Inside HMD for Video iPod

Here's another implementation of Kopin displays, and the whole HMD is about $200. Myvu's Solo also works with an iPod Touch. Kopin displays were also used in the SpyCar HMD, as well as many others.

[link via MAKE blog]

An Info-Gargoyle Meta-Moment

Although our name was inspired by Snow Crash, in Neuromancer, "The Panther Modern leader, who introduced himself as Lupus Yonderboy, wore a polycarbon suit with a recording feature that allowed him to replay backgrounds at will. Perched on the edge of Case's worktable like some sort of state of the art gargoyle", I also found read about his Mimetic Polycarbon Suit here while searching around for artists' concepts of him.

Technovelgy.com describes the its namesake as: "Creative ideas and inventions of science fiction writers". This definition was enough to make me think about my concept of 'invention'. The first link also provides a link to one of many projects working on wearable chameleon technology.

Tissue Culture & Art (TC&A;) this weekend

Here's a brief blast of some of this weekend's LA haps, with details below:

Saturday-
1pm: Dorkbot SoCal @ Machine Project
8pm: The Tissue Culture & Art project (TC&A;) talk @ Machine Project
8pm-1am: Censor This Show @ Basswerks [I'm exhibiting a video installation there!]

Sunday-
11am to 5pm - Mini Tissue Engineering workshop and lecture @ Machine Project

Steam House 11/30 in Brooklyn

FM Sygnals DJs Starvin Marvin and Master Flynn present a night of themed dress and cavorting to the very best in underground house, BreakBeat, Hard Floor, and Progressive dance music - STEAM PUNK STYLE!

ART LAND
9pm-4am
no cover

Metallicat

Apparently, cats do land on their feet. Sometimes. "Baby" has also apparently fallen on her back, but she's proven to be quite a resilient kitty. But does she have a life counter?
[link via boingboing]

Animatronic Animal Masks with Sensory Enhancers

Lion Of The Sun's custom creations are literally fantastic! Some masks include color and infrared vision systems, articulated ears and jaws, and boosted hearing to simulate the senses and movements of the animals they model. It's also practical, since foam and faux fur materials tend to inhibit the wearers' senses already. From standalone ears and tails, to headpieces and full body suits, expression through play as real-life avatars is by design. Lionel's site has oodles of animals and plenty of pictures, so crawl around!

Happy Thanksgiving

[via aquateencentral]

Stem Cells, Hold the Huevos

An end to the embryonic stem cell controversy is now increasingly likely. Although further such research may need to continue for now, scientists just announced a promising alternative. The successful reprogramming of human skin cells towards various human tissue types implies a major step towards a slew of therapies genetically matched to patients with a wide range of conditions.

At last week's LA Life Extension Workshop, the upcoming challenge of initial breakthroughs, followed by the Law of Accelerating returns, was gospel. Days later, it seems we are on our way to transitional research that can leave major ethical debate behind for a while, and catalyze funding and treatment that will prolong and save lives.

[MSNBC links via Propeller, and a sidebar of related articles]

Life Extension Workshop datablast

In this quick digest about my attendance of the Life Extension Workshop yesterday, I will drop a lot of names and links on you while I attempt to digest the profound content of the day. Thanks to everyone whom I met for being so cool and sharing your passion for your interests; even when you could not talk about certain things for various reasons.

The presenters and panelists included Doctors Stephen Coles, Aubrey de Grey, and Michael Rose, followed by David Kekich and Peter Voss. I will be helping Dr. Coles post video online; I'll post when and where that will be available.

Gerontology Research Group
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS)
M Prize
Methuselah Foundation
Benford & Rose
Continue reading "Life Extension Workshop datablast"

Mixed Reality Cartography Corset

A wearable device for Gordan Savicic's "Constraint City: The Pain of Everyday Life", includes: "A chest strap (corset) with high torque servo motors and a WIFI-enabled game-console are worn as fetish object. The higher the wireless signal strength of close encrypted networks, the tighter the corset becomes." Whether it is meant to be painful or pleasurable seems unclear.

I suggest exploring the link below to glean the project's conceptual background. I find its discourse reminiscent of Stelarc's. I do share the artist's interest in sensing the electromagentic waves permeating our environment; even to the extent of mapping it to haptic feedback. However, regarding the restriction of the public through normally undetectable information layers, I do not share his tenet that secure WiFi networks are as actively constrictive as this project asserts. Perhaps wireless security cameras and traffic lights are even more controling than secure WiFi, since private citizens should have the right to encrypt their networks from the public without suspicion of conspiracy.

[Link via Make:]

Life Extension Workshop- new schedule

Now beginning at 2PM:

2:00-2:30 Steve Coles
2:30-3:30 Aubrey de Grey
4:00-4:30 Michael Rose
4:30-5:30 Coles, de Grey, Rose (moderator: David Kekich)

location unchanged
seats are still available
[internal link]

Not Your Average Phone Ring

I guess you could wear your cellphone on your finger if you wanted to. Why not get a few of these stick-ons and make a multi-fing bling ring and look ka-ching?

link

Glog On

Well, despite error messages I had received while trying to Glog from my Treo 650, it turns out my images did indeed get posted. These are from BarCamp LA-3 from March.

MobileCamp LA was a complete blast, and I won a Nokia N95, which will be much easier to Glog from. I am running the Glogger application, rather than using MMS, but I will be relying on WiFi until I transfer my service over from Sprint. I have several hacks in mind for my N95, as hinted at in the my Maker Square post, and I will get into that later. I look forward to Glogging about my future hacks, and more. Some of them will be Meta-Glogs, since they will help document my wearable technology work.

I am also going to be checking out the application included with my N95 called Lifeblogger. It will be interesting to share my comparisons of Lifeblogger and Glogger and playing with ways to use each application to do so.

Meet me at Makers' Square

"The Maker Faire team is joining forces with Felt Club for the upcoming
Felt Club XL Holiday event - Sunday, November 18 th from 11am-6pm on
the Los Angeles City College campus (855 N Vermont Ave, LA CA 90029)..."

[via BarCamp LA mailing list]

Here's my abstract:
"My contribution to Maker Square will be wearable computing hacks for PDAs. My focus will be on two devices I am hacking right now that can be used as independent wearable computing platforms that can also be combined together. The two devices are more than just PDAs. One is an Archos PMA-430 PVR with A/V I/O, and the other is a Nokia N95 Smartphone with A/V I/O and Video output. I will mostly discuss hardware hacks for interfacing with the devices' I/O capabilities to create wearable computing configurations. This includes reverse engineering, custom connector kit-bashing and cloning, body mounts, on-body networks, and video connections for HMDs and cameras. I will bring a wearable harness I created for the Archos, a custom connector adaptor I created, documentation of iterative hacks, my OATH (Obligatory Altoids Tin Hack) USB Hub/Ethernet/antenae array interface, and will be conspiring live against my Nokia. I will also discuss the shift in approach between the hacks of the two devices, and how it relates to user interface design and software."

They're still accepting proposals; information below:

Life Extension Workshop in LA 11/16

"Aubrey de Grey will be giving a Life Extension Workshop on Friday Nov
16th from 3pm to 5:30pm. Specifically, he will be giving an update on
SENS and the MPrize (more on that below).

Aubrey is a computer scientist, biomedical gerontologist, editor of
Rejuvenation Research and author the book "Ending Aging'..."
RSVP

[via Chuck Esterbrook on the BarCampLA mailing list]