iMod » Science & Electronics

Listen to your world, talk to the Internet

Chris M — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 20:13:49 +0000

Twine is a wireless module tightly integrated with a cloud-based service. The module has WiFi, on-board temperature and vibration sensors, and an expansion connector for other sensors. Power is supplied by the on-board micro USB or two AAA batteries (and Twine will email you when you need to change the batteries).

The Spool web app makes it simple to set up and monitor your Twines from a browser anywhere. You set rules to trigger messages — no programming needed. The rules are put together with a palette of available conditions and actions, and read like English: WHEN moisture sensor gets wet THEN tweet “The basement is flooding!” We’ll get you started with a bunch of rule sets, and you can share rules you create with other Twine owners.

Because the hardware and software are made for each other, setup is easy. There’s nothing to install — just point Twine to your WiFi network. Sensors are immediately recognized by the web app when you plug them in, and it reflects what the sensors see in real time, which makes understanding and testing your rules easy.

Here’s a screenshot of the software:

Quite an incredible little device if you ask me! Find out more on the website.

Accelerating Universe

Chris M — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 22:02:55 +0000

The head of the science programme at the Dark Energy Survey on the rapidly expanding universe and the future of dark-energy research:

Time-lapse from the International Space Station

Chris M — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:30:10 +0000

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon.

Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy. Raw data was downloaded from The Gateway To Astronaut Photography of Earth “http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/mrf.htm “.

Virtualdub was used to create the final movie and you can see more beautiful images of the world from this blog: http://infinity-imagined.tumblr.com/

Aurora Australis

Chris M — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:53:41 +0000

This incredible photograph taken by NASA is buzzing around the Internet and it’s quite incredible. At first it doesn’t look like too much, but give it a moment, look deeply and you’ll see the beauty and depth.

NASA says, “This image is of Atlantis and its Orbital Boom Sensor System robot arm extension backdropped against Earth’s horizon and a greenish phenomenon associated with Aurora Australis. One of the station’s solar array panels appears at upper left. Because of the exposure time needed for this type of photography, some of the stars in the background are blurred.”

Click to enlarge

I love posting things like this and have a Science and Electronics category, so if you enjoy it, click through and have a read/look.

What do you think?

Watch the Lunar Eclipse tonight online

Chris M — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:38:18 +0000

It’s a pity the weather’s so awful in Cape Town today, because the clouds are going to block out most of the lunar eclipse. Anything to do with the atmosphere and space excites me, so I know I’m a bit bummed, but because of this, I did some research.

Sloosh will be hosting a live, what they call, mission interface using the Google App Engine and this interface will let anyone be involved in this eclipse. So if you’re in Cape Town and you can’t see paste the clouds, or you’re anywhere else where you can’t, this is the place to be to see it all going down.

Lunar Eclipse

And, if you’re an Android user, you can actually download an application to watch it here.

Best Amateur Astronomy Photographs

Chris M — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:22:26 +0000

Picked these up on the National Geographic website and had to share them – The top photograph won the contest.

Apple changes iPhone 4 screws – tamper proof

Chris M — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 18:42:24 +0000

One thing that Apple has always done is ensure that they can be in control of their devices. We saw this last week when I published an article about Apple wanting to make jail breaking illegal, and now we’re seeing another move from Apple to keep control over iPhone 4 devices.

Obviously, Apple’s aim here is to prevent people from opening the devices and tampering with the electronics, which I guess is understandable. That being said, my attitude is.. if someone wants to open the device, they’re going to open it regardless of what screws are used.

Do you think this is a good move?

New star sign – Ophuchicus

Chris M — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:03:12 +0000

Star signs have always been something that interested me. I don’t really read into those little snippets in the paper, but there are plenty of other things on the topic that are worth reading about and wondering about.

The latest in this topic is that a new star sign has been has discovered. Ancient Babylonians had 13 constellations, but only wanted 12, so 1 was thrown out. This one was known as Ophuchicus, the snake holder.

According to the Minnesota Planetarium Society, this is actually what the star signs dates should be:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16.
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11.
Pisces: March 11-April 18.
Aries: April 18-May 13.
Taurus: May 13-June 21.
Gemini: June 21-July 20.
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10.
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30.
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17.

OK, so your whole life just changed didn’t it? ;)

Japanese invent Humanoid

Chris M — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:46:05 +0000

Robotics is a subject that I find quite amazing and have done for many years. In fact, before deciding to take the career path that I did, I was ready to enroll for Mechatronics (Mechatronics is the synergistic combination of Mechanical engineering, Electronic engineering, Computer engineering, Control engineering, and Systems Design engineering in order to design, and manufacture useful products), which has a strong robotic branch.

Anyway, back onto the topic, some Japanese robotics engineers have created quite an amazing humanoid, which is a robot that resembles a human. This robot can do all the actions such as smile, laugh and so forth. In the video below, you’ll see how the robot can actually change its facial expressions:

Scientists have predicted the day that robots take over the world, and whether it’s going to be true or not, this sort of thing definitely makes it feel like the truth!

Clean up those cables with the Messless Charger Kit

Chris M — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:46:37 +0000

How many devices do you own? At least 3 or 4 I presume. How many require cables to be charged? All of them. Well, then you’ll know what it’s like to have cables everywhere and how messy it looks!

The Messless Charger Kit is the latest in charging devices, it cuts out the cable mess and actually looks quite good. The charger comes with multiple adapters, so it’ll suite most of your gadgets and it looks sleek and stylish, so it’ll fit in just perfectly.

The device charges up to 4 devices at the same time and comes with 6 adapters, namely: Nokia, Nokia Mini, iPod, Mini USB, Sony Ericsson and PSP. The device comes in black, it’s powered by the mains and is 20x20x6.5cm in size.

You’ll also receive a UK adapter and an instructions manual, so there’s nothing left out with this gadget!

The Messless Charger goes for R769.00.

If you love gadgets, don’t forget to look at the Gadget of the Week section for other gadgets like the Handheld Espresso Maker!