Local farms go high-tech

Computers are everywhere, in cars and phones — even in combines, greenhouses and poultry houses.

Like other industries, local farms are using computers to improve efficiency, reduce waste and save labor. Andy Wilson farms corn, soybeans and small grains in the New House area and is using new technology in his family's operation. Many of their tractors, spreaders and combines are GPS-guided with auto-steer features.

"We have to drive the first round, around the outside of the field, then the auto-steer function can take over and the tractor pretty much drives itself," Wilson said.

Amazingly, auto-steer is accurate to within a few inches, and helps prevent overlaps in planting or spraying, as well as operator fatigue. The Wilsons also use new technology in other aspects of their operation, especially soil sampling. Instead of taking one soil sample per field, the Wilsons sample every two acres. They use mapping software on their iPhone to navigate and record each soil sample point. Based on the results from each sample, a computerized system in the spreader truck applies only the needed rate of fertilizer or lime, preventing over-application and saving money on fertilizer.

Wilson said new software and technology lowers the input costs associated with farming and pay for themselves in the long run. He hopes a new aerial photography service provided by the Southern States Cooperative will provide similar benefits. The cooperative contracts with a pilot to fly over fields and take infrared photos. The infrared photos can help identify weak spots in the fields where crops may not be growing as well. Aerial monitoring of crops is becoming more common, with some farmers even using drones to monitor crop growth.

High-tech tomatoes

On a much smaller scale than the Wilsons, John Carroll, of Fallston, grows tomatoes in a 3,584-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse. Hydroponics is a system of growing plants without typical potting soil. Instead, roots grow directly in a nutrient-rich perlite mixture. Carroll is able to grow more than an acre's worth of tomatoes in a tenth of the space — in part because of a computer system. The system controls the water, fertilizer, heat, air and humidity.

"The computer takes all the guesswork out — it's set it and forget it," Carroll said.

The computer-regulated irrigation system waters the tomatoes every 20 minutes, providing a brief 1-minute trickle of water and nutrients to the roots. Depending on the temperature and humidity, the fans and cooling system come on automatically. Carroll said the computer saves a lot of labor.

"Most people with greenhouses have to hand-water," Carroll said, "I would have to hand-water six or seven times a day, but this system completely eliminates that."

Page 2 of 2 - Water use is also much lower because the water is delivered more efficiently and recycled. Carroll said growing the same amount of tomatoes in field production requires 90 percent more water.

Carroll said the technology isn't new. In fact, farmers in the northeastern United States have been using hydroponic greenhouses for decades because of the shorter growing season. In the South, hydroponic systems are slowly becoming more common for growing produce during the offseason, when field producers don't have tomatoes. Carroll sells tomatoes during the fall, winter and spring at various farmers markets, grocery stores and restaurants.

Poultry apps

Like the computer system in Carroll's greenhouse, nearly all poultry houses have a computer system that helps monitor temperatures and water use. Near Mooresboro, Gene Pyron raises broiler chickens for Case Farms. Each one of his poultry houses is equipped with sensors to monitor and track changes in temperatures, water use, air pressure and feed use.

Pyron said that system saves time and labor because he doesn't have to spend as much time manually setting sensors and thermostats on fans.

"I've got a laptop in my house to control that," Pyron said. "It's linked to the computer system in the chicken houses, so I can check if anything isn't normal."

Through an app on his smartphone, Pyron can also monitor the status of his houses remotely.

The poultry houses also have another new technology: radiant heating units to keep chicks warm. Pyron said the new system does a better job distributing heat within the houses, which helps produce a faster, more uniform growth rate for the chicks.

"The system is supposed to be more energy-efficient, as well," he said, "But so far, it seems about the same in propane use."

Although some new technologies may not fully fulfill their claims, Pryon, Wilson and Carroll all try to research and keep a lookout for new tools that can help their operations, as do many other Cleveland County farmers.

So remember, if you see a strange flying object over a field, it may not be a UFO, but rather just a Cleveland County farmer checking up on crops.

Source: Local farms go high-tech

Researchers Find Intricate Tattoos on a 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Woman

Researchers at Stanford University have found intricately designed body art on the well-preserved remains of a 3,000-year-old woman's body from Ancient Egypt.

The human remains were from Deir el-Medina, the village of artisans who built the tombs of the pharaoh during Egypt's New Kingdom (1550 to 1070 B.C.E.), Anne Austin, an archaeologist at Stanford University, told ABC News.

"Though the site was excavated nearly a century ago, the human remains were never studied. In 2014, I identified the mummy of a woman covered in tattoos; however, it wasn't until this year when we did infrared photography and we were able to identify all of the tattoos on her shoulders, neck, arms, and back."

Stanford University archaeologist Anne Austin found intricately designed tattoos on the body of a 3,000-year-old woman from Ancient Egypt.

The woman, who Austin said lived in the Ramesside period, more than 3,000 years ago, is covered with tattoos that Austin said have religious meanings.

"The tattoos include important religious imagery like the cows of the goddess Hathor and Wadjet eyes -- a divine protective eye in ancient Egypt. The placement in the religious iconography of the tattoos suggests that they had a deeply symbolic religious purpose."

This woman is one of three tattooed mummies buried in Egyptian cemeteries, Austin said, although it is likely that more have yet to be discovered. The tattoo artistry for this one is unique, however, as it is the first to have Egyptian figures while the others had geometric tattoos.

Austin told ABC News it is not know what tools or ink Ancient Egyptian tattoo artists used.

The tattoos may also indicate the advanced roles of women in Ancient Egypt. "This mummy not only documents an Egyptian tradition of tattooing that we have not yet seen before, but the religious symbolism of the tattoos reveal important ways that women could participate in religion in this time period in ancient Egypt."

Source: Researchers Find Intricate Tattoos on a 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Woman

Moody Infrared Photos of Patagonia’s Dramatic Landscape

One morning last December, I woke up and noticed that a dream of mine came true: I had taken a picture that went viral. A picture I took at a friend's wedding had been shared by UNILAD on Facebook with the caption "Best wedding photo ever."

This short little tutorial by photographer and educator Phil Steele might be too basic for most advanced and even intermediate photographers, but you might find it useful all the same. That's because it tackles what Steele calls "the biggest confusion about Lightroom."

Photographer Denis Cherim of Madrid, Spain, says that writing is not one of his strengths. Instead, he chooses to tell stories with pictures instead of words. He has a knack for spotting moments in which the subjects and shadows of his scenes line up in special ways.

Here's a short and sweet 4-minute video that's packed with 23 different "ninja tips" that can help you in your street photography (or your next photo walk). COOPH followed photographer Thomas …

Photographer Chia Joel (AKA idroneman) is capturing Singapore from a different vantage point. Using a DJI Phantom 3, he shoots captivating abstract aerial images that look straight down onto "the most expensive city in the world."

On Friday, I lost my $2,800 Apple MacBook Pro by following standard TSA security protocols at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Streetmuseum is a new (and free) augmented reality iPhone app created by the Museum of London that allows you to browse historical photographs in various parts of the city. The app leads you to …

Color is one of the fundamental aspects of branding, and most major companies in the world of photography are known for using key colors in their branding.

Okay Google, eject the camera. Five little words followed by a small 'pop' from the prototype phone sitting on the table in front of him, and Google's Rafa Camargo made the the crowd at the Google I/O developer conference go wild.

Making an iconic landmark 'disappear' might seem like the purview of magicians, but it's street artist and photographer JR who gets the glory this time around. Through clever use of massive photo prints, he managed to make the iconic Louvre Pyramid 'disappear' into the Museum behind it.

In this tutorial, I'll show you how you can remove harsh highlights in portraits without affecting the shadow detail in minutes.

Are you ready for the Canon 5D Mark IV? Because it's right around the corner. A new report reveals that photographers are already testing the camera out in the wild, getting the software ready for the expected August release.

If you thought milk splash photography was a bit extreme, then Canadian photographer Melissa Trotter's latest experiment is probably not for you. Instead of using milk, she created a 'dress' using fake blood.

We already knew Chinese electronics brand Xiaomi would be releasing a drone today, but we were only hoping that it would be the first truly affordable UAV on the market. Well, Xiaomi has confirmed our hopes.

Want to see what goes into a $11,000 Canon telephoto zoom lens? This image shows what the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS looks like when you disassemble it into its individual components and arrange those parts out neatly.

