Finally! Anyone else already developing for Leap ?

LED strip with Controller

I'm back hacking hardware. Easy, with +Jeremy Saglimbeni 's controller board kit (with Atmega processor) and the RGB strip from +Adafruit Industries . Doing a test for cove lighting in the dome.

Thanks Jeremy and +Limor Fried !

Controller: http://thecustomgeek.com/kits/rgbw-led-controller/rgbw-led-controller-build/

5 meter RGB LED strip: http://adafruit.com/products/285?gclid=CJfBqMzh27MCFcuZ4AodICMAvg

Hakko FX-888 soldering iron (!)  :  https://www.adafruit.com/products/303

FTDI Cable: https://www.adafruit.com/products/70
Note: You may need to download an updated driver: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

12V 5A power supply: http://adafruit.com/products/352

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Another one of life's little mysteries solved.

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I have always wondered about this. It's sorcery. 

How a Sewing Machine Works

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Voodoo Chile indeed. 

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I'm pretty sure I saw this roll through my G+ stream sometime this weekend, but this is just to good to not share again.  Killer Hendrix cover.

Via +Boing Boing and Reddit.

Same photo, through Drive

Any difference in zoom ability or resolution?

Found an old photo of our younger son. He's 26 now and a chef. Your punch line here.

Esplora in the house

Still amazing to me that I can get the latest Arduino board at a suburban NJ Radio Shack. Now to spend some hours trying it out. Right out of the box it should work as a game controller for Unity - the joystick is putting out up down left right arrows, the right button is a space, other buttons N, V, and B.

Like other newer Arduino boards, the Esplora is a USB HID device.  There is a page of instructions on the Arduino site about using the library for this:

http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/MouseKeyboard

And in the last day or so, +Jeremy Shore has released code that lets the Esplora work as a controller for a number of game emulators, including Snes9X and JNES. 

For me, this board is a way to grab the attention of our girls, age 11 to 16, who will be the core of a Space Girls project that includes running programs on ArduSat, the Arduino based orbital satellite that we backed in a Kickstarter campaign last summer. We will have to move on from this board eventually - it does not expose the pins for I2C that are used in ArduSat - but this looks like fun for all of us.

Planetarium offices - Mine and Carter's

Just working out the best layout for desks in my future office and in the dome control room and "space center". For the first time I can sit in the place that has been 3 years under construction. A folding table for now, but it's still a thrill.

Contrast with Carter Emmart's office in the American Museum of Natural History, where he is director of astrovisualization. His place shows a quirky 15-year accumulation of space toys and souvenirs of his travels. Mine will get some character over time but I doubt I will ever match his. Who could?

Airstream Revealed

After 18 months protected from the construction around it, the 1958 Airstream trailer is almost ready to uncover. Ceilings have the final paint coat, and the walls are rolled, not sprayed, so I pulled back the tarp to take a look.

In the summer of 2011, my son Will and I spent weeks polishing and preparing the trailer to be hoisted in. That fall it was hoisted into the building.

See this video: Airstream - From the Adirondacks to Avenue D (version1)
And this story in Make: http://blog.makezine.com/2011/12/01/lower-east-side-girls-club-gets-airstream-trailer-on-the-second-floor/

There's a lot of work ahead to convert it to a recording studio, but the shine is inspiring. And it's always a surprise to visitors when we walk through the building. The future is curved.

360 Video and Photos with GoPro Hero Cameras

Of course someone has been working on this. They say they are releasing it in March. Whoops. Stay tuned. Good timing for dome experiments. 

From twitter @howardtaylor

"Not my problem" in Polish is "nie moj cyrk, nie moje malpy." Literally "not my circus, not my monkey."

For +Olivio Sarikas

Sometimes you get lucky with the closeup panoramas.

View from the cat walk

The big box for the planetarium is complete except for final spackling and painting. Two out of four walls are double thickness with up to 5 layers of sheetrock for soundproofing. I did some sheetrocking in my day but these guys are amazing.

