Tech News
Sneakey: copy keys from photos
Via Discovery News:
Scientists in California have developed a software algorithm that automatically creates a physical key based solely on a picture of one, regardless of angle or distance. The project, called Sneakey, was meant to warn people about the dangers of haphazardly placing keys in the open or posting images of them online.
...
When Savage and his students searched online photo sharing Web sites, like Flickr, they easily found thousands of photos of keys with enough definition to replicate. A more social person could simply use their cell phone camera to snap a quick picture of stray keys on a table top.
...
the researchers set up a camera with a zoom lens 200 feet away. Using those photos, they created a working key 80 percent on their first try. Within three attempts they opened every lock.
Check out the researcher's site here, where you can learn more and read their paper: "Reconsidering Physical Key Secrecy: Teleduplication via Optical Decoding."
So, if I'm understanding this correctly, you could have a camera with zoom hundreds of feet away from a door and leave it recording. If you've achieved the right angle, you could capture a few frames of the key pre-insertion-into-the-door that let you then make your own copy!
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O'Reilly Authors Get Jolted
O'Reilly authors won three of four Jolt Product Excellence Awards. The winners are:
- Prefactoring, by Ken Pugh
- The Art of Project Management, by Scott Berkun
- Producing Open Source Software, by Ken Fogel
The Largest MySQL Gathering on Earth
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Maker Faire Austin 2008 - Kids Stuff
Maker Faire is fun for the entire family. There are plenty of things to make and hands-on activities for all ages. Take a look at some of the highlights and make plans to attend the next Maker Faire.
To download Maker Faire Austin 2008 - Kids MP4 click here or subscribe in iTunes.
More Weekend Projects are on the way.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in MAKE Video | Digg this!LEGO Style
The Brothers Brick pointed out this amazing CGI animation of a LEGO fashion show by Fabrice Pathier (Four H). The clip features designs by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.
Laser cut & animated Muybridge horses
Another nice "Things" video from Bre - laser cut animated horses!
Bit Blob buzzes & bleeps bigtime
Bleep Labs and Loud Objects have joined forces to bring the noise in the form of Bit Blob "the first being of pure noise" - The Bit Blob is a digital noise maker that's controlled by connecting its contacts together, allowing you to bend your way through unlimited sonic madness. You can also connect LEDs, audio outputs, or other Bit Blobs between control pins.
Only 30 will be made for this holiday season. Oh man, I hope those little guys aren't claustrophobic - BitBlob
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ThingamaKIT
PC blasts off into outer space
?Here's a really impressive PC mod in the shape of the Millenium Falcon from the Star Wars films. Check out the step-by-step build pictures at the link below.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!Music maker's gift guide
Musicians know how important it is to add a personal touch to their instruments - and really what better way to make something personal than to actually make it yourself? There are a number of very cool kits for sound-makers out there, from circuit-benders, to serious synthesizers. Here are some great kits for those interested in crafting their own sounds.
Mini-Theremin kit - The theremin, invented in 1919 by Russian scientist Leon Theremin, is one of the world's earliest fully electronic instruments, and is also unique in that it was the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched. The eerie, other-worldly tones as heard in the films mentioned above are created by the proximity of the player's hands to the metal antennas, with the resulting radio frequency interference being transformed into musical tones. Instructions are in Japanese but features highly detailed assembly pictures, sorry no English translation at this time. Easy to build and play!
price $29.95
Waveshield Kit - Adding quality audio to an electronic project is surprisingly difficult. Here is a shield for Arduinos that solves this problem. It can play up to 22KHz, 12bit uncompressed audio files of any length. It's low cost, available as an easy-to-make kit. It has an onboard DAC, filter and op-amp for high quality output. Audio files are read off of an SD/MMC card, which are available at nearly any store. Volume can be controlled with the onboard thumbwheel potentiometer.
price $21.95
Entire NES stuffed into its cartridge kinda makes you cry
This amazing mod crams an entire Nintendo Entertainment System from the 80s into one of it's cartridges complete with power and reset buttons, controller ports and composite video and audio output jacks. This is equivalent to the gaming version of the "clown car" where there is so much stuffed into such a small physical area that it's pretty hard to understand how this could work.
via Technabob
DIY Bicycle tire chains
Winter is upon us, and if you ride your bike to work you may want to think about making your own tire chains. This project doesn't look too hard to make, and I bet they would add a lot of safety to that cold morning commute.
More about DIY Bicycle tire chains [bikecommuters]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Bicycles | Digg this!Lunch bag art
This dad makes his kid's lunch... and art on the lunch bags each day.
Anthony's busted ipod
After school today, Matt and Anthony came in with Anthony's busted Ipod Video. They asked me how good I was at fixing iPods. Never having been inside an iPod before, I replied, "well let's see what you've got." It appears that the back came off the ipod, and now it was bricked. Anthony was pretty upset, wondering if all his songs would be missing, and what he would do without his beloved tunebox. It would not power up at all. He showed how it could be opened by grabbing at it with his nails and separating the back. so much for specialized antimar tools.
