In this article, you’ll learn that how you can transform snaps of real full size subject matter into what looks like small scenes, all with the help of Tilt-Shift Photography. There are two ways to achieve this; either use Photoshop or use your camera with a special lens to control the rotation relative to the image plane and movement parallel to the image plane, tilt and shift.
Tilt controls what is in focus and shift allows you to change the line of sight while keeping it parallel to the subject being shot. In both cases, the results are simply amazing. Just have a look at these photos!
We all own many different cool gadgets and items that are important to us either for the utility they provide or perhaps because of an intimate or personal reason. Whatever the reason is, we really hate it when someone comes and touches our personal belongings and worst yet..steals them.
In order to avoid such mishaps and unfortunate events, we have gathered here a great collection of different Anti Theft Gadgets and Bizarre Designs that are meant to help individuals make their devices and belongings less attractive, appealing or desired to a normal bystander. Moreover, there are a few security gadgets and projects that may also interest the more techy of you, who may be looking for some new gizmos to own or security diy to built.
The following aren’t guaranteed to deter thieves or work colleagues from getting at your gadgets but are meant as an additional things to make them think a second time before getting at your personal stuff.
1. Anti Theft Lunch Bags
These amazing sandwich bags are a sure way to keep any co-workers from getting into your lunch.
As if any introduction is needed, some individuals at work are rude enough to touch, get into or even treat themselves to your lunch. I am not sure what drives these folks into allowing themselves to eat someone else’s food without permission, but unfortunately these few do actually exist.
In order to battle them when you cannot install a video camera inside the refrigerator, these Anti Theft Bags could really do the trick. The Sandwich bags contain green splotch marks on both sides of the bag, so when a sandwich is packed in there, it looks as if it is old and rotten.
The design itself is amazing, but it does have a few possible downfalls such as a different person throwing your lunch in the garbage because of the color, or the coworker decides to take an additional step and investigate your lunch.
For a simple and easily accessible place to store your ’stash’, this cool Secret Electric Wall Socket compartment provides a great solution.
It is a simple 2 plug wall socket that is not meant to run electricity throughout it but is an actual hidden wall compartment for individual belongings. You can store cash, jewelry and other ’stuff’ inside that would stay out of harm’s way, and off a burglar’s radar. Plus, it looks just like your other electric sockets, so you are not changing any of your home’s design and characteristics.
3. Fake Cassette Tape Car Stereo
With the innovation of gadgets, let alone music gadgets, most car stereos advance as well, adding CD’s, disc changers, mp3, video and even video games to be played while riding in the vehicle. In order to get thieves to decide to move on to the next vehicle after a glimpse at your stereo dashboard, this cool diy is a funny one.
The Fake car stereo utilizes an old cassette tape deck as a facade that attaches on top of your current stereo deck in your car.
This way, when thieves take a look at your stereo, they would think twice before breaking in for a 90’s car stereo that will be useless in today’s market.
4. Anti Theft Stickers
These stickers don’t seem like much at first glance but then again, a thief would rather go for a ‘prettier’ and newer bicycle then risk being caught for a scratched and old bike.
The Anti theft stickers are great designs that are easy to implement on your bicycle, motorcycle or even automobile. Whatever the reason you are trying to ugly your product, these stickers provide an easy solution.
5. The Anti Theft Plug Mug
This innovative Anti Theft Mug is a cool way to keep your work colleagues from using your mug while you are away or on a sick day.
I am certain there are more than a few out there who get extremely angry when they find their personal mugs and dishes have been used by others in the office. It is a sense of a personal space being invaded and should not be tolerated. For that, the plug mug grants a perfect way to keep your mug at work and know ahead of time that others cannot use it to fulfill their needs and habits.
By a simple ‘plug’ designed in the mug, the owner may remove the plug when deemed needed, and therefor the mug itself becomes useless. That is, unless someone will use their fingers to keep the mug hole filled so liquids won’t spill out.
The Brief Safe looks rather disgusting when you first lay your eyes on it but please realize it is meant to look so in order to keep people from checking any further. These disgusting looking underwear are actually a storage compartment which has been “designed” with certain marks, so to keep prying hands out.
When traveling and having to carry cash, documents, or checks, you do not always have the access to a safe in your room. In those situations, the Brief Safe is a great alternative, where you may store your personal belongings and could easily imagine that no one would search through it. I mean, just put yourself in the burglar’s shoes…if you ran across someone’s dirty underwear in their room, would you try to see if there are any valuables stored in there…or would you be so disgusted and just leave it alone?
