Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

...you get the key to the door, as you're 21 today!

Another technology that keeps our modern world ticking along, running in the background and underpinning nearly everything we do on the Interwebthingy.

...and get back to making holograms.

It's been too long since I last mixed up the developing solution, and slipped a pristine piece of film out of the envelope and in between my glass plates, before firing up the laser for a 20 second burst of coherent light. It was a fun and fascinating process, and the results were amazing. Then there was the process of building an optical bench from plywood, scrap metal and Mini inner tubes - and then making and using a Michelson interferometer to stabilise it...

I used to specialise in white light-reflection holograms, simple to make and incredibly convincing. Tidying out the spare room the other day I found an envelope containing some of my early attempts - calculators, clocks, and glassware.

Then I graduated into developing a manual holographic printer that created transmission holograms from computer generated images (much like the technique used to create the recent hologram of the Queen commisioned by the States of Jersey). That was a fascinating project, and I'm still proud of my cube hologram - especially as the cube never had a physical existance.

Somewhere there's a reference to the paper that was written on my work...

Mmm. Lasers.

Shiny.

The Xport Robot Controller sounds fun - especially with the new Bluetooth add on! Just add Lego and a Gameboy and you're off to a robotic start...

The Omniwheels look wonderful...