Here's a view from a ledge at the second level.

Cathedral, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico - Feb 2011

My wife left this morning on a trip to San Cristobal. This is an equirectangular photo I took handheld with a Canon 5D and Sigma 8mm fisheye, 6 shots stitched.

Part of #SacredSunday curated by +Bill Wood +Manfred Berndtgen +Charles Lupica

From this...to this

Today was the first day I could sit down in the space. In my chair. With our first FIOS connection. In the new building.

I'm reposting a 360 panorama of the pouring of the basement slab on the site, when we were just getting out of the ground. That was around 2 years ago. And I just took the shot of my chair, in the temporary base camp we are setting up to manage the fit-out of the building. By summer the chair will be in the production room of the planetarium. We're close.

Some beautiful ZBrush and Unity 3D work. Think I'll work on some stones and Maya carvings.

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Is internet access in the US a luxury or a utility?

"In Hong Kong, you can get a 500Mbt symmetric connection for about $25/ month..."

Susan Crawford on Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly and Unfair

Susan Crawford, former special assistant to President Obama for science, technology and innovation, and author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, joins Bill to discuss how our government has allowed a few powerful media conglomerates to put profit ahead of the public interest — rigging the rules, raising prices, and stifling competition. As a result, Crawford says, all of us are at the mercy of the biggest business monopoly since Standard Oil in the first Gilded Age a hundred years ago.

http://billmoyers.com/segment/susan-crawford-on-why-u-s-internet-access-is-slow-costly-and-unfair/

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Att: +Don Whitaker 

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http://fractal.io/

http://butdoesitfloat.com/And-it-occurred-to-me-that-these-must-be-holographic-viral-projections

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Holy ship!

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#Escher  

Moebius Ship
from 
Tim Hawkinson

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A little clumsy in my posting of this. Sorry if you get it more than once.

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I got my 1.8" TFT LCD today, and after some fiddling with pin assignments it is working on the Esplora with the Adafruit libraries and the graphics test sketch.

Here is the change you have to make in the setup of the sketch:

#define sclk 15
#define mosi 16
#define cs   7
#define dc   0
#define rst  1  

Have fun! Thanks +Adafruit Industries !

Arduino Esplora to Electric Imp to remote Imp

Following in the footsteps of +Mike Barela I have connected the Esplora to the Electric Imp and sent serial communications to a remote Imp by way of the Imp servers. Photos below. 

I used the physical setup that Mike devised, connecting the Imp to pins 7 and 8 of the Esplora expansion headers (D0 and D1 of the Arduino) which are RX and TX respectively. I used an +Adafruit Industries April Impee board and a Sparkfun logic level converter to shift the Arduino's 5V signals to 3.3V for the Imp.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8745

For a first test of connection I followed the Sparkfun tutorial here:

http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/397
(note that you will have to change the Arduino sketch serial to pins 0 and 1 instead of 8 and 9).

And Mike's posting here:

http://21stdigitalhome.blogspot.com/2012/12/arduino-esplora-interfaced-to-xbee-radio.html

Mike has gone on to other variations of wireless connection, but he hasn't used the Imp yet to my knowledge. 

Thanks +electric imp !

Mothership - Finished

I arrived too late this morning to see the last piece go into place. But there's plenty of work left to turn Area 51 into a digital dome theater. And there will never again be this much light blasting the dome. 

A couple of hours of cleanup, then a possible quick run up to the American Museum of Natural History, to see the Hayden planetarium. The blokes (John, Dino, and Mike) fly out to London at 6pm. Then Colombia, Czechoslovakia, and other destinations. Wherever a dome needs building. But now that they've had a taste of the East Village, they'll be back.

Center for Community - a Milestone Reached

For those of you who have been following our saga, constructing a community science and art center in lower Manhattan, here's some news.

