In very simple terms, the POV globe is a ring of RGB LEDs that is rotated axially at high-speed (300 rpm). Due to this high-speed and the phenomenon of persistence of vision (POV), our brains interprets this moving ring of light as a solid, spherical surface. By changing the colours of the LEDs very quickly, we can display images on this spherical surface. Mounted inside the ring is a Raspberry Pi (RasPi), a small, single-board computer that has become popular in the last couple of years. Its small-size and lightweight design make it ideal for this application. The RasPi has an HDMI output and therefore a custom FPGA-based HDMI decoder was designed and implemented for this project. The decoder takes the HDMI signal and converts it into a form suitable to be displayed on the ring of LEDs.

Equipped with a Go Pro camera to record it’s surroundings and a first person view (FPV) camera and transmitter sending back live video images to its pilot the Lego quadrocopter is an advanced machine. It is kept on an even keel and able to navigate waypoints via GPS thanks to an APM 2.5 autopilot from 3DR.

The CubeSat Project is an international collaboration of over 40 universities, high schools, and private firms developing picosatellites containing scientific, private, and government payloads. A CubeSat is a 10 cm cube with a mass of up to 1.33 kg. Developers benefit from the sharing of information within the community. Resources are available by communicating directly with other developers and attending CubeSat workshops.

I finally received my Makerbot Replicator (makerbot.com) and I am VERY impressed. After printing a handful of objects off of Thingiverse and dialing in my printer I promptly began work on my version of 3D printed quadcopter.

Wow, yet another reason to want a 3D printer...

Malthus is an appliance for the kitchen of the future that grows food right next to where you cook it. Malthus consists of a fish tank that holds 400 litres which can support more then 2kg of fish like tilapia, salmon, grey fish or carp. The water is pumped through three cultivated grow beds which filter the water for the fish.

Malthus is designed to optimize space and costs with indoor food production. The weight of the fish tank is comparable to the one of a full bathtub, its width is about the size of two small refrigerators. Its parts are made of elements available in most DIY stores.

The WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery has six main technical features that, when combined together, create the world's first all-in-one brewing appliance. This combination then allows you to make the freshest beer on the planet with minimum effort.

This thing looks ridiculously cool. Makes me wonder though... I'm sure a total noob (like me) can use it to make okay beer -- but would a skilled brewer (like I would want to become if I had one of these) be able to make excellent beer with it? Then I'd want one. Or at least I would if I had somewhere to put it. It's pretty stylish, but not something I'd want in my living room.

OpenPilot is a next generation Free Software autopilot for small UAVs, including multi-rotor craft, helicopters as well as fixed wing aircraft. It aims to implement the best features of all current enthusiast autopilot systems and combines them into a simple easy to use package. Simplicity does not come with any compromises either, with no hard-coded settings, a complete flight plan scripting language and other next-generation features, OpenPilot is planned to be an extremely capable UAV platform.

OpenBTS is an open-source Unix application that uses the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) to present a GSM air interface ("Um") to standard GSM handset and uses the Asterisk® software PBX to connect calls. The combination of the ubiquitous GSM air interface with VoIP backhaul could form the basis of a new type of cellular network that could be deployed and operated at substantially lower cost than existing technologies in greenfields in the developing world.

In plain language, we are working on a new kind of cellular network that can be installed and operated at about 1/10 the cost of current technologies, but that will still be compatible with most of the handsets that are already in the market. This technology can also be used in private network applications (wireless PBX, rapid deployment, etc.) at much lower cost and complexity than conventional cellular.