Smartphone Controlled 40$ Hex Nanocopter

This tiny Hex nanocopter has been created by Benjamin Black and his team which brings a the world’s first personalised smartphone controlled nanocopter to users starting for just $40.

These kits contain an open source Hex nanocopter made by a community of makers from around the world and also the world’s first consumer electronic product that uses 3D printing technology enabling users to customise their craft.

The Hex nanocopter is controlled using smartphones and other mobile devices, so complicated remote controls are not required and the control system is provided by RC Touch with a user-friendly interface that is already available for iOS and Android devices.

It connects to the controlling smartphone using Bluetooth 4.0 technology and is equipped with auto stabilisation software and provides users with a first person view whilst flying via the onboard camera.

This project is currently over on the Kickstarter website looking to raise enough pledges to make the jump from concept to production. So if you think Hex nanocopter is something you could benefit from, visit the Kickstarter website now to make a pledge and help Hex nanocopter become a reality.

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World's most accurate clock

Need the time? How about to the closest hundred trillionth of a second? No problem! Because this, officially now the world's most accurate clock, can tell the time more accurately than any other device ever has.

Fuelled by the rather exotic element ytterbium, the clock is stable to one part in a quintillion. Like the pendulum of a clock can take a fraction longer to swing on occasion, so an atomic clock can throw up an incongruous period of time, too—but you'd have to wait a quintillion ticks before that happened with this clock. Andrew Ludlow of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology explains what the accuracy means in real terms:

"We've reached a new level, an order of magnitude improvement over what had been done before. If you were to run this clock for around 100 million years, it would only gain or lose about a second."

And the accuracy isn't going to waste, either: there are plans afoot to use the device to test Einstein's theory of relativity to 10 parts per billion. That's an unprecedented level of accuracy—so let's see if Albert's theory holds up to such scrutiny.

Via: Gizmodo

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Beautiful analog clock for dummies who are bad at telling time

Really, I have a confession to make, and I'm sure I'm not alone: I'm really bad at reading analog clocks. I learned how to when I was a kid, and I even wear an analog watch today, but some 15 years of digital crutches in between has made reading old-school clocks kind of a drag. You too? Well here's a clock for the both of us.



Created by industrial designer Sabrina Fossi, the "FreakishCLOCK" conveniently has but one hand. And while that traditional red stick traces progress through any given hour, a slotted cover turns behind it, blocking everything but the current hour. Who can't handle one hand and one number, right? Yeah, maybe you can't read the exact minutes but who cares. Quarter-hours are close enough.Aside from the comparative ease of use—which you may or may not need—the FreakishCLOCK is also prettily simple. It's almost like one of those fancy minimalist clocks with no numbers on it, except it lends a helping hand. The clock is available for about $100 on Fossi's website and comes in six different flavors.It's certainly a stylish little hack for bad analog -readers. But maybe we should just be staring at real clocks until we can read them like god damn adults. [Sabrina Fossi via Designboom].

Source: Gizmodo

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