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Writing on Standing Water
A reader writes "Engadget is reporting on Japanese scientists who have found a way to 'write' characters on the surface of water using waves. This looks very cool - but the time required to change character seems very high (15-30 seconds). From the article: 'Liquid-based displays are nothing new -- in a vertical orientation, at least -- but apparently it's a lot more difficult to coax a standing pool of water into forming recognizable shapes and characters.'"
"but apparently it's a lot more difficult to coax a standing pool of water into forming recognizable shapes and characters.'""
*cue terminator jokes*
"My name is written in water" has lost all it's meaning, now!
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Looks pretty cool, what are some of the real world applications of this?
"Personal ownership is a hallmark of conservative capitalism. And I don't believe I am entitled to anything that I did n
Why is it important to be able to write on water?
First post ;-)
Because it's COOL. Who needs practical application?
Not to rain on their parade, but these ice sculpture guys seem to have beat them to it.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
But it only works with Capital Os.
Now only if they can do this in 3D like in the movie Abyss. (Yes I know, it was CG animated)
Life is not for the lazy.
Write a message on the ocean for aliens to see.
For example, writing a word in water and having the perimeter of the pool recognize the waves, and convert it to digital text. Microscopically, that could actually have a use with a liquid enclosed touchscreen.
Sigs are for Terrorists.
...at first I thought it said "writing WHILE standing on water."
Faith: n. -- That human impulse that drives them to steal appliances when the power goes out
Interesting, but why would someone want or need to do this? I fail to see any problem or application that this could possibly solve or address.
Wait. I could be in swimming pool, and the lifeguards could use this tool to "write" in the water to get out, or that someone is drowning, or that there is a sale on cold beers at the concession stand. That's it... advertising... there is an applicaton! Maybe I answered my own question.
In any case, for those that RTFA, it would be quite a scary pool to be swimming in, with all those magnents around the edge of the pool.
BTW, this is the 2nd time I've recently seen the word "coax" used in an article. Frightning.
Lindsay Blanton
RadioReference.com
Does snow count? I can write my name in snow!
A good application is to protect low-lying coastal areas from catagory 5 hurricanes.
or...separating the melted ice from my Jack Danials.
If you call that technology then.. umm.. something.
is a time honored tradition.
Finally a legitimate way to 'P' in someone's pool!
Over on engadget, they had serious comments about using resin, vacuuming forming, advertising, and other practical applications.
Here, we got a pageful of piss jokes....
"That's nothing new. I have a special pen that can write my name in my tiolet bowel water."
And the masses cried out, "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0!"
using formulas known as Bessel functions to cut the processing time down to between 15 and 30 seconds and form characters
That sure makes it sound like the calculations involved are so great that the computer takes that long to process (as opposed to a physical delay in the hardware or medium). Certainly that could be reduced substantially either by optimization or throwing more CPUs at the problem. If that is indeed the issue then they could also precalculate the math for various shapes, and recall them instantly on demand. I also wonder if this is a purely virtual simulation inside the software, or if the system requires feedback from sensors in the real world to fine-tune the oscillations to produce the desired effect. In that case it may take that much time to stabilize the system because of chaos and the like. I have a hunch that must be what's going on, because certainly these people are smart enough and have enough funding so that processing speed alone isn't the issue.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
As cool as this sounds, this will never re-create the utter joy one feels after writing one's name in snow.
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
I see an article; with an illustration that could easily have been photoshopped.
Has anyone seen any video demonstration(s)? (yes, I know _they_ could be synthetic images too; but it's more-likely they wouldn't be)
"It's time to take life by the cans." ~ Bender ("Bendin' in the Wind", ep. 3-13)
Hook up to the internet and you add a whole new dimension to doubleclick ads!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Like Cristo's "art" work, just because you can think it up, doesn't mean it's worth doing.
These scientists can apply an amazingly controlled level of force to a specific point on a 2-D surface across something a unpredictable as the surface of water. Imagine bringing this down to nanotechnology level, could the same principles allow someone to sculpt an object out of individual atoms from the center out?
-Jason
In the '30s, someone planted some larch trees in the shape of a swastika in a pine forest in Germany. It was discovered after reunification and the trees cut down.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
i'm imagining a pool with a message that reads "wet surface"
shooting is not too good for my enemies
Sheraton Hotels files a copyright suit against the Japanese scientists, citing they have a patent to write the letter "S" in their swimming pools.
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"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend to be one of those deaf-mutes."
Someone needs to make it spell out "John Keats."
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
Maybe they can convince people they're seeing visions in it.
Back in college, I toyed with the idea of doing something like this as my senior project. My name for it, at the time, was a "water hologram", which I think more-accurately describes what's going on. You're manipulating one or more wave sources in order to generate a specific pattern of constructive and destructive interference.
I'd like to see a video of it. I'm curious to see if the images are: A) constantly oscillating up and down, B) perpetually raised and not oscillating, or C) just there for a moment and then gone (like a rogue wave or something).
And for their next project... Robert Wilder.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Who says it would be useful at theme parks. A Practical application is for the woman of a house to leave messages for the man on the surface of the toilet water.
