I’ve been driving around a Super Motard motorcycle for the last six months, and let me tell you, it’s extremely loud, so loud that my neighbors have asked me to start it outside the courtyard where it’s usually parked. One friend said that it sounded like my bike had eaten another one for breakfast. While all this racket is a fun part of having a motorcycle, you can imagine how this would be problematic for military motorcycles.
With that in mind, DARPA has commissioned the development of a stealth motorcycle, which would allow soldiers to ride for long periods of time without emitting much noise. The bike, would use an extended-range hybrid-electric engine, and will be built by BRD and Logos Technologies. In addition to its stealthy operating capabilities, the bike will have all-wheel drive to help tackle difficult terrain.
Electric and hybrid bikes also make sense for commuters, especially in city traffic. Switching over to electric drive would mean no shifting and reduced noise, and of course lower fuel costs. Also, I’d probably not get any complaints from neighbors either.
[DefenseTech via The Verge]
Like to eat and drink, then use your computer keyboard without washing your hands? Eventually, you end up with a sticky, dirty mess of a keyboard. Apparently, one office worker was sick and tired of seeing the grimy keyboard in their co-worker’s office, and did something about it.
No, they didn’t clean it up – instead, one Redditor transformed the grimy, slimy keyboard into a pocket garden, filling the already dirty bits between the keys with more dirt, and a bunch of garden cress seeds. The end result looks something like a Chia Pet, but in keyboard form. It took only a couple of days before the seeds started to sprout, and within two weeks, it was a fully-grown sprout garden.
While it’s a hilarious prank, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the keyboard isn’t particularly functional anymore after being saddled with dirt, water and vegetation. I suggest that if you decide to try this on one of your vacationing office-mates, you try it with a crappy old keyboard nobody cares about.
The Stone Spray robot was created as a 3D printer to produce architecture out of soil. While technically speaking, this robot wasn’t designed to create art, the results of its efforts and the research project sure look like some interesting sculptural works.
Stone Spray was created by Anna Kulik, Inder Shergill and Petr Novikov as a way to produce eco-friendly, efficient and innovative systems to “print” architecture in 3D. The device collects sand and dirt which is then sprayed from a nozzle with a binding component. This mixture solidifies and creates forms that look like they were sculpted.
The movements of the ‘bot are controlled by a computer, so it can allow designers to have a direct input in the resulting shape, unlike other 3D printers. The spray is multi directional, and can even be sprayed vertically. While the prototype only produces pretty rudimentary small structures, here’s a rendering of the sort of thing a larger version might be able to produce:
While I’m not sure of the practical applications for the Stone Spray robot, it sure produces some unique artistic output. Check it out in action in the video below:
[via designboom]