The “Tyrant” concept by designer Alice Wang is the latest in a growing line of alarm clocks designed to torture their owners into facing the day. Instead of loud alarms, helicopter attachments and early-morning feats of hand-eye coordination, the Tyrant doles out punishment by hijacking your cellphone contact list and making random calls each three minutes until you get up to turn it off.
Again, this device is just a concept, but I think that Alice is on to something here. The only thing that it needs to be truly effective is message playback. Something like automated drunk dialing—only more devastating. For example, record: “Hey sexy, it’s me. Listen, I had to call because I had another dream about you last night. I can’t get you out of my mind.” The horrifying thought of that message being delivered to your dad at 6:00 in the morning is enough to get anyone out of bed. [Alice Wang via Josh Spear]
The Brains Behind the Image Fulgurator Julius von Bismarck’s ‘Image Fulgurator’ projects stealth images into the photographs of strangers, while keeping those images invisible to human eyes. Depending on whom you ask, it’s either a clever hack or an obnoxious intrusion. Naturally, we had to find…
Julius von Bismarck’s ‘Image Fulgurator’ projects stealth images into the photographs of strangers, while keeping those images invisible to human eyes. Depending on whom you ask, it’s either a clever hack or an obnoxious intrusion. Naturally, we had to find out more.
Yesterday, von Bismarck’s device made its premature debut on the web. Today we met him in his hometown, Berlin, to talk about the device, the thinking behind it and the inevitable deluge of e-mails from viral marketers wanting use it to smash their way further into our brains.
But first, about that name: According to von Bismarck, ‘Image Fulgurator’ comes from the Latin for ‘lightning’ (fulgur) and means ‘Flash Thrower’.
First, let us make clear that von Bismarck has applied for a patent for the Fulgurator. He stressed this point. Of course, anyone with the requisite skills can make one of their own, but Julius wants to keep some degree of control over commercial use.
To see why, think about how it works. The device is a altered camera — in this case, an old manual Minolta SLR. A flashgun fires through the camera in reverse, from the back. The flash picks up the image of a slide inside and projects it out through the lens and onto any surface.
The trick is in the triggering. The Fulgurator lies in wait until an unsuspecting photographer takes a picture using a flash. When the device’s sensor sees this flash, it fires its own unit, throwing up an image which is captured by the hapless photographer’s camera while remaining unseen by the naked eye.
Now, imagine for a moment that an ad bureau gets hold of this. You couldn’t take a photograph of a tourist attraction ever again without worrying that some marketing crap would be pushed into your camera. As Julius told me, “I see it as a piece of media art. It could be a dangerous attack on media. [But] if people do shit with it, I feel bad.”
This is the reason for the patent, and even though he doesn’t have an army of lawyers behind him, Julius seems to be on top of the legal side of things. He’s also moving fast. This Fulgurator is the first prototype, and the most primitive. “It works, but it’s not practical,” he states. “In a few years time, big companies will use it for shit,” but by then, Julius will be at the next stage. He already has more working models (which I wasn’t allowed to see) which are refinements of this one.
At its simplest, the Fulgurator is a very easy hack. A hole has been cut in the back of the camera and a piece of clear, roughened acrylic put in its place. A rear tube grants the flashgun to slide in. Everything else remains intact. The slides themselves are just rolls of processed film (the pictures are snapped from Julius’ personal monitor) returned to their canisters and then loaded up as if a normal film. Any image on the reel can be selected by turning the rewind crank. When you hold the Fulgurator up, you can see the subject on the acrylic screen and line it with the image on the slide. You can also focus, to ensure the final projection ends up sharp.
But the magic happens inside the flash sensor on the top. Ordinary slave flashes (which fire whenever they detect another flash going off) aren’t reliable enough, so von Bismarck built his own circuitry. The original was based on the Arduino platform but has evolved into a custom-made circuit. The knobs were for tweaking the settings on the prototype, stuff which is all now taken care of by software.
Julius had ripped the guts out of the box for a newer version, so we couldn’t see it in action, but we know what it does. Modern digicams flash for all kinds of reasons, such as red-eye reduction and focus assistance. What Julius’ circuit does is to ignore all of these false strobes and fire only when the photo itself is taken. This is the secret sauce of the Fulgurator.
Clearly, this is a prankster’s dream. But Julius thinks it has a serious side, too, which is why it looks like a gun. “It’s important that people know it’s not just a funny idea,” he told me, “it can also do negative stuff.”
