oscilloscope
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Korg’s DIY oscilloscope comes paired with a coffee table book
Korg has unveiled an oscilloscope kit bundle that includes a book full of history and tips.
Mesmerizing Quake demake runs on a decades-old oscilloscope
Before Wiis and PlayStations, before you boasted about how many bits your console had, and before Ralph Baer's Odyssey first hit Sears shelves, a bored physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory cobbled together a little digital diversion called Tennis for Two. Those early days of gaming were spent lobbing a lurid green ball back and forth across a tiny oscilloscope screen, so it's only appropriate that you can now tear through Quake's corridors on a similarly screwy screen. Finnish programmer/artist Pekka Väänänen runs through the process of converting an intensely visual game into a series of sounds that an aging Hitachi oscilloscope interprets as the building blocks of a world here. The end result? Well, it's nothing short of mesmerizing, a simultaneously foreign and familiar take on an experience most of us have long since committed to memory. Don't just take our word for it, though: There's video evidence waiting for you after the jump.
Oscium's iMSO-104 turns your iPad into a mixed signal oscilloscope
Inventive people continue to demonstrate how versatile iPads are. The latest example we've found turns the device into an oscilloscope. Oscium developed the iMSO-104 mixed-signal oscilloscope for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch "quickly and easily," the company says, thanks to Apple's iOS and MFi (Made for iPod, Made for iPhone and Made for iPad) developer programs. "It boasts a 5 MHz bandwidth and up to 12 MSPS (megasamples per second) sample rate, while simultaneously analyzing up to one analog and four digital signals," says Oscium. The sensors use Cypress Semiconductor's PSoC® 3 programmable system-on-a-chip to manage two-way communication between the sensors and your device The app is in the App Store now for free, while the full hardware rig will run you US$279.99. That's not a bad price for an oscilloscope. [Via Engadget]
Oscium's iMSO-104 turns iPad, iPhone into mixed signal oscilloscopes
We've seen oscilloscopes repurposed as clocks and MAME machines, but we hardly ever see the pendulum swing in the opposite direction. The iMSO-104, however, actually turns your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch into an oscilloscope display. Using a Cypress Semiconductor system on a chip, the iMSO-104 touts a 5MHz bandwidth and as much as 12 megasamples per second, and connects to your device by way of the dock connector -- according to its maker, it's also the world's smallest and most portable oscilloscope. That's all well and good, but what we really want to know is, does it support Tennis for Two? The iMSO-104 is now available for pre-order for $300, but if you're itching to see the thing in action, you can download the corresponding app today and give it a test drive. Full PR after the break.
Game Boy games get hacked onto an oscilloscope
Real champions don't ask "Why?" when shown a completely awesome, albeit totally impractical piece of technological wizardry. Take, for instance, Flashing LEDs' latest creation: An oscilloscope that displays Game Boy games. Useful? Absolutely not. Radical? We like to think so.
Gaming's first-person history lesson: 1958 to 2008 edition (video)
There's just so much to love about this video, described by co-creator Florian Smolka as a university video-project from Munich. In a little over four minutes, we're given a first-person tour of console gaming from 1958's Tennis for Two (played on an oscilloscope) through late 2008's Rock Band for Xbox 360 (using a Guitar Hero drum set, but hey, nobody's perfect). Not every console gets a mention -- apologies to Atari Jaguar and 3DO apologists -- and it unfortunately stops before new hotness Move and Kinect get a nod, but that should in no way deter you from setting aside a handful of minutes to watch. Be sure to note the passage of TVs, too, and remember fondly the CRTs of your youth. Unless you grew up with LCD flatscreens, you lawn-lounging whippersnapper, you. Video after the break.
Physicists rebuilding early video game from scratch
Unsurprisingly, tenured physicists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory are capable of creating some pretty radical science projects. A group of lab technicians and physicists led by Dr. Peter Takacs are currently working to restore one of the first video games ever created: fellow Brookhaven physicist Dr. Willy Higinbotham's 1958, oscilloscope-based Tennis for Two. Sure, the project may lack the high-definition graphics and ... um, visible rackets of more modern tennis titles, but you can't help but respect its gumption. Check out the video after the jump to learn more about the physicists' pet project -- unless you want to continue operating under the assumption that, no matter what anyone says, Halo 2 was the first game ever made. Dummy.
Simple keystroke sniffing schemes work where keyloggers won't
Ah, the wonders of CanSecWest. The famed security conference has delivered yet again in 2009, this time bringing to light two simple sniffing schemes that could be used to decipher typed text when keyloggers are just too noticeable. Gurus from Inverse Path were on hand to explain the approaches, one of which involved around $80 of off-the-shelf gear. In short, curious individuals could point a laser on the reflective surface of a laptop between 50 feet and 100 feet away, and then by using a "handmade laser microphone device and a photo diode to measure the vibrations, software for analyzing the spectrograms of frequencies from different keystrokes, as well as technology to apply the data to a dictionary," words could be pretty easily guessed. The second method taps into power grid signals passed along from PS/2 keyboard outputs, and by using a digital oscilloscope and an analog-digital converter, those in the know can pick out tweets from afar. Check the read link for more, and make sure you close those blinds and pick up a USB keyboard, pronto.[Via Slashdot]
Oscilloscope turned into Star Wars-playing MAME machine
We've already seen an oscilloscope turned into a clock, but that hack has nothing on this latest one courtesy of Flickr user Moose2000, who took the old school piece of gear and rigged it to run (what else?) MAME. Even better, Moose chose to use the original Vector-iffic Star Wars arcade game to show it off, which no doubt suits the screen better than something like Street Fighter II. Sadly, there's no instructions for putting together your own rig (assuming you have a spare oscilloscope lying around, that is), but you can check out this one in action in the video after the break.[Via Gadget Lab]
Tektronix oscilloscopes could catch fire due to volatile Li-ion
We've seen some strange devices catch fire due to faulty batteries, but this one just may take top honors. Apparently, a pair of Tektronix oscilloscopes (model numbers TDS3000 and TDS3000B) have the potential of catching fire; according to the company, it has received two reports of the units "burning at customer sites." Upon closer inspection, it was noticed that the machines both relied on a TDS3BATB Li-ion battery, which is now carrying the blame for the unexpected blazes. If you or a loved one just so happen to own or use one of these rigs in your everyday life, Tektronix is suggesting that you power it down and stop using the battery until further notice.[Via TheInquirer]
DIY project turns an oscilloscope into a clock
While the highly-regarded Pong clock has long held the crown for most intriguing DIY clock, it looks like the leaderboard could be seeing a change. Frank Techniek's interesting oscilloscope conversion is yet another prime example of turning vintage (or otherwise idiosyncratic) kit into a modern day gadget, and the 20MHz TRIO that once read signal voltages for a living is now enjoying an unusually time consuming (ahem) retirement. Per usual, this expert-minded endeavor involved more circuitry, soldering, resistors, and time off than we have room to explain, but if you're interested in propping one of these up in your den, be sure to hit the read link for the nicely detailed bill of materials and assembly instructions.[Via MAKE]
