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Posts Tagged ‘Bone’

Google patent details a hat with a wearable camera and bone conduction speaker

03 Mar

Google was recently granted a patent it filed in 2013 that details a hat with a built-in camera system able to pair with a mobile device for the purpose of ‘interactive sessions.’ While a baseball cap in particular seems like a somewhat odd choice for a wearable, the system itself sounds fairly straight-forward as a portable studio of sorts for live broadcasting video and snapping photos.

The system revolves around the camera, but includes related technologies to encompass a complete system. This system includes a speaker that transmits audio to the user via bone conduction, a module that uses vibrations to direct the user’s attention from one side to another, and a microphone, as well as a built-in battery to power it all.

The intended purpose for the wearable camera system appears multifaceted. One obvious purpose is capturing content and sharing it via the mobile app whether directly or as a live broadcast. The patent indicates the system could also be used for more utilitarian things as well, though, such as getting help from a remote entity (a line worker sharing a problem with someone at a facility, for example).

Whether this patent will ever be turned into a consumer product — and whether that product would actually be based around a baseball cap — is unclear at this time.

Via: Mashable

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Cities of Bone: Organic Future Skyscrapers Free of Concrete & Steel

06 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

building of bone

Our cities have grown up thanks to concrete and steel, but these materials are far from sustainable, leading architects and researchers to explore new (and old) materials, from wood to eggshell and even bone.

Steel and concrete account for 10% of global carbon emissions, polluting close to as much as the entire transportation industry. Bioengineer Doctor Michelle Oyen of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering builds structures in her lab from artificial bone and eggshell. These can be used for medical implants, but could also scaled up to create low-carbon building materials.

ossuary

Funded in part by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Oyen’s creations are composites of proteins and minerals, the former providing toughness and fracture resistance and the latter lending stiffness and hardness to the mix. These currently come from natural (animal) sources, but she is investigating whether a “non-animal-derived or even synthetic protein or polymer could be used instead of natural collagen.”

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In theory, her biomimetic creations could even become self-healing, in the same vein as concrete designed to repair itself. For the construction industry to adopt such radical new technologies at scale remains one of the biggest challenges for future organic and semi-organic materials – for decades, building codes have been framed around the use of concrete and steel.

Cities and skyscrapers of today already represent a good first step to long-term sustainability, packing lots of people into dense areas and vertical structures requiring less land. Still, a shift to renewable, organic and reusable materials would make them more future-proof and environmentally friendly.

wood skyscrapers

Wood is another natural building material gaining increased attention from the built environment community, a renewable resource that is strong, durable and recyclable. “Future cities may not look a whole lot different – you may not know immediately if you are in a timber, steel or concrete building,” says Doctor Michael Ramage from the Cambridge Department of Architecture.

wood skyscraper design

And “cities might be a whole lot quieter, as most timber buildings are built off site, and then just assembled on site, and use roughly a fifth as much truck traffic as equivalent concrete buildings. In other words, what needs to be delivered in five trucks for a concrete building can be delivered in one truck for a timber building. That’s an incredible advantage, for cost, for environment, for traffic and for cyclists” (Bone Church image by Davis Staedtler and Ossuary by jockrutherford).

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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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The Bone Doctor: Dr. Paul Koudounaris and Memento Mori

30 May

Dr. Paul Koudounaris has spent more than twelve years on a subject that would strike many in the Western world as macabre – the traditions of mummification and rituals surrounding death in societies throughout South America and Asia, among many other places. He’s photographed more than 250 sites around the world and has just published his third book on the subject. Click through to take a look at something a bit different, and find out more about his work. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Bone Flowers: Sculptures Made of Rodent Skeletons

09 Aug

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

Bone Flowers Skeleton Sculptures 1

A white sculpture of a dandelion becomes infinitely more interesting the closer you look, as you begin to pick out the tiniest of paws, vertebrae and tufts of fur. Petals are made up of rib cages, stems of spines. Skulls come together to form the base of the flower. Tokyo artist Hideki Tokushige produces these honebana, or bone flowers, in honor of the cycles of nature.

Bone Flowers Honebana

Bone Flowers Skeleton Sculptures 2

Bone Flowers Skeleton Sculptures 4

Tokushige procures (already-dead) carcasses of rodents and keeps them frozen so the flesh can be picked off the skeletons more easily without causing damage to the delicate bones.

Bone Flowers Skeleton Sculptures 5

Once he’s finished completing and photographing the sculptures, Tokushige disassembles them and buries the remains. Using these mice, which are kept in cages throughout their short lives and then frozen to feed to other animals in the least grisly way possible, reflects “a sense of our modern view of nature and life.”

Bone Flowers Skeleton Sculptures 6

Bone Flowers Skeleton Sculptures 7

“Some might think it weird,” says Tokushige of using bones. He states that proximity to bones was normal throughout much of human history, but we’re not as used to seeing them anymore. “Still, someday we all go back to bones and back to soil.” The artist crafts the bones into flowers as a means of paying respects to the dead, our cultural customs and the realities of the life cycle. Flowers are temporary, but bones can last millennia.

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[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Lightwave Bone Tutorial #2

30 Sep

This video goes into more detail on the options for using bones in Lightwave
Video Rating: 4 / 5

 

Adobe Flash CS4 Tutorial: How to Animate Symbols with the Bone Tool

05 Sep

incredibleflashtutorials.com In this follow up tutorial I briefly cover how to use the bone tool with symbols. If you’re looking for more Flash tutorials be sure to check out our website!
Video Rating: 4 / 5