Ah, the Instagram #yoga hashtag. As of this writing, there are over 20 million posts hashtagged #yoga on Instagram, and this creative spoof describes/pokes fun of a good 50% of them.

When I started photography nine years ago, I didn't have a problem going out and finding inspiration. Everything was so new and, subsequently, there seemed to be no end to the ideas I felt I could produce. Looking back, I can see that my work wasn't particularly indistinguishable from many others—there was no depth, no originality.

Police in Canada are using a super-telephoto camera setup to spot distracted drivers from afar and capture evidence of their misbehavior. The kit consists of a DSLR, 50mm lens, and a spotting scope.

A while back we shared the world's smallest tintypes, created with a tiny modified camera. Now here's a look at the opposite end of the spectrum: the world's largest tintypes, shot using a colossal room-sized cameras.

The airline Emirates is a sponsor of the French Open championship in tennis, and one of its advertisements at the tennis matches is an aerial camera in the shape of an Airbus A380.

Source: Moody Infrared Photos of Patagonia's Dramatic Landscape

Striking infrared photos make Central Park look like a futuristic dreamscape

Paolo Pettigiani

Every year, millions of visitors flock to New York's Central Park to enjoy an oasis of greenery in the middle of the city. An Italian photographer is looking at the park from a different perspective.

"Infrared NYC," a photo series by 24-year-old Paolo Pettigiani, uses aerochrome infrared film to show Central Park and its surroundings in vibrant, unexpected colors. Trees and grass become bubble-gum pink, while the city's skyscrapers appear in shades of turquoise. 

The photo series, which Pettigiani released this month, is the second infrared project he has undertaken — his first showcased winter landscapes in his hometown of Aviglinana, Italy.

Pettigiani says his goal for the new project is to "highlight the majesty and the contrast of nature" in New York City. See his photos below.

Source: Striking infrared photos make Central Park look like a futuristic dreamscape

Spring Is A Majestic Wonderland In These Infrared Photos Of NYC

When spring finally, well, springs, its brilliance can feel unreal. The sky, we're reminded, can dress itself in a spectrum of hues that includes so much more than pantsuit grey or high rise charcoal. Blue exists! The sun exists! And don't even get us started on the blooms. 

To capture the surreality of springtime in New York City, 24-year-old photographer Paolo Pettigiani photoshopped images he snapped of Central Park to give them an infrared-filtered appearance. He describes the inspiration of the project on his personal site: "The purpose is highlight the majesty and the contrast of nature included in the famous Big Apple's skyscrapers." 

Infrared is often used to highlight the beauty, novelty or sublimity of nature, or of a landscape unfamiliar to the artist. Of note are Richard Mosse's infrared snaps of the Congo, which juxtapose the violent weaponry wielded by its subjects with the playfulness of neon pinks and brilliant blues.

The effect is especially powerful when you add to it the consideration that infrared is a type of light on a wavelength that's not visible to the human eye. So, the message communicated by the image's vibrant rosiness and clear cerulean hues could be that the subject is beyond comprehension by the viewer; it's too picturesque. 

Source: Spring Is A Majestic Wonderland In These Infrared Photos Of NYC

State tries to address septic contamination in waterways

INTERNATIONAL FALLS — The water that fills Ken Henrickson's toilet bowl is pumped directly from the lake he lives on, and when he flushes, it goes back to the lake.

"I'm not sure if it's a good system or not," he said last month.

Henrickson lives along the rocky shore of Rainy Lake, which forms part of Minnesota's border with Canada, in the state's far north.

Henrickson's is one of the half-million Minnesota homes from which wastewater flows into buried septic tanks — systems that are maintained, and often ignored, by homeowners, not professional engineers. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency estimates one in every five septic systems across the state is failing.

The water off Henrickson's piece of shoreline is laced with sewage — likely his own, and that of about 200 neighbors. There are at least that many failing septic systems in a 15-mile stretch from Henrickson's neighborhood east to Voyageurs National Park.

"Nobody says too much about it," Henrickson said, "but yeah, we know it's there."

In Henrickson's neighborhood, the impact and cost of failing septic systems is front and center. But across the rest of the state, both cost and impact are less clear.

By all accounts, the problem on Rainy Lake reaches back to the glacial era: Henrickson's basement floor isn't concrete, but clean, smooth bedrock. Rock is never more than a few feet below the soil in that area. It's a tough place to make a septic system work.

Henrickson's house is built on bedrock.

"Wastewater comes out, hits the bedrock and doesn't get completely treated before it flows on to wherever it goes," said Koochiching County Environmental Director Dale Olson.

After working its way through the enzymes of a home's septic tank, it moves through the drain field, an underground network of perforated pipe. Drain fields are supposed to be at least three feet above groundwater level.

Those three feet of dry dirt are meant to filter nutrients from sewage, turning it back to clean water. But thanks to that shallow layer of bedrock around the south shoreline of Rainy Lake, dirt is scarce and wastewater can't be fully treated.

"Generally, eventually it ends up in the lake," Olson said. "All water does."

And that's when it becomes a problem.

"Anywhere where you have wastewater going into a lake, you're going to get extra weed growth," he said. "You're gonna get extra algae. And that can kill off certain species or make them move to different areas."

Twenty years and $17 million for a 6-inch pipe

For the last 20 years, Olson has been working to extend a sewer line from the International Falls water treatment plant to those failing systems in Henrickson's neighborhood. Now, thanks to a handful of state and federal grants, and a county loan, he has the $17 million it will take to bore a 6-inch pipe channel through more than 15 miles of solid granite.

In a little more than a year, he hopes, hundreds of faulty Rainy Lake septic systems will be capped and dormant.

But the Rainy Lake project solves just a tiny piece of Minnesota's septic problem.

The MPCA estimates more than 100,000 septic systems across the state are too old or so close to the water table that they're putting groundwater at risk. A quarter of those are believed to be so degraded that they pose an immediate threat to human health. But MPCA septic supervisor Aaron Jensen said most people never think about their septic systems.

"It's not visual. It's not like the roof of your house that you can see," he said. "A septic system that's in the back yard is kind of out of sight out of mind. It's something that might be leaking on the bottom, but I can still flush the toilet."

The mystery of failing systems

The septic problems are obvious on Rainy Lake. But across most of Minnesota, faulty systems are spread out — and hard to identify.

Phil Votruba knows that challenge firsthand. He tests hundreds of lakes and rivers across north-central Minnesota for contaminants and water quality in his work as a state watershed researcher for the MPCA. Sussing out a septic problem isn't straightforward.

Leaking septic systems can cloud lakes with phosphorous and nitrate. But so can agricultural runoff. Even rotting leaves will leach phosphorous into a lake. It takes a significant amount of sewage in a waterway to raise a red flag.

• Related: Should farmers or city pay to clean water? Iowa may decide

In his most recent round of testing, Votruba didn't find a single lake with clear signs of septic contamination. Even so, he said, leaking sewage is almost certainly degrading Minnesota waters. Even one failing septic system can have an impact.

"It all contributes," he said. "Each lake and each stream has kind of a pollution diet, so to speak, A lake has so much capacity to assimilate nutrients, but every little bit is a chink in the armor."

No one knows exactly how extensive the damage is, Votruba said. It's up to counties to keep an eye on older systems, and some counties are more vigilant than others. His agency has had a history of conflict with counties over the extent of regulation.

Beltrami County, for instance, is one of several counties that don't report the results of septic inspections to the state.

Others, like Ottertail County, have conducted thousands of inspections over the last few years. Officials there say about one out of every four septic systems within its borders is failing. That's likely close to accurate, but statewide data is less reliable.

All told, about two percent of septic systems in the state are inspected each year. When the MPCA claims that 100,000 systems are failing, that's a guess, based on a narrow slice of data from all 87 counties.

Proof that's 20 years old

Even on Rainy Lake, where enough sewage has leaked down the shore to attract millions in federal funding for the sewer project, solid facts are in short supply.

Hundreds of inspections have confirmed that roughly two-thirds of septic systems in the Voyageurs National Park area are failing, but the only proof of untreated sewage actually having an impact on Rainy Lake is in a dusty old folder in the Koochiching County courthouse.

That proof exists thanks to Dale Olson. Early in his career as the county's environmental services director, he hired a pilot to fly over the south shore of Rainy Lake to gather infrared photos. It was the mid- 1990's and at the time he suspected the septic systems in that area weren't working properly, but he didn't know the extent of the damage.

