WaterDog

An automated fountain for parched pets

Jonathan Kirschner readily admits that the idea for the initial prototype of WaterDog was born mostly out of laziness. Romeo, Kirschner’s Great Dane, would often beg his owner for a drink during their daily walks. While he was happy to oblige and open a few spigots, Kirschner couldn’t help but feel there was an easier way. A mechanical engineer, Kirschner rigged an automatic fountain that …

Olympic Photography

Five ways photographers are changing the way we see the London 2012 Olympic Games

Capturing the sport of this year’s Olympics is a corps of skilled photographers. Though the iPhone has proven an impressive tool for following the action, these lensmen and women transcend the everyday spectator’s capabilities with some unconventional techniques, from live-streaming underwater cameras and 3 billion-pixel images to a vintage field camera with 100-year-old lens. Here, five examples of innovations in Olympic photography that have us …

Imag-N-O-Tron

The augmented reality makeover of an Academy Award-winning short

From the outset, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” was imagined as a children’s book. The story is essentially about a man’s magical life among books, and it makes perfect sense as a picture book. Moonbot Studios—founded in part by “Morris Lessmore” author William Joyce—decided to go a different route by producing the story as an animated short. The short ended up winning …