Category Archives: Wow!

Bloody Omaha – The Incredible Making-Of

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Say you have 3 guys and you give them 4 days to reenact one of the epic battles of mankind – the Omaha landing – what do you think they could come up with? How real can they portray the massive scene with hundreds of soldiers, exploding shells and all? Well if you have an astronomical budget you would be able to churn out something somewhat real – but what if you’re on a practically shoestring budget?

Ultimately and fortunately, there’s no limits for human creativity. Here’s how a few guys did it – it’s not a lame production for sure: it was a part of BBC’s Bloody Omaha documentary series. Extremely impressive – watch on to the end to discover their process and the very impressive end results:

After massive interest on the Internet with this very clever and effective ‘making-of’, the BBC is going to rerun the actual show. This is probably the only ‘behind-the-scenes’ that can rally and compel a great desire to watch the actual show itself.

Userful Computer – Split your PCs

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I came across this software called Multiseat by a company called Userful. It lets you leverage the power of one physical CPU for up to 10 virtually separate users. As we know, CPUs and processors are getting ever more powerful, while much of what we do (email, browsing, etc) doesn’t really require the full strength. With this software, you can have only one physical computer for your home/office – everyone still works independently, running programs, opening files on their own display and inputs. This is especially valuable in commercial/public sector works where the computer is used to run small and simple programs – like a inquiry terminal in a library, or an Internet kiosk in an airport, for example.

This could dramatically reduce the costs needed, be it hardware or software. On the environmental note, this would certainly also consume less resources (be it electricity or in production of hardware) than having the full configuration. There seems to be some issues with software licensing though – can you only buy 1 copy of the software, or do you still need to buy by the number of people using? Perhaps that’s why it seems on their website they only have it for Linux so far.

Personally I’d hope it’d come onto the mainstream Windows too – and the bonus would be to develop wireless connections between the CPU box and the input/output (monitors, keyboard, mouse). One central wireless home server/computer for everyone’s needs. Perfect!

Car that Drives Itself

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Sure, we’ve seen the automatic parking stuff from Lexus and all – but a car driving itself? Well BMW has answered that too. On Top Gear they demonstrated a car that drives itself. Apparently you drive it around the circuit once, and the car ‘learns’ and ‘remembers’ it. Mind you, we’re not talking about weak “safe” cruising speeds and all, but full-fledged >100km/h average speeds.

Now they need to figure out how to implement this on the roads…

Blowable Laptop User Interface

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Check this out! By simply using existing microphones found on practically all laptops, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way to emulate screen pointers based on puffs of air instead of the mouse. While they could be used for ‘fancy’ applications like blowing out virtual birthday cakes (as the video suggests at the end), this could also very well be leveraged for people with disabilities such as paraplegics.

Great potential achieved with easily-available and cheap execution – I hope this can really be developed into a comprehensive, easy and accurate system of alternative input method. Just wondering – if we place a few microphones strategically around the screen, could it have a better calibration (think of GPS triangular positioning)? That could help make this much more precise and that much more effective.

Jim Denevan Sand Art

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Sure, we have seen a fair share of crop-circle art before – here’s something equally amazing, but done on sand instead of crops:

Jim Denevan makes freehand drawings in sand. At low tide on wide beaches Jim searches the shore for a wave tossed stick. After finding a good stick and composing himself in the near and far environment Jim draws– laboring up to 7 hours and walking as many as 30 miles. The resulting sand drawing is made entirely freehand w/ no measuring aids whatsoever. From the ground these environments are seen as places. Places to explore and be, and to see relation and distance. For a time these tangible specific places exist in the indeterminate environment of ocean shore. From high above the marks are seen as isolated phenomena, much like clouds, rivers or buildings. Soon after Jim’s motions and marks are completed water moves over and through, leaving nothing.

Pretty cool (it’s a pity these art pieces are all temporary though), eh? Tonnes more, and some processes on the artist’s website.

Fastest Rubik Cube Solving

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The world record for speed cubing – solving the Rubik’s cube in the shortest time possible – is currently held by Thibaut Jacquinot from France. The guy in this video did it in 10.56 seconds, which is certainly not far away, and shows some really nimble fingers and a good Rubik’s cube (I’m sure the one that I played with didn’t turn that smoothly, and would probably get stuck half the time).

And check out the timer that he uses – pretty cool eh? Based on the text printed on the device, it seems like it was developed for another seemingly trivial but no less speed-obsessed sport: speed stacking.

Very Clever Hearing-Aid Packaging

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This is simply brilliant. While the technique is not new – bands of print on a transparent sleeve can look animated when paired with appropriate underlying box graphic – the aptness absolutely shines through in this packaging design by Goodmorning (a design consultancy from Denmark) for Widex, known for their high definition hearing aid .

As the user pulls out the case for the hearing aid, the graphics dance and animate, mimicking the delightful motions of a sound wave. In fact, the graphics for this raster effect isn’t random either – it spells out Widex’s slogan “High Definition Hearing” (or how someone pronouncing it would look like anyway). Video here:

 

Spot the Difference Game

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There’s certainly more than meets the eyes in this Spot the Difference Flash game developed by Ivoryboy. One of the reasons would be the excellently executed artwork that gives it a much more poetic feel while playing – it’s almost like you’re strolling through the scenes. And as you play, you might go – wait a minute, did that guy move? Ha – that’s the brilliance of it!

Play it and you’d know what I mean!

Construction Paper Art

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construction-paper-art

I thought construction papers were mostly just for book covers and the occasional handicraft – but look how far this material can be sculpted! Breathtaking works of art by Jen Stark – the explosion of colors were carefully cut and ‘peeled’ off from a thick stack of construction paper – I really wonder how much time and painstaking effort it took to create an artwork like this. Great photography to capture it too!

More of her works here!