杏吧原创

All the world鈥檚 a 3D art gallery

Creating virtual sculptures is now as easy as speaking into a phone, thanks to an augmented reality app. Called Konstruct, the app, from London-based AR-developer James Alliban, uses an existing vision-tracking system in combination with a pattern that the software recognises. To use the app, this 鈥渕arker鈥� is printed onto paper and placed at the point in the scene where you want the sculpture to exist. You then point the phone at it, before speaking or whistling into its microphone to create 3D objects in the scene. As long as the marker is visible, users can keep refining the sculpture until they deem their masterpiece complete.

Splashdown for spacecraft black box

The first black box flight recorder ever made for a spacecraft has successfully survived re-entry from low Earth orbit. Called the re-entry break-up recorder, the heatproof device transmitted data about its condition as it descended towards the Pacific Ocean, landing between Chile and New Zealand. The recorder had been inside the uncrewed Japanese Space Agency cargo spacecraft HTV2, which left the International Space Station last week. It was jettisoned as HTV2 broke up as planned. Data from the recorder will shed light on what happens to a spacecraft when it breaks up on re-entry.

Amazon launches Cloud Drive

Tired of wrestling with iTunes? Fed up waiting for Google to launch its rumoured online music streaming service? Amazon hopes so. It has beaten both firms to the punch by becoming the first to launch a cloud-based media storage service 鈥� dubbed Amazon Cloud Drive 鈥� where users can keep all their MP3 music, videos and documents. Once stored, media can be downloaded to Android phones, Windows PCs or Apple Macs, but not iPods or iPhones. The service aims to rid people of the need to make backups of their media and allow them to access their files from any compatible device.