will discuss the many methods of arming and firing a rubber band. Proper mounting and delivery is critical towards making the rubber band go where you want it to. With practice, you should be able to mount your rubber band swiftly and before your opponent can disarm it.

What is of interests are the tricks and methods to use then in various kind of battles. There are some tricks like the following:

My point is that help thinking about new kind of interfaces or way to interact with objects. The crux issue here is the fact that the affordance of a rubber band is malleable and can be apprehended differently.

I think gum-removal technology is one my new favorite weird-tech-focus (after street cleaning vehicles and bathroom tech). The Gum Wizard is interesting for that matter: there is a vacuum to evacuate residues. It falls in the category of the “LIQUID gum remover”.

The Gum Wizard - simultaneously applies steam, pressure and water-base chemical to soften and lift gum wads off any hard surface. The chemical CGR1000 used in the machine, along with the 1 3/4 inch brush, completely emulsifies and lifts the gum off the surface in just seconds. There is also a vacuum to pick up any residue and excess moisture. The machine can also be used for baseboard cleaning, sanitizing hard surfaces without chemical, graffiti removal, degrease kitchen floors and oven hoods, removing mold and mildew, and much more.

Why do I blog this? I found intriguing those extra-uncool machines, what is often interesting is how they are advertised with weird mottos like “Fantastic Values”, “Helps Resist Scale Buildup!”, “The difference is like night and day!!” (double mark!).

While doing some weird keywords combination on Mountain View’s search engine, I ran across this interesting application allegedly called “Vomit“, which means “voice over misconfigured internet telephones”:

The vomit utility converts a Cisco IP phone conversation into a wave file that can be played with ordinary sound players. Vomit requires a tcpdump output file. Vomit is not a VoIP sniffer also it could be but the naming is probably related to H.323.

The vomit utility is distributed under a BSD-license and completely free for any use including commercial.

According to Wikipedia, some folks tried to design a a pigeon-guided missile.. And it appears that those folks were lead by B.F. Skinner, the behaviorist psychology pope:

The control system involved a lens at the front of the missile projecting an image of the target to a screen inside, while a pigeon trained (by operant conditioning) to recognise the target pecked at it. As long as the pecks remained in the center of the screen, the missile would fly straight, but pecks off-center would cause the screen to tilt, which would then, via a connection to the missile’s flight controls, cause the missile to change course. Three pigeons were to control the bomb’s direction by majority rule.

Although skeptical of the idea, the National Defense Research Committee nevertheless contributed $25,000 to the research. However, Skinner’s plans to use pigeons in Pelican missiles was apparently too radical for the military establishment; although he had some success with the training, he could not get his idea taken seriously

Related: bat bombs: a World War II proposal to drop bats carrying tiny incendiary bombs over Japan.

eecue.com is into Furby hacking! Here is his research agenda with this marvelous toy:

The coolest thing I saw once I opened up Furby was that the board designers were nice enough to leave nice large pads for the RSC-4128 diagnostic interface, which hopefully should allow programming of the Furby. I am not sure, but I think the diagnostic port is a serial interface. I have ordered the development kit from Sensory Inc, and I’m sure this will help answer some of my questions. If I do end up being able to alter the programming / data on the Furby here are some things I plan on doing:

Give Furby a more colorful vocabulary
Teach Furby some tasteless jokes
Change Furby’s voice tone to be less cute and more evil
Give Furby a funny accent and maybe a lisp and a twitch
Hook up some of the unused I/O ports to control other things (the chips has 24 I/O ports with 10mA outputs)
Expand Furby’s memory
Utilize the voice recording function of the RSC-4128
Make Furby a voice controlled DTMF dialer
Utilize the MIDI synth contained in the RSC-4128

Here is what I plan on doing even if I can change the code or data:

Add nicer switches to the make the Skeletal Furby easier to
Pet
Feed
Tickle
Turn off
LEDs that light up when Furby moves
Volume control for the speaker
Put the Furby head on a Robosapien body