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  #51  
Old 03-21-2012, 01:53 PM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

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Harvard Microrobotics Lab

Check out the robotic bee.

--J. "Doom!" D.
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  #52  
Old 03-21-2012, 03:03 PM
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Some advances have made devices cleverer, faster, cheaper and more reliable. But they've lost out in artistic and craftsman appeal as a result. Here are the innards of the Hamann 505 mechanical calculator, from 1965.





Images linked from this website.
They're still beautiful, I think. Just on a much smaller scale.


Intel Inside: An Exploration into the World of Microprocessors


http://www.newworldorderreport.com/N...pic-Level.aspx

They look like crazy alien cities to me.
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  #53  
Old 03-24-2012, 01:30 AM
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I've been following this research since 2001, and it's no less freakin' cool.

It is, I suspect, another example of timeless technology.
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  #54  
Old 03-29-2012, 12:15 AM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

Interestingly, the inventors of the rolling contact joint in the OP weren't the first with the idea.

As far as I know, this hasn't been built yet. Sort of surprising, it'd be awesome combined with virtual reality goggles.
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  #55  
Old 03-29-2012, 04:25 AM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

I'm hoping for Room Temperature Superconductors. That will be a great day for humankind. I'm p. sure the bright girls and boys'll figger it out sooner or later.
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  #56  
Old 03-29-2012, 10:19 AM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

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Interestingly, the inventors of the rolling contact joint in the OP weren't the first with the idea.
The ancient Egyptians and Chinese sometimes used a similar system of rolling flexible straps for hinging the rudders on their boats.
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  #57  
Old 03-30-2012, 06:54 PM
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The ancient Egyptians and Chinese sometimes used a similar system of rolling flexible straps for hinging the rudders on their boats.
In what way did they differ from the rolamite-inspired hinge?

Got a picture of surviving examples, or artistic depictions of same?
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  #58  
Old 03-30-2012, 11:34 PM
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I call them 'clothes horse hinges' when I use them on the rudder and other control surfaces of model aircraft.



I call them that because the old fashioned racks for drying washing, called 'clothes horses', were often hinged the same way.



Here's a boat rudder hinge (full size) done the same way - it's just a length of cord wound through two sets of holes - one set in the stern post and the other in the rudder. In plan view the cord traces out a figure-8 shape.



I've not been able to find any information on the ancient versions yet - but I don't really know the correct name for this kind of hinge to search for.
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  #59  
Old 03-31-2012, 03:21 PM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

Corkscrew, corkscrew, who ready for the corkscrew?

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  #60  
Old 03-31-2012, 07:50 PM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

I remembered that the Jacob's ladder toy also uses the same type of hinge.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia article

Despite urban myths prevalent on the internet, there is no known documentation dating it to King Tut's tomb or ancient Egypt or to the Pilgrims. It has been theorized that its origin is from a Chinese falling-block toy, called "Chinese blocks".

The Japanese polymath Hiraga Gennai 平賀源内 (1729-1779) constructed a Jacob's ladder which later came to be called "Gennai's Wondrous Click-clack"
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  #61  
Old 03-31-2012, 09:13 PM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

I used to make those out of coasters and ribbon.
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  #62  
Old 04-02-2012, 03:32 AM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

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Corkscrew, corkscrew, who ready for the corkscrew?

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  #63  
Old 04-14-2012, 04:14 AM
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This just makes me happy.

It's like something that fell out of science fiction.
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  #64  
Old 05-07-2012, 02:43 AM
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A new idea in wind power.

I don't mind the aesthetics of current wind turbines, but these are downright beautiful. They're like whirligig bamboo.


Last edited by Kashmir; 05-07-2012 at 09:01 AM.
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  #65  
Old 06-19-2012, 08:38 PM
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I first read about this back in '09, and it looks like they're making progress towards commercializing it.


http://www.potterdrilling.com/

I don't see a reason why the technology wouldn't work in space as well. Which means that it could be used to bore into asteroids to create colonies and for mining.
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  #66  
Old 06-21-2012, 11:12 PM
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Artificial "gills"

I've wished there was such a thing since I was a kid. SCUBA gear is so fucking heavy and unwieldy to lug around when you're above water, and you can't refill tanks just anywhere (and refill is pricy).

I can't wait until this is commercialized.

Of course it won't totally replace SCUBA or rebreather systems, because some water is anoxic (you can't pull oxygen out if it's not there), or toxic.
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  #67  
Old 07-13-2012, 07:14 AM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

These guys are doing some cool work.

Check out their pneumatic robots and heliostat technology.

Here's some videos
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  #68  
Old 07-15-2012, 08:36 PM
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  #69  
Old 08-13-2012, 05:43 AM
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I'd like to hear some of these in action as part of a killer sound system.

Turn up some Juno Reactor. Or Bach on a pipe organ.
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  #70  
Old 08-13-2012, 01:29 PM
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Default Re: Engineering, Bitches!

Many years ago, I helped move and set up some Leslie speakers for Hammond organs. They used a similar, albeit more old-fashioned, technology to produce a distinctive vibrato/tremelo effect.
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  #71  
Old 08-16-2012, 03:38 AM
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It's not engineering yet, but basic research, but this is going to revolutionize telecommunications in the coming years.
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  #72  
Old 08-23-2012, 10:17 PM
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A new twist on robotic actuators.

EDIT:

Wait a minute, what the hell?

Look at the publication date, and it's not exactly technical material. Who's not Googling?

Last edited by Kashmir; 08-23-2012 at 11:23 PM.
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  #73  
Old 08-29-2012, 12:39 AM
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I'd never heard of this before, the Differential windlass.

Brilliantly simple, and so, so capable.

Thanks, China.
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  #74  
Old 09-24-2012, 09:42 PM
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I watched an episode of Nova that featured this discovery. So cool.

Applying this principle, very lightweight, very stiff structural elements can be created.

That whole website is cool. Natural selection comes up with some really good ideas, when it's not falling into local minima.
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  #75  
Old 04-04-2013, 12:39 AM
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You have no idea how happy this makes me.

Back in the early 2000s I decided that holographic images in free air like you see in science fiction are probably impossible, because there is nothing in the air to reflect the projected light back to a viewer's eye.

They found a way. It's still very crude, but everything is when it's first developed. I mean take a peak at the first transistor:



Just imagine the future . . .
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