Peter Weiss

My thought about robotic vertical vehicles.

360dvd — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:43:58 +0000

So many universities, have been trying to create a robotic vehicle that can climb walls. I have seen many types of prototypes, which all basically use an adhesive type wheel. This is a great start! However to complete this amazing attempt, let me give some insight of what will really make it work. \

In the center of the robotic device, just add a propeller that will basically push the device towards the wall. THATS IT.

If this works for you, please deposit 2 cents in my bank account.

Microsoft Silverlight is NOT a Flash Killer!

360dvd — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:19:55 +0000

Investigating Microsoft Silverlight, the “Flash Killer” is really not as cool as I thought it was going to be. I really thought
they may have invented their own vector based authoring tool, like Flash. However the video that is embeded into the Silverlight Plug-in, which “I assume is just a java based plug-in” that needs to be downloaded, is just a WMV file. They should of spent the development on allowing a WMV file to play within Flash, since I do admit a WMV Live Webcasting looks far better then a FLV video encoded live.

Gecko Tape! I was calling it a PuttyPOD

360dvd — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 14:19:26 +0000

For the 14 months, I have produced over 200 prototypes of a device I was calling a PuttyPOD. The goal of the PuttyPOD was to actually mount a digital camera to side of a wall, and also have the ability to pan or tilt the camera to frame the shot . I had a dozens of videos on Youtube over a year ago, demonstrating the temporary adhesive qualities, but youtube, suspended my account, for not complying with their TOS. WHATEVER!!!

Ironically,University Students, Researchers to Material Scientist have been investigating how to reproduce a Gecko’s foot using variations of polymer materials. The polymer material must have the same elements of a Geckos foot, and each hair, or seta, provides a miniscule adhesive force called van der Waals, which operate over very small distances but bond to just about anything.

In many articles I found on the net, they mention, many negative comments about Gecko Tape that has been made so far

~ Cost prohibited for commerical market
~ Loss the adhesive qualities after about 5 uses.

Another drawback of todays Gecko Tape, I read on the internet was that there are consequences of overloading the tape. The failures tend to be catastrophic, and many of the fibers break and are left behind on the surface.

Andre Geim, a physicist at the University of Manchester, England, who is part of a team that overcame considerable engineering challenges to produce the first synthetic “gecko tape.”

Geim added: “We considered producing a large amount of gecko tape sufficient amounts to enable a student to hang out of the window of a tall building. However, it would cost too much money, and would not benefit us scientifically, so we have limited our demonstration to the toy.”

Ok, lets stop right here! I must say that, my PuttyPOD, or call it Gecko Tape, based on my experiments, is very close the experiments I read about, however, I have overcame all the limitations that I read.

My Gecko Tape is:

~ A Combination of off the shelf Polymers, and chemicals blended together.
~ Based on van der Waals theory
~ Reusable by cleaning with warm water and soap

Notice the microscopic hairs that are attached to my hand, when attempting to pull apart.

Demonstartion of using my Gecko Tape version stuck to a camera and a bike

CASE STUDY EXPERIMENTS
Using a galvanized electrical plate, I mounted two strips of 1.5″ x 4″ of my removable and reusable
“GeckoTAPE” on the backsite of the metal plate. I then firmly pressed the plate on the underside of
a painted door frame. Using a circular 3″ magnet I attached the magnet to the plate. The magnet has
a 3″ cable attached with a loop. Using 1 gallon of water, which is approx 8lbs, I attached the water bottle
to the cable. Remarkably, it had held for 5 minutes.

Silicon coated Carbon Fiber with Kevlar trim Evening Clutch

360dvd — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 08:50:58 +0000

My latest creation is a silicone & Carbon Fiber & Kevlar Evening Clutch. Just to clarify, I am not talking about a clutch in a transmission, but what is known as a small purse that has no handles or straps and is ussually seen in the hands of women, when attending the theater, opera, or an elegant evening affair. The translucent silicone creates a very shiny coat over the carbon fiber. Natural carbon fiber is dark blackish-grey vibrant textile that is hints a luster shine and with the silicone coat creates a spectacular glow that will standout. I used Kevlar on both sides of the clutch, as you can see in the photo, is a interweave of gold and black. I also used a mars black pigment mixed within the silicone as a finishing trim on the clutch.