After an extended period of high anxiety, this morning we passed the walkthrough inspection for a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy from the New York Department of Buildings. TCO is all we have obsessed about for weeks. This is some kind of financial milestone for our builder/partners, but for us it means we can proceed with our fit out, building the planetarium, the Airstream recording studio, storage, ramps, platforms, risers, office partitions, etc.

Here's a photo of the 1958 Airstream framed in its second floor facade. How did they do that? Exactly.

First tests with Leap Motion and Unity 

The Unity demo that came with the Leap SDK was pretty simple - move one cube around on a grid - so I started playing with it. First physics, pulling things around that had drag and mass, and hitting a ball across a plane. Then to get +Laura Lynn Gonzalez 's attention I added some protein models and played with grabbing and rotating them. 

I also showed the controller to the Beatniks class at the Girls Club today. That's a STEM class masquerading as just having fun with anything we have on hand. They loved it, but we have to take it to the next level. Quick.

Thanks, +Leap Motion !

Marimbas, Meteors, Musser and Me

That's me, 1968, just below the sign. With my Musser marimba. And I just found out that Clair O. Musser, whose company made that marimba, was a meteor (actually meteorite) collector who built a xylophone out of meteorites (see my last post). Go figure.

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Now we're talking. Who's going to do it with Wi-Fi?

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One step closer to XBox domination: portability

Unboxed Airstream

The protective plywood box has been removed from the '58 Airstream and it has taken its place by the window on Ave D. Today Will and I removed the casters and set the trailer in the spot it will sit until some future Philistine saws it into pieces - it is not rolling anywhere from this second floor perch. Planning now for the conversion to recording studio, center piece of the Radio Lounge.

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Via +L. LaRae Redford

Simple and effective demonstration. Worth hours of time management nattering.
Att: +Ted Ewen

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Parable of Time Management

One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered over-achievers he said, "Okay, time for a quiz" and he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class yelled, "Yes." The time management expert replied, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!" "No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is, "If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all. What are the 'big rocks' in your life, time with loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others? Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you'll never get them in at all. So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question, "What are the 'big rocks' in my life?" Then, put those in your jar first.
If this inspired you, share with others so they can benefit!

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RFduino, the tiny 32-bit Arduino based development board with onboard Bluetooth

See it in action - 
http://geekboy.it/news/rfduino-the-tiny-32-bit-arduino-based-development-board-with-onboard-bluetooth

Beautiful Map Tiles for OpenStreetMaps
Via +John Gruber

ATT: +Jeff Ferzoco

Neurodome, Our Dome, Your Dome

We had a great visit this week from the Neurodome folks, who are launching a production of a brain science dome show. Here's Jonathan, Titi, and friend Judith who got us together, in the room that shall be dome. Next time we hope +Jeanne Garbarino, +Carter Emmart and other pals and colleagues will come visit.

Support them! Here's the Kickstarter page:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1100424922/neurodome-a-dome-format-film-that-explores-the-bra

And their website:
http://www.neurodome.org/

Nature of Code - Make it a smart Christmas

+Daniel Shiffman's book is out in many formats, including the ones suitable for Christmas gifts.

It's a brilliant look at how we think, the algorithms of nature, and how the Processing language lets us model those things. Also a perfect introduction to coding. How can you miss?

Free HTML:
http://natureofcode.com/book/

Pay what you want PDF:
http://natureofcode.com/

Print copy:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Code-Programming-Simulations/dp/0985930802/

See the last chart - Samsung spent nearly $12 billion in 2012 on sales and marketing, Apple around $1 billion. Samsung's expenses include massive incentives to carriers and stores to push their products.

And Apple haters still say Apple's success is just in the marketing!

Electric Imp

So I'm making my way through the wireless alternatives for Arduino. I've tried Xbees. They're fun. Tried Bluetooth LE. Nice to control the Arduino with an iPhone but the next step is a big one.

Now the Electric Imp. Looks like a nice system. I could probably learn enough of their Squirrel language to use it. Lots of web-based support and graphic configuration between Imps in the field. This could be really useful.

This time with the seating and dome overlaid.

