(Credit:
Anastacia Spada)
I'm all for recycling, but this may be just a little too much: using X-rays as umbrella sheets.
X-ray film is not cheap to begin with, and you'll need 24 large ones to complete this do-it-yourself project. So you may end up with a brolly that's unique (after all, no one else can have the same fracture), but at a cost.
You will also need a pair of scissors to cut the fabric from a golf umbrella, a sewing machine, a grommet punch (a tool to make holes), and clear zip ties. Complete graphical instructions on how to make your own X-ray umbrella are available on designer Anastacia Spada's Web site at Coroflot.
(Credit:
Anastacia Spada)
(Source: Crave Asia via Newlaunches)
The TSA says the MacBook Air is a laptop after all.
You may recall some controversy earlier this week when a mild-mannered air traveler found himself on the wrong side of the X-ray scanner when some TSA agents didn't believe that his MacBook Air was a legitimate laptop.
I'm standing, watching my laptop on the table, listening to security clucking just behind me. "There's no drive," one says. "And no ports on the back. It has a couple of lines where the drive should be," she continues.
Eventually, a younger more technologically hip TSA agent came to his rescue, but the entire incident still made for good gadget blog fodder. Now comes word that the TSA has addressed the issue on its official blog (tagline: "Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead. You Play A Part."). The post reads, in part:
To make a long story short, it turns out the Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) gave some special attention to his new MacBook...I can tell you that TSOs are trained to look for anomalies. Each TSO X-ray operator sees hundreds of laptops a day and some have been doing this for six years. They know what laptops are supposed to look like....One thing is for sure, though. This was just a case of diligent TSOs paying special attention to something that caught their eye. Exactly what they are trained to do.
So, the TSA blogger chalks the confusion up to the fact that the MacBook Air, "is as thin as a potato chip, and looks completely different than any other laptop the TSOs have ever seen. They are seldom seen at TSA checkpoints due to their newness and the fact that they can be hard to find sometimes."
We assume this official acknowledgment means the MacBook Air is now cleared to fly, and anyone who runs into similar trouble at the airport can just fire up their laptop at the security checkpoint and show the security officers the TSA's own blog post on the subject.
(Credit:
PDL)
One simply can't be too careful in this security-conscious age. You could, for example, have installed security cams, metal detectors and even a moat around your dwelling, but there's always the chance that you missed something. And for some reason, the idea of hiring security personnel to conduct body-cavity searches hasn't quite caught on for private residences.
Once again, we turn to technology for a reasonable compromise: Your very own X-ray scanner. Now you too can play TSA agent in the comfort of your own home while viewing this system's 17-inch LCD to inspect the contents of every bag, parcel or piece of luggage to cross your threshold, according to Spycatcher. For those particularly suspicious items, the machine allows for "multi-zoomed" and enhanced images to be inspected at a distance by remote control.
Sure, the $43,000 price tag might sound a little steep, but it's a bargain considering how much an underground bunker goes for these days. Or you could always get some new friends.
(Credit:
Cramer Japan)
Modesty apparently has no place in the digital age. It's one thing for airport security to consider using technology that can see through clothes, but some tech-savvy voyeurs are cobbling together DIY infra-red scanners for less-than-noble uses. For every offense, however, there is economic opportunity.
The "Shot Guard" line of undergarments, for instance, is designed to "make photography difficult," according to American Inventor Spot. The defensive clothing is being marketed in Japan, where the peeping problem is apparently concentrated. (Why are we not surprised?)
It's unclear how this foundation-wear blocks prying beams, but Shiny Shiny suggests that it could involve "chilling your nether regions." This invites a whole slew of bad jokes, of course, so we'll just stop here.
Camero, a company out of Israel that has developed a camera that can "see" things through solid walls, has raised $14 million, bringing the total is has raised to $20 million.
The investment comes about four months after it showed off a prototype of the Xaver800 and began to sell systems to customers. Investors include Greylock Partners, Motorola Ventures and Walden.
The Xaver800 camera module
(Credit: Camero)The Xaver800 doesn't technically capture images directly. Instead, it issues ultrawideband signals and the data harvested is then used to create 3D models of things the signals bounced off of. The trick is that the camera can capture the signals in cluttered environments or through solid objects. Researchers at U.S. universities are working on similar projects.
The camera is only sold to military and police agencies.
Camero's work typifies the state of the growing high tech industry in Israel. While some multinationals have come out of the country, the local industry thrives mostly on scads of start-ups with relatively futuristic technologies, often associated with the military.
As a result, it's one of the places on the globe where the IPO is still a big deal. Last year, 20 Israeli companies held public offerings. More tech IPOs occurred in the U.S. but the U.S. is also bigger. Seventy six local companies got merged or acquired. The total value of mergers came to $10.6 billion, according to the Israel Venture Capital Research Center.
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