Those infrared photo slides show blooms of algae feasting on enough sewage to generate visible heat signatures. The images set Olson to work on the sewer line project that has taken most of his career to launch. But that photographic proof — the most tangible proof that exists — of sewage on Rainy Lake is 20 years old. Olson can't even find a place to develop the old slides.

The project he started so long ago is now funded. He expects ground will be broken next summer.

Soon, for the first time, Ken Henrickson will be able to flush his toilet and know he's not polluting his beloved lake. He and his neighbors are funding roughly a quarter of the sewer line project through their monthly utility bills. Henrickson said it's worth whatever he has to pay to keep his lake clean.

"I don't want my kids swimming in stuff that shouldn't be there," he said. "It's a beautiful area. We have to take care of it. That's all."

Source: State tries to address septic contamination in waterways

Spring Is A Majestic Wonderland In These Infrared Photos Of NYC

When spring finally, well, springs, its brilliance can feel unreal. The sky, we're reminded, can dress itself in a spectrum of hues that includes so much more than pantsuit grey or high rise charcoal. Blue exists! The sun exists! And don't even get us started on the blooms. 

To capture the surreality of springtime in New York City, 24-year-old photographer Paolo Pettigiani photoshopped images he snapped of Central Park to give them an infrared-filtered appearance. He describes the inspiration of the project on his personal site: "The purpose is highlight the majesty and the contrast of nature included in the famous Big Apple's skyscrapers." 

Infrared is often used to highlight the beauty, novelty or sublimity of nature, or of a landscape unfamiliar to the artist. Of note are Richard Mosse's infrared snaps of the Congo, which juxtapose the violent weaponry wielded by its subjects with the playfulness of neon pinks and brilliant blues.

The effect is especially powerful when you add to it the consideration that infrared is a type of light on a wavelength that's not visible to the human eye. So, the message communicated by the image's vibrant rosiness and clear cerulean hues could be that the subject is beyond comprehension by the viewer; it's too picturesque. 

Source: Spring Is A Majestic Wonderland In These Infrared Photos Of NYC

Inside Michael Jurick’s INFRARED One-Night-Only Exhibition at The Glasshouses

Harriette Rose Katz and Michael Jurick

Harriette Rose Katz's elite event collective The Chosen Few has done it once again in a haute collaboration with artist Michael Jurick. Over 200 guests got to enjoy the Infrared exhibition at The Glasshouses on Monday, May 16th. The night was filled with Jurick's incredible photographs and multimedia pieces as attendees enjoyed music by Chosen Few member Total Entertainment and lighting by Chosen Few's Frost Lighting. It was only further enhanced by light bites from Matt Miller Events and panoramic views of our beloved New York City.

Michael then took to the floor to say, "Infrared is invisible, radiant energy. Radiant is the key word in that definition. To radiate joy, to radiate love and to radiate creativity permeates all that I do." He continued, "At the second annual induction to The Chosen Few I had a vision to collaborate with the most talented designers in New York, so we could interpret these never before seen photographs with a touch of color and concept."

The exhibition displayed 12 diverse photographs by Michael Jurick accompanied by seven collaborative experiential artworks created by a selection of The Chosen Few members including Frank Alexander, Jennifer Gould of Diana Gould, Ltd., Pat James & Glenn Jacinto, Jen Stone & Marco Olmi, DeJuan Stroud, Anthony Taccetta, and designer Beth Banker.

Harriette Rose Kat'z concluded the night with a few wonderful words, "This is a room filled with people from the most creative corners of New York City and how did we all end up here…The Chosen Few. I created this highly selective organization in order to recognize the best of the best in each category in the events world." She continued, "Michael Jurick, one of the most talented and lovely photographers I have ever had the pleasure of working within my career, came to my house last summer to show me his infrared photography and I was totally blown away."

Morning Ride by Michael Jurick Herd, American Prairie Reserve, Montana by Michael Jurick
Source: Inside Michael Jurick's INFRARED One-Night-Only Exhibition at The Glasshouses

NYC's Central Park Gets Psychedelic New Look in Infrared Photographs

The best architectural photography gets the viewer to see a building, neighborhood, or city anew and this series by Italian lensman Paolo Pettigiani is no different. Pettigiani takes us down the rabbit hole in a collection of snaps taken with an infrared camera, which detects wavelengths of light not visible to the human eye. This means the bright whites and vivid greens Jo Schmo may see on her visit to Central Park—on which this series centers—are rendered in turquoise and shocking pink.

This is a departure for Pettigiani, whose previous infrared photography project featured his small Italian hometown of Avigliana (population: 11,000). Like this photo series, which is simply called "Infrared NYC," Pettigiani's last also focused on Avigliana's snowy, windswept landscape. Take a gander.

paolo pettigiani photographs italian landscapes in infrared [Designboom]

Aerial Photos of Tiny NYC Scale Model Show Beautifully Dense City [Curbed]

See Romantic Photos of Hong Kong at Dusk [Curbed]

All Photography coverage [Curbed]

Source: NYC's Central Park Gets Psychedelic New Look in Infrared Photographs

Coast Chronicles: Pacific County in infrared photos and obsidian

GATE GABLE PHOTO

Rich Bergeman talks about how the technique of infrared photography allowed him to captured some of the magic of James Swan's favorite places in the Columbia-Pacific region.

CATE GABLE PHOTO

Aaron Webster, who teaches the primitive art of flintknapping, is also a sought after educator at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. His work is partnered with Rich Bergeman's in the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum's current exhibit.

A couple weekends ago I was amazed to find nueva cancion — Latin American new music — being performed at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum. The songs of Victor Jara and Violeta Parra — their traditional rhythms on guitar with drum, pan pipes and heart-rending lyrics — echoed around the community room.

This weekend I was back for another phenomenal exhibition. I'm pretty sure that before Betsy Millard arrived to take the helm I had been inside the museum no more than once or twice. But now, twice in two weeks!

So, first of all, a shout out for Betsy's professionalism and the magnetic quality she has in attracting talented, dedicated staff and volunteers. Then there's her undeniable perspicacity in recognizing quality artists and unique exhibits.

The current show is one of the most intriguing in recent memory; it combines art, artisanal technique, local legend and historical roots that go back centuries. In the case of photographer Rich Bergeman, we're talking the 1850s, the era of James Swan and the early white settlement days of Shoalwater Bay. Rich's photos are partnered with the exquisite knapping of Aaron Webster, who is working from ancient traditional Danish flint shapes like the dagger, blade, halberd and sickle to create his own contemporary versions of Neolithic artforms.

Rich Bergeman

Rich was one of Cyndy Hayward's Willapa Bay AiR artists. He arrived for his residency in April 2015 not knowing exactly what his project would be. As he says, "I did know I wanted to experiment with either my pinhole or my infrared camera on a project of landscapes, bay water and sky." What he wasn't sure about was what the exact content of his project might be, until he found his way to James Swan's 1857 book "The Northwest Coast; Or, Three Years' residence in Washington Territory" — then an idea began forming. Rich is a journalist, editor and educator as well as a photographer. "What I like to do is a photographic retelling of history and I've done that in other places," said Rich. Soon he realized the project was staring him in the face — he began photographing the local places described by Swan.

Rich had brought a pinhole and an infrared camera. (A pinhole camera has no lens and just one small aperture for light. Infrared technique opens the camera to a different range of the light spectrum.) Infrared images are often described as dreamy or mystical, and for Rich — although it wasn't necessarily what he was thinking about before he took his shots — this fit into the idea of capturing in an almost ghost-like way, the areas that Swan inhabited so many years ago. Was his ghostly image still lingering there? At the show's opening, Rich said, "Before I came to AiR, I didn't know anything about the Peninsula — I knew Oysterville wasn't a classic ghost town. I was taking pictures of the stone bench [the Willard Espy Bench] with my pinhole camera — they didn't really come out right — and Michael Parker kept coming out and asking me, 'Well what are you doing with the infrared camera?' So I had to keep thinking about it. Although I didn't at first come u p with the idea that I was trailing a ghost around with a camera that captures invisible light — I stumbled across the idea." The images do look ghostly, eerie, starkly dramatic and sometimes other-worldly, even those of places we know and love, like the Oysterville Schoolhouse or Baby Island.

