The In-Sect - science

November 1999: Sunbathing in our backyard two things came to my mind simultaneously as the first snowflakes tumbled to the ground. The first thing: The 21st century will just suck! There will be no sexy personal robot slave for me! No hovering computer with language recognition that looks like a brain. No flying car! The year 2000 and no flying car – can you imagine this? (And robots are still as dumb as a stump, all they can do is mowing! Language recognition still does not work and Artificial Intelligence is far away, Mr. Minsky.)

Why is there no flying car? We are developing it for 90 years now, starting with Glenn Curtiss’ Autoplane of 1917. And Robert Fulton’s Airphibian, Theodore Hall’s ConVair AutoPlane and Henry Smolinski’s AVE Mizar followed, but none of this vehicles made it into production.

Currently there are many different companies trying to market their roadable aircrafts. I’ll give you a little overview:

Terrafugia “The Transition”

Fuel Consumption: 4.5 gph Range: 460 miles, Speed 115 mph, Price $148,000, Available: Late 2009
This one is affordable and looks like it will really be delivered, but it looks ridiculously in ground mode. www.terrafugia.com

La Biche “FSC-1”

Fuel Consumption: 23 gph, Range: 975 miles, Speed: 250 mph, Price $175,000, Available: Not before 2008!
I like the fact that this baby mutates from car to plane in 30 seconds when you push a button! The problem: Looks cool as a car, but like an ugly duckling in plane mode. www.labicheaerospace.com/

Volante Aircraft “Volante”

Fuel Consumption: Range: 650 miles Speed: 150 mph Price:? Available:?
This one carries its wings in a trailer and will only be a homebuilding kit. But at least it already exists and flies! www.volanteaircraft.com

Moller “M400 Skycar”

Fuel Consumption: 20 mpg Range: 750 miles Speed: 275 mph Price: $750,000 Available: 2009
VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) is cool, but you’ll need a “powered lift” pilot’s licence to fly this Ethanol gulper! BTW: If I had that much money, I’d buy myself a village. www.moller.com/

AFA “Sokol A400”

Fuel Consumption:? Range: 500 miles Speed: 150 mph Price:? Available: Not before 2011!
Telescopic wings are a cool gadget ! One problem: Four can drive with it but only two can fly. And hoofing it is not sci-fi! www.afaco.com/

Macro Industries “Skyrider X2R

Fuel Consumption:? Range: 800 miles Speed: 288 mph Price: $500,000 Available: Not before 2012!
Plus: VTOL Minus: Not even a prototype ready and it looks like an Isetta! www.macroindustries.com/

Actually there are some reasons why the sky is not filled with flying cars. Flying is not easy – it’s not only the fact that you got to control an additional dimension, but there is metereology and navigation, too. To me it seems like even trained molluscs can get a driver’s licence here in Germany. Imagine all those dogmatics and cholerics flying!

The second thing that came to my mind: It’s really frakking cold – why do you sunbath in November, you moron?

Creating an army of merciless, unstoppable robotic soldiers has always appealed to me as being the most gentlemanly road to global rule – unlike either necromancy or politics, it doesn’t involve selling your soul.

All of my attempts (as pictured above) failed, however, mostly due to a nasty habit of focusing more on aesthetics than on more practical considerations, i.e. the need to include up-market options like rail guns and heat-seeking missiles. If I had instead invested my money in the kind of robots that were commercially available throughout all those years, mostly in the toy aisles, I could already be in command of a quite sizable army, much like Lee.

Some of those look pretty cool even, although I doubt that “Verbot” sold well in German speaking markets – there is something vaguely off-putting about a toy being named “Prohibition”.

And “CompuRobot” looks suspiciously similar to a certain movie robot – I sincerely doubt that the manufacturer has paid for the use of that likeness. But then, I sincerely doubt that anybody would pay for a license to associate their products with that particular movie … in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney actually paid people for not mentioning it. (If that’s really the case, I’m perfectly willing to remove this whole paragraph for as little as five bucks.)

We are used to think twice before we believe in any photographical evidence thanks to Photoshop. Now imagine the following software: You can take any photograph of a human face, then press ‘morphModelize’ and a editable 3d computer face is modelled and applied to that specific image. Now you can change the facial expression or the skin color, you can rotate the face, change the lighting, change the sex of the portrayed – you can do anything you want to do with this face! This software exists.
Volker Blanz and Thomas Vetter have build a large morphable face model out of hundred colored 3d scans. This model still stores all the color information and every individual feature of every scanned individual. You don’t believe it? Here are some examples:

First we ask Forrest Gump for collaboration: The first image shows the original, two and three the morphable face model applied to that image and four: he frowns!

Another example: 1.Audrey Hepburn, 2. Morphmodelized, 3. We can make her smile, or 4. make her wear a hat!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 1. Original, 2 to 4: The sad repercussions of drugs…

You got nice wedding photos from your first wedding, but not one single real good shot from you and your second wife? No problem: Just change the individuals in your photos!

Can this be applied to video, too? Why certainly! Watch this videos: The Morphable Model explained, Animation of famous paintings! Visit Dr. Blanz homepage and read all about this fascinating technology.
These examples are far from being perfect, I know, but keep in mind that most of this material is seven years old!

Quote:“The concentric circles are a particularly effective way of demonstrating the annual pattern of feasts and fasts.”
The relationship of liturgical and pagan festive days is fascinating and easy to understand using this flash application. May day for example is clearly a traditional summer holiday in pre-Christian Eropean cultures and many elements are still popular today, such as the Maypole or the dance around it here in Bavaria.
Medieval Conceptions of Time

I like to visit foreign websites. Preferably sites with unreadible fonts, like japanese, chinese, arabic or hebrew websites. When I found Chapit at Robotwatch (always worth a visit!), I wanted to know more about it, but I found no information at its home company’s website, Raytron.
But yesterday Electro-Plankton wrote this very informative article about Chapit. Thank you!

As I skimmed through the covers of the “Modern Mechanix” from the thirties I asked myself: Why wasn’t this magazine called “Red Phallic Means of Transport”?
Modern Mechanix