We did a few searches on replacing ipod batteries. One page that looked promising turned out to be about the wrong generation. Not knowing which model it was, we looked up the various models to get the generation right. His turned out to be a 5th gen iPod.
Next we needed to know what to expect inside. I could see a couple of ribbon cables that appeared to have just pulled out of their fittings. If they could be placed properly back into their slots, that would be fine. They needed to go back into place in such a way that the back could actually be reattached.
Inside, there was a bunch of cool stuff. The 80gig hard drive was incredibly small. I couldn't believe how much capacity could be stuffed into such a small package. The screen was neat too. Real thin, backlight coming from the top. There was some foam and spacers in there to keep things from flopping around. Everything was held together with ribbon cables.
The ribbon cables would be fine as long as they did not get torn. I found the fitting for one of them on the side, and saw that there was a flip latch to hold it together. After securing that one, the next was the one at the bottom. We got it to go into the slot, clicked the case together and hit the power button. About this time, Anthony got about his 50th text message of our short session. The Ipod would not fire up. Anthony was upset. Then his father called. He explained that he was in the middle of fixing his iPod. There was some discussion of Best Buy and their warrantee policy. I was pretty sure that there was no chance of this relic being still covered.
While they were talking, I cracked the thing open again and took a look at the second fitting, down near the charger port. It was stiffer, with reinforcement of a piece of white plastic. I figured that it had to be that the fitting was not all the way in. I used my Warrantee Voider to get the ribbon into the fitting all the way. Once I got it running, I showed it to him, and he reported happily to Dear Old Dad that all was well.
On looking at the catches on the case, we could see that one of them was more worn than the rest. I figured that it would be good for a while, but it would eventually pull apart, so I suggested that we make a skin for his newly functioning Ipod. He said he had nothing planned, but I could tell that now that his iPod was running, his daily routine was about to resume. We didn't have a whole lot of time.
First we looked up the dimensions for the 5th generation iPod. The thing I was looking for was a good, full dimension drawing that I could use to make the image for the skin. I wanted to make it so that the sticker on the front would reach over to the back and hold the two together. The image and dimensions did not jump out of the browser at me, so we grabbed a ruler and went over to the computer to design up a skin.
We used CutStudio, which comes bundled with the Roland CAMM1. I don't like the software much, but it ports right to the cutter. Once you have the thing designed, you can only cut it, I have not been able to find a way to export it for editing in a more powerful program like Gimp or Inkscape.
Rather than having him do the design work, I chose to do it myself. His texts and calls were coming with increasing frequency, and I knew word had gotten out that he no longer had an excuse to be absent from his pressing duties. We had to work fast. A couple of quick measurements, some alignment of shapes, and the overall design was done. To add tabs to the sides so they would reach over the back, I had to trace over the outline and duplicate most of the shape. Anthony was impressed that it was possible to design something that was so close to the outline of his beloved.
When I sent the file to the cutter, it was done in a few seconds. He couldn't believe it when I showed it to him. Then we weeded it and put it on transfer tape. It took a few tries to get it onto the iPod squarely, but eventually it went on fine. In looking at it, I told him that it wasn't such a great fit, and looked kind of unprofessional, but would keep the back from falling off. I invited him to come back on Monday to make a better looking skin, maybe with a picture that he made on it as well.
He cruised out the door about 45 minutes after coming into my room for the first time ever, happy as can be with his resurrected iPod in one hand and buzzing phone in the other. Problem solved.
Do you have tales of repairs and making things right? How about advice on how to get the right patterns for skins to fit various models of phones or audio players? Would you like to make new skins for your laptop, digicam or even dashboard? Share your ideas in the comments or add pictures and video to the Make Flickr pool.
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!Build an Easy 5 x 5 Home Greenhouse for under $25
This is a nice instructable about making a really inexpensive green house. This is a great solution for keeping your plants warm for the winter. Check out the link for a step-by-step tutorial and video.
More about Building an Easy 5 x 5 Home Greenhouse for under $25
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in DIY Projects | Digg this!iPhone 2.2 update - download podcasts directly! Map enhancements
The new iPhone update is pretty good - the maps app has street view, public transit - but best of all you can now download podcasts over Wi-Fi and wireless. I've been doing podcasts in some manner for over 5 years and this is what I've been waiting for!
Pitch shifting with a "Voice Changer" kit
This is an interesting hack of a "voice changer" kit. I really like the sounds so far, and I think know it can be hacked a lot more. It would be cool to stuff this in a project box and add a few more hacking controls.
More about Pitch shifting with a "Voice Changer" kit
In the Maker Shed:
DIY Design Electronics Kit
