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technabob quickpix: when a picture is worth 1000 words

pac-man pain assessment chart: maybe you’d feel better if you ate some cherries and pretzels?

pac_man_pain_gauge

Pac-Man pain assessment gauge, spotted on Flickr. Currently, I feel a little Woopop myself.

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February 3rd, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: quickpix retro video games

kirlian images: electricity meets photography

Kirlian Photography

No, these striking images weren’t made using Photoshop trickery. They were actually taken using a unique process which involves placing photographic paper onto an object, placing them both on a high-voltage plate, then cranking up the juice.

Referred to as Kirlian photography, the technique dates back to a 1939 discovery (by a man named Kirlian, of course) that when an…

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January 25th, 2008 comments stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: strange + wonderful

aperture: light-reactive interactive display

Aperture by Gunnar Green and Frederic Eyl

I’m not sure how I missed this amazing interactive display concept when it first surfaced, but it’s cool enough that I thought it deserved a mention, even if it is but a distant memory.

The system used an array of thousands of individual mechanical irises, each designed to react to the amount of light in front of it. The darker…

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January 1st, 2008 comments (4) stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: digital imaging interactive

tiny projector fits in your pocket

Oculon Hikari Pro920 Pocket Projector

While a number of companies are working on miniature video projection technology, every one I’ve seen is still just at the prototype stage. While it’s not as tiny as some of the designs being shown by TI, Microvision and Explay, these projectors are actually available for purchase.

China’s Oculon has revealed their new pocket-sized Hikari Pro920 projectors. Available in both…

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November 20th, 2007 comments (3) stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: digital imaging gadgets video

hp photosmart a826 photo printer: mork calling orson

HP Photosmart A826

This odd-looking photo printer from HP has a style that you’ll either love or hate. Reminiscent in some ways of the original egg-shaped iMac models from the late 1990s, the Photosmart A826 printer looks a bit like something out of an old science fiction movie.

While its design might be a bit outlandish, functionally, it’s pretty robust for a dedicated…

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October 21st, 2007 comments (1) stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: computing digital imaging

i’ve got my eye on you

I Ball by Marcus Graf

Interactive artist Marcus Graf created this dramatic video display window which keeps a watchful eye on passersby.

The piece, entitled I, ball used a webcam along with special processing software to detect people as they pass the display window. A series of digitized eyeball movements then follow the those who approach the window. The installation was on display at the…

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October 16th, 2007 comments (1) stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: design interactive

lomo diana camera produces crummy (artistic) images

Lomo Diana Camera

The Diana camera was a really cheap plastic camera that was made by the Great Wall Plastic Factory in Hong Kong in the 1960s. At the time, it was just that, a piece of junk. But over the years artists have discovered that the crummy little camera’s flaws ended up producing some really dreamy imagery.

Loaded with light leaks, and…

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August 30th, 2007 comments (6) stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: gadgets retro

leica d-lux 3: old fashioned style, modern technology

Leica D-Lux 3 Digital Camera

It’s nice to see the occasional digital camera that’s firmly grounded in it’s traditional photographic roots. The Leica D-Lux 3 features styling that harkens back to the clean lines and simplicity of their earlier film-based cameras, but is updated with all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a modern shooter.

The D-Lux 3 is a compact 10-megapixel digital camera…

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February 4th, 2007 comments stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: design digital imaging

roll your own xbox 360 achievements

Acheivement

Having trouble unlocking those oh-so-pesky achievements on your Xbox 360 games? Now you can generate your own custom achievements with this fun achievement generator web application.

The guys over at Technology-Ninja put together this tool that lets you make any silly achievement badge you’d like. With some real Xbox 360 achievements having such obscure titles like “Buddy with Porcupines!,” “Diggerling,”…

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January 29th, 2007 comments stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: just plain fun video games

deposit checks from home using your scanner

USAA Deposit at Home Scanner

A couple of years back, a new regulation was passed that enabled banks to remotely deposit checks by scanning digital images, then transmitting the images to the originating bank. Now that digital images of checks are considered to be just as good as paper checks, it looks like this technology is starting to hit homes.

USAA is now offering the…

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January 29th, 2007 comments stumble it! digg it! author: technabob

filed under: digital imaging