Technabob » invisible

People People’s Invisible Speaker: Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Range — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:00:01 +0000

This speaker doesn’t look like much, since it’s mostly made out of transparent materials, but it sure looks nice. It’s People People’s invisible speaker, and it’s made for people who want a speaker that doesn’t look like an ordinary speaker.

People People’s Glass Speaker makes it easy to blend in with your decor at home, since it lets you see through to the environment around it. The transparent case blends in with almost everything, yet is big enough to offer a good sound quality. The speaker comes with a small, rechargeable wireless transmitter that can be plugged into any computer, music player or smartphone’s headphone jack.

The speaker itself ships in a small package that fits in a mailbox. That’s because the glass sheets have to be ordered through a local glass repair shop, which will cut down on shipping costs and breakage. It’s not clear from the pictures if the frame of the box is somehow crammed into that small box too.

There’s still no information on price or availability of the invisible speaker. Still, it looks pretty interesting, although the glass will make it somewhat heavy and fragile.

[via NOTCOT]

Acoustic Cloak that Works in Air: (Not Quite a) Cone of Silence

Shane McGlaun — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:40:02 +0000

Metamaterials are awesome in that they promise future ways to make real objects invisible to the eye and to block acoustic signals. This would be the prankster’s ultimate weapon. Imagine a suit that would allow you to sneak around unseen and unheard. I’d skulk around waiting for the skank down the street that is always bent over with her thong hanging out working in her flowerbeds gets to weeding and give her the wedgie of a lifetime.

There have been metamaterial acoustic cloaks before, but the caveat was that these cloaks could only hide things underwater. Researchers at Duke have discovered a new acoustic cloaking technique that will work in air. The metamaterials is a series of layers of perforated plastic.

The material is able to manipulate the sound waves in the air to make the majority of them seem like they passed through the solid object underneath and bounced back. The tests used a triangular wood block a couple inches high and more than a foot at the base. Despite early progress, the researchers say they are a long way from a full acoustic cloak.

[via BoingBoing]

Invisible Ink Printer Hack: Way Too Much Work For Something You Can’t See

Technabob — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:45:11 +0000

If you ever wanted to send secret messages using your computer, you could just embed secret messages in your image files. But if you want to print out hidden messages, you can hack your inkjet printer to print invisible messages.

The guys over at Make: put together this hack where you crack open the cartridge from your inkhet printer and replace they yellow ink with lemon juice. Print anything you want in yellow, and the page looks blank. But apply some iodine or heat the page with an iron, and your secret message will be revealed. Check out the overly complex and sloppy process in the video below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It’s a huge pain in the ass, and looks really messy, but the results are kind of cool. Of course, you could do the same with just some lemon juice and a paintbrush or Q-Tip, but what fun would that be. This is way more geeky.

You can grab the full instructions from Make: here [PDF file].

Invisible Paintings Show Up Only After You Take a Pic

Range — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:26:00 +0000

I’ve always enjoyed modern art, but involving the viewer with these paintings that only become visible after you take a photo with your cell phone or your camera is genius.

The project is called Take a Picture and it was created by Brad Blucher and Kyle Clements, two artists from Toronto. Their paintings are actually IR LED mosaics that are assembled behind blank canvases. This means that they are completely invisible to the naked eye. However, the IR light is detectable by the CCD sensor in your digital camera or your smartphone.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It’s kind of like augmented reality, since you can only see the image through the camera’s lens. I like the fact that they used IR LEDs to get this effect, not just IR paint so they can display different images at different times if they wanted to.

[via Make:]

British Military Wants Invisible Tanks by 2013

Shane McGlaun — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 14:30:24 +0000

Researchers at BAE systems are hard at work on a system that uses E-ink and a hoard of sensors to render tanks almost invisible to the naked eye. The system is dubbed e-camouflage and would project the landscape around the tank onto the surface of the tank to make it very hard to see. This exactly like what the Predator used and all we need is that big, bald dude that was always shaving from the flick to foil the Brits should they ever invade. “I seeee yooouuu.”

The Brits are working on the system with seven vehicles at this point – with some of the vehicles being unmanned, some of them manned, and some being armed. One of the vehicles in the program is said to be like the Batmobile. I assume they mean the Tumbler from the recent flicks, not that dorky one from the Keaton days.

Ultimately, the Brits want a vehicle using the system that weighs no more than 30 tons, uses a hybrid drive system, and has the survivability and effectiveness of a current main battle tank. This sounds really cool to me. Something similar surfaced back in June of 2010 from a different company.

[via The Telgraph]

Kinect Invisibility Hack: Xbox Cloaking

Technabob — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 04:35:00 +0000

Thanks to a little clever Kinect hacking, you can now be rendered invisible.

Coder Takayuki Fukatsu figured out a way to replace his image with an invisibility cloak when viewed through the Kinect’s eyes. The way it works is by using a software hack (built with Openframeworks) to apply a copy of the background image onto the shape of his body as he moves around the room. The effect is very cool – somewhere between Predator and the active camo that Elites have in Halo.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Now if only they made a portable version of this, and everyone saw through the eyes of the Kinect, it’d be perfect.

[via Reddit via Joystiq]

Ultraviolet Spy Pen Lets You Write and Read Invisible Messages

Technabob — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:11:13 +0000

Here’s a handy way to keep a secret. Just grab one of these ultraviolet invisible ink pens, and you can leave yourself hidden messages that you can easily decode using the same pen you wrote them with.

Each pen has a built-in ultraviolet LED light, you can read messages that are invisible to the naked eye. It’s perfect for writing down personal information like your PIN number or passwords – assuming of course that nobody else has a black light lying around, and you can actually remember where the heck you wrote your note. Keep in mind that while the ink is “invisible”, it’s also permanent, so don’t be writing nasty bathroom stall limericks on the walls of your house unless you plan on living with them in perpetuity.

If you want to exchange secret notes with a friend, buy a couple and play a game to see if you can find all the hidden messages you leave for each other. Of course, running around with a UV light in hand, you might come across other evidence of foul play you didn’t intend to. Don’t mind that blood spatter – it’s nothing.

The Invisible Ink Spy Pen is available over at Perpetual Kid for $9.99 (USD).