The Tech Revolution

There has been a new computer system making its way around the tech sites lately, the Raspberry Pi.  It is a small computer about the size of a business card.  It runs Linux on an ARM processor.  It has a usb port, handles full 1080p HDMI and composite video, it has a 3.5mm audio jack, it uses an sd card for storage and will only cost about $25 dollars.  They have already shown a tech demo of one playing quake 3.   This little machine has some punch for something this size and price, it would be almost impossible to find anything with these capabilities for under 200$ right now.   It runs off of 1 watt of power and should be able to be powered by 4 AA batteries.  This is almost exactly what Ive been waiting for to implement a decent wearable computer system.  They should be out by the end of november.

Source:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Today I saw the most impressive augmented reality application I’ve ever encountered.   It really brings to mind the quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

A company called Quest Visual has created an application for the iPhone called World Lens, it uses a combination of optical character recognition, real time translation and augmented reality.  You load it up on your phone, point your camera at some text in a foreign language (currently only works between spanish and english), and it will translate and replace the text on the real world object in real time.  For example, if you point your camera at a sign that says ‘Peligro’, the sign will appear to say ‘Danger’ when looking at it via your phone’s display.  More languages are currently being added to the software.

AiRScouter Retinal Imaging Display

Brother, the company famous for it’s printers has been developing a wearable retinal imaging display since 2005 and will be releasing a consumer version of the display by the end of the 2010 fiscal year (March 2011).  They have unveiled a number of prototypes, and will be showing a brand new prototype at “Brother World JAPAN 2010″ on September 15th of this year.

The device will be called the AiRScouter and will work by focusing light, of an intensity harmless to the eye, onto the retina.   It will then move the light at high speed to create an after image.  Images projected onto the retina appear as if they float mid-air in front of the user.  The AiRScouter will initially have a resolution of 800 x 600.  Brother plans on offering an attachable camera for possible augmented reality applications.

What makes this display so much different from any other wearable display (or head mounted display) is that there is no physical screen, it actually creates a virtual screen that is transparent, allowing you to use this in your daily life without obstructing your vision.  If you are having trouble visualizing this, picture what the terminator sees in the movie of the same name.

There is no word on pricing at this point, so let’s hope that it will actually be affordable.

Source

Ok, so the makerbot is completed, the only thing left to do is print something! I suggest that you print the following items first:

Insulator Retainer
Z Crank
Filament Dust Remover

I’ve already printed these, so I’ll be printing a Makerbot Toolkeeper

Part 1

Part 2

We finally finish the construction of the makerbot cupcake in this video by securing the plastruder assembly to the build platform. I will also cover initial x, y and z stage calibration.  Much more calibration will be required in the future, but this will get everything ready for your first print (hopefully).

In this video I make the final connections and then do a test extrusion.

In this video we will be making all of the main electrical connections on the motherboard, stepper motors and the stepper controllers.

This is the build process for the extruder of the Makerbot Cupcake.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This is the build process for the heater barrel that is used in the extruder of the Makerbot Cupcake.

Part 1

Part 2

This is the build process for finishing the X, Y and Z stages.