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'A Slower Speed of Light' is an open-source game on special relativity from MIT Game Lab
The behavior of light may seem static and uninteresting (it's bright and fast, we get it), but there's actually an incredible amount of science going on that we generally don't experience during our normal lives.A Slower Speed of Light, a new open-source game for PC and OSX from MIT Game Lab, explores the more intricate and interesting behaviors of light in a "relativistic game engine." As players collect objects, the speed of light is slowed and players are able to experience phenomena such as the Doppler effect, time dilation and the Lorentz transformation, among others.While the open-source aspects of this project are not yet available, the plan is to release the game's Unity3D-based engine as OpenRelativity sometime in 2013. For now, the game itself can be downloaded here. %Gallery-170585%
Researchers use ambient WiFi radio waves to see through walls
Seeing through walls hasn't been a super hero-exclusive activity for a while now. According to Popular Science, however, University College London researchers Karl Woodbridge and Kevin Chetty have created the first device that can detect movement through walls using existing WiFi signals. While similar tech has required a bevy of wireless nodes, the duo has pulled off the feat with a contraption roughly the size of a suit case. Much like radar, the device relies on the Doppler effect -- radio waves changing frequencies as they reflect off of moving objects -- to identify motion. Using a radio receiver with two antennas and a signal-processing unit, the system monitors the baseline WiFi frequency in an area for changes that would indicate movement. In tests, the gadget was able to determine a person's location, speed and direction through a foot-thick brick wall. The technology's potential applications range from domestic uses to scanning buildings during combat. Best of all, since the university's hardware doesn't emit any radio waves, it can't be detected. How's that for stealthy?
The Summoner's Guidebook: Get back, get back!
Last week, I said I would avoid doing articles on the situational "soft skills" in League of Legends. Well, this week kind of ruins that already. Today we're going to talk about lane positioning, zoning, and harassment. These things are not something I can just give you blanket tips on. There are a lot of nuances involved in good positioning, and every single matchup is completely different. You do not stand in the same places laning against Cassiopeia as you do against Kennen, and those positions change depending on which character you're playing, too. Even though there is a lot of matchup-specific knowledge involved in lane positioning, there are some general tips I can provide. This week I'm going to only teach you about the basics of lane safety but give you some dirty mindgame tricks that will absolutely ruin your opponents. Interested? Read on!
WoW Moviewatch: Redshift: Interlude
Redshift: Interlude is a prequel to the Redshift movie we posted for you a few days ago. Even though it has one character in common with the earlier story, the high elf Aislynn, it's really a story all its own. This Redshift series is shaping up to be about the ways in which predictions of the future influence the actual progression of events. At the end of this movie, there's even a hint of a future Redshift episode about a night elf, which looks interesting. The maker of this movie, Sedrin, also did the astounding music video "Frame of Mind." He has an uncanny talent for making serious machinima credible and believable.For those who are interested, "redshift" is also a scientific term that denotes the way in which stars traveling away from the observer are seen to be a bit redder than they actually are, because as they move away, the wavelength of the light they emit increases. This is just like the Doppler Effect, in which a car moving away from you has a deeper sound than a car moving towards you. In this story, though, it may be that "redshift" just refers to the way visions of the future seem to have this red tint over them -- yet on the other hand, perhaps there's something symbolic there too, that no matter how you look into the future, it will always be beyond your grasp.Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