Silicone with Acrylic paint = Amazing Results

360dvd — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 01:27:29 +0000

The painting below is a mixture of Silicone and Acrylic Paint + a couple of additives that do 2 amazing things.

1. Allows the Silicone to cure in less then 20 minutes
2. Makes the Silicone alot more thicker

Some Silicone is rated to be FDA approved, meaning once cured you can eat off it, but the additive I use (non totix) would then take away the FDA approval.

I have also mixed Silicone with Kevlar (Bullet Proof Material) and the results are amazing. I plan on making a womens evening clutch with these 2 materials.

Liquid Heat Shrink

360dvd — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 03:05:34 +0000

I have learned that it easier for me to invent a gizmo or gadget then it is for me to market the product or even create the packaging material needed when sold in a store. Of course there is blister packaging, but when your on a budget this is not even possible, even if you buy the preform blister packs. $.25 cents per packaging is not even in my budget. So that brings me to shrink wrapping. The shrink wrap material itself is very inexpensive and is totally in my budget. However the cost of the equipment is not in my budget. But a blow dryer can replace an industrial heat shrink blower. But what replaces a heat shrink sealer? I could tinker around a make a heating element, or maybe a hair crimper and see of that works. The sales women at Micheals Art store advised I used scotch tape, but that is to getto. So, out of desperation, fuels my creativity…..I use a plastic cement compond when I am building prototypes.

This compond basically melts down certain plastic materials down to its atom structure. When the compound evaporates, the atoms rebuild themselves and creates 2 pieces of plastic into 1. So, I brushed a bit of this plastic cement compond onto the shrink wrap, and within seconds it turned to a cloudy translucent color. I then applied it to 2 sheets and pressed firmly. BAMMM……The 2 sheets of shrinkwrap starting melting within 10 seconds.

I call this Liquid Heat Shrink but really the chemical is called Chloroform, and was discovered in July, 1831 by the American physician Samuel Guthrie

Carbon Fiber + Popsicle Stick Lady Shoe

360dvd — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:18:17 +0000

I really wanted to make a carbon fiber shoe for a lady, but after thinking about it,
would take me months to learn the process of making a ladies shoe.
So, with any good design you need to create a prototype first, actually you are
supposed to draw it out. I asked my friend who was over, if I could use her shoe
to copy from.

I skipped the drawing process and with one hand I used a glue gun and the other
hand a bottle of canned air. (Turning a can of canned air upset down creates a
freezing effect and instanly makes the hot glue becomes solid) and the with
the use of popsicle sticks and a layer of carbon fiber, I created the prototpe
and its freakin sexy. No epoxy was used on the carbon fiber since, the carbon
fiber I was using, felt naturally soft to the touch and is shiny already.

Maybe the next thing I should design is a matching bra and panty set.
This way a women would be in matching, thats of course if she had my
carbon fiber clutch.

Pure and UnCUT

360dvd — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:22:38 +0000

“Pure and UnCUT”, is a reality film concept taken from the movie “Strange Days”. The reality films will be actual real life POV videos of interesting people that have interesting lives. A small megapixel camera will be mounted on a a carbon fiber plate that I designed, and will be mounted on a person chest shooting high qiality 640×480 MPEG video. I have tested the chest plate and the POV effect looks just as good as a steadicam operator if not better!

More information can be found at http://pureanduncut.googlepages.com

Carbon Fiber Clutch

360dvd — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:14:55 +0000

I started working with carbon fiber since I am inventing a camera chest mount for small digital camera that shoot high quality MPEG video, and I am also designing clutches. So, since I had some extra carbon fiber lying around, I started designing a carbon fiber clutch. The photo below shows me spraying resin on the carbon fiber that is already mounted inside of a clutch frame.

Digital Clutch

360dvd — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 16:15:40 +0000

Who needs a digital clutch?

Cause I am designing them, and you can’t stop me!