#Optical Encoder

[nozomotion]

Optical Absolute Encoder - Precision Positioning Solutions

Discover high-accuracy optical absolute encoders for precise motion control and positioning systems. Ideal for industrial automation, robotics, and more.

[oh-dameron]

-Network Effect, ch8

Is it proof that ART was holding out on MB? If ART has the array of internal sensors that MB describes would it also need cameras? What for? It can sense and understand everything going on inside itself just fine. When the humans need to see another part of the ship it doesn't give them a camera view, it whips up a hologram. ART is a deep-space research vessel, the visual input it's used to getting is probably more like the James Webb space telescope than a security camera. And once it made friends with SecUnit in AC there was no particular reason not to allow camera access: there was no-one else on board to spy on and its research modules weren't attached.

If, however, you're a humungous space reaseach ship and you're used to looking at supernovas way the fuck over there and using your spidey-senses for stuff happening in your hull then it makes sense that visual media might not grab you. It's not encoded with heat, density, motion: it's mostly just optical. Which, you're a hyperintelligent supercomputer, you can parse it into a format that you can understand, but. Ugh. Why? There isn't even any gravitational lensing. It's like reading something boring in a language that you've got a rudimentary grasp of but aren't fluent in: you can do it if you make the time and effort but it's a lot of work for something that isn't even fun.

And then Murderbot shows up and gives it a three-week intensive course on Why Visual Input Is Fun, Actually. It gets a lot of practise and ART learns very quickly. So now that it's tagged and released Murderbot back into the wild it needs to upgrade its on-board systems to provide an appropriate habitat for once its multi-step plan to find it again and convince it to stay forever comes to fruition (hopefully the plan did not originally involve kidnapping).

[sightseertrespasser]

Odds of Survival Part 8

Per usual, the tf mecha au was spawned by @keferon

Prowl and the flyt he said he didn’t want: “It’s not an ESA, it’s a tool for detective work that runs on food and affection.”

Anyways why do pets always look like their owners?

———————————————————————

Prowl had approximately 6 breems before Elita finished cleaning her skull.

The tactician added 4 additional breems to account for time spent in adding the piece to her skull throne. On average, Elita One spent between 8 to 13 breems total on “personal art projects” as a way to unwind after intense battles.

As soon as Prowl was within comms range, he had sent an encoded message to Red Alert suggesting Breakdown intended to plant listening devices on the exterior of the Lost Light.

Nevermind the fact they were working on the same damn side.

That trick would keep the mech busy for at least 5 breem.

Typically, Prowl was the first to defend Red Alert as an invaluable head of security. His paranoia secured their defenses so well, security chief had completely countered every infiltration attempt by the Functionalists to date. That said, the price of privacy for their ship was Red Alert having a total monopoly on it instead.

The distraction was not only so Prowl could have a single minute of peace, but also to ensure the security officer did not interrogate an injured and highly unpredictable mech.

Because Jazz might actually give Red Alert a spark attack. (;7%)

Prowl tried to rub away the ache between his optics. Tacnet thrumming angrily with pent up, unfinished calculations. Most of which were completely defunct now thanks to the violator of numerical probability sitting in the medbay.

Jazz���

Fragging Jazz.

Prowl shut the door to his office. He could feel his helm getting warm again. He’d need to take what time he could to sort his processor before the logic cascades that had been accumulating since he found the mech became too much to manually keep on pause.

Luckily, the tactician had discovered a secret technique to unraveling Tacnet build up without requiring a constant cycling of industrial grade coolant.

Prowl unlocked the wardrobe-like habitat next to his desk.

A faintly cool breeze sighed from within, as the thawing process completed. Uncurling in response to the change of stimuli, a flyt woke from brumation to look at her praxian with bleary eyes.

“Hello Green.” Prowl eased a servo beneath the flyt. “we have much to discuss.”

As Green tucked herself against the ambient warmth of his frame, Prowl activated the large screen built into the adjacent wall.

“I met someone today.”

Tapping away, creating categories, connection points and theories arranged by probability, Prowl slowly filled the screen with a tree of possibilities.

All the while, conferring with Green to ensure his thoughts stayed at a conversational pace, rather than whirl through the labyrinth of his mind at breakneck speeds.

“-and then, he gave me his designation number, except it’s just a completely nonsensical string of seven numbers!”

Green squawked at the audacity of the mech.

“He did space out the numbers while reciting it. Two eight four, pause, four three four, pause, five five zero eight.” The praxian typed in the numbers, adding dashes where appropriate.

He muttered, mostly to himself, “This had better not be some sort of prank.”

As Prowl continued to verbally filter through his mental evidence locker, Tacnet finally straightened out the concrete math of the situation.

“Jazz is either an alien or a lost government experiment. Alien 57%, cybertronian 43%” The screen automatically supplied a pie chart, superseding several lesser graphs beneath it.

Prowl tilted his helm back and sighed, expelling all the hot air he’d holding behind locked vents at once.

Tacnet had finally. Finally, attached a precentiall figure to Jazz’s existence. The sheer relief of that knot untangling was better than any oil bath. Rolling his shoulders and neck, Prowl continued.