Where's the 0xBEEF
...summon Batman.
It seems they've reversed this process and solved for the axial data given the point-by-point data - e.g. the rasterized character.
By the way, CAT scans and Bessel functions are one of the examples of "abstract" math that later turns out to have practical application.
that is the lamest sig I've seen in a long time.
I likewise find it somewhat odd that two people modded me funny. To each his own, I guess.
On a large scale, this could become an anti-tsunami device. ...still no cure for cancer.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
That only shows how useful SF can be! ;-)
Read the hyperion-serie myself several years ago, and found it to be quite good. Especially the first two books are definately above the SF-average (and I've read a lot of SF and fanatsy).
No doubt some day, someone will make a movie out of it, and there will be a 80% chance they screw it up big time... after all, I know only of a handful of films that are equal or better then the books they're based on.
Another very good one, but contrary to Hyperion very unknown, is 'the ring' (at least, that was the translation of the title). Strangely enough, there isn't even a reference to it on wikipedia, so either the original title is different, or it's truelly a gem of a book who never got the attention it deserved.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
so.. it's a cool looking Display made of Crystal clear Liquid..
they should call it a DCL.
"This is not an instruction."
Justin.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
Like in the very first posts? ;-)
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
The picture seems to show about 60 solenoids around a small pool of water. When they're all clacking away they'd make one heck of a din. The writing looks amazing, but I can't see e.g. a hotel wanting this thing in the lobby unless it can be made very quiet.
Also, do you remember how yogic flying made the news a few years back. The photos seemed to show these guys hovering in mid-air, but in fact they were just "bottom-hopping" up and down and someone clicked the shutter at the top of their bounce. I'd like to see a video of this pool to check that the writing isn't only readable for a tiny fraction of a second.
Reduce, reuse, cycle
I've been writing my name in pee for decades
How thoughtful of the japanese researchers to be applying their time, money and intellect toward solving a problem that didn't exist in the first place. Are you sure there isn't a whoremongering american behind it who's just looking to get free escorts at the casino ? Hell, get Ron Popeil to sell this useless gadget at 1 in the morning and you'll get a second one absolutely free when you buy the magic orange juicer.
Really.. if my job for the past few years had been to research writing on water, I would have hanged myself by now. What a ridiculous waste of resources.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Companies can use this to put the CEO's face on small ponds so it can be seen from airplanes. Then the CEO's ego might be sated enough he'd go for $78 million a year instead of $80 million.
You're clearly not a nerd. Otherwise, you'd be trying to figure out how to add this to your case mod.
The hydrogen bonds occuring in water have lots of properties and implications that couuld bear on this.
What allows plants to draw water up their roots and to the sites of photosynthesis, mostly in their leaves? What explains the slight temperature rise in clouds when rainfall begins? Why can water striders "walk" on the surface of a pool? Why does water resist temperature change, creating lake- and ocean-effect climate moderations? Why does water bead? Why is water such a good solvent? All to do with hydrogen bonding in the polar H20 molecule.
Those fleeting little h-bonds are responsible for many of the emergent properties that allow life as we know it. They've got to be pretty basic to any attempt to use this medium for display.
...I've been able to write me name in the snow for years.
Sometimes they do it on a large piece of blotting paper and carefully place it on a large bowl of water. The paper soaks the water and sinks, leaving behind patterns floating on the surface of water.
No need to understand Bessel functions and Legendre Polynomials.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
The nature of water being fluid means it would be unlikely the character would remain for long, unless the agitation level was very high. Which may well be the case... Water can seem pretty solid if it's under enough pressure and/or moving fast enough. Also, based on the PDF and the Akiken website, looks like this was something they developed in 2004. But presumably it wasn't published at the time...
In the darkness of future past, The magician longs to see. One chants between two worlds, "Fire, walk with me!"
It seems that the key to manipulating the water's surface in this manner is creating an interferance pattern just as in a hologram. Does this development have any bearing on holo-technology?
So, you're telling me that Writing on Water can only do between 1/15th and 1/30th of a frame per second on your machine? Damn - don't you think it's about time that you upgraded your Wave Processing Unit?
Trust me. This is an inactive account. Regardless of what the
The Future of Computer Displays Submersible display for immersive programming Work in the bathtub )
I call it writing my name on snow with yellow letters, developed a late saturday evening waiting for a taxi in Tromsø(the north of norway). The effect is quite amazing, maybe when the winter comes i can get some pictures for you all!
Wonder how no one thought of it. But, if you could manipulate reflective liquid surfaces like, say, mercury, you could create a really huge mirror.. I had read an article once about mirrors being made from liquids using centrifuges, but this could be a more accurate process.
http://www.wetdesign.com/ They're the guys who did the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas. I'm thinking their R&D people (at "Wetlabs") would love to play with this.
Leela: "Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?"
Fry: "Well sure, but not in our dreams! Only on tv and radio...and in magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree."
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
It would make nice effects in a toliet?
Security is but an illusion of the mind
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