It seems that the “negative stuff” consists mainly of pissing people off, like the aforementioned marketing uses. We’re looking forward to seeing what the next gen hardware can do, though. Take a look at this picture:
The message is ‘Fulgurated’ onto a black laptop bag. Turning black to white is powerful stuff, but it’s not just slogans that can be fired. Although Julius frames his nerdery in an artistic context (he’s studying a German Diploma called “Digital Class” at UDK, Berlin’s art school) he clearly has a soft spot for tomfoolery. In the image below, you see an image of a naked body which can be projected onto a clothed person.
The possibilities are endless, but Julius is just getting started. When I suggested that he put his own URL on the images, so victims could later check to see just what had happened to their pictures, he seemed surprised (later I learned that he does plan to include it later, to promote his own work). In fact, the whole thing has happened a little too swiftly.
Yesterday’s ‘leak’ onto the internet was intended as a place holder for an entry into Ars Electronica’s Cyber Arts exhibition in September. Instead, it catapulted him into internet fame and he has already received expensive offers for his work. If he manages to keep on top of things, this little hack could make him some large money.
Let’s be honest. If we were willing to drop $600 for a cellphone last year, we’re clearly nerdy early adopters, and are unlikely to complain that the new iPhone will cost one third of the original 1G iPhone’s launch price….
Let’s be honest. If we were willing to drop $600 for a cellphone last year, we’re clearly nerdy early adopters, and are unlikely to complain that the new iPhone will cost one third of the original 1G iPhone’s launch price.
Those of us who think that the world is somehow responsible for our lives (you know who you’re. You’re the ones who sue people when you trip on a loose paving stone) can take heart. Instead of wringing your hands and demanding a rebate from Apple, you could sell your old iPhone for a profit. Jason Kottke, of the splendid Kottke.org, scouted out the prices of used iPhones on Craigslist and Ebay and found that boxed 16GB models are fetching up to $585.
Why? We suspect that these are the death throes of the unlocking industry, a final ejaculation before its neck breaks, hung by the stipulation to activate all forthcoming 3G iPhones in-store; drawn and quartered by the almost worldwide availability of the next-gen handsets. If you can live without your Stupendabrick for a few weeks, we recommend selling now, within this small window of opportunity.
Going one better than the Jesus model (the original, not Giz’s resident LEGO freak and sexy boy Diaz) is the Konepan, a bread maker from japanese toy manufacturer Megahouse. The kitchen gizmo, aimed at kids and recently-retired Giz writers, can turn your dough into 14 different shapes, most of them crazy, all of them fabulous. Teddy bears, elephants, hemmorhoids a bunch of grapes, snails, and what looks like an angry squirrel, take just 13 minutes to cook once you’ve followed the instructions of how to make them. No clue as to how much the Komepan costs, however. [Megahouse via TOKYOMANGO]
Hey dudebro, looking to take a bro-dtrip but afraid you’ll make the ultimate braux-pas: not bringing enough beer and having a totally whack sound system? Chill out man, Party-A-Cargo’s got your back with its tow hitch mounted kegerator. The Party-A-Cargo Ultimate can store up to 160 glasses of beer and contains a jockey box with two 6 inch by 9 inch speakers and a 10 inch subwoofer.
The case, which hooks up to the back of your SUV, also has a built in CD stereo and Sirius Satellite Radio, a battery charger and a 12-volt power adapter. A locking door ensures that those dickwads at Alpha Gamma Phi won’t try to make a grab for your beer while you’re gone. Party-A-Cargo offers three different versions of its frat-friendly fun box, ranging in price from $2,895 to $3,795. [Born Rich]
Sam Redfield of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group has designed a bucket-based hydroelectric generator that can be made with easily obtainable, affordable parts. The “pico generator” is intended to provide a modest power supply suitable for home lighting and small appliances to remote destinations. They’ve already tested the bucket at La Florida in Guatemala, where it demonstrated the capability to power five retro Motorola handsets from hustle’n flow of a small stream.
