Hackaday Newsletter 0x68

Out of fresh ideas? Look to the past! [HACKADAY]( PCIe For Hackers: The Diffpair Prelude [Read Article Now»]( Study Hacker History, and Update It By [Elliot Williams]( Looking through past hacks is a great source of inspiration. This week, we saw [Russ Maschmeyer] [re-visiting a classic]( hack by [Jonny Lee] that [made use of a Wiimote’s IR camera to fake 3D]( or at least provide a compelling parallax effect that’ll fool your brain, without any expensive custom hardware. [Lee]’s original demo was stunning, and that alone is reason to revisit it. Using the Wiimote as the webcam was inspired back in 2007, because it meant that there was no hard computer vision work to be done in estimating the viewer’s position – the camera only sees IR LEDs anyway. The tradeoff is that you had to wear two IR LEDs on your head, calibrate it just right, and that only the person with the headset on gets the illusion just right. This is why re-visiting the past can be fruitful. As [Russ] discovered, computing power is so plentiful these days that you could do face/eye position estimation with a normal webcam easier than you could source an old Wiimote. Indeed, he’s getting the positioning so accurate that he’s worried about to which eye he’s projecting the illusion. Clearly, it’s time for a revamp. So here’s the formula: find a brilliant old hack, and notice if it was hampered by the state of technology back when it was done. Update this using modern conveniences, and voila! You might just find that you can take the idea further, simply because you have more tools in your toolbox. Nothing wrong with standing on the shoulders of giants. But beware! Time isn’t sitting still for you either. As soon as you make your killer 3D vision hack, VR goggles will become cheap and ubiquitous. So get it done today, before your hack becomes inspiration for the future. From the Blog --------------------------------------------------------------- [This Week in Security: Kali Purple, Malicious Notifications, and Cybersecurity Strategy]( By [Jonathan Bennett]( This was a week of super clever hacks in the security sphere. Jonathan gets you up to speed. [Read more »]( [A Hacker’s Introduction to DIY Light Guide Plates]( By [Joshua Vasquez]( Want to know how to make fantastic even illumination on a hacker budget? [Read more »]( [The X Macro: A Historic Preprocessor Hack]( By [Al Williams]( Who doesn't like a little bit of preprocessor abuse from time to time? [Read more »]( [Hackaday Podcast]( [Hackaday Podcast 210: Living in the Future, Flipper Mayhem, and Samsung Moons the World]( By [Hackaday Editors]( What happened last week on Hackaday? The Podcast will get you up to speed. [Read more »]( If You Missed It --------------------------------------------------------------- [Solar Powered Split Wireless Mechanical Keyboard]( [A Pi Calculating Pi for Pi Day]( [Laser and Webcam Team Up for Micron-Resolution Flatness Measurements]( [Taking Apart IKEA’s Latest Air Quality Sensor]( [8086 Multiply Algorithm Gets Reverse Engineered]( [Hackaday]( NEVER MISS A HACK [Share]( [Share]( [Share]( [Terms of Use]( [Privacy Policy]( [Hackaday.io]( [Hackaday.com]( This email was sent to {EMAIL} [why did I get this?]( [unsubscribe from this list]( [update preferences]( Hackaday.com · 61 S Fair Oaks Ave Ste 200 · Pasadena, CA 91105-2270 · USA