Hacking cellphones to save the rainforest

Topher White says that he has a solution to illegal rainforest logging operations. His company, Rainforest Connection, is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund their real-time rainforest protection system. The basic idea of the project is to use parts from recycled cell phones as listening posts in the rainforest, alerting their team when a chainsaw is being used.

The Kickstarter video starts with some bold claims, including a United Nations quote that deforestation is a leading cause of climate change.  Neil Young jumps in with some naturalist wisdom, telling us that this technology enables the forest to talk to the world. Then we're told that fifty to ninety percent of the logging done in rainforests is illegal.


Rainforest Connection is billed as the world's first real time technology for protecting the rainforests. After a chainsaw is detected by the listening devices an alert is sent to rangers who can act on the information. Additionally, an app allows people from around the world to hear the rainforest. An example of the app is on the Kickstarter page.

Listening devices are installed by local activists and the campaign video assures us that the final product will be much smaller and camouflaged than the prototypes shown. There aren't many details as to the hardware or software involved in the project but several process photos are shown on the campaign page and the company's Flickr page.

As Kickstarter campaigns go, asking people to donate for a cause, even an amazing cause mixing sustainability concerns and a maker attitude, can be a hard sell. Rainforest Connection is looking for $100,000 by July 29 to fully fund their project in Indonesia. If enough money is raised two other projects in Africa and the Amazon rainforest are planned.

Incredible Engineering

Amazing Engineering

The World’s Strongest Artificially Generated Tornado

Located in Stuttgart, Germany, the Mercedes-Benz Museum is home to the ‘strongest artificially generated tornado in the world’ according to the Guinness Book of World Records. However the purpose of the 34.4 meter high (112.86 ft) may surprise you. See below to learn why.

The architecture of the Mercedes-Benz Museum (designed by UNStudio) placed particular demands on construction planners, architects and engineers with regard to smoke elimination. The provisions of the approving authority and fire protection regulations require all areas outside the fire level to be smoke-free in the event of smoke emission.

However, due to the open-plan structure of the Mercedes-Benz Museum, the various exhibition areas are connected to each other without any fire zones via an interior courtyard and ramps. From the perspective of smoke elimination this presented a challenging task that could not be implemented through conventional fluid mechanics.

It was necessary to take a new approach, and so a globally unique smoke elimination system was developed especially for the Mercedes-Benz Museum. In the event of fire, 144 outlets located along the core walls inject air into the interior courtyard of the Mercedes-Benz Museum. This generates an artificial tornado, and the smoke collected is then discharged into the outside air via a smoke elimination ventilator located in the upper part of the building.

This procedure uses the principle of the tornado force, which has a devastating effect under natural conditions, to create a controlled life-saving form of fluid mechanics that opens up new architectural possibilities.

At once the world’s most cutting-edge museum and a repository of the most deep-rooted traditions, the Mercedes-Benz Museum combines an elegant appearance with a unique structure based on a double helix. All aspects of this architecture are in flow, with no closed rooms or straight walls. Ceilings span 33 metres without any supports whatsoever and each of the 1800 triangular window panes is unique.

There are no right-angles in the Mercedes-Benz Museum. All walls and ceilings, ramps and columns are arched or turn in on themselves, gently flowing into one another. On nine levels and covering a floor space of 16,500 square metres, the museum presents 160 vehicles and over 1,500 exhibits.

German student builds electromagnetic harvester to recharge a battery

Dennis Siegel, a student at the University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany has built what he calls an electromagnetic harvester—it converts electromagnetic fields in the immediate environment into electricity to recharge a common AA battery. He's won a 2nd place award in the HfK Bremen Hochschulpreis 2013 competition for Digitale Medien, for his efforts.

Electromagnetism is all around us of course. In addition to natural sources, such as lightning, it's also given off by virtually every electronic gadget, device or machine humans make. Siegel (and many others)

have noted that the electromagnetism around us all could be converted to electricity and used for some purpose. The problem of course, is that the comparatively small amount of it in the air around us isn't enough to make much electricity—the device Siegel built takes up to a day to charge a single AA battery. But that's not reason enough to not build and use a device, as he has demonstrated. He's added electronics to give the device the capability of capturing electromagnetism in two ranges—one below 100Hz (electrical mains, etc.) and another for capturing those above 100Hz (Blue tooth frequencies etc.). On top is a red LED to indicate how strong the electromagnetism is in the area and on the back is a magnet for affixing the device to a metal surface near a good source. Credit: Dennis Siegel The particulars of the electronics inside his device haven't been detailed (likely to prevent copycats) with a

description only of "coils and high frequency diodes" being put to use to allow for the conversion. But that clearly isn't the point of his device. Instead, it highlights not only the fact that we live our lives in a constant state of bombardment of electromagnetism, but also that all of the energy from all of the collective devices in use in the world today, is currently going to waste. But, because of small devices like the one Siegel has built, it becomes possible to envision banks of such devices sitting on roofs (or other places) making use of that electromagnetism to add to the electricity generated by other renewable sources, such as solar or wind collection devices—just another way to demonstrate a higher level of intelligent power generation and conservation.