I asked Rich what his favorite images were and he paused. "Well, some I like because they work better photographically and some I like because of the romance of the story. Others I like because people have said, 'No, no, that one is better than you think it is.'" Then he does concede that one of his favorites is the large-format print of Leadbetter Point. It's a stunning image of that long curve of sand against the bay, with a tumble of clouds above. Rich says, "This one has the feeling of both land and the bay, that's why I decided to used it for the cover of my book. [His book of photographs with excerpts from Swan's journal is available at the museum bookstore.] It was one lucky afternoon. I stepped out and took this photograph and then I walked a little ways down and took another one using the sky again."

When Betsy hung the show, she decided to group the selected photographs more or less geographically. She said of her organizing principle, "Well, part of it is just the rhythm that is created, but part of it too is the dialogue that the project has internally. I wanted those pieces that were in and around Shoalwater Bay to flow. So I used the Leadbetter Point image as the entrance to the Bay — through them to Swan's claim. It's a little fuzzy in some areas. But then I went on to a Columbia and Grays River grouping. And then Oysterville comes along because there is so much Swan talks about with oysters. Then Naselle. It all just seemed to work."

She points to a lovely and delicate print on the far wall. "Even though the cow parsnip is not Oysterville, it screams Oysterville to me."

"But that's where I photographed it!" Rich said, "It was just above town."

(Get a glimpse of some of Rich's photographs at tinyurl.com/Bergeman-Photos)

Aaron Webster

Aaron Webster, Washington State Park's interpreter, primitive skills instructor and resident of Ilwaco, is a featured artist in the side gallery with his beautiful knapping work. Aaron gathers his own obsidian in the fields around Glass Butte, central Oregon. "You dig down through the soil and there is a layer of obsidian all in huge puzzle pieces that you have to pry apart." Aaron demurred — he does not work like Michelangelo who said, "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." Though obsidian does have special properties that constrain the artist, Aaron's traditional Clovis-like blades and spearheads are gorgeous. His knapped fish swim along the gallery wall, exchanging their solid stone form for fluidity. Knowing nothing about the art of knapping, I was surprised when Aaron brought my attention to a knapped cube by the Danish artist Sofus Stenak. "That is the best piece here," Aaron said. It turns out that stone does not want to flake that way. Knapping stone edges into hand-held shapes is a more typical collaboration of man with rock. But coaxing stone into a square cube, that shows the tour de force of a master.

Rich's photographs and Aaron's flintknapping are on display until July 13 both at 115 S.E. Lake Street in Ilwaco. Stop by and see how these contemporary artists have brought the past into our future.

Stay on topic - This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.

Share with Us - We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism.

Be Civil - It's OK to have a difference in opinion but there's no need to be a jerk. We reserve the right to delete any comments that we feel are spammy, off-topic, or reckless to the community.

Be proactive - Use the 'Flag as Inappropriate' link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts.

×
Source: Coast Chronicles: Pacific County in infrared photos and obsidian

Amazing infrared pictures show Hull and East Riding as you’ve never seen it before

Comments (1)

This stunning collection of images show Hull and the East Riding as you have never seen it before.

The images have been shot using infrared photography, creating a unique, distinguished look to them.

The brain-child behind the collection is Hull born Christopher Story who began photographing the area two years ago.

An artist by trade, Christopher, 50, has always been fascinated by infrared photography and particularly enjoys taking pictures of churches and castles.

Take a look at the video below to view the images.

Christopher said: "For those that don't know what infrared is its non-visible light. It's a spectrum which is just outside our perception and my camera has been converted to read infrared.

"Usually the foliage in pictures will go white and the sky will go black. It's often known as the paranormal wavelength."

More news: What happened at Hull's most haunted house

His biggest inspiration Simon Marsden, who is best known for his work taking black and white photos of haunted houses all over Europe.

Like Simon, Christopher is also a fan of all things paranormal and regularly goes on ghost hunts.

Christopher said: "I have a passion for photographing stately homes, churches and castles - predominantly ones that are haunted.

"I really do love churches because they're very peaceful places to be. People think they're very creepy but they're not really."

Christopher, who now lives in Preston, used to work as a guitar teacher in Hull city centre and says that the place will always have a place in his heart.

"Spurn point is my absolute favourite place in the whole world, I just love it."

From his experiences photographing the area, Christopher has found that the East Riding is home to a wealth of churches and old priories. He says that most people are completely unaware of them, he even plans to create a book to show them off.

"I don't think many people know about all of these places, so I'd love to create something that will show them off.

"I've been talking to lots of local vicars about it and they'd love to see it happen."

But it's not just buildings that Christopher likes to photograph. Most recently, he has taken some aerial pictures of the East Riding, including a particularly impressive shot of Spurn Point, Hull which was shot from his friend's propeller plane.

He said: "I only went up in a plane a couple of weeks ago and I'm absolutely petrified of flying.

"To get a good shot you have to open a small window because you don't want to get any reflection.

"It was absolutely freezing but it was worth it even though we had to circle it a couple of times."

Christopher has also taken aerial view pictures of Hull and Hedon.

Source: Amazing infrared pictures show Hull and East Riding as you've never seen it before

High school student building drone to help farmers

KEARNEY, Neb. — Evan Palmer has sky high ambitions. A sophomore at Amherst High School, Palmer is building a fixed-wing drone to help farmers improve crop production.

The project began after Palmer applied for and received a $1,000 grant from Nebraska Farm Bureau to build the unmanned aerial vehicle. He also attracted other sponsors who have contributed to the cost of designing and building his drone.

Palmer then began looking at online forums to understand how to build the drone and to determine parts he would need. "I started to get a basic idea of what I needed for the drone. From there, I started building a components list," he said.

Along the way, Palmer also learned how to use the 3D printer at Amherst High School to fashion some of the parts needed for his project.

He looked into flight systems, cameras and 3D mapping software for his project. He also researched fixed-wing and quadcopter style drones, settling on the fixed wing.

"I chose the fixed wing because it will be able to cover a larger area in less time," Palmer explained.

He chose a normalized difference vegetation index imaging system, which relies on infrared photos of crops to show their health.

Photos taken by a drone, using that NDVI system, can be stitched together into a 3D model using software called DroneDeploy. The software was donated to Palmer by the manufacturer.

The 3D model, mapped from drone photos, will show farmers issues with their crops such as water runoff and plant health.

"On the ground they aren't able to see all of these different spots. So when they have this map of the field, they can view firsthand what the issues are in their fields," Palmer said.

He envisions his drone being used by farmers to check crop health and make decisions accordingly. "This will help them save money, because they can make the decision through precision agriculture," Palmer explained.

Although drones are commonly used by the military and in other industries such as construction and entertainment, Palmer sees a lot of potential for drones in agriculture.

"I think that as the drone business develops more, you'll begin to see that agriculture is the primary use for it," he said. "With the new software that we're using, it's really providing large benefits to farmers."

With his project nearing completion, Palmer said that he plans to make a maiden flight of his drone in late March.

The high school sophomore already has a goal to create a business from his handiwork by flying the drone over fields and providing crop imaging data to farmers.

Palmer plans to continue his interest in drones after high school. He's interested in the unmanned aerial system program offered at Kansas State University.

He added that he would be interested in becoming a drone pilot or entering aerospace engineering.

———

Information from: Kearney Hub, http://www.kearneyhub.com/

An AP Member Exchange shared by the Kearney Hub

Source: High school student building drone to help farmers

Optical Liquid Level Sensor Market Growth, Trends and Value Chain 2015-2025 by FMI

Optical liquid level sensor is a contact-type sensor used for point level sensing of organic, corrosive and aqueous liquids that exhibits upper free surfaces. Optical liquid level sensor works on principle of optical reflection and detects change in transmission of light emitted from light emitting diode (LED) mounted on infrared LED and infrared photo detector. Based on the presence or absence of liquid, change in transmission is sensed. Optical liquid level sensors are used to detect level of liquid-liquid interfaces and liquids with suspended solids. Optical liquid level sensors are comparatively Inexpensive as compared to other liquid sensing technologies.  Optical sensors can work only with in clean translucent to transparent liquids. Optical liquid level sensors finds applications in Medical Laboratory, petrochemicals, Hydraulic Reservoirs, beverage systems etc. Depending upon applications, optical liquid level sensors with different specifications in terms of operating tem perature range, supply voltage range, current consumption, data rates etc. are used.

