Sure Old MacDonald had a farm, but did he have an Autonomous Weeder robot from Carbon Robotics? I think not. E-I-E-I-O indeed! The Autonomous Weeder, designed to kill weeds without harming the soil or water, scans the ground with its 12-camera array, identifies weeds via onboard AI, then kills them with high-powered carbon dioxide lasers. Pew pew pew!
The tractor-size Autonomous Weeder can kill approximately 100,000 weeds an hour and between 15 and 20 acres a day, compared to about a single acre by a human laborer, and without the damaging effects of herbicides or the inexact nature of killing them with fire. Plus the robot can work autonomously both day and night, with no need for food or bathroom breaks.
Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesel mentioned the Autonomous Weeder costs “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” but could pay for itself in a few years based on the scale of a farming operation. There are also lease options available. Me? I was torn between buying and leasing before ultimately deciding to not get one at all since I don’t own a farm. Fingers crossed I don’t regret that decision.
Looking for a new favorite shirt? Well, look no further than this neon laser wireframe dinosaur shirt from MerryBlue. The $40 shirt is available in all sizes from S – 5XL and is the perfect wardrobe choice for letting your boss know you will be getting that raise, it will be a big one, and it will come with more vacation days so you can also wear this shirt on a tropical beach.
Now I know what you’re thinking, “Gosh, but I’d really like a matching hat and swim trunks to complete the look.” And you’re in luck because those are also real products that exist and are available for $30 and $40, respectively. Now if they just made matching loafers.
It’s like the ’80s and Jurassic Park had a baby. A perfect, beautiful baby. I just asked my wife if she’d buy us each a shirt and hat so we could match on our next date night out and she just turned away without responding which I can only assume means she’s going to surprise me with them down the road.
The UK wants to take down enemy drones and missiles with high-energy light beams. The Ministry of Defense (MOD) announced that it's developing laser and radio frequency weapons. Referred to collectively as Direct Energy Weapons (DEW), they're powered...
I’ll start out by saying that the Wicked Lasers LaserCube is one of the coolest gadgets I’ve tinkered with in a while. This compact metal box is capable of putting on full color laser light shows in concert with an easy-to-use Windows, Mac, or Android app, and offers capabilities unlike anything I’ve seen in its price class. Starting at just $499, you’ll get a very impressive little device that’s great for dance clubs, art installations, concerts, and other events where vibrant and unique visuals could come in handy.
This 4-inch metal cube packs in powerful red, green, and blue lasers, combined with moving mirrors to project brightly-lit animations, still images, and even video games onto pretty much any flat surface. The basic model offers up 800mW of power, while the Pro version gets 1 watt. Despite its power, it can even run on battery – up to 2 hours with the basic model, and 3 hours with the Pro model.
Keep in mind that this thing is not a toy – and lasers this bright can cause permanent eye damage if you aren’t careful with them. That said, the LaserCube has multiple safety mechanisms in place to ensure that it can’t be switched on unless you have both its key and circuit dongle in place. Aimed at a projection surface – or focused at least 3 meters above the heads of people, it’s perfectly safe to use. It’s easy to mount too, with a standard tripod screw thread on its bottom. Wicked Lasers also offers its own compact tripod and ball for $59, but any tripod will do the trick, and is likely to provide greater versatility than this stubby little guy.
The LaserCube works hand in hand with LaserOS, which provides a myriad of visuals to play with out of the box. Note that I only used the Windows version of the software, so your experiences might be different with the Mac or Android versions. The software installs easily, and provides a quick and intuitive interface which is so responsive that you could even use it in a live performance setting. It comes pre-loaded with over 300 still images, 100 animations, and provides the ability to import your own images as well. There’s also a great tutorial that Wicked Lasers posted here.
Animations can be set to adapt based on audio beats through any of your computer’s audio inputs, as well as via MIDI control. In addition, each visual can have effects applied to it, many of which respond to audio as well. You can also create sequences aka “playlists” of visuals which can be played back in order. However, that aspect of LaserOS is pretty limited, and doesn’t provide any sort of timeline view, which would make it much more powerful. That said, the LaserCube is compatible with several professional laser control applications like LaserShowXpress, and Modulaser, which provide a deeper level of control, albeit with a steeper learning curve.
