NewYorkHallOfScience
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PSA: New York Hall of Science's Nikola Tesla exhibit opens today
Nikola Tesla was born in the Austrian Empire, but the brilliant inventor has a connection to New York, having lived his final years in a midtown hotel that now bears a plaque in his honor. Starting today, the city's New York Hall of Science (at the World's Fair site in Queens) is offering up a new exhibition about his life, in honor of Nikola Tesla Day -- also, coincidentally, the man's birthday. Created in collaboration with Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Museum, the exhibit features working models of his inventions, photos and models of his labs. Tesla's Wonderful World of Electricity runs through October 20th and is free with admission to the museum.
Crayolascope hacks toys into foot-thick 3D display
Artist Blair Neal, as many other great creators have before him, turned to children's toys as the source of inspiration for his latest project. Crayolascope is a rudimentary 3D display hacked together from several Glow Books, a light-up play on a flip-book from the titular company. The installation, currently housed at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing, layers 12 of its component clear plastic sheets to create a roughly one-foot deep display that plays a simple pre-drawn animation. The whole thing is controlled by an Arduino Mega, that can either play back the neon scribbles at varying speeds (controlled by a knob built into the console) or scrub through frame by frame. Neal isn't quite done tweaking the Crayolascope either. As it stands he's limited to between 14 and 18 frames, before it becomes too difficult to see through the sheets. And it requires near total darkness for optimal operation. To see it in action check out the video after the break.