Global Optical Liquid level Sensor market Segmentation

Globally, Optical Liquid level Sensor market is segmented on the basis of applications and geography. Optical Liquid level Sensor has various applications in consumer sector, Oil & liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), Automotive & Transportation, Military, defence a& aerospace, Power & Manufacturing, Healthcare, chemicals, industrial usage and others.

Global Optical Liquid level Sensor market: Region-wise Outlook

Globally, The Optical Liquid level Sensor market is segmented on the basis of geography into seven regions ? North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. The global Optical Liquid level Sensor market is expected to reflect a single digit CAGR over the forecast period. The market for optical liquid level sensors is quite niche and expected to gain more market due to its increasing applications for industrial use. At present, share contribution of North America is the highest in global Optical Liquid level Sensor market. Asia-Pacific region is expected to show dramatic adoption of Optical Liquid level Sensor for various applications in upcoming decade. Market in Latin America and Middle East & Africa are expected to show comparatively slow penetration.

Request Free Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-853

Global Optical Liquid level Sensor market: Drivers

The prominent factors which drives the global optical liquid level sensor market are technological advancements in optical liquid level sensors and increasing implantation of optical liquid sensors in industrial applications. Optical liquid level sensors offers numerous advantages as compared to other liquid level sensors. Optical liquid level sensors are compact and easy to maintain. They are generally unaffected by vapours, even at High Concentrations and have no moving parts.

On other hand, optical liquid levels sensors offers fixed level detection and its limited ON/OFF functionalities, limits its use in protecting from dry runs and overflows.

Tremendous opportunities lies in developing end user specific optical liquid level sensor component, modules and system solutions.

Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-853

Global Optical Liquid level Sensor market: Key Players

The Optical Liquid level Sensor market is highly competitive market, characterised by active presence of many big players. Honeywell International, Inc. (US), Siemens AG (Germany), Gems Sensors & Control Co. (US), OMEGA Engineering Inc. (US), and SST Sensing Ltd (UK) etc. among others are some of the top players in global Optical Liquid level Sensor market. Players in Optical Liquid level Sensor market are heavily investing on research and development followed by strategic collaborations with other players. The players in global optical liquid level sensor market are directing efforts to integrate optical liquid level sensor with communication system. For instance, Honeywell offers fiber optic sensors with Serial Real-time Communication System (SERCOS) liquid level sensors. Fully customized products which meet harsh environment demands are expected to drive the demand for optical liquid level sensors for wide range of emerging applications.

Source: Optical Liquid Level Sensor Market Growth, Trends and Value Chain 2015-2025 by FMI

NASA Outlines Mars Deal With SpaceX

NASA expects to spend "on the order of $30 million" helping SpaceX send a modified Dragon vehicle to the surface of Mars in the 2018 planetary launch window, but the entry, descent and landing (EDL) data alone that it may get in return would be a bargain at 10 times the ...

You must be a paid subscriber to access "NASA Outlines Mars Deal With SpaceX".

Current Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) enterprise and individual members: please go to http://awin.aviationweek.com for access.

Not currently a subscriber? Click on the "Learn More" button below to view subscription offers.

Already registered? Log In here.
Source: NASA Outlines Mars Deal With SpaceX

Solving the Mystery of Ancient Ink Origins

Photo A fragment of a third-century B.C. receipt from ancient Egypt. Credit Ancient Ink Laboratory

In ancient times, scribes churned out documents — love poems, prayers, lawsuits — for clients who were illiterate or too busy to write. Although reams of the texts survive on papyrus, bark and parchment, the ingredients of the inks remain a mystery. Scientists, archaeologists, curators, historians and conservators are collaborating on testing these writings and crumbs of ancient pigments to unlock the ink recipes.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the conservator Yana van Dyke has been creating experimental inks from plant extracts, including oak galls, or swollen tissue on oak trees infested by wasps, to compare with those used on manuscripts. Hilary Becker, an assistant classics professor at the University of Mississippi who plans to join the faculty at Binghamton University in New York this f all, is completing a book titled "Commerce in Color," about the ancient Roman pigment trade.

The Ancient Ink Laboratory, a collaboration between Columbia University and New York University, is using nondestructive techniques like micro Raman spectroscopy, microscopy and infrared photography to scrutinize inks on documents. The lab is also studying fermentation residues from winemaking that may have gone into ancient ink mixtures and crusts found inside ancient inkwells at the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

In poring over Roman texts, Ms. Becker has found references to indelible and invisible inks on the market, some of them highly valued, and complaints about adulterated ingredients and poor quality. In the fifth century, Roman law mandated that only emperors could write with prized purple ink made from charred seashells, for example. Anyone else who obtained this expensive dye would face the death penalty.

David Ratzan, the head librarian at N.Y.U.'s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, said that no one is certain how soot and other charred ingredients in black inks were made and harvested. Pliny the Elder mentions that the "best kind" of black pigment "is adulterated with the soot from furnaces and baths, which is used for writing."

All this new scholarship could be useful for experts authenticating manuscripts and for conservators trying to stabilize documents damaged by corrosive inks. Extracts in the formulas may also indicate where tree species once flourished and help identify the trade routes for ink products.

"It's all part of a puzzle," Ms. van Dyke said.

A Connecticut Idyll

From the 1880s to the 1910s, the painter J. Alden Weir vacationed with fellow intellectuals in a sleepy corner of eastern Connecticut. At his home there in Windham, he sketched meadows bordered by picturesquely sagging fences and encroaching railroad lines and textile mills; his visitors included John Singer Sargent and Childe Hassam. Anne E. Dawson, an art history professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, has spent seven years tracking down documents and artworks for "A Good Summer's Work: J. Alden Weir, Connecticut Impressionist," opening on Saturday at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Conn., and a book, "Rare Light: J. Alden Weir in Windham, Connecticut, 1882-1919," from Wesleyan University Press.

The Windham artists' colony has largely been forgotten, unlike some of its counterparts along the Connecticut coast and in the New York suburbs. Mr. Weir's other family home, in Wilton, Conn., is now the Weir Farm National Historic Site, and studio spaces there are still stocked with brushes, palettes and paints. In Windham, he worked in a converted shoe factory that has since been demolished; its weeded-over remains are not far from the Weir family's graves. His paintings of the area have often been mislabeled as scenes of the countryside around Wilton.

Ms. Dawson analyzed Mr. Weir's correspondence as well as family inventories. The artist sometimes adapted his natural surroundings in Windham to improve his compositions on canvas, shifting hill contours and adding hollyhocks and other plants. He called the technique "hollyhocking."

On May 20 and 21, Boyd Auctions in Portsmouth, N.H., will offer antiques passed down to Mr. Weir's descendants, including art supplies, paintings, letters and family photographs. Ms. Dawson said that she would document the material before it is dispersed.

Photo A glass facsimile of a sea creature known as Comatula mediterranea, made in Dresden, Germany, in 1885 by the glassmakers Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. Credit Corning Museum of Glass Sea Creatures in Glass

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, a father-and-son team of Bohemian-born glassmakers based in Dresden, Germany, were known for bending wisps of glass into detailed models of flowers and marine life. In the late 1800s they supplied displays for schools, museums and aquariums while also making prosthetic glass eyes and lab equipment for export. After a few decades on view, the botanical and zoological pieces were often considered outdated; countless items ended up in storerooms, their petals shattered and tentacles snapped.

In recent months experts have been restoring the Blaschkas' glass minutiae in preparation for "Fragile Legacy: The Marine Invertebrate Glass Models of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka," an exhibition opening on May 14 at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N. Y. It will explore the Blaschkas' methods of reinforcing models with wires and glue, the their shipping crates and the surviving glass creations worldwide. Videos will show conservators repairing the antiques, many of which belong to Cornell University.

The curator of the Cornell holdings, Drew Harvell, a marine biologist, researched the contemporary fates of the creatures that were immortalized in glass for her recent climate-change-related book, "A Sea of Glass: Searching for the Blaschkas' Fragile Legacy in an Ocean at Risk" (University of California Press). She collaborated with the filmmaker David O. Brown on a documentary about the subject, "Fragile Legacy," and the team's footage of marine life depicted by the Blaschkas will be screened at the Corning Museum.

An exhibition of the photo grapher Guido Mocafico's close-ups of Blaschka sculptures runs through May 24 at Hamiltons Gallery in London. Harvard's Blaschka collections are the subject of a book due this fall, "Sea Creatures in Glass: The Blaschka Marine Animals at Harvard" (Harvard Museums/Scala), and a renovated display that reopens there on May 21.