A altered old car alternator carries out the power generation duties, and the rest of the assembly is made of readily available materials. A small pipe diverts water to a storage tank, from which it is gravity-fed into the bucket. The design also has a minimal environmental and human impact, as it doesn’t require damming and feeds the water back into the same stream just a few feet away. [AIDG via Make]
With the arrival of Topia’s one-seater prototype, I think it’s finally safe to state the SMART car has something it can take in a fight. Called the HUVO, this diminutive electric automobile forgoes features like “well-being” and “sanity” for “lightweight” (330 lbs.) and “Jesus Christ watch out for that MINI Cooper!” To save weight and development costs, the HUVO is made out of materials that would make any contemporary golf cart proud; mainly plastic, ceramic, more plastic, and a bit of high-tensile steel plate. Although, as the headline implies, if HUVO goes into production Topia should probably just make the thing out of a nice, sturdy wood, and save your immediate family a step at the funeral parlor.
This is the Image Fulgurator, half guerrilla-art stunt and half homemade-gadget awesomeness. Berlin based artist Julius von Bismarck uses his oddly named camera-mod to project images onto street furniture where they appear in the pics of strangers, but remain invisible…
This is the Image Fulgurator, half guerrilla-art stunt and half homemade-gadget awesomeness. Berlin based artist Julius von Bismarck uses his oddly named camera-mod to project images onto street furniture where they appear in the photos of strangers, but remain invisible to their eyes.
How? It’s simple. The device has a slave unit on top which is triggered when it sees a flash fire. This triggers his own flash, which fires through the back of the camera, through a film slide containing his slogan and then on and out through the lens at the front. This works because a camera is pretty much a projector in reverse. And because the light-graffiti is fired at the exact same moment the unsuspecting victim takes a picture, it ends up in their photograph and paranoid mind ramblings result. Neat.
Here’s a video of von Bismarck in action at fake Berlin tourist hot spot, Checkpoint Charlie (no relation):
There’s something about the bike, along with the chair, that draws designers. Despite being an almost perfect design already, the reworkings of the humble bicycle seem almost endless. Some are genuine improvements, such as the change from pedals fixed to…
There’s something about the bike, along with the chair, that draws designers. Despite being an almost perfect design already, the reworkings of the humble bicycle seem nearly endless. Some are genuine improvements, such as the change from pedals fixed to the front wheel (Penny Farthing) to a rod or chain driving the rear wheel, and others are less so (low-riders, anyone?)
You wouldn’t think that much more could be done to the basic diamond-framed, two-wheeled approach, but those designers can’t stop fiddling. Here are some of the fruits of their labors.
Above: A bike with square wheels may look impractical, but it would actually be ridable — on a highway that’s surfaced with a series of inverted catenaries.
Pilen Concept This one makes it into the list because it looks so cool. Based on 1930s Le Mans racing bikes, the Pilen Concept is designed by Eric Therner for Swedish company Pilen Bikes. Is might look retro, but hidden behind the styling is a lot of high-tech gear. LED lights are built in to the frame and the saddle is in two parts for independent shock absorption.
Oddly, despite having two brake levers, the Pilen doesn’t seem to have a front brake. And the nonadjustable seat height could be a problem, too. But who cares when it looks this good?
Cube Urban Street Concept This bike, despite its looks, is a folder, squishing down to a backpack-sized collection of carbon fiber rods and tubes. You’ll still need to find somewhere to put the wheels, but once that’s done, you have another pretty theft-proof design. And it’s just as well. Carrying a lock would probably treble the weight of the bike.
The idea behind design student Phil Bridge’s concept is that it is theft-proof: Nobody would steal a cardboard bike. And if they do, it’ll only cost $30 to purchase a new one. This isn’t any old cardboard — it’s hexacomb cardboard, a tough material used in the packing industry which can be foil-faced for waterproofing.
Bridge says that the bike should last for around six months in normal use, and the non-card parts can simply be reused on the next one. We do wonder, though, how the high-stress components will do. I’ve been through plenty of cranks in the past, for example, and those were made of metal.
Puma Bike The Puma isn’t a concept bike, since you can actually buy one, but it’s definitely in the spirit of the weird and wonderful. The Puma Bike is a single-geared bike with dual-disk brakes.
The central conceit is the cable replacing one section of the frame (the down tube), which renders it pretty much theft-proof. The idea is this: You remove the cable and use it to lock the (now-folded) bike. If a thief cuts the cable, he can’t ride off on the bike. Simple and almost worthy of Alexander the Great in it’s ingenuity (Alex was the Gordian knot guy).
While we’ve covered the Puma bike before (in its Glow-Rider guise) we’ve never tested one, so we can’t confirm our fear that that cable-strung frame will be a tiny mushy and wobbly to ride. €1100 ($1700).
