LED Dress

24,000 LEDs in all. I sure do loves me some wearable tech.

The ‘Galaxy Dress’ claims to be the largest wearable display in the world and it will be the centerpiece of an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

“We used the smallest full-color LEDs, flat like paper, and measuring only 2 by 2 mm,” say designers Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz in an e-mail. “The circuits are extra-thin, flexible and hand-embroidered on a layer of silk in a way that gives it stretch so the LED fabric can move like normal fabric with lightness and fluidity.” The duo run an interactive clothing company called CuteCircuit.

To diffuse the LED light, the dress has four layers of silk chiffon and a pleated silk organza crinoline skirt. The extra-thin electronics allow the dress to follow the body shape closely like normal fabric.

Instead of having one large and heavy battery, the dress is designed to run on many tiny iPod batteries hiding in the crinoline, says Rosella. “They are not visible or uncomfortable,” she says.

With the batteries, the Galaxy Dress wearer can walk around — all lit up — for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

The areas without LEDs are decorated with more than 4,000 hand-applied Swarovski crystals that range in color from clear to bright pink. “The dress looks good even when it is switched off,” say the designers.

Zombie Cake Tastes Nothing Like Brains

BoingBoing links to this awesome wedding cake.

Happy Halloween

Laughing Squid has some photos of these Marvel Zombies drawings by Matt Delight from Mission: Comics and Art, the new comics shop on Mission Street. I still need to visit there.

He puts the Kiss in Kissinger

This here shirt is from Amorphia Apparel, which is cool enough, but seems to be (in some manner) connected with the Sir Critter, Hirsute History, Teach The Controversy and Science! lines of shirt designs which are all priceless. Well more like $18 or so each. But still very funny.

Holy Merchandising Deal, Batman!

Though already sold-out, this Robin hoodie is pretty cool. I'm sure etsy will have more of them in stock by Christmas time.

Sony Unveils 3D Display

The cylindrical display case is 27 cm tall with a base of 13 cm in diameter, and features a 96 by 128-pixel resolution that looks better than might be expected.

I love the future. Sony just unveiled this new 3D display. Obviously, the sense of depth is extremely limited in the video, but its still extremely cool. Via BoingBoing.

Microsoft Surface + D&D = Super Rad

Totally badass proof of concept video for a D&D application of the Microsoft Surface. From Penny-Arcade.com:

-A while ago we went out to speak at the ETC in Pittsburgh. After our talk we got to walk around the campus and talk to all the different teams. You can go back and read Tycho's post about our trip. One of the groups we saw was working on developing applications for the Microsoft Surface. The stuff they were doing was for some kind of defense contractor though and so it was all essentially top secret. They did have a Surface in their room though and I actually sat down and played with it for a bit. After I was done doodling I started sketching out a game grid and we all got to talking about how you might be able to use this tech to play D&D. I drew out some rough ideas and Tycho and I gave them a wish list of things we'd want to see it do. Stuff like selecting spells from a menu around your figure and animates effects for attacks and auras.

After we got home we received a mail from them saying they liked the idea so much they wanted to make it their next project. That was months ago and they've just now released their first proof of concept video. Obviously it's still super early but in my opinion it's got a ton of potential.

Words fail me. Check out Wired for more.

PC Apartment

This Russian casemodder decided to combine his twin passions for computers and antique dollhouse furniture. More pics here.

In Space, Carl Sagan Smokes Astroturf

A musical tribute to two great men of science. Carl Sagan and his cosmologist companion Stephen Hawking present: A Glorious Dawn - Cosmos remixed. Almost all samples and footage taken from Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Stephen Hawking's Universe series.

RIP Dr. Sagan, you will be missed!!

Download the mp3.

Kirk Wants To Hug The Mountain

The Many Forms of Mario

So I guess Wario would be a Covenant?

I'm sure Mario made his wrench-saber while deep in meditation, as per Jedi tradition.

R2-D2 With 8 Consoles Inside

HackNMod has this crazy project of putting 8 consoles into an R2-D2 case. Best part? The working projector inside the dome.

To Boldly Go

Summon all the funk of Captain James Tiberius Kirk's scent for intergalactic poon-tang.

Hand Grenade MP3 Mod

NYC Resistor has made one of the sexiest mp3 case mods I've ever seen by hollowing out a decommissioned training grenade. I probably would in fact commit homicide to have one of these, but I'm not really sure I want to be tackled by overzealous subway cops everytime I want to change a track.

Lumos!

I love this Magic Wand remote control that you use by actually waving around. It comes with about 14 different 'gestures' you can use to do almost anything a normal remote can. Their site is pretty nifty, too.

MIT Hackers Rickroll Great Dome

Under cover of night, an anonymous group of engineering geniuses recently scaled the campus' iconic Great Dome and installed the first seven notes of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on temporary scaffolding, cleverly noting the resemblance of its horizontal lines to a blank piece of sheet music.

The Great Dome at MIT has always been targeted for great pranks - past years painted the top to look like R2D2, or encircled it with The One Ring (to rule them all!). Honestly I think this is my new favorite.

Obama-Wan Kenobi

Via The Official Star Wars Blog comes photographic proof of our Presidents Jedi powers.

The picture is originally from Newsweek:

Here’s President Obama dueling with, yes, a Star Wars lightsaber at an event held this afternoon at the White House to promote Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics.

Reminds me of this action figure of Obama (seen here with former Vice-President Cheney) from Japan that was sold around the time of the inauguration.

Nissan Adds Bladerunner Sound To Hybrids

Nissan hybrids and electric cars are so quiet that some are worried they're unsafe for blind pedestrians or others who can't hear the vehicle approaching. The solution, as always, is to consult Bladerunner.

“We decided that if we’re going to do this, if we have to make sound, then we’re going to make it beautiful and futuristic,” Tabata said.

The company consulted Japanese composers of film scores. What Tabata and his six-member team came up with is a high- pitched sound reminiscent of the flying cars in “Blade Runner,” the 1982 film directed by Ridley Scott portraying his dystopian vision of 2019.

“We wanted something a bit different, something closer to the world of art,” Tabata said.

Vacuum Tube Clock Kit

Check out this awesome Russian tube clock. $70 is a lot for something that a $2 radio clock could do. And yet... I still must have it.