Moses would be impressed!

July 28, 2006 12:34 AM

You can drift, you can dream, even walk write on water
Researchers at Akishima Laboratories have developed a device that uses waves to draw text and pictures on the surface of water. Here is a PDF file about the project (I think it is in Japanese, but it has pretty pictures!)
posted by lenny70 (16 comments total)

Why, that's nothing! I've developed a method to draw text and pictures on the surface of crystalline powdered water! Not only that, but it can be operated single handed, and runs on a variety of inexpensive malt fuels.
posted by stenseng at 12:48 AM on July 28, 2006 [1 favorite]

Even at this early stage in the thread, I think I can state with confidence that stenseng wins.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 12:52 AM on July 28, 2006

Finally!
posted by TwelveTwo at 12:59 AM on July 28, 2006

I was going to say "You think it's in Japanese?!", but then I tried looking at it in both Acrobat Reader and Foxit Reader and neither of them really rendered it well enough to tell. (I'm pretty sure Japanese has fewer stars, triangles, boxes, and arrows than that)

:(

Maybe 2007 will be the year when software starts actually working properly!
posted by aubilenon at 1:10 AM on July 28, 2006

Yes it's in Japanese.
posted by gomichild at 1:20 AM on July 28, 2006

Interesting. But I can't really imagine a practical application for this. Perhaps when it is more developed it could be used in marketing/advertising to rotate messages in a pool... say, at a theme park or casino. But other than that?
posted by CodeBaloo at 1:31 AM on July 28, 2006

We could scare fish with it.
posted by TwelveTwo at 1:41 AM on July 28, 2006 [1 favorite]

landing pad for something that crashes in from outer space.
posted by dminor at 1:49 AM on July 28, 2006

I've seen this on a number of linkblogs and I'm still futilely hoping I'll find something with a video of it in action.

In this day and age there ought to be a law against inventors and labs and whatnot announcing cool stuff without providing video.
posted by loquacious at 1:56 AM on July 28, 2006

Keats would probably be impressed too.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 2:05 AM on July 28, 2006

All your better deeds, indeed, Lazlo.
posted by bunglin jones at 2:22 AM on July 28, 2006

Interesting proposal, stenseng, but isn't your pallette rather limited?
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:09 AM on July 28, 2006

...something with a video of it in action.

Mostly you'd see a jumble of interfering ripples. The image only forms for an instant, and then it's gone. You'd wait quite some time for the surface to become calm again so that another brief image could be created.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:39 AM on July 28, 2006

Do you think that I know something you don't know
What do you want from me
If I don't promise you the answers would you go
What do you want from me
Should I stand out in the rain
Do you want me to take a daisy chain for you
I'm not the one you need

What do you want from me
You can have anything you want
You can drift, you can dream, even walk on water
Anything you want

Great song.
posted by matthewr at 5:11 AM on July 28, 2006

Codebaloo, it's less of a make-millions and more of a let's-see-what-we-can-do research thing (obviously). Using Bessel functionsis something of a bitch, and to get the wave generators to work that well together is an accomplishment.
posted by notsnot at 5:39 AM on July 28, 2006

You'd wait quite some time for the surface to become calm again so that another brief image could be created.

One of the articles I read said it only takes 3 seconds.
posted by inigo2 at 6:16 AM on July 28, 2006