7. Home Security Paintball Gun Turret
For a more colorful solution to Home Security, this Paintball Gun Turret DIY is a great option. It may not be as ‘correct’ or ‘ethical’ as some would expect from home security measures, but then again…are thieves using ‘allowed’ methods?
8. Tesla Car Burglar Alarm
The Tesla Coils Car Burglar Alarm is an innovative and bright project that grants a light show for neighbors, passerby and others who come near this vehicle. Once the switch is turned on, a burglar could trigger the device, in turn locking themselves within the Tesla circle. I am not sure about any of you, but such a method could really be a spectacle for all around which may in fact force some to dare others to do it…just to see the light show.
Anti Theft Laptop Cases
These few cool laptop cases provide some alternatives to regular notebook cases in designs that may help deter onlookers. The choices provided are, again, not guaranteed (just like all the above) but provide a different way to carry your notebook computer. The designs themselves of a daily newspaper or a postal envelope grant a method that hopes will make bystanders disinterested or unknowning of the material or items that are stored inside.
9. Newspaper Laptop Sleeve
The Newspaper Notebook case provides a choice of 5 different newspapers (in 5 separate languages) to choose from and looks like a cool idea. But wouldn’t people actually have a second or third look since the headline doesn’t change…even weeks, months or years later?
The Postal Envelope Laptop Sleeve is also a fun option and can be folded or rolled when not in use. The thing is, after seeing the old Macbook Air commercials…these kind of envelopes are probably what a laptop thief first looks for.
We use USB Flash Drives practically every single day at work, home or at a friend’s house, but this also endangers the documents and files by taking them away from your home into the world. In order to secure your important data, here are two cool solutions with the Ironkey and Biometric USB Flash Drives.
11. Ironkey USB Flash Drive
The Ironkey USB Flash Drive is provide the normal features of a portable USB storage device but with added encryption (military grade AES encryption) and is filled with epoxy based compound, thus waterproofing and preventing many from its internal hardware. Moreover, if it is damaged or the password is incorrectly entered 10 times…the data will self destruct.
12. Biometric USB Flash Drive
The second option is the Biometric Flash Drive, which simply provides the Biometric option to log into the USB Drive. With this, you can rest assured that unless it is you (or someone that has your fingerprints) that attempts to log in…the data will remain secure and out of harm’s way.
13. Ugly Digital Camera
Whether you are traveling, going out for a day or simply like carrying your camera around, I am sure you have been worried about your camera being snatched or stolen. A cool way to deter potential thieves and camera snatchers is to uglify your camera…in other words, make your camera less appealing by making it ugly, old looking and rather worthless.
In this cool image taken by Connors of Jimmy’s Ugly Camera, one can easily exemplify a really ugly camera that was tested in the field. As was mentioned, it was used throughout travels in Brazil and was left behind when stopped and mugged by locals. Seems like they would rather have a few bucks then an ugly camera.
14. 80’s Walkman iPod Case
Although this Walkman iPod Case was made for the classic iPod models, I am sure a different version can accommodate the iPod touch as well. It is a great solution for those that feel threatened by bystanders staring at their new iPods and would rather have them look another way.
This cool case is an ode to old music gadgets by re-using an old Walkman cassette case as a case for a newly innovated gadget. While everyone is walking around listening to their iPods, talking on their iPhones and perhaps even watching a movie on their Zune, you could make sure to remain below the radar, for your music product is just so old…no one would be interested in it. Who even listens to cassette tapes anymore?
15. Anti Theft Bicycle Wheel
A cool and innovative design that provides a bicycle owner the sense of serenity that thieves would not be interested in stealing their bicycle wheel. The collapsing bike wheel design provides the owner the ability to collapse the inside rim with a turn of a key, making the bike wheel unusable, ‘broken’ and a deterrent from thieves.
16. Fake Security Cameras
If you cannot afford real security cameras for your home (or are not interested), then these fake security cameras are a cool, inexpensive alternative that would provide a simple ’scarecrow’ like solution. While it wont’ record and provide any real surveillance, it would assist in decreasing those who may not be interested in getting on film…this could be more than just burglars and criminals.
Hummer HB Concept - Click above for high-res image gallery
With Hummer's future seemingly in the hands of China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd, questions naturally turn to the automaker's barren product cupboard. How will Tengzhong replace Hummer's current crop of SUVs? With the news that the Chinese automaker would like to focus on more environmentally friendly models, a Romanian designer by the name of Andrus Ciprian envisions something along the lines of the compact HB concept you see above.
A Hummer wouldn't be a Hummer without significant off-road capability, and Ciprian suggests that the HB would retain a body-on-frame design in lieu of a lighter unibody, though hewn from aluminum and carbon fiber instead of steel. Under the comely concept's hood sits a biofuel-capable V6 engine. But those aren't the most interesting bits of the concept, the stance and general proportions of which would look perfect on the front of a Traxxas RTR box.