Continue reading the main story
Source: Solving the Mystery of Ancient Ink Origins

Raspberry Pi gets 8MP cameras

Sony says Uncharted 4 copies stolen; Issues 'spoiler alert'

Dead body found in Apple's Cupertino HQ

Infosys invests in Trifacta

Encryption: Good or bad, the debate continues

Infosys announce partnership with KUKA Aktiengesellschaft

Meizu to launch M3 Note in India on May 11

Microsoft not ready to give up on Windows 10 Mobile yet

Slow networks hurting Apple growth in India: CEO Tim Cook

Apple says witnessing strong demand for iPhone SE

Source: Raspberry Pi gets 8MP cameras

Solving the Mystery of Ancient Ink Origins

Photo A fragment of a third-century B.C. receipt from ancient Egypt. Credit Ancient Ink Laboratory

In ancient times, scribes churned out documents — love poems, prayers, lawsuits — for clients who were illiterate or too busy to write. Although reams of the texts survive on papyrus, bark and parchment, the ingredients of the inks remain a mystery. Scientists, archaeologists, curators, historians and conservators are collaborating on testing these writings and crumbs of ancient pigments to unlock the ink recipes.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the conservator Yana van Dyke has been creating experimental inks from plant extracts, including oak galls, or swollen tissue on oak trees infested by wasps, to compare with those used on manuscripts. Hilary Becker, an assistant classics professor at the University of Mississippi who plans to join the faculty at Binghamton University in New York this f all, is completing a book titled "Commerce in Color," about the ancient Roman pigment trade.

The Ancient Ink Laboratory, a collaboration between Columbia University and New York University, is using nondestructive techniques like micro Raman spectroscopy, microscopy and infrared photography to scrutinize inks on documents. The lab is also studying fermentation residues from winemaking that may have gone into ancient ink mixtures and crusts found inside ancient inkwells at the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

In poring over Roman texts, Ms. Becker has found references to indelible and invisible inks on the market, some of them highly valued, and complaints about adulterated ingredients and poor quality. In the fifth century, Roman law mandated that only emperors could write with prized purple ink made from charred seashells, for example. Anyone else who obtained this expensive dye would face the death penalty.

David Ratzan, the head librarian at N.Y.U.'s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, said that no one is certain how soot and other charred ingredients in black inks were made and harvested. Pliny the Elder mentions that the "best kind" of black pigment "is adulterated with the soot from furnaces and baths, which is used for writing."

All this new scholarship could be useful for experts authenticating manuscripts and for conservators trying to stabilize documents damaged by corrosive inks. Extracts in the formulas may also indicate where tree species once flourished and help identify the trade routes for ink products.

"It's all part of a puzzle," Ms. van Dyke said.

A Connecticut Idyll

From the 1880s to the 1910s, the painter J. Alden Weir vacationed with fellow intellectuals in a sleepy corner of eastern Connecticut. At his home there in Windham, he sketched meadows bordered by picturesquely sagging fences and encroaching railroad lines and textile mills; his visitors included John Singer Sargent and Childe Hassam. Anne E. Dawson, an art history professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, has spent seven years tracking down documents and artworks for "A Good Summer's Work: J. Alden Weir, Connecticut Impressionist," opening on Saturday at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Conn., and a book, "Rare Light: J. Alden Weir in Windham, Connecticut, 1882-1919," from Wesleyan University Press.

The Windham artists' colony has largely been forgotten, unlike some of its counterparts along the Connecticut coast and in the New York suburbs. Mr. Weir's other family home, in Wilton, Conn., is now the Weir Farm National Historic Site, and studio spaces there are still stocked with brushes, palettes and paints. In Windham, he worked in a converted shoe factory that has since been demolished; its weeded-over remains are not far from the Weir family's graves. His paintings of the area have often been mislabeled as scenes of the countryside around Wilton.

Ms. Dawson analyzed Mr. Weir's correspondence as well as family inventories. The artist sometimes adapted his natural surroundings in Windham to improve his compositions on canvas, shifting hill contours and adding hollyhocks and other plants. He called the technique "hollyhocking."

On May 20 and 21, Boyd Auctions in Portsmouth, N.H., will offer antiques passed down to Mr. Weir's descendants, including art supplies, paintings, letters and family photographs. Ms. Dawson said that she would document the material before it is dispersed.

Photo A glass facsimile of a sea creature known as Comatula mediterranea, made in Dresden, Germany, in 1885 by the glassmakers Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. Credit Corning Museum of Glass Sea Creatures in Glass

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, a father-and-son team of Bohemian-born glassmakers based in Dresden, Germany, were known for bending wisps of glass into detailed models of flowers and marine life. In the late 1800s they supplied displays for schools, museums and aquariums while also making prosthetic glass eyes and lab equipment for export. After a few decades on view, the botanical and zoological pieces were often considered outdated; countless items ended up in storerooms, their petals shattered and tentacles snapped.

In recent months experts have been restoring the Blaschkas' glass minutiae in preparation for "Fragile Legacy: The Marine Invertebrate Glass Models of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka," an exhibition opening on May 14 at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N. Y. It will explore the Blaschkas' methods of reinforcing models with wires and glue, the their shipping crates and the surviving glass creations worldwide. Videos will show conservators repairing the antiques, many of which belong to Cornell University.

The curator of the Cornell holdings, Drew Harvell, a marine biologist, researched the contemporary fates of the creatures that were immortalized in glass for her recent climate-change-related book, "A Sea of Glass: Searching for the Blaschkas' Fragile Legacy in an Ocean at Risk" (University of California Press). She collaborated with the filmmaker David O. Brown on a documentary about the subject, "Fragile Legacy," and the team's footage of marine life depicted by the Blaschkas will be screened at the Corning Museum.

An exhibition of the photo grapher Guido Mocafico's close-ups of Blaschka sculptures runs through May 24 at Hamiltons Gallery in London. Harvard's Blaschka collections are the subject of a book due this fall, "Sea Creatures in Glass: The Blaschka Marine Animals at Harvard" (Harvard Museums/Scala), and a renovated display that reopens there on May 21.

Continue reading the main story
Source: Solving the Mystery of Ancient Ink Origins

Raspberry Pi gets 8MP cameras

Sony says Uncharted 4 copies stolen; Issues 'spoiler alert'

Dead body found in Apple's Cupertino HQ

Infosys invests in Trifacta

Encryption: Good or bad, the debate continues

Infosys announce partnership with KUKA Aktiengesellschaft

Meizu to launch M3 Note in India on May 11

Microsoft not ready to give up on Windows 10 Mobile yet

Slow networks hurting Apple growth in India: CEO Tim Cook

Apple says witnessing strong demand for iPhone SE

Source: Raspberry Pi gets 8MP cameras

Nanostructures Give Infrared Photodetectors Three Colors to See In

The nanostructured materials known as Type-II indium arsenide/gallium antimonide/aluminum antimonide (InAs/GaSb/AlSb) superlattices have been around since the 1970s and have served in infrared detection applications since the late 1980s. Since then, Type-II Sb-based superlattice materials have evolved drastically with many variants suited for different applications.

Now researchers at Northwestern University, led by Manijeh Razeghi, have developed a new superlattice design, called M-structure superlattice. It can be used to make devices that operate as a shortwave/mid-wave/long-wave infrared photodetector. Shortwave infrared wave (SWIR) bands make it possible to detect reflected light. Mid-wave detection picks up hot plumes and long-wave infrared detects cooler objects.

The researchers claim that a device designed around this new material can detect any of these infrared wavebands by simply adjusting the applied bias voltage. In terms of actual applications, the researchers claim this device could make possible infrared color televisions and three-color infrared imaging.

In research described in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, the researchers produced this superlattice by alternating the InAs, GaSb, and AlSb layers (with thicknesses of a few angstroms to a few nanometers) over several periods. The result is a one-dimensional periodic structure like that of the periodic atomic chain in naturally occurring crystals.

"The beauty of Type-II superlattice is the gap engineering capability which allows us to artificially manipulate and create novel 'materials' like the way natural semiconductors are created," said Razeghi in an e-mail interview with IEEE Spectrum.

There are currently only a few material systems that are suitable for multi-spectral detection, according to Razeghi. The current state-of-the-art, mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) and quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs), are commercially available for infrared dual-band detection. However, mercury cadmium telluride technology is expensive and hard to make, while quantum well detectors suffer from low quantum efficiency and require low operating temperatures.

