PinoyTux Weblog » Technology

Jeff Han’s Multi-Touch Display Wall

Rai — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:23:30 +0000

If you have read about my previous post about Johnny Lee’s Wii Remote Hack (if you haven’t, go check it out), then this video is similar.

I have stumbled upon this Multi-Touch Display Wall, the brainchild of NYU Consultant Jeff Han, and it is interesting to see that this innovation is already out in the market.

Remember Minority Report?

How to Increase Wi-Fi Signal

Rai — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:35:43 +0000

Sometimes, Wi-Fi signals are just to weak to be of use from your location, and purchasing an additional signal booster is costly, then you must read this post. A simple piece of cardboard, aluminum foil and glue can be turned into a very cheap and easy to make Wi-Fi signal booster.

The cheap homemade device is called Ez-12 Parabolic Reflector, or Windsurfer, and its really very easy to make and use. How? Watch this video:

Cool, huh?

Anyway, you can download the template here and just follow the instructions.

And here is the Windsurfer in action:

Thanks to Rabby C. for the photo. And if you are wondering if this really works, contact Rabby. His email is available upon request.

Note:

Rabby was kind enough to send his own testimonial about the Windsurfer:

Testimonial:

“This is a capture of the Windsurfer in action. FYI I am subscribed to SmartBro 384kbps, I went to my room to test if this thing actually works, (take note, my room has barely gets signal at all!) And as you can see from the picture as if I was standing beside the router with that kind of speed! Imagine I just made the small version of the Windsurfer, what more if I make one bigger?! This proves that the Windsurfer actually works! I will be constructing a bigger Windsurfer out of different kinds of materials and I will give feedback as soon as I have tested them. BTW Thank you Rai for posting this article” - Rabby C.

Thanks for the feedback, Rabby!

Zink Technology: Printing Without the Ink

Rai — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:52:12 +0000

Although Polaroid Corporation, the ingenius company behind instant film photography, decides to stop the manufacturing of its film products, it has not stopped them from thinking out of the box and producing yet another form of technology.

What I am talking about is the Zink Technology, powering Polaroid’s latest line of instant mobile printers called Polaroid PoGo. PoGo utilizes Zero Ink Printing Technology, or Zink for short, making printers ultra-portable, cable-free and environment friendly.

Zink is closely related to the Polaroid film cameras way back in the 1990’s. You shoot, the camera spits out film, wait five minutes and voila! You got yourself a photograph.

With PoGo Mobile Printers, you shoot with your camera or phone, transmit it to PoGo via bluetooth, feed the printer special photo paper and well, you got yourself a nice little photo to cherish.

The power of PoGo lies inside the printer and the paper. Inkless and ultra-thin, the printer does not require ink cartridges or refills, hence environment-friendly. The colors come from within the Zink paper, which get activated when bursts of heat pulses pass on the surface.

In a nutshell, the Polaroid Instant Photo gets resurrected into PoGo. Simple as that.

Solar Powered Mobile Charger

Rai — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:52:49 +0000

If you keep on running low on your mobile phone battery and even your spare battery is not enough, then maybe it is time to use a device that can charge your mobile phone’s batteries even without plugging it into a electric socket.

Solar-powered celphone charger
Japan’s Strapya World now has a solar-powered mini celphone charger that is light, environment-friendly and portable. This 21.6 inch celphone charger only weighs 40 ounces and can charge batteries of some Japanese celphones like FOMA/SoftBank3G or AU/CDMA phones. The best feature however, is the charger can be carried anywhere, and since it is powered by solar energy, you have available power anywhere you go.

The charger can take from 6 to 10 hours to become fully charged but if plugged in to a socket through an AC adaptor, it will only take 3 hours. It can recharge dead batteries for 15 minutes which can give you 40 minutes of talk time.

Discovery Channel’s Build A House in One Week

Rai — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:48:43 +0000

I am such a sucker for Discovery Channel shows and I know I can’t get enough knowledge watching TV for an hour. Why an hour? Because it is all the time I can allocate in my super busy life as a sister, girlfriend, night shift system administrator, student driver attending driving school, and a trying hard blogger.

One of the most fascinating and very educational shows I have seen in quite a while is an episode of How Do They Do It? where they showed how houses are built in a week.

The episode showed how the parts of the house like walls, beams and roof are built in advanced in a manufacturing plant where computers do the cutting in a very accurate manner. If my memory serves me right, the accuracy of each cut are down to 1/100 of a millimeter, not very doable with human hands without precision tools.

When the individual parts are already complete, they begin assembling the entire house just by putting the part altogether, like building a house made of Lego. Since each part are precisely cut, they fit into each hole and corner quite easily. But the chief of the assembly team not only need to know which part goes where, he also must need to make sure that each part is fitted securely in place. Just a millimeter of change in the assembly will have a great impact on the structure.

They also make provisions for the electricity, water, heating and other cables that must go inside the walls. After the cables are in place, they then place the interior walls and flooring and voila! Just add furniture and people and you got a house built in no more than a week.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find a good free video of the show but there is one in Youtube which is similar to the one shown in Discovery Channel.

Singapore To Build 100Mbps Network

Rai — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:32:06 +0000

If you think 10Mbps residential line connection is PWNGE, then wait till Singapore completes its 100Mbps national fiber network by year 2015.

Singapore has unveiled its plans for an open access Next Generation National Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) to increase network connectivity by providing end-user speeds of 100Mbps for downlink and 50Mbps for uplink. To the less techie, it basically means less game lag, faster downloading and video streaming.

Expected to be complete by 2015, the Next Gen NBN will be available nationwide but other services such as video teleconferencing will be available as early as 2010. The official website lists the results of pre-qualified companies wishing to participate in Request-for-Proposal (RFP).

The project will be partially government funded costing around $750M. To the end users, they will be required to purchase $525 modem and will be charged $121.80 per month.

Speaking of NBN, the term sounds very familiar. Did someone got the idea from Singapore made a few bucks from it? ;P

Malaysia’s 224Mbps Internet for $1.58 (0)

Nitinol: Alloy Than Can Remember Its Original Form

Rai — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:51:25 +0000

There is one wicked metal alloy than can be deformed or bent in any way possible way but has the ability to return to its original form once the load is removed.

Nickel Titanium Naval Ordnance Laboratory or more commonly known as Nitinol is superelastic, a term used for metals that has the ability to return to their original form. Below its transformation temperature, Nitinol retains its shape but when heated above its transformation temperature, it can be deformed then goes back to its original shape when cooled, hence tagged as smart alloy.

Most common application of this alloy is in Medicine but it would be nice to use this kind of alloy in cars. Paintless dent repair will now have a new meaning to it.

PinoyTux Weblog » Technology

Jeff Han’s Multi-Touch Display Wall

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How to Increase Wi-Fi Signal

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Zink Technology: Printing Without the Ink

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Solar Powered Mobile Charger

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Discovery Channel’s Build A House in One Week

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Singapore To Build 100Mbps Network

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Nitinol: Alloy Than Can Remember Its Original Form

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