Getting ready to install dome screen panels

Our team of itinerant English planetarium installers (John, Dino, Mike) have finished the frame install and bracing. They're getting ready to install the screen panels, which involves carefully fine tuning and machining them to achieve the "nanoseam" join that they are famous for. Seriously.

Today they cleaned up the room and set up their shop, and tried a first pair of panels to see how close they are. Looking good. But they will spend the next two weeks hand fitting every panel.

After they left I spent some hours hanging lapendary panels (acoustic absorption) behind and above the dome. The panels arrived a little late but soon enough to get the most inaccessible ones up before the screen panels make it impossible. I had to do the work when no one else was around so they would not see me clambering on the frame. Not many panels in place so far, but the reverberation time has already dropped from 6 seconds to about 3. More, better looking, fabric-covered panels on the walls under the springline and I'll have a nice sounding dome room. 

Doors of San Cristobal de las Casas

A quick walk around town today, shooting while I did last errands before we go back to New York. First time I have made a large album, but not the first time I've thought about a collection of these doors. iPhone, on the run.

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Via +Edward Morbius 

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Via +Rodrigo Mesa 

Give this link to any Republican friend (or online troll) who is buying the lies. From a writer who has voted for both Republicans and Democrats.

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That settles it.

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All set in the warehouse staging area for the Airstream frame work. Here's one of my 360 panos. Bizarre giant mostly empty warehouse.

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The Most Beautiful Wisteria Tree in the World

In the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi, Japan sits an incredibly gorgeous wisteria tree that's often referred to as the most beautiful in the whole world. The largest and oldest in Japan, the tree is the main attraction at the flower park as visitors flock to see it in full bloom. Dating back to approximately 1870, the 143-year-old tree has branches that are supported by beams, which creates a a stunning flower umbrella.

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/ashikaga-flower-park-beautiful-wisteria-tree

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Yes!

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NEW PRODUCT – WiFi Portable Microscope – Usable With Android/iPad/iPhone
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1276

NEW PRODUCT – WiFi Portable Microscope – Usable With Android/iPad/iPhone – As electronics get smaller and smaller, you’ll need a hand examining PCBs and this little USB microscope is the perfect tool. Its smaller and lighter than a large optical microscope but packs quite a bit of power in its little body. There’s a high quality 640×480 camera sensor inside and an optical magnifier that can adjust from 5x (for basic PCB inspection) to 200x (for detailed inspection). Eight mini white LEDs are angled right onto whatever you’re examining so you get enough lighting to see, and are smoothly adjustable via a dial on the side.

Unlike our USB microscopes, this ‘scope is WiFi based. This means that instead of having a cable or wireless-usb-dongle type connection, there’s a WiFi access point inside the camera enclosure. When you turn it on, it will create a new hotspot just for the camera, so that any tablet or smartphone (such as an iPad/iPhone/Android/etc) can connect to the camera and view the microscope’s video output. This isn’t possible with a USB microscope as many tablets and phones don’t have a USB port and even if they did, there wouldn’t necessarily be drivers available for the camera.

Comes with the microphone, charging cable, CD with software and manual. A stand is not included, the photo above shows it with our articulated aluminum stand (which works great). While this camera is more expensive than a wired-variety, there’s nothing like it for when you want to view the output on a smartphone or tablet!

In stock and shipping now!
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1276

#tools  

They did it!

Tesla lab site in Long Island bought by group including the comic The Oatmeal.

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Nice...

Palenque Planet

Not the best planet photo I've done but a nice memory of my favorite place, 2 weeks ago.

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NEW! Elly the Elephant, Geno the Giraffe, Geno the Giraffe - Kinetic Creatures!

These are walking cardboard animal sculptures that you assemble from pre-cut and scored cardboard pieces, made in the USA by Kinetic Creatures. Each walks when you turn the included wire handle, or they can walk with mechanical and electrical additions, such as Lego motors or the Kinetic Creatures Motor Kit. 