Ciprian included two separate windshield designs, one of which sees the screen sectioned into thirds with a slew of cameras relaying additional information to the pilot. We'd go with the more production-likely single-piece glass. In any case, see the stunning high-res renderings in our gallery below and let us know what you think.
Many rumors of Apple launching an Apple tablet, which is believed to be a large tablet version of the iPhone/iPod touch have been spreading around. The latest rumor suggests that it will be called an iSlate. Our sources have told us that the rumor about Apple launching a product with the iSlate name is true, but the product won’t be an Apple tablet, it will be an eBook reader. The iSlate will be a competitor to the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook and other e-readers that are out there. Our sources have also told us that the iSlate eBook reader will run on Apple’s upcoming iPhone OS 4.0 software and will include a seperate App Store for eBooks. Apple will be announcing the iSlate eBook reader at WWDC 2010, which our sources says is being held on June 7.
We’ve created an iSlate section in our forums at this link, feel free to join and talk about the iSlate.
Tiny solar cells may be a big step forward in expanding the use of solar power. Credit: Murat Okandan/Sandia National Laboratories
Researchers have unveiled super-small solar cells no bigger than the pieces of glitter on your holiday ornaments and cards. These highly efficient photovoltaics could be game-changers in the burgeoning field of solar power, allowing arrays of microcells to be placed on bendable or curved surfaces and even woven into clothing.
Unlike the conventional, rigid solar cells deployed as flat panels on rooftops, for instance, the new miniscule cells could be encapsulated in flexible plastic and made to fit virtually any object.
"With this technology, one can envision ubiquitous [solar-powered] devices," said Greg Nielson, lead investigator at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.
The prototype versions of the microcells are stored in vials of isopropyl alcohol, and, in keeping with the winter season, if you shake the vials "it does look like a snow globe with flakes swirling around inside," said Nielson, as the tiny, shiny contraptions catch the light.
How it works
Like most snowflakes, the microcells are six-sided to maximize available space by interlocking like honeycomb, or the panels on a soccer ball.
In the lab, these hexagonal microcells have achieved photovoltaic efficiencies of about 15 percent, denoting the percentage of light shone on them that is converted into harvestable electricity. High-end commercial-grade solar cells can reap about 20 percent currently, though Nielson thinks the microcells can more than match this.
The microcells, made of the crystalline silicon found in standard solar cells, have already demonstrated higher efficiencies than so-called thin film solar technologies presently being explored that use other, cheaper materials, such as cadmium telluride.
Instead of converting a whole wafer of silicon into a typical solar cell, the Sandia team's manufacturing method yields thousands of microcells on thin slices of the wafer, like when making a microchip for a computer.
This technique leaves plenty of raw material to produce more microcells and requires 100 times less silicon than for conventional, thicker solar cells, said Nielson. The microcells themselves range in size from 0.00098 to 0.039 inches (25 micrometers to one millimeter) across and from 0.00055 to 0.00079 (14 to 20 micrometers) thick. (For reference, a human hair is about 0.0028 inches (70 micrometers) in width.)
Although the microcell manufacturing process is complex, the material and photovoltaic efficiency of the microcells should still result in reduced costs compared to today's solar power, Nielson said.
"It's great and important that we reduce cost potential by going this way," Nelson told LiveScience, "but what's more exciting is what you can do with these cells that you can't with anything else."
Many possibilities
Making the microcells ultra-thin opens up many possibilities, the researchers say.
"You don't have large-area wafers that are rigid and don't bend," said Nelson. This means the microcells are conformable and can be tailor-fitted to objects from building facades to sloping car roofs, much like how smaller-sized tiles can be mortared to make a curved mosaic.
The tiny solar cells can also be embedded in plastic sheets. The resulting photovoltaic material might then be crafted into tents or store awnings, Nielson suggested.
People could also wear miniature solar cells woven into the fabric of their clothing to power personal electronic devices. High photovoltaic efficiency is very important in this case because the limited dimensions of the human body offer relatively little space to capture sunshine, said Nielson.
If you spent most of your Christmas morning tearing and swearing as you tried to get the packages open, you may be wondering if all of this wasteful packaging is really necessary. Consider these facts about the role of packaging in our consumer economy. One third of our waste comes from packaging from the 430 billion dollar global packaging industry. That’s larger than the global auto manufacturing industry. So what can you, as an individual, do about it? Here is one look at the disposable stuff that comes with a famous 11.5 inch doll, herself an icon of American consumer culture.
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
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