Cutaway showing how the layers in waterproof fabrics block out cold, wind and rain, but breathe to allow moisture to escape. For Outside magazine. John McCauley, art director.

Cutaway illustration of Lytro’s “focus-later” light field camera, which allows the photographer to change the focal point after a photo is taken. This is achieved with a light field sensor that measures the color, intensity and vector direction of light rays.

Augmented Reality, or AR, is a general term for manipulating our experience of the world around us with technology. Today it means pointing your smartphone camera at a restaurant and getting reviews. Tomorrow it might mean complete immersion into a customizable version of reality via 3D stereoscopic camera/video headsets.

An ongoing project with the Union of Concerned Scientists just got a write up on the New York Times’ auto blog.

The organization’s Model E crossover is conceived as a platform that can accommodate any one of four propulsion systems. The same body would be expected to house a hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen fuel-cell or purely electric powertrain. [...] The union plans to add a family car, a compact and a pickup to the Model E lineup. Each vehicle would be relatively inexpensive to build, buy and operate, encouraging wide adoption, according to the group.

More on this as the project wraps up!

Illustration of a do-it-yourself space (or technically, ‘near-space’) balloon. $150 in components gets you photos that are out of this world—17.8 miles or 28 kilometers. For Make: Magazine, AD Daniel Carter.