Elly the Elephant
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1100

Geno the Giraffe
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1101

Rory the Rhino
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1102

Motor Kit for Kinetic Creatures  Motor Kit for Kinetic Creatures This kit replaces the wire turn-handle in your Kinetic Creature with an electric motor to let your creation walk on it’s own! One size fits all animals. Some glue is required superglue works great!
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1117

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Very good

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The geometry of music revealed!  The red lines connect notes that are a major third apart.  The green lines connect notes that are a minor third apart. The blue lines connect notes that are a perfect fifth apart.

Each triangle is a chord with three notes, called a triad.  These are the most basic chords in Western music.   There are two kinds:

A major triad sounds happy.  The major triads are the triangles whose edges go red-green-blue as you go around clockwise.

A minor triad sounds sad.  The minor triads are the triangles whose edges go green-red-blue as you go around clockwise.

This pattern is called a tone net, and this one was created by David W. Bulger.  There's a lot more to say about it, and you can read more in this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Riemannian_theory

and this great post by Richard Green:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/101584889282878921052/posts/bgpNTT8WqHx

The symmetry group of this tone net is important in music theory, and if you read these you'll know why!

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Reagan tripled the debt. George W. increased it by more than his Dad, Clinton and Obama combined. 

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Yes, the Republicans did it, one unfunded war at a time.

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Heard about this on the radio but this photo is astounding.

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Surf's up!

Highest wave ever surfed.

via http://www.neatorama.com/2013/01/30/Highest-Wave-Ever-Surfed/

Useful Arduino Esplora links

I've got a working Esplora to Processing to OSC to Unity demo but it is a little clunky. I'll post it later once I am ready.

Meanwhile, a list of links I've found useful.

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardEsplora
Overview

http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoEsplora
Getting started

http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoEsploraExamples
This shows how to adapt normal Arduino sketches to the Esplora

http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/EsploraRemote
This is the basis for communicating with a Processing sketch. I adapted the Processing sketch to send OSC, then built a Unity demo to receive it.

http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/KeyboardModifiers
The (limited) list of keyboard commands you can use when the Esplora is in HID USB mode.

http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage
Many Arduino examples, including Esplora at bottom right of the page.

http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/EsploraAccelerometer
The Accelerometer example, which I am going back to now to see if there is a simpler way.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/51830-Unity-Arduino-labyrinth
Someone who hacked an Arduino, accelerometer, and Unity together, without OSC. There is a note of a bug on the Mac at the bottom of the thread, and a link to a supposed solution that is interesting but really another OSC hack (and only uses a pressure sensor). The bug may be as simple as removing ".Ports" from the Unity script "using System.IO.Ports;" - I remember running into that when I hacked my first OSC script. I'll try and see. If this can be adapted, it is a simpler, serial based accelerometer to Unity hack. I love OSC but it may not be necessary for this.

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Somewhere there are two kittens named Marconi who just perked up at the same time.

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We finally have our new paper, Quantum tele-amplification with a continuous variable superposition state, on the arXiv:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.6634

We teleported the quantum state (coherent state) of a laser beam from one part of the lab to another, while at the same time amplifying or de-amplifying it. We did this by taking advantage of an entangled kitten state, which is a superposition of two coherent states - essentially a weak laser beam that is occurring simultaneously with two different phases. These cat or kitten states were generated in 1996 by this year's two Nobel prize winners: David Wineland's group in Boulder, Colorado made a superposition of two motional states of a trapped ion, while Serge Haroche's group in Paris did it with two states of a microwave cavity field. Kittens on a travelling light beam were first demonstrated 10 years later, in 2006 by a different Parisian group (Grangier's) and by my group at the time in Copenhagen.
The new experiment that we did at NICT in Tokyo with collaborators from Seoul National University is the first (I believe!) to use these cats/kittens for a practical purpose. If you can call quantum teleportation practical, that is...