The Ride Ellsworth Bicycle’s “The Ride” is another bike you can actually purchase, if you’ve got the dough, but it deserves a place in this lineup for its crazy transmission. Instead of using a fixed number gears, The Ride’s “continuously variable planetary drive” offers an infinitely variable drive ratio. As you twist a dial on the handlebar, it changes the angle between two steel plates in the hub, adjusting the torque. The design was first envisioned by Leonardo da Vinci in the 1490s, and it can be yours for a mere $3,000.
The Ride [Ellsworth Bicycles] [Thanks for the tip, ffelix!]
IPhone Costs Just $173 to Make, Guesses Analyst You’ve read our in depth review of the iPhone 3G, right? No. Because we don’t have one yet. And, neither does iSuppli, a company that analyses the costs of electronic components. Which hasn’t stopped it drumming up a tiny publicity…
You’ve read our in depth review of the iPhone 3G, right? No. Because we don’t have one yet. And, neither does iSuppli, a company that analyses the costs of electronic components.
Which hasn’t stopped it drumming up a little publicity by guessing that the new 3G handset might cost just $164 in parts, plus assembly costs of $9. We’ll be lenient here: the internals of the iPhone won’t be fully disclosed until the first tear-down (which we hope goes superior than Gadget Lab last drunken effort) but we’ve a fair idea of what is inside. But then iSuppli goes on to guess that carriers are paying Apple another $300 on top, based on nothing but speculation. At this point, we walk away and leave them dancing with the fairies.
This has predictably caused an outcry over Apple’s profiteering ways. It’s known that Apple makes a good markup on its hardware, but so what? You sell at a price that market will bear, regardless of costs. And those costs aren’t just the costs of the chips and case. As Macworld points out, “The initial estimate also does not include the cost of software development, shipping, distribution, packaging and accessories included with each iPhone”.
This is exactly the same reason food costs more in a restaurant than it does in a supermarket. You’re paying for a seat, lighting, kitchen costs, wages and more on top of the raw food itself. It’s called a “markup”. It’s how a company makes a profit.
The “Tyrant” concept by designer Alice Wang is the latest in a growing line of alarm clocks designed to torture their owners into facing the day. Instead of loud alarms, helicopter attachments and early-morning feats of hand-eye coordination, the Tyrant doles out punishment by hijacking your cellphone contact list and making random calls each three minutes until you get up to turn it off. 
Going one better than the Jesus model (the original, not Giz’s resident LEGO freak and sexy boy Diaz) is the Konepan, a bread maker from japanese toy manufacturer Megahouse. The kitchen gizmo, aimed at kids and recently-retired Giz writers, can turn your dough into 14 different shapes, most of them crazy, all of them fabulous. Teddy bears, elephants, 
Hey dudebro, looking to take a bro-dtrip but afraid you’ll make the ultimate braux-pas: not bringing enough beer and having a totally whack 
Sam Redfield of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group has designed a bucket-based hydroelectric generator that can be made with easily obtainable, affordable parts. The “pico generator” is intended to provide a modest power supply suitable for home lighting and small appliances to remote destinations. They’ve already tested the bucket at La Florida in Guatemala, where it demonstrated the capability to power five retro Motorola handsets from hustle’n flow of a small stream.
With the arrival of Topia’s one-seater prototype, I think it’s finally safe to state the SMART car has something it can take in a fight. Called the HUVO, this diminutive electric automobile forgoes features like “well-being” and “sanity” for “lightweight” (330 lbs.) and “Jesus Christ watch out for that MINI Cooper!” To save weight and development costs, the HUVO is made out of materials that would make any contemporary golf cart proud; mainly plastic, ceramic, more plastic, and a bit of high-tensile steel plate. Although, as the headline implies, if HUVO goes into production Topia should probably just make the thing out of a nice, sturdy wood, and save your immediate family a step at the funeral parlor.
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This is the Image Fulgurator, half guerrilla-art stunt and half homemade-gadget awesomeness. Berlin based artist Julius von Bismarck uses his oddly named camera-mod to project images onto street furniture where they appear in the photos of strangers, but remain invisible to their eyes.
There’s something about the bike, along with the chair, that draws designers. Despite being an almost perfect design already, the reworkings of the humble bicycle seem nearly endless. Some are genuine improvements, such as the change from pedals fixed to the front wheel (Penny Farthing) to a rod or chain driving the rear wheel, and others are less so (
Cube Urban Street Concept
Puma Bike
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