eyeofsauron
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The Big Picture: measuring the 'Eye of Sauron' galaxy
The galaxy you see here (NGC 4151) may be best-known for looking a bit like the Eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings movies, but it's now much more important than that -- it may be the key to mapping the universe. Researchers at the Univerity of Southampton have developed a measurement technique that helped them gauge the distance of NGC 4151 (and possibly other galaxies) with greater precision than any previous method would allow. Instead of using the light from other galaxies as a rough yardstick, the team compared the physical size of the dust ring around NGC 4151's black hole against the apparent size taken from infrared readings. These relatively concrete pieces of information helped them narrow down the distance of the galaxy from a very broad range of 4 to 29 megaparsecs to 19, or about 62 million light years; even with 10 percent uncertainty, that's a vast improvement.
Kinect meets a Pufferfish display, produces wonderfully creepy all-seeing eye (video)
As Kinect hacks go, this one's not going to bowl you over with its technical complexity, but the effect of what it does is quite dramatic. One of Microsoft's sensor-rich, camera-laden Xbox accessories has been repurposed to communicate with a Pufferfish spherical projection display -- via the magic of WPF and openni -- with its motion tracking algorithms serving to control the image on the giant ball. Naturally, the first thing the tweakers behind this mod thought up was a Tolkien-inspired eye that follows people around the room. Sadly, the single Kinect box isn't enough to provide 360-degree coverage, but it's probably just a matter of time until they splice an array of them together and creep us out completely. Video after the break. Update: You asked for the eye of Sauron and now you've got it. Second video added after the break.
