Did anybody else read this as "Head Mounted" when they first glanced at the headline (scuse the pun)? Pretty cool none the less and does stop me wondering what use a head mount one would have:P
-- # cat/dev/mem | strings | grep -i cat Damn, my RAM is full of cats. MEOW!!
I'm just as much for gadgets as anyone, but this one is somehow kind of pointless. It's not even as handy as having a hand-held torch: mounted on your palm, it makes your hand entirely useless. And you better be damn careful not to close your fingers after using it.
When I was a kid, I put enormous energy into similar projects. It was totally fun, but I knew of course at the time it was not terribly practical. I mean, how often does one need to deploy a genuine super-gadget? Somewhere close to, "Never". And anyway, you can't keep that sort of thing secret, because half the fun is showing it off to people.
I put it down to not having a girlfriend during high school.;-)
Either way, that's a pretty awesome flame thrower. I like how the flame's strength is based on how far away from it your fingers are. A nice control 'GUI' and a safety measure all in one. That's both elegant and smart!
I also like how it auto-ignites. Even in high wind or rain it would have a fair chance at keeping alight. Have you tried it outdoors in the elements?
Anyway, a tip of the hat to you. --Also, creative guys who fearlessly put their imaginations to use in fun ways while being nice, upbeat guys inevitably end up with the most awesome girlfriends later on in life. (I speak from experience on that. Heck, you might already have a sweetie pie around.)
It uses what he calls an "arc generator" in the video. (ironman reference?) It's a piezo electric (or other high voltage/low current generating) spark generator. You can see two curved wires coming up from the sides of the gas orifice and turning to face each other and ending. The spark jumps between them and ignites the gas. You can hear two sounds from the gadget in the video, one is a jit-jit-jit coming from what I assume is a small servo motor like used in model cars/planes, to adjust the gas opening in steps. The other is an occasional and sometimes rapid cracking sound, that's the sound of the spark being generated. A smart way to deal with the spark would be to have a temperature or IR sensor watching above your hand and arcing when there was gas applied but no heat present, but I don't know if that's how he does it.
I was expecting to see some gas cylinder somewhere when he gave a closeup of his "arc generator" but I didn't spot one. I assume he has a tube running around down his back, that's a lot of gas he's using so I don't think it's a little 20 gram acetylene cylinder like you'd find in a micro torch, not enough capacity.
I also notice he had to be careful with his control. Anytime he backed it down he had to close his fingers, which while he was pointing forward would have crispied his fingertips, so he always had to turn it to face palm upward first. Something of a limitation, especially since I doubt he has a safety (mercury sw etc) to slam the flow down to zero if he forgets and closes his fingers too much while too much gas is flowing while in a horizontal position.
And to all those commenting "no practical use!", you are completely missing the point. No, the point isn't practicality.
-- I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Not impressed
by
Weaselmancer
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It looks to me like you'd need more gas-manipulation punch to pull off the Scorcher; at minimum (3rd) caster level, it's a roughly 5 foot wide by 30 foot long damage zone but producing only a brief flash of singeing flame.. As it is, it looks more to me like a first-level Zann Esu style Inferno, with maybe 10 foot range but higher and more sustained damage delivery.
-- ...when you're writing a game...tweak the difficulty of "Easy" to something [your mother] can cope with. -- onion2k
Slashdot Mirror
What could possibly go wrong?
Gamertag: WyleType
Let's see you ride your unicycle in this picture, while shooting flames.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Everett.Bradford/Prometheus#5399717924470820610
FPGA, Wireless, ASIC, Verilog, VHDL, HW, 10yr exp, Team Lead, Ottawa (More? Email above. slashdotusername=dgmartin98 )
Did anybody else read this as "Head Mounted" when they first glanced at the headline (scuse the pun)? Pretty cool none the less and does stop me wondering what use a head mount one would have :P
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of cats. MEOW!!
I'm just as much for gadgets as anyone, but this one is somehow kind of pointless. It's not even as handy as having a hand-held torch: mounted on your palm, it makes your hand entirely useless. And you better be damn careful not to close your fingers after using it.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
looks like the ultimate power trip until someone comes at you with a firehose
When I was a kid, I put enormous energy into similar projects. It was totally fun, but I knew of course at the time it was not terribly practical. I mean, how often does one need to deploy a genuine super-gadget? Somewhere close to, "Never". And anyway, you can't keep that sort of thing secret, because half the fun is showing it off to people.
I put it down to not having a girlfriend during high school. ;-)
Either way, that's a pretty awesome flame thrower. I like how the flame's strength is based on how far away from it your fingers are. A nice control 'GUI' and a safety measure all in one. That's both elegant and smart!
I also like how it auto-ignites. Even in high wind or rain it would have a fair chance at keeping alight. Have you tried it outdoors in the elements?
Anyway, a tip of the hat to you. --Also, creative guys who fearlessly put their imaginations to use in fun ways while being nice, upbeat guys inevitably end up with the most awesome girlfriends later on in life. (I speak from experience on that. Heck, you might already have a sweetie pie around.)
-Cheers!
-FL
But only because I'm spoiled since I've seen the Flaming Tuba.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
You should be able to do a descent aganazer's scorcher with that!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
now how do you turn it off?
Its not my fault, someone put a wall in my way.
... incoming bad super-villain?
quite nice to see it's being served through firehose ..
What could possibly go wrong .. hopes slashdot has good sprinklers installed!
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..