"In that context, Type-II InAs/GaSb/AlSb superlattices have proved to be an excellent alternative," says Razeghi. "Controlling the electronic structure by managing the layer thicknesses as they are grown on GaSb substrate [yields] superlattices with the capability of tuning from SWIR to very-long wavelength infrared (VLWIR), covering the whole infrared spectrum."

Despite the immense promise of the M-structure superlattices, this developing new material system has been the focus of considerably less development than II-VI based mercury cadmium telluride photodetectors, according to Razeghi.

"The current state-of-the-art in infrared detection technology is still based on HgCdTe, and relatively little effort has been expended developing dual- and triple-band T2SL based focal plane arrays (FPAs)," Razeghi told Spectrum. "There is a unique opportunity to mature this material system and realize a new generation of dual- and triple-band FPA sensors."

However, Razeghi concedes that, responsivity, which dictates how sensitive a photodetector is, and the dark current, which is related to the noise, must be further improved. This means the optimization of many parameters, including device design, material growth, and all of the processing steps, must result in high reproducibility and high yield.

"We need to reduce the bias dependency of the long-wavelength channel to a reasonable range so that it could be compatible with the currently available readout integrated circuit," says Razeghi.

The next step in the research, she says, will be to fabricate a three-color infrared camera. She added: "Our long term goal is to improve both electrical and optical performance of the detectors in order to make cheap high-performance infrared cameras for different applications."

Source: Nanostructures Give Infrared Photodetectors Three Colors to See In

Solving the Mystery of Ancient Ink Origins

Photo A fragment of a third-century B.C. receipt from ancient Egypt. Credit Ancient Ink Laboratory

In ancient times, scribes churned out documents — love poems, prayers, lawsuits — for clients who were illiterate or too busy to write. Although reams of the texts survive on papyrus, bark and parchment, the ingredients of the inks remain a mystery. Scientists, archaeologists, curators, historians and conservators are collaborating on testing these writings and crumbs of ancient pigments to unlock the ink recipes.

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the conservator Yana van Dyke has been creating experimental inks from plant extracts, including oak galls, or swollen tissue on oak trees infested by wasps, to compare with those used on manuscripts. Hilary Becker, an assistant classics professor at the University of Mississippi who plans to join the faculty at Binghamton University in New York this f all, is completing a book titled "Commerce in Color," about the ancient Roman pigment trade.

The Ancient Ink Laboratory, a collaboration between Columbia University and New York University, is using nondestructive techniques like micro Raman spectroscopy, microscopy and infrared photography to scrutinize inks on documents. The lab is also studying fermentation residues from winemaking that may have gone into ancient ink mixtures and crusts found inside ancient inkwells at the University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

In poring over Roman texts, Ms. Becker has found references to indelible and invisible inks on the market, some of them highly valued, and complaints about adulterated ingredients and poor quality. In the fifth century, Roman law mandated that only emperors could write with prized purple ink made from charred seashells, for example. Anyone else who obtained this expensive dye would face the death penalty.

David Ratzan, the head librarian at N.Y.U.'s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, said that no one is certain how soot and other charred ingredients in black inks were made and harvested. Pliny the Elder mentions that the "best kind" of black pigment "is adulterated with the soot from furnaces and baths, which is used for writing."

All this new scholarship could be useful for experts authenticating manuscripts and for conservators trying to stabilize documents damaged by corrosive inks. Extracts in the formulas may also indicate where tree species once flourished and help identify the trade routes for ink products.

"It's all part of a puzzle," Ms. van Dyke said.

A Connecticut Idyll

From the 1880s to the 1910s, the painter J. Alden Weir vacationed with fellow intellectuals in a sleepy corner of eastern Connecticut. At his home there in Windham, he sketched meadows bordered by picturesquely sagging fences and encroaching railroad lines and textile mills; his visitors included John Singer Sargent and Childe Hassam. Anne E. Dawson, an art history professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, has spent seven years tracking down documents and artworks for "A Good Summer's Work: J. Alden Weir, Connecticut Impressionist," opening on Saturday at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Conn., and a book, "Rare Light: J. Alden Weir in Windham, Connecticut, 1882-1919," from Wesleyan University Press.

The Windham artists' colony has largely been forgotten, unlike some of its counterparts along the Connecticut coast and in the New York suburbs. Mr. Weir's other family home, in Wilton, Conn., is now the Weir Farm National Historic Site, and studio spaces there are still stocked with brushes, palettes and paints. In Windham, he worked in a converted shoe factory that has since been demolished; its weeded-over remains are not far from the Weir family's graves. His paintings of the area have often been mislabeled as scenes of the countryside around Wilton.

Ms. Dawson analyzed Mr. Weir's correspondence as well as family inventories. The artist sometimes adapted his natural surroundings in Windham to improve his compositions on canvas, shifting hill contours and adding hollyhocks and other plants. He called the technique "hollyhocking."

On May 20 and 21, Boyd Auctions in Portsmouth, N.H., will offer antiques passed down to Mr. Weir's descendants, including art supplies, paintings, letters and family photographs. Ms. Dawson said that she would document the material before it is dispersed.

Photo A glass facsimile of a sea creature known as Comatula mediterranea, made in Dresden, Germany, in 1885 by the glassmakers Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. Credit Corning Museum of Glass Sea Creatures in Glass

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, a father-and-son team of Bohemian-born glassmakers based in Dresden, Germany, were known for bending wisps of glass into detailed models of flowers and marine life. In the late 1800s they supplied displays for schools, museums and aquariums while also making prosthetic glass eyes and lab equipment for export. After a few decades on view, the botanical and zoological pieces were often considered outdated; countless items ended up in storerooms, their petals shattered and tentacles snapped.

In recent months experts have been restoring the Blaschkas' glass minutiae in preparation for "Fragile Legacy: The Marine Invertebrate Glass Models of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka," an exhibition opening on May 14 at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N. Y. It will explore the Blaschkas' methods of reinforcing models with wires and glue, the their shipping crates and the surviving glass creations worldwide. Videos will show conservators repairing the antiques, many of which belong to Cornell University.

The curator of the Cornell holdings, Drew Harvell, a marine biologist, researched the contemporary fates of the creatures that were immortalized in glass for her recent climate-change-related book, "A Sea of Glass: Searching for the Blaschkas' Fragile Legacy in an Ocean at Risk" (University of California Press). She collaborated with the filmmaker David O. Brown on a documentary about the subject, "Fragile Legacy," and the team's footage of marine life depicted by the Blaschkas will be screened at the Corning Museum.

An exhibition of the photo grapher Guido Mocafico's close-ups of Blaschka sculptures runs through May 24 at Hamiltons Gallery in London. Harvard's Blaschka collections are the subject of a book due this fall, "Sea Creatures in Glass: The Blaschka Marine Animals at Harvard" (Harvard Museums/Scala), and a renovated display that reopens there on May 21.

Continue reading the main story
Source: Solving the Mystery of Ancient Ink Origins

OZ Minerals promising hundreds of jobs from Whyalla investment

OZ Minerals says a $150 million copper concentrate treatment plant at Whyalla in regional South Australia could create about 100 jobs during two years of construction and 100 ongoing jobs once it is operational.

The Adelaide-based resources company has applied to the South Australian Government for major project status, which can fast-track approvals.

OZ Minerals also has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with steelmaker Arrium to share its port and other facilities at Whyalla.

OZ Minerals chief executive Andrew Cole told shareholders the company's studies showed that building a standalone processing facility near a port was a better option than building one at its mine site.

"We get cheaper access to rail, to port, to roads, to power, to water, gas and oxygen plants and of course we have a much wider pool of people to draw on," he said.

Whyalla has been facing uncertainty about the future for many local jobs since Arrium, its biggest employer, went into administration a month ago.

OZ Minerals, formed when Oxiana and Zinifex merged in 2008, has two major copper assets in South Australia, the Carrapateena project near Port Augusta and Prominent Hill near Coober Pedy, from which it shed 100 workers earlier in the year.

Source: OZ Minerals promising hundreds of jobs from Whyalla investment

Nanostructures Give Infrared Photodetectors Three Colors to See In

The nanostructured materials known as Type-II indium arsenide/gallium antimonide/aluminum antimonide (InAs/GaSb/AlSb) superlattices have been around since the 1970s and have served in infrared detection applications since the late 1980s. Since then, Type-II Sb-based superlattice materials have evolved drastically with many variants suited for different applications.

