SKIRMISHER

The next time somebody serves you some smart-assed shot like, “Write it on water,” Tokyo University’s Shigeru Naito and researchers at Akishima Labs assure you to take them on.

The device they’ve created uses waves to draw text and pictures on the surface of water.

The device consists of 50 water wave generators encircling a cylindrical tank 1.6 meters in diameter and 30 cm deep (about the size of a backyard kiddie pool). The wave generators move up and down in controlled motions to simultaneously produce a number of cylindrical waves that act as pixels. The pixels, which measure 10 cm in diameter and 4 cm in height, are combined to form lines and shapes. The device is capable of spelling out the entire roman alphabet, as well as some simple kanji characters. Each letter or picture remains on the water surface only for a moment, but they can be produced in succession on the surface every 3 seconds.

Researchers at Akishima Laboratories have developed similar devices in the past that used waves to draw pictures on the surface of water, but those devices had trouble producing letters with straight lines (such as the letter K). Additionally, it took the previous devices up to 15 minutes of data input time to produce each letter.

It doesn’t matter that the thing’s useless for now, especially that cracking tsunami jokes are currently considered proof of bad taste. But maybe for starters, they should install it in some great watery expanse like the Pacific Ocean to write clever things like, “Fuck you, Martians!” I’m sure that if you could spot it on Google Earth, the aliens will see it. Then they’ll think “scientologists” and tremble in fear.

via PINK TENTACLE

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