MachinePix Weekly

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MachinePix Weekly #11
www.machinepix.com

MachinePix Weekly #11

A full-size Gundam mecha, and an evolutionary biology explanation for why they don't really make sense 🤖🦖

MachinePix
Sep 29, 2020
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Some last minute changes and a postponement of this week’s interview, but I’ll have something exciting for you next week 🌚

The most popular post last week was a full-scale Gundam model at a Japanese amusement park. As always, the entire week’s breakdown is below the interview.

I’m always looking for interesting people to interview, have anyone in mind?

—Kane


The Week in Review

Prosthetic makeup and masks use several discrete parts, usually made of latex foam, to allow a range of movement and expressions. This was a motion test and you can see the commercial results here.

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Prosthetic makeup for Hearthstone TV commercials.
Image

September 25th 2020

45 Retweets323 Likes

The Singapore LRT website lists this feature as “smart glass”, which isn’t very helpful. A follower pointed out that it’s likely Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) glass, one of the two ways to implement switchable glass (featured in another popular @MachinePix post).

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Windows that automatically tint when passing residences, on a Bombardier INNOVIA APM100 operated by Singapore Light Rapid Transit.
Image

September 24th 2020

562 Retweets2,679 Likes

I learned that the fountains these balls are installed in have a technical name, “Kugel Fountains”, and then I was disappointed to learn that “kugel” is just German for “ball”. Fun fact: these balls do not float (they are denser than water)—they are supported by hydroplaning.

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Grinding a rose quartz ball for a kugel fountain.
Image

September 23rd 2020

332 Retweets3,036 Likes

A great example of a very scoped, very useful implementation of Augmented Reality. @MachinePix has also posted another, more macabre example.

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AccuVein AV500 infared vein finder.
Image

September 22nd 2020

396 Retweets1,746 Likes

This week’s most popular post. Huge mechas don’t really make sense on Earth because they run into the same challenge as huge animals: mass increases cubically as muscle power (or hydraulic power in the case of a mech) increases by a factor of two. This is kind of like a biological analog of the Tyranny of the Rocket Equation. At some size, the support structure is too heavy for to move.

That said, who cares—I want to see the Gundam.

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A full-scale Gundam model at the Gundam Factory amusement park in Yokohama.
Image

September 21st 2020

928 Retweets3,186 Likes

Postscript

I’ve been practicing with the CNC embroidery machine, and it’s a more complicated than I would have thought. Partially because working with compliant material like textiles is challenging, and partially because the tools to digitally define patterns are not well maintained. Curiously, Linus Torvalds—creator of Linux—is the author of an open source embroidery machine file converter.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, forward it to friends (or interesting enemies). I am always looking to connect with interesting people and learn about interesting machines—reach out!

—Kane

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