Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Theseus (1950)

 
Claude Shannon demonstrates and explains the operation of  his electro-mechanical maze solving mouse machine, Theseus.




"Incidentally the things we learn for the telephone system have other applications."





Below is the YouTube link I originally included in the post. Ironically, since then the linked video has been purposely corrupted with auditory and visual noise, and is almost unwatchable. Perhaps this was done to get around copyright violations. 



Monday, June 6, 2016

Martian drilled hole

After drilling into a sedimentary rock layer in Gale Crater, Curiosity is naturally curious as to what's in the hole. The MAHLI camera is used to get a closeup of the fine, clumpy dust around the perimeter of the hole, with a view into the hole. 

original images:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01361/mhli/1361MH0003990010502189C00_DXXX.jpg 
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01361/mhli/1361MH0003990010502195C00_DXXX.jpg











The diameter of the hole is about 1.6 cm.


Here the dark interior values are stretched to increase the contrast on bits and pieces at the bottom of the hole:

 (stereo pair, cross-view)


 Detail across center of the same images:

 (stereo pair, cross-view)
































Another MAHLI photo with artificial light, focused near the bottom of the hole (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/01365/mhli/1365MH0006210000502375R00_DXXX.jpg):