#scienceeveryday  

Top riser takes shape

East Village Planetarium. 2 weeks to projector installation

Dome update - second round of panels

They're working their way around and up. They'll finish this weekend.

In other news, computer floors in control and production rooms are scheduled for install next week, custom cove lighting review on Friday, ramps under construction, cabling and IT install starting soon, AC ductwork for Airstream spec'd, painters wrapping up third floor, electricians installing power and ethernet boxes for video room, cafe/kitchen tiling in progress, dozens of adjustments and corrections... No time for future shock, every day is a tsunami. In a good way.

Adios to workstation in the woods

The sliding glass door to nowhere. Never lovelier.

Riser framing complete

East Village Planetarium. The blue line is the front center of the dome, a test of one section of future cove lighting that will circle the bottom.

Crashed Lander in the Unity fisheye

Here's a screen snap of +Don Whitaker 's Crashed Lander game with the dome fisheye lens rig. Performance is good, I just can't pilot his lander very well.

I'll be posting +Tim Holt 's Martian Trail game in the fisheye next. Getting ready for my presentation this week at Macworld.

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Via +Adam DeCoste 

From the linked article:

"Want to know what really protects your freedoms? The right to vote. A good system of democracy. Ironically, the same people that are creating memes like the one seen above are the same that are voting Republicans into office that have engaged in a war on democracy–voter suppression. Voter suppression, you see, is an act of war on democracy itself."

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I keep telling people, we have militarized police, and the biggest, baddest, best armed army in the world, and a very sneaky slate of security agencies that jump on hotspots before they're even warm.

  Your stash won't let you go play Wolverines! and fight the bad guys.  That's just another form of military reenacting...playing soldier.  If you get too good at it, the ATF  and FBI swoop in and come and take your toys away and cart your butt off to jail.

Coney Island Time Lapse Tests

Two short visits, too many short captures, but fun. Happy Labor Day 2012!

Dome frame begins

The East Village Planetarium

Att: +Neil deGrasse Tyson Fan Club 
+nick normal +Dale Dougherty 

Dome Day

The stars are in alignment today - installers from England (by way of Oswego), forklift from Brooklyn, semi trailer truck full of curved aluminum parts from Chadds Ford , Pa.

Loaded in, ready to start construction and raising of the planetarium dome.

Here's one quick clip of some of the frame pieces, which have to be carried up the stairs. More as it happens.

The Spanish and the Maya

The Cathedral in San Cristobal de las Casas, and the Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque. Both in Chiapas, Mexico.

For #SacredSunday, curated by +Charles Lupica +Bill Wood and +Manfred Berndtgen .

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White's proposed design, an ingenious re-imagining of an Alcubierre Drive, may eventually result in an engine that can transport a spacecraft to the nearest star in a matter of weeks — and all without violating Einstein's law of relativity. We contacted White at NASA and asked him to explain how this real life warp drive could actually work.

The below image of a Vulcan command ship features a warp engine similar to an Alcubierre Drive.

Misol Ha

Should be able to zoom into this photo with new hi res feature in G+. Middle mouse button or 2 finger scroll on MacBook.

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Via +Limor Fried  - great news.

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Introducing the new CNC section at +Adafruit Industries
http://www.adafruit.com/category/122

What's there? Read more!

Aluminum Extrusion Corner Brace Support (for 20x20)
Aluminum Extrusion End Cap (for 20x20) - pack of 10
Aluminum Extrusion Oval T-Nut for 20x20 - M4 Thread - pack of 50
Aluminum Extrusion Slim T-Nut for 20x20 - M4 Thread - pack of 50
Button Hex Machine Screw - M4 thread - 10mm long - pack of 50
Button Hex Machine Screw - M4 thread - 8mm long - pack of 50
Coupling Plate - 2 Holes - 20x20 Aluminum Extrusion
Coupling Plate - 3 Holes - 20x20 Aluminum Extrusion
Cross-Plate for 2020 Aluminum Extrusion
L-Plate for 2020 Aluminum Extrusion
Plastic Hinge for 20x20 Aluminum Extrusion
Slotted Aluminum Extrusion - 20mm x 20mm - 610mm long
T-Plate for 2020 Aluminum Extrusion

http://www.adafruit.com/category/122

#cnc   #extrusion   #aluminum  

Risers - 3 out of 5

Should finish the framing of the planetarium risers tomorrow. 