Now researchers at Northwestern University, led by Manijeh Razeghi, have developed a new superlattice design, called M-structure superlattice. It can be used to make devices that operate as a shortwave/mid-wave/long-wave infrared photodetector. Shortwave infrared wave (SWIR) bands make it possible to detect reflected light. Mid-wave detection picks up hot plumes and long-wave infrared detects cooler objects.

The researchers claim that a device designed around this new material can detect any of these infrared wavebands by simply adjusting the applied bias voltage. In terms of actual applications, the researchers claim this device could make possible infrared color televisions and three-color infrared imaging.

In research described in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, the researchers produced this superlattice by alternating the InAs, GaSb, and AlSb layers (with thicknesses of a few angstroms to a few nanometers) over several periods. The result is a one-dimensional periodic structure like that of the periodic atomic chain in naturally occurring crystals.

"The beauty of Type-II superlattice is the gap engineering capability which allows us to artificially manipulate and create novel 'materials' like the way natural semiconductors are created," said Razeghi in an e-mail interview with IEEE Spectrum.

There are currently only a few material systems that are suitable for multi-spectral detection, according to Razeghi. The current state-of-the-art, mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) and quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs), are commercially available for infrared dual-band detection. However, mercury cadmium telluride technology is expensive and hard to make, while quantum well detectors suffer from low quantum efficiency and require low operating temperatures.

"In that context, Type-II InAs/GaSb/AlSb superlattices have proved to be an excellent alternative," says Razeghi. "Controlling the electronic structure by managing the layer thicknesses as they are grown on GaSb substrate [yields] superlattices with the capability of tuning from SWIR to very-long wavelength infrared (VLWIR), covering the whole infrared spectrum."

Despite the immense promise of the M-structure superlattices, this developing new material system has been the focus of considerably less development than II-VI based mercury cadmium telluride photodetectors, according to Razeghi.

"The current state-of-the-art in infrared detection technology is still based on HgCdTe, and relatively little effort has been expended developing dual- and triple-band T2SL based focal plane arrays (FPAs)," Razeghi told Spectrum. "There is a unique opportunity to mature this material system and realize a new generation of dual- and triple-band FPA sensors."

However, Razeghi concedes that, responsivity, which dictates how sensitive a photodetector is, and the dark current, which is related to the noise, must be further improved. This means the optimization of many parameters, including device design, material growth, and all of the processing steps, must result in high reproducibility and high yield.

"We need to reduce the bias dependency of the long-wavelength channel to a reasonable range so that it could be compatible with the currently available readout integrated circuit," says Razeghi.

The next step in the research, she says, will be to fabricate a three-color infrared camera. She added: "Our long term goal is to improve both electrical and optical performance of the detectors in order to make cheap high-performance infrared cameras for different applications."

Source: Nanostructures Give Infrared Photodetectors Three Colors to See In

Raspberry Pi gets 8MP cameras

Sony says Uncharted 4 copies stolen; Issues 'spoiler alert'

Dead body found in Apple's Cupertino HQ

Infosys invests in Trifacta

Encryption: Good or bad, the debate continues

Infosys announce partnership with KUKA Aktiengesellschaft

Meizu to launch M3 Note in India on May 11

Microsoft not ready to give up on Windows 10 Mobile yet

Slow networks hurting Apple growth in India: CEO Tim Cook

Apple says witnessing strong demand for iPhone SE

Source: Raspberry Pi gets 8MP cameras

Largan Precision : Patent Issued for Imaging Lens System (USPTO 9316819)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Electronics Newsweekly -- LARGAN PRECISION CO., LTD. (Taichung, TW) has been issued patent number 9316819, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews editors.

The patent's inventors are Hsu, Po-Lun (Taichung, TW); Chen, Wei-Yu (Taichung, TW); Hsueh, Chun-Che (Taichung, TW).

This patent was filed on November 15, 2012 and was published online on April 19, 2016.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: "The present invention relates to an imaging lens system, and more particularly, to an imaging lens system used in electronic products and infrared photography.

"The demand for compact imaging lens assembly grows in recent years with the increasing popularity of portable electronic products with photographing function. The sensor of a general photographing camera is none other than CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensor. Furthermore, as the advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology has allowed the pixel size of the sensors to be reduced, and the current electronic products are leaning toward a trend of being more compact, there is an increasing demand for high quality imaging lens.

"On the other hand, the emerging motion capture technology applied in smart TV or motion sensing games also expands the application of compact imaging lens. The feature of these applications is by an infrared camera directly capturing the user's motion, the user takes control of the device intuitively; the experience of the motion sensing operation is elevated. Therefore, the demand for compact imaging lens operated in the infrared wavelength range has increased; what is more, lenses with wide viewing angle are even more welcome because they can extend the capturing range of the camera.

"In view of this, an imaging lens structure applied in slim and portable electronic devices is needed; on one hand, imaging lenses with this structure can be optimized for the requirement of ordinary photography (wide viewing angle, large aperture, image quality, etc.), on the other hand, lenses with this structure can be optimized for motion capture in the infrared wavelength range."

Supplementing the background information on this patent, VerticalNews reporters also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "The present invention provides an imaging lens system, in order from an object side to an image side comprising: a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface at a paraxial region and a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region; a plastic second lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; and a plastic third lens element with negative refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a concave at the paraxial region and convex at a peripheral region image-side surface, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; wherein the lens elements of the imaging lens system with refractive power are the first lens element, the second lens element, and the third lens element, a curvature radius of the object-side surface of the first lens element is R1, a curvature radius of the image-side surface of the first lens element is R2, a focal length of the first lens element is f1, a focal length of the second lens element is f2, and they satisfy the following relations: -0.5<(R1+R2)/(R1-R2)<1.0; and 1.65<f1/f2<5.0.

"In another aspect, the present invention provides an imaging lens system, in order from an object side to an image side comprising: a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface at a paraxial region and a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region; a plastic second lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; and a plastic third lens element with negative refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a concave at the paraxial region and convex at a peripheral region image-side surface, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; wherein the lens elements of the imaging lens system with refractive power are the first lens element, the second lens element, and the third lens element, a c urvature radius of the object-side surface of the first lens element is R1, a curvature radius of the image-side surface of the first lens element is R2, a curvature radius of the object-side surface of the third lens element is R5, a focal length of the imaging lens system is f, and they satisfy the following relations: -0.5<(R1+R2)/(R1-R2)<1.0; and -1.33<R5/f<-0.55.

"In still another aspect, the present invention provides an imaging lens system, in order from an object side to an image side comprising: a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface at a paraxial region and a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region; a plastic second lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface at the paraxial region, a convex image-side surface at the paraxial region, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; and a plastic third lens element with negative refractive power having a concave at the paraxial region and convex at a peripheral region image-side surface, and both of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; wherein the lens elements of the imaging lens system with refractive power are the first lens element, the second lens element, and the third lens element, the imaging lens system is used for optical wavelen gths ranging from 780 nm to 950 nm, a curvature radius of the object-side surface of the first lens element is R1, a curvature radius of the image-side surface of the first lens element is R2, and they satisfy the following relation: -0.5<(R1+R2)/(R1-R2)<1.0.

"In the aforementioned imaging lens system, the first lens element has positive refractive power to effectively distribute the refractive power of the second lens and helps to reduce the sensitivity of the imaging lens system. The second lens element has positive refractive power and provides the main refractive power of the system to control the total track length of the lens system effectively and avoid too large a volume of the lens system. The third lens element has negative refractive power and forms a positive-negative telephoto structure with the second lens element and can reduce the total track length of the imaging lens system effectively. With the aforementioned configuration, the present invention can reduce the total track length of the imaging lens system, increase the viewing angle of the lens system effectively, and facilitate the compact and wide-angle applications."

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Hsu, Po-Lun; Chen, Wei-Yu; Hsueh, Chun-Che. Imaging Lens System. U.S. Patent Number 9316819, filed November 15, 2012, and published online on April 19, 2016. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9316819.PN.&OS=PN/9316819RS=PN/9316819

Keywords for this news article include: Technology, Electronics, Semiconductor, LARGAN PRECISION CO. LTD..

Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world. Copyright 2016, NewsRx LLC

(c) 2016 NewsRx LLC, source Technology Newsletters

Source: Largan Precision : Patent Issued for Imaging Lens System (USPTO 9316819)