Alien effects: Lighting a candle in space

When you're floating around in the International Space Station, you're constantly reminded that you're having a literally out-of-this-world experience. Case in point: this is what it looks like when you light a candle in microgravity.
Because of the lack of gravity, the air's density is the same in all directions, so that means the heat disperses evenly, making the flame all the same color. Wow.
[DVICE via TechEBlog]

Read more from this post in Gadgets online »

Multi-Touch Musical “LinnStrument” Demoed on YouTube [Music]

Inventor Roger Linn is famous for creating the drum machine as we know it today, so there’s good reason to be excited about his latest creation; it has just been revealed. It’s a multi-touch surface not all that dissimilar to an iPad. Take a look at the video here to see for yourself.
The instrument — which Linn calls the “LinnStrument” — can take input from all of your fingers, so you can form chords in addition to sounding individual notes. Each space is pressure sensitive to allow for maximum range of expression. Sliding your finger vertically adjusts the timbre while horizontal motions change the pitch.
The final product would take the best elements from the layouts of the piano (chromatic increments) and the guitar (“parallel rows of semitones offset by fourths”). It will look a little different from the prototype, and it’ll be wearable vertically over your torso. You could also just leave it on the table like this prototype, though. We’ve included the render of what Linn imagines below.
The LinnStrument looks like an improvement over those fun-but-limited iPhone instrument apps, and you can be sure that you’ll be able to play Poker Face on the LinnStrument too… if you really want to.

---

Video Demonstration

---

---

Finished Product Design

---

[Mashable]

Read more from this post in Gadgets online »

The Next Touchscreens Will Be Very Sensitive About How Hard You Poke Them [Touchscreens]

We've made the leap from resistive to capacitive touchscreens that are more accurate—and multitouchy—so what's next? Screens that feel how hard you tickle them.
One of several approaches to making that happen uses a quantum tunneling composite—quantum tunneling happens when you bring two conductors close together, but with an insulating layer still between them, and electrons jump between the two conductors. Peratech's way to do this is with a polymer that changes resistance as you apply force for the insulating layer, so that bottom line, screens using this tech can tell how hard you pressing on the screen, since the sensors are able tell within two micrometers of how far in the screen's bending.
While there's other tech out there for pressure-sensing screens, Peratech says their tech uses less power and is more sensitive. The first gadgets with Peratech's sauce is coming out as early as April, so we'll able to poke things with that much more intent. Though, I have a hard enough time hitting the right stuff on screen—now I'm gonna have to keep track of how hard I press?
[Gizmodo via MIT via Engadget]

Read more from this post in Gadgets online »