Armored sarcophagi crawling over road and ruin, impervious to the slings and arrows of their foes, tanks are defined by their weight. Aircraft, by the very necessity of…
from Popular Science http://ift.tt/1F8SFPH
via IFTTT
Visual Microphone Identifies Structural Defects
A new technique from Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers estimates material properties of physical objects, such as stiffness and weight, from video.
The method could have application in the field of nondestructive testing, determining materials’ physical properties without extracting samples from them or subjecting them to damaging physical tests. Structural defects, for example, could be found in an airplane’s wing by analyzing video of its vibration during flight.
A given object’s preferred frequencies, and the varying strength of its vibrations at those frequencies, produce a unique pattern, which a variation on the visual-microphone algorithm was able to extract.
The MIT researchers then used machine learning to find correlations between those vibrational patterns and measurements of the objects’ material properties. The correlations they found provided estimates of the elasticity of the bars and of the stiffness and weight per unit area of the analyzed fabrics.
Moreover, aberrations or discontinuities in an object’s typical vibrational patterns could indicate a defect in its structure.
Source
Also: Read a Q&A with a NASA Lead Non-Destructive Evaluation Engineer.
from NASA Tech Briefs – Nasa Tech Briefs http://ift.tt/1d0az0y
via IFTTT
Turn on Tracking Protection in Firefox to Make Pages Load 44% Faster
Even if you don’t care about the privacy implications of tracking cookies and other technologies sites use to identify us online, you might want to turn on Tracking Protection in Firefox anyway for a potential big speed boost.
from Lifehacker http://ift.tt/1HIAbwq
via IFTTT
PSA: Facebook Messenger Shares Your Location with Every Message
You’re probably aware that Facebook collects a ton of information about you, but if you’re using the mobile Messenger app, that also means your location data as well. A new Chrome extension called Marauders Map lets anyone you’ve sent a message see that location information all at once.
from Lifehacker http://ift.tt/1FgxWKS
via IFTTT
People Are Redesigning World Cup Sponsors’ Logos to Protest Worker Abuse
FIFA is getting it from all sides right now, and for good reason. Last night the US Justice Department reportedly arrested officials for fraud related to the upcoming World Cups in Qatar and Russia. And even before the arrests, fans were protesting the use of forced labor
at World Cup construction sites by hitting the event’s organizers where it hurts: Its sponsors.
from Gizmodo http://ift.tt/1FaEZni
via IFTTT
Photos of India’s Deadly, Street-Melting Heat Wave
An extreme heat wave with temperatures reaching 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) has killed at least 1,118 people over the past week in India, where hot air, molten asphalt, dust storms are making life almost unbearable.
from Gizmodo http://ift.tt/1Bpu2h8
via IFTTT
Beware of the text message that crashes iPhones
Newly discovered iOS bug triggers wave of text messages that causes iDevice reboot.
from Ars Technica http://ift.tt/1cZFGcw
via IFTTT