Into the Black Hole

Actually, the state of the dome installation at end of day today. I had to leave early for the Beatniks class (girl iPad orchestra) so I went back this evening to see how the team had done. They may actually close up tomorrow. Next step, risers. Then projection and server.

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Via +Ted Ewen 

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The Little Robots of Brian Marshall

Found object assemblage artist Brian Marshall is dedicated to helping bots find new homes! His work is unique and inventive. It shows a great deal of humor ... and humanity. Strikingly original and fun!

#robots   #littlerobots   #foundmaterials   #sculptureart   #sculpture   #bots   #assemblage   #artist  

via/ http://www.laboiteverte.fr/les-petits-robots-de-brian-marshall/

*Blog: http://adopt-a-bot.blogspot.com/

Dark Side of the Jam

NASA and Unity sponsored a game development jam this weekend and many NASA 3D space assets are now available free on the Unity Asset Store. Games resulting from the jam are being uploaded to the site.

NASA Spaceflight Assets - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/756

So tomorrow's the day. Unity 3.5 open beta. Flash support is the least of it.

Physical Mapping with Processing and Syphon

There's also a Unity plugin for Syphon that I want to try.

Spherical Pano, Lake Miramar, Mexico

For +Terry Paton 

360X180 degrees.

New Arduino+WiFi+Linux Board

The Arduino Yún.

Did you miss this, +Mike Barela ?

And the exterior...

Some shots to follow up on my interiors from today. +Davide Coppola and other folks wanted to see more. I'll keep updating interiors but here are the best shots of the three building facades that I have (it's a big T-shaped lot). The City demanded that we build mixed income housing when we got the go ahead, which is how a community art and science center became a 12 story building.

Long story. Partners, lawyers, politicians, consultants, and 100 guys kept employed for 2 years. A feel good movie for real estate fanatics.

My first 123D Catch attempt

Not bad as far as it goes. But I'm not sure why it had no luck with the back of the doll. I shot 38 photos going all around the model. Maybe lighting issues? Does anyone have any experience with this to share?

(I used the web app for this: http://apps.123dapp.com/catch/ )

Processing sketch in Unity 3D, via Syphon

Here's a screen snap of a Robert Hodgin Processing sketch, running a Syphon server (top right), received by a Syphon script in Unity (top left) and sent from the main camera in Unity to a Syphon client (bottom right). In the sketch, there are 450 instances of a live webcam, shooting a pink hard hat that I'm waving in front of the camera - and we still get 60fps at the end of the chain, on a MacBook. Syphon is amazing. http://syphon.v002.info/

Still some tweaks to go (mainly around alpha channels in Unity/Syphon) but this is the key to projecting Processing in the East Village Dome next year. The final Syphon client in the chain will be the high resolution output to the projector.

Many thanks to all the developers who make this possible and to Robert Hodgin and +Jer Thorp for the inspiration. Shout out to +Phoenix Perry +Daniel Shiffman +Chris Rojas +Miguel Espada

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I'll take a dozen.

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Hexacopter/hexapod hybrid. Hex-tastic!

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Thanks +ScienceSunday 

You'll have to mute this post or you'll fall into a trance. 

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+Vladimir Bulatov does it again!  At each moment, this movie shows you a tiling of the hyperbolic plane by pentagons, four meeting at each corner, mapped onto a disc with four slits cut out.  This mapping is conformal, meaning that it preserves angles.  As time passes, the hyperbolic plane rotates and we see this crazy movie.

