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Technology

Engineer Builds Self-Balancing Autonomous Bicycle In Spare Time (interestingengineering.com) 38

Hardware engineer Zhi Hui Jun built a bicycle that avoids obstacles and self-balances. Interesting Engineering reports: The engineer, who worked on the bicycle project in his spare time over the course of four months, crafted a self-balancing bicycle using an accelerometer and gyroscope sensors that allow the bike's front wheel to compensate and quickly change direction if it's going to fall. The system generates just the right amount of angular momentum in the right direction to stop the bike from falling. Impressively, the bike's motion, as seen in Zhi Jui Jun's video is actually quite smooth, and it doesn't look like it provides the janky ride we expected on first hearing about the project -- the almost imperceptible changes made to the bike's balance make it feel like it's being ridden by a ghost.

For the obstacle detection and avoidance system, Zhi Hui Jin designed an automatic control system -- that uses a customized perception and control algorithm -- that he linked to the sensors and a chip. Zhi Hui Jun used 3D printing and machine tool processing to craft some of the required parts for his bicycle. As well as the accelerometer and gyroscope, the bicycle is equipped with two brushless motors and a steering gear, as well as an RGBD depth camera, and a LiDAR sensor -- as used by driverless cars to detect their surroundings. The bicycle also uses 6S model power lithium battery, which has approximately three hours of battery life.

Comment Re:solution for a solved problem (Score 1) 121

A year ago when I was 30 minutes away from home, a drywall screw ripped my tire and tube open from side to side - far beyond what a patch kit could fix. Couldn't say if a mesh tire would still be usable in the same situation; but if so, these may see some value for bicyclists on long tours who would rather not carry spare tire sets in their saddlebags.
Education

200 Students Admit Cheating After Professor's Online Rant 693

Over 200 University of Central Florida students admitted to cheating on a midterm exam after their professor figured out at least a third of his class had cheated. In a lecture posted on YouTube, Professor Richard Quinn told the students that he had done a statistical analysis of the grades and was using other methods to identify the cheats, but instead of turning the list over to the university authorities he offered the following deal: "I don't want to have to explain to your parents why you didn't graduate, so I went to the Dean and I made a deal. The deal is you can either wait it out and hope that we don't identify you, or you can identify yourself to your lab instructor and you can complete the rest of the course and the grade you get in the course is the grade you earned in the course."

Comment Notecard In Wallet For Life (Score 3, Interesting) 1007

While you initially discount paper, a folded notecard in my wallet has been the most reliable method thus far Honestly, when is the last time you've lost your wallet? For me this was eight years ago. Just as you cancel your credit/debit cards when losing a wallet, significant passwords can also be changed. Consider it a security feature Besides, the slight inconvenience of taking out your wallet for a forgotten password encourages you to remember it (I have a straight-terrible memory, and this has worked)

Comment Maybe missing the point? (Score 1) 119

I think you're maybe missing the point of the Gamasutra article.

Video games are a unique medium since they can operate on a spectrum, running between cinema (think mgs4) and toys/tools (think sims or rpg maker or the mtv music tracker). Operating inside of this space, I think what Matsuura is getting at, video games can live as interactive art, and what better way to do that than with music?

Parappa at the time was revolutionary because it was one of the first music games allowing you to not only play in time with music, but to add your own elements of creation with the freestyle mode. Which was pretty sweet, but most music games since then have been just derivatives - press the button at the right time and score points.

This is what makes guitar hero rather boring.

Playing a piece of music is exciting not only because of the skill involved, but what kind of feeling the musician puts into playing the piece. It's a very personal thing. Not to mention how fun jamming with friends is. I think Matsuura wants video games to connect with music on a more deeper level. The latest marching band game lets you direct a band, which is another aspect of music, the concept of tempo. This is something that a lot of people are familiar with, but it will be exciting to have a game where it is immediately accessible to anyone that can hold a wiimote.

I'd love to hear what Matsuura thinks of Elektroplankton. I know there's a big divide in people who play it, since most people don't consider it a game. But if you sit down with it with a pair of headphones and actually think for a moment about what is happening, there's a lot of fun there. At least, I think, for people who like making noises.

I think there's a lot of fun to be had in games that bring music to people in unexpected ways. Games that allow people who don't consider themselves musical or have the time to invest into instruments to be able to enjoy an experience closer to what some musicians enjoy. And in that respect, a game like guitar hero is very primitive since it just records hits and misses and gives you a score - the reward for memorizing a song.

Hey, not to say that orchestral soundtracks and catchy hooks don't have their place. They're fitting and moving in the more traditional game experience. I think just that there's a lot of untapped potential in games that you don't see since everyone is so focused on rehashing tired but marketable concepts.

Comment unicode. (Score 1) 649

I use trillian for my regular chatting needs, and trillian as far as I know supports unicode as a whole (I chat with Japanese people on a regular basis). However, people using straight vanilla AIM and ICQ can't see the unicode characters. Other people using trillian that I am talking to over the AIM module can, as can MSN and Yahoo! users. But for me, unicode/multilanguage support is seriously a must-have.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Biochem

So I have a biochem exam in a bit.

www.shoelessphotography.com
www.findingjuliet.com (just started it)
www.xanga.com/shoelessone for food and random art

fuck you slashdot, because you dont allow for creativity!

I currently have "Karma: Terrible" and that is bullshit! I am a quality grade A poster!

User Journal

Journal Journal: xanga 1

this is my xanga. oh shit, its slshdot instead.

so i have a journal apparently.

turns out, there is more to slashdot than interesting reads, there is a bunch of spam that i can add my own spam too.

i have some great friends, nekoes, and enti.

fucking slash dot doesnt allow the less than simple, thats bullshit

User Journal

Journal Journal: I like slashdot

today I made a new friend. his name is shoelessone

he likes to post good comments

I wish I had mod points I'd give them all to him like all the licorice jelly beans

3

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