There are a bunch of pre-loaded dance animations which are especially great for synchronizing with music, and you can also make abstract geometric animations, text scrollers, and much more. It also has the ability to do “beam shows” which require the use of a fog machine (and careful placement) to enjoy their effect to the fullest. I didn’t have a fog machine lying around, but here’s a little show that LaserCube user Eric Smith posted on YouTube:
While I loaded some still images of my own, I didn’t manage to create any of my own original animations, but apparently it can be done by importing a sequence of line art illustrations in .SVG format all in the same folder, and then naming them in order (i.e.: filename_1.svg, filename_2.svg, etc.)
Another novelty application for the LaserCube is its ability to play vector-based video games. There are rudimentary versions of Frogger, Tetris, Asteroids, and a few other games included, but this is really just something to show off the system, and not for serious gameplay.
The LaserCube is also powerful enough to light a match or pop balloons, and even has an app for aiming and popping multiples in sequence. It can also perform basic laser engraving work on wood with an add-on focusing lens, but it’s by no means a replacement for a dedicated laser engraver as it’s just too slow to really be a serious engraving tool. This gadget is first and foremost a tool for the visual arts, and that it does extremely well for its size and price.
There’s so much variety to the imagery you can create with the LaserCube and LaserOS that I had a hard time exploring everything it can do. The combination of hardware and software makes for a truly amazing little device, and any VJ, DJ, dance club owner, or visual artist should definitely consider adding one or more to their bag of tricks. You can order the LaserCube now from Wicked Lasers with prices starting at $499.
Researchers from MIT have discovered a way to send highly targeted audio signals directly to someone's ear at a distance using laser beams. The system works using the "photoacoustic" effect, where water vapor in the air absorbs light, forming sound w...
Cellulite, thigh gaps, hip dips... women have no end of supposed physical "flaws" to worry about, and in recent times this remit has expanded to include the state of their vaginas, too. The internet is awash with products designed to improve a woman'...
Superman used to shoot laser rays from his eyes. They caused extensive damage to the villains and bad guys in movies. Yet today we are getting there in terms of this seeming superpower of laser...
Superman used to shoot laser rays from his eyes. They caused extensive damage to the villains and bad guys in movies. Yet today we are getting there in terms of this seeming superpower of laser...
There’s been a lot of buzz in the media this past week about the first ever pedestrian fatality involving an autonomous vehicle. While there was clearly some kind of failure to see the pedestrian by both the system and the safety driver, self-driving car systems are generally quite good at detecting pedestrians and other objects in clear weather. One thing that today’s autonomy systems (and humans) can’t do well is see through fog. But that may soon change, thanks to a new technology being developed by MIT engineers.
Researchers out of the Camera Culture Group at the MIT Media Lab developed a new imaging method which uses short laser bursts to detect the distance and shape of objects even when they’re completely obscured by fog. A camera counts up the number of light particles that reach it at a regular interval, which gives the system enough information to compute the depth and distance of objects.
The current version of the technology can only penetrate about 22 inches of fog, but the fog used in the test was far denser than what is typically encountered on the road. With some enhancements, it’s possible that the system could work far enough ahead on a foggy road to make a difference in vehicular safety. Keep in mind that this kind of technology might not just help self-driving cars be safer, but it could make driving in fog safer for human drivers by alerting them to obstacles they can’t see with the naked eye.
SciFi movies like Star Wars and Avatar depict holograms that you can see from any angle, but the reality is a lot less scintillating. So far, the only true color hologram we've seen come from a tiny, complicated display created by a Korean group led...
The UK wants to take down enemy drones and missiles with high-energy light beams. The Ministry of Defense (MOD) announced that it's developing laser and radio frequency weapons. Referred to collectively as Direct Energy Weapons (DEW), they're powered...
Researchers from MIT have discovered a way to send highly targeted audio signals directly to someone's ear at a distance using laser beams. The system works using the "photoacoustic" effect, where water vapor in the air absorbs light, forming sound w...
Cellulite, thigh gaps, hip dips... women have no end of supposed physical "flaws" to worry about, and in recent times this remit has expanded to include the state of their vaginas, too. The internet is awash with products designed to improve a woman'...
SciFi movies like Star Wars and Avatar depict holograms that you can see from any angle, but the reality is a lot less scintillating. So far, the only true color hologram we've seen come from a tiny, complicated display created by a Korean group led...