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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.'"
Because it's COOL. Who needs practical application?
A hotel's logo on the surface of the fountain in the lobby?
I was thinking the same. If I invented this thing I would sell one to every casino in existence.
"Interesting, but why would someone want or need to do this?"
You just answered your own question... see, right there, first word.
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Nice to see some people still know their poetry. :-)
('their' being used lightly, of course, since I'm not native english myself)
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
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.
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)