For a more detailed explanation, with tons of great pictures, go here: http://bulatov.org/math/1001/

Here's the short version: there's a way to measure distances on a disk that makes it into a model of the hyperbolic plane.  There are actually a number of way, but Bulatov - and Escher - use the Poincare disk model, because in this model straight lines look like portions of circles: very pretty.  Then, according to the Riemann mapping theorem you can map this disk in a conformal way onto a disk with 4 slits cut out.  The hard part is finding a formula for how to do it, and then implementing it on a computer.

For more details, try these picture-packed pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformal_map
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincar%C3%A9_disk_model

and this more advanced one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_mapping_theorem

#sciencesunday

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From the comments on the original post, one of the inspirations for this work:
http://www.josleys.com/articles/ams_article/Lorenz3.htm#modular

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Seifert surfaces for torus knots and links, a collaboration with +Saul Schleimer. 

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Big event this week, culmination of a lot of work. Tyra + my wife Lyn = unstoppable.

These are our sci girls, beatniks, hackers, makers. Ready for blast off.

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The young ladies of the The Tyra Banks Tzone at The Lower East Side Girls Club are incredibly fierce and beautiful! Thank you for being part of the Flawsome Ball! This is for you!!!

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Thank you, +Rodrigo Mesa 

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Music in the Dome

I cabled up two of the 5 speakers in the dome and inaugurated the sound system with Bill Frisell, John Coltrane, and Also Sprach Zarathustra. The Meyer speakers are amazing. It's the best sounding stereo system I've ever had, and soon to be 5.1 surround. Happy guy.

Planetarium Prep Work

For those following along at home - this is my last week to get everything ready that will be forever behind the dome in a few weeks. First, a shot of the whole dome room with ceiling lights on. These fixtures have white plastic covers that would have reflected light back through the perforated metal of the dome screen. Last night I got up on a lift and spray painted them, leaving a finish that is black when they are off, and still lets through some light when on. I'm also touching up all work to make sure the entire ceiling is matte black. You can see one fixture after painting, in the second photo.

Rolling tower scaffold for the dome installers arrived today. They will come Monday at the same time as a forklift and a tractor trailer with all the parts of the dome. More photos next week as we go through the process.

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Via +Esther Martinez 

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This is the alarm jellyfish (Atolla Wyvillei) - and it has a rather unique defence mechanism. When the alarm jellyfish is attacked, it flashes brightly using bioluminescence in an attempt to attract other animals. The idea is to encourage confusion and fights between predators, while the jellyfish can swim away.

A few more shots from the building

I'll post exterior shots later. Here are phone snaps of the base camp, staff offices, Airstream (future recording studio), courtyard, and planetarium lobby. So empty, so quiet, such potential.

Sarcophagus of King Pacal Palenque, Mexico

ATT +Jaime Martorano - thanks for the inspiration!

It's #SacredSunday
Curators are +Charles Lupica +Manfred Berndtgen and +Bill Wood

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Via +Eric Scardino

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"The Unity 3D game engine will now include a check box that a developer can click in order to make a Unity-based game run on the Chrome browser. That’s pretty darn simple. It means developers don’t have to waste a lot of time rewriting games and other apps for the web, only to see them crawl in slow motion. Besides games, photo and video apps will also benefit from the native client technology."

Dome - Top Riser - More

For those who like to stare at metal framing. The far end will be my presentation perch.

Resolved to spend less time on G+. But there's just too much interesting stuff. Maybe next year.

Another view of the LED strip, in its reel

With another little LED light on top.

LiveOSC - OSC for Ableton Live

I've been playing with Kinect and Processing for hours. Too bleary to go further. Here's some detail on OSC for Live - the MIDI Remote Script that you need to get Live listening.

And here's the post on Processing and Ableton that led me to it.

http://habu.phpfogapp.com/?p=26

Updated Unity3D book from +Will Goldstone

Will hasn't seen the physical book yet, so this photo is for him.

Get yours from Packt.
http://www.packtpub.com/unity-3-x-game-development-essentials-with-c-and-javascript-will-goldstone/book