KenMankoff

Kinect Video from Microsoft

It has been almost one year since the Kinect was released, and there have been some amazing projects that use it. Microsoft appears to be embracing the hackers and highlights some of the non-video-game related uses in a new video:

BUBBLES And A Fish

Bubbles is a small ROV built from a kit with a customized camera mount for looking up at ice from below and down at the bottom. Her construction was motivated by some underwater footage of bed load transport due to wave action.

BUBBLES is an acronym for some combination of the words Bubbles the Underwater Undersea Blue Bathymetric Basal Buoyant Little Liquid Exploration Submersible or Submarine.

Bubble was previously deployed in a hot-tub and in Younger Lagoon, Santa Cruz, CA, as test sites. Recently Bubbles went swimming under the ice-covered Silver Lake near Kirkwood, CA. Due to the late season, we could not walk on the ice and the shore-based deployment was complicated by the shallow waters. Nevertheless, she again proved to be liquid-worthy, and spent some time swimming in the shallow waters with some fish.

Bubbles heading under the ice. Photo by E. Lynne Harden

Bubbles operations. Photo by E. Lynne Harden

Bubbles was built by Ken Mankoff and E. Lynne Harden.

WISSARD Introduction

A video (and written) news segment on part of my PhD project:

It is Wet

These are most enjoyable and relaxing if played in HD full screen. Inspiration for BUBBLES. More on that later.

Olde Tyme Snow Motor

I’d like to ride one of these on my next trip to Antarctica.

Warning: Horse beating around 3:30 into the film.

Phosphorescing Sea Ice

This footage was shot by Harriet Mankoff on September 22nd 2009 in the Drake Passage near 60 degrees South. It shows what I have labeled “phosphorescing sea ice” due to the white flashes at the wave crests. The sea is covered by pancake ice and slush. At the wave crest the slush builds up enough that the water drains out of the slush and it looks brighter. The reverse happens in some of the troughs.