Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
"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
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.
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?"
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
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.
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.
i'm imagining a pool with a message that reads "wet surface"
shooting is not too good for my enemies
Someone needs to make it spell out "John Keats."
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
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.
You mean Aquaman.
you could also use the idea on more substances like say.. epoxy or rasien. to create shapes in a certian form quicker than some one could carve one.. i am thinking for master molds for boats and stuff.. where it takes months to a year to make the master.. if you could put in a plotted file and get a close shape form this thing.. even if it took it a week to make the shape it would be worth every bit of $
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
"This is not an instruction."
Justin.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
...I've been able to write me name in the snow for years.
AARRGGHH!!!
So, it isn't enough that every square centimeter of every wall is full of flashing, blinking, annoying crap that tries to make me buy something; now I can't even watch the sky without some moronic vitamin supplement ad getting in the way ?
Or, once script kiddies get to the wave generators, goatse clouds. Hmm... Now that I think of it, maybe they could put the goatse cloud somewhere it fits - like, say, mooning the House of Representatives, to give them a fitting reward for their work ?
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
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!"