projects

If there's one medium that you wouldn't expect to see get taken on by graffiti and other contemporary artists, it's military airplanes.

But thanks to the folks behind the Round Trip: Art from the Boneyard Project exhibition, now on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Ariz., visitors can see just that.

Although only five full airplanes have been painted--out of dozens in the museum's full collection--the show also includes two cockpits and a large group of airplane sections, all reimagined with an artist's flair. The exhibition, which runs through May 31, &… Read more

Google has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to use an undisclosed, mystery "entertainment device" across four major cities over the next six months.

Described as having both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, the FCC application was initially submitted in December and recently discovered by GigaOm.

Although the details of the device are unclear, it stands to reason that it could have both Google TV and Android implications. Indeed, reading through the description it sounds as if it would take video content from the the Internet and distribute it across multiple connected devices. So rather than each … Read more

If you're sick and tired of looking for the tiny L and R printed on your headphones every time you want to plug in, this news will be music to your ears.

Researchers at the Igarashi Design Interfaces Project in Tokyo have developed a pair of "Universal Earphones" that automatically switch the audio channels when they detect that you've placed an earbud in the wrong ear.

The team achieved this by attaching a proximity sensor on one of the earpieces to measure the distance to the ear.

When placed in the right ear, the sensor detects the ear behind it and points to the back of the head. The position of the sensor serves as a cue for the auto-correcting earphones. If you accidentally insert the right bud into your left ear, the sensor ends up facing the front. Noticing this change in position, the sensor triggers a small embedded audio circuit to adjust the audio so you're hearing the proper stereo mix in your left and right ears. … Read more

Nearly 1 million digitized documents and photos connected with the life of Martin Luther King Jr. became available today on The King Center Web site with the launch of The King Center Imaging Project.

Until now, the majority of this archive was accessible only to people who visited The King Center in person.

There are photos of King marching through the South with masses of people in his wake and others of him sitting pensively holding a child on his lap. The archive also contains tens of thousands of letters, speeches, essays, scribbled notes, and quotes.

"These pages will … Read more

Creating collages with your images is easier than ever on your iPhone, and--with the right app--you can make great looking projects in minutes and share them immediately.

Are you old enough to remember making collages with a glue stick and poster board? These days anyone can create a collage (without all the mess) using digital photos and any photo layout program on a desktop computer. But some recent apps for iPhone make it even easier with intuitive touch-screen controls and other extras that put the old glue-stick-and-photo method to shame.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--That game onscreen in the picture below? It's Firefall, a full-fledged online first-person shooter for PC. Razer says Firefall, and other PC games, will run on its Project Fiona tablet in Windows 8.

The tablet is a concept. Razer says it's targeting a sub-$1,000 price tag when it brings the final version to market, planned for the end of this year.

Fiona looks to be the first true Windows 8 gaming tablet. For its specs, Razer intends to use a third-generation (aka Ivy Bridge) Intel Core i7 CPU, along with a solid-state drive (SSD). Razer reps here at CES 2012 were circumspect when I asked about the graphics chip in Fiona. CEO Min-Liang Tan said he wanted to highlight Ivy Bridge and Windows 8 gaming, although he at least acknowledged the possibility of a discrete graphics chip from AMD or Nvidia.… Read more

A little-noticed section of the Stop Online Piracy Act could make it illegal to distribute Tor and other software that can "circumvent" attempts by the U.S. government to block pirate Web sites.

The controversial Hollywood-backed copyright bill allows injunctions to be filed against "any" person, nonprofit organization, or company that distributes a "product or service" that can be used to circumvent or bypass blockades erected against alleged pirate Web sites such as ThePirateBay.org.

"It looks like SOPA would outlaw Tor," says Markham Erickson, an attorney with Holch & Erickson LLP … Read more

You are slightly less likely to be given a free Olympus camera by a stranger these days as the Olympus PEN Ready Project giveaway is in the books. Now, it's time to see the photographic results.

Olympus rolled out its $500 PEN E-PM1 camera earlier this year by giving more than 1,000 free cams to random people around North America. The recipients were asked to take pictures wherever they went. Olympus continues to collect those shots for display online.

I was asked to play along with the big promotion by testing the PEN Ready E-PM1's capabilities along with those 1,000 fortunate winners. I couldn't ask for a better way to review a camera than to take it on the freelance-journalism road from a Harley-Davidson event in Milwaukee, to a NASCAR race in Charlotte, N.C., to a Yamaha scooter ride in San Francisco. … Read more

A new study entitled Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Networks confirms much of what we already know about cyberbullying. Most kids aren't bullied and most kids don't bully either online or off.

In fact, the study--conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project for the Family Online Safety Institute and Cable in the Classroom--concluded that "[m]ost American teens who use social media say that in their experience, people their age are mostly kind to one another on social network sites." Nearly seven in ten (69 percent) of teens said that peers are mostly … Read more