Invisible Glowing Graffiti with two colors: Red and Green

This is some invisible UV glowing paint I made recently. It’s a clear paint that glows brightly under UV lights. There are many reasons I can think of to  can be used to add invisible messages without obscuring preexisting signs or creating visual clutter. Also some fun uses could be to create city wide treasure hunts or secrete messages. The ink comes in two versions a plastic based version that you can screen print and a polyurethane version that you can spray. Here’s what the wall looks like during the day:

Wall with two skull tags imitating wall without tags

At night here’s a picture of it glowing with a UV LED flashlight:

You can see it using UV LED's as well!

The applications are endless, what would you do with this type of ink?
-bg

Pope John Paul II.

The program can be found here and is pretty neat, just upload a EPS file and it will turn it into a text file of steps to take like this:

The C program I wrote to run a set of stepper motors using this type of text file can be found here.

For a full description on how I made a laser cutter and how to make one for yourself can be found at my instructable.

There have been a few people who have made the laser cutter, but none as beautifully as Samuel Ward’s:

My Biometric Data

WreckLab / MakeLab is a class I’m proposing around town in which people take apart the things that mystify them, learn how the component parts work, then put them back together in novel ways. The idea is to empower people with the knowledge of everyday objects they mistake for magic. Cell phone: magic. Refrigerators… majick. Printers: sorcery!! Having the knowledge of the inner workings of their thingsgives people more ownership over the stuff they buy. If your watch breaks, you’re not out all the parts, you can use that stuff! Also there’s the potential for fixing it yourself.

There is the hope that more happens, that through this destructive and constructive play people find themselves inspired to experiment, to realize that science is done by people solving their own problems. That a playful experimenting mind is a fun thing to cultivate, and who knows what fun hacks we’ll develop along the way!

Radioactive Boardgame Free will and chance, these are things I’ve been thinking about ever since I was introduced to the concept of reductionism. I’d really like to see more large scale things controlled by quantum and subatomic weirdness. It is disappointing to know that something mysterious exists that has the potential to give life true randomness and in my opinion adds a fair serving of intrigue then realize that as it aggregates all the fun random effects blend out to your last choice at Wendy’s (you got something from the dollar menu). So I’ve built a scintillator using Zinc Sulfide and Americium and in absolute darkness I can see subatomic particles exploding off and shooting out individual photons. It looks like static (coooooool). What I would like to do with this is develop a way to amplify it singularly to make decisions for a board game. No idea what the game will be, maybe I’ll make it a SMS based application where you ask it a question and it replies with an answer selected by ATOMS.

Biometric data link with my online and audio inputs. I’d like to see if there’s a correlation between my blood pressure and the websites I visit regularly.

It’s now late and I have a letter to write. So I’ll just name a few others: UV graffiti, RGB UV plastic based inks, refillable spray paint cans (found some), laser projector, The Two Hands Project, and starting a hackerspace in Ann Arbor called All Hands Active.

Also, I’m working at a preschool.
-Bilal Ghalib

Finger speakers

Considering new ways to send tactile data to my skin I’ve been working on gloves with speaker coils embedded in them. As a test I wound and glued speaker coils to my fingers and was able to use them placed against a magnet to feel some pretty good vibration. This is awesome, but the only problem is that they seem to require LOTS of amplification to give me a good sensation. I think adding an air cavity with approximately 1mm of open air between the diaphram and my finger will give me a really good buzzing sensation and will try that out during the next build night at AHA. Can’t wait to figure out a way to make tiny tactile sensors that we can build in a massive array!

Hey all! Just thought I’d let you know that this Thursday (tomorrow) will be a Build and Tell presented by the A2Makers group. We’ll be meeting at the Neutral Zone [310 E Washington Ann Arbor MI 48104] to have some stimulants (coffee/mate), brain storm and share what we’ve been making. If you’re down to come, here’s facebook stuff yo.

I’ve finally bought my ticket and a good group has formed around the project. Very rapidly things are coming together and it had to, there’s 9 days. I’ll be printing shirts for this project as a way to raise funds and to have something to offer. I really should make stickers and cards, I wonder if there’s a good place to do that that anyone knows.

Here’s the first prototype shirt for the Two Hands Project:

THP shirt under UV light

I think that a bit more formulation and my UV ink will be perfected, I think I want to use an Acetone based dye, but my concern is that the only ones I can get in that formulation that are sunlight stable fluoresce under 385/375 and that’s a bit low for general public UV light sources.

In anycase, expect invisible inks in the future. Tomorrow will be a glowey day.

Man! What a great response. I didn’t expect nearly such a profoundly positive experience after proposing The Two Hands Project but I guess that just means that it’s time has come. There’s still lots of work to do, and I’m just now going through the JetBlue iternary and I also still don’t have all the money I need to travel. But I’m still so pumped!

If you know of any spaces that I need to check out, or want to help out in any other way lemme know. We’re considering printing these shirts: SHIRTS!