BWSL

I've survived the first day of final exams, 2 down and 4 more to go! Here's an interesting project called The Lumen, a 3D display that adds depth to 2D images. The neatest part is how they get each little pixel up and down; they use a wires made of "shape memory allow" that expand when heated and shrink when cooled. [or watch this video here ] Good look to everyone taking final exams! Read Full Story

As a young, somewhat lost, soon-to-be-engineer I loved watching Bre Petis's weekend project video series on MAKE , where a DIY project would be made into a simple video tutorial so even the most lost engineers could follow. As you might imagine, the day Bre's videos stopped was a sad one. Bre Petis later had his own show on the history channel called History Hackers, and he is now one of the founders of a company called MakerBot . What does MakerBot do? They make my dream machine. [or watch... Read Full Story

This weekend I began development of the next BW Science Labs kit, a robot that would have far greater functionality and awareness than Vivus. I can't say I've ever had a single flawless prototyping experience. I always seems to destroy one invaluable component or another. This was no exception. I wound up over applying 1/2 too many volts to the microcontroller, causing it to fry almost instantly. Of course, there was no way for me to know this at the time, I'd used a 6v power supply of other... Read Full Story

Here's the situation: You have the most massive idea ever. You just drank 3 red bulls and you're convinced that your laser sunglasses will sell like one of Apple's computers that come out every other day. The problem: you have $3 in your Paypal account after buying some nun chucks and X-Ray vision goggles. So, how do you get funding for prototyping? 1) Get an investor! Easier said than done, the investor's security blanket is a fat packet of Excel spreadsheets, so you will be expected to have... Read Full Story

Writing after a break is always tough, I take the "slowly get back into the swing" method. For the last few weeks I've been exchanging emails with an out of country graphic design firm. I had hired them to make the new BW Science Labs logo. It's been a frustrating last few weeks. That's what I get for outsourcing, I guess. In the end I gave up trying to get the designer to do what I had asked, after about 5 or so attempts. I'm still happy with the final product, though I was shooting for... Read Full Story

Ah, Thanksgiving, the time when families are thankful for one another and turkeys are wishing they had opposable thumbs to escape their cages. For those of you outside of the US, Thanksgiving is when Americans celebrate each other and what we are thankful for. Come to think of it I should have made a roboturkey or something to celebrate, maybe next year. Read Full Story

Global A Cambridge student named Qui Pan has built a fantastic program that lets the user scan any desktop object with only a webcam. The computer generates a 3D model in real time, all you have to do is move the object in 360 degrees on your desk. This gets me really excited as this would be the perfect way to get 3D models into Unity games. Rather than paying $20 for a 3D model of a water bottle to use as a prop in a game, I could go out and buy a real bottle for $1, scan it, and import it... Read Full Story

One of the great things about going to an awesome school is the teachers, especially those who will let you borrow microprocessors. I've been wondering for several months now if I should buy an Arduino, the relatively low cost microcontroller that has hobby engineers going wild (seriously, wild . You would not believe how much someone can love a computer chip until you've seen the die hard Arduino fans). Fortunately, my school's ASR (Applied Science Research) teacher let me borrow an Arduino... Read Full Story

A little while ago, I was contacted by a book publisher who was interested in my work. He asked me to write a short essay on technology from the perspective of a 15 year old. The essay will be published in a book hopefully sometime this year. Here's what I wrote: "Technology is anything released after you are born." - I first heard something like this a few years ago. At the time the Apple computer was obese, PCs were in style, and kids spent their days playing dodge ball instead of Call of... Read Full Story

I've been following Waterloo Labs for a while now (they even commented on the lecture I gave on passion and science last year ), and now it seems they're doing pretty darn well for themselves. They were recently on BBC radio and a variety of blogs (now this one). Their most recent project is a car that's controlled by an iPhone , which is probably the coolest youtube video of the year (yes, even better than the llama song ). Read Full Story