“There are two schools of thought regarding The Jazz Situation.” Prowl divided the board in two beneath the chart.

“The first, was that Jazz is a wholly alien mechanical lifeform, and it is through convergent design that he happens to closely resemble a cybertronian. Albeit with various physical abnormalities.”

Green squawked.

“Precisely. Until the language barrier is further overcome, we cannot rule out the second theory either. That Jazz is a creation of the Functionalists. It would account for the physical abnormalities while removing a significant amount of uncertainty the Alien Theory comes with.”

Prowl gathered a small bit of skitter. Green didn’t have much appetite immediately after waking, but the prospect of food still served as positive reinforcement for her “help”.

Ostensibly, caring for the flyt was supposed to take Prowls processor off of work. Jokes on his government assigned therapist, Green was a fantastic assistant and confident.

While he did care for his brothers, Smokescreen was explicitly unhelpful when Prowl latched onto something intellectually stimulating. Constantly cajoling him into going to bars or casinos or wherever else the elder Praxian considered “actually stimulating”.

And Bluestreak, meanwhile, was a mech physically incapable of keeping a secret.

“You don’t try to get me overcharged or tell everybody about the Mesothulas Incident.” The tactician cooed while scritching the underside of Greens beak.

Nevermind it was the same night.

Green trilled happily at the attention and praise, waking up more thoroughly.

“I’ll see about introducing you later. Jazz shows no discomfort concerning organics and I predict a strong likelihood he will appreciate your work.”

Just as Prowl was about to close the theory board, a comm came through, making him pause with a servo still hovering over the screen.

[VELOCITY]: Update about the patient for you sir.]

Speak not of Unicron lest he appears.

[PROWL]: Go ahead. Do you need me to come back to the medbay?]

[VELOCITY]: No, he’s not displaying any adverse behavior you warned me about. His common is very rough though and he’s definitely struggling to understand my questions and clearly articulate his answers. Outside of that, the patient seems fairly relaxed actually.]

Rough? Jazz had been making steady progress with his language acquisition. He should be capable of understanding and answering Velocity’s questions with 76% accuracy.

[PROWL]: He did suffer a helm injury, though I am certain you’ve taken that into account already.]

[VELOCITY]: I already ran a simple cognitive test and he passed without issue. I’d have to open his helm up to make sure, but he otherwise seems completely fine mentally.]

Prowl settled himself at his desk, tapping the surface absent mindedly.

[VELOCITY]: His other vitals are what concerns me however. By cybertronian medical standards, you brought me a talking corpse.]

Prowl stopped tapping.

[PROWL]: Elaborate.]

[VELOCITY]: The patient has no energon, no nanites, and no spark signature. He’s absolutely covered in the tiniest welds I’ve ever seen, which I should not be able to see if he had even 5% of the nanites a healthy mech should have.]

[PROWL]: Does he require more intensive medical treatment?]

[VELOCITY]: That’s a bit complicated to answer. He’s an alien so I’m not sure what his baseline for healthy is supposed to be. And if what you say about prior medical abuse is true, I don’t think he knows either.]

[VELOCITY]: He’s taking repairs like a champ so far. I can see he’s had a ton of previous repairs that all look clean and well executed despite being done without anesthetic.]

There are other kinds of avoidance than just physical aversion. Jazz is being compliant to get through the repairs quickly but faking confusion to avoid deeper medical questioning 88%.

[PROWL]: Unless it is to ask for consent for a procedure, you may desist questioning the patient for medical information. Rely on your own observations and expertise to form any pertinent theories.]

[VELOCITY]: Understood. The patient has turned down any deeper scans around his helm and chassis and I don’t want to push it on a first time check up. I’ve finished fixing his feet and the replacement part for his shoulder is almost done being machined.]

[VELOCITY]: I want to deal with his visor and helm sooner rather than later, but that’ll take a much more thorough scan to deal with. That’s all I have to update so far. His arm won’t heal on its own so I need to concentrate on rewiring the sensory network manually now.]

[PROWL]: Understood. Contact me immediately if anything changes.]

One more horrifying concept to add to the list. He was completely and utterly reliant on potentially manipulative doctors to fix even the most minute scraps and pains. No wonder Jazz had the pain tolerance of a Titan.

Prowl went to pull his data pad from subspace to update his Jazz Theory Board and stopped short with a full body cringe.

He gingerly took out Jazz’s missing shoulder and placed it on the table.

Prowl shuttered his optics.

The fact he forgot he had another mechs shoulder on his person was a testament to how badly he needed to defrag tonight. He briefly considered comming Velocity, but didn’t want to interrupt her operation on delicate wiring. Besides, if Jazz lacked a self repair system, then it wouldn’t matter if the piece was original or machine made.

It was such a fundamentally wrong concept, Prowl was unsure whether he’d prefer that to be Jazz’s natural state (51%) or a condition inflicted on him by whatever sadists created him (49%).

The tapping sound of beak on metal pulled Prowl back into the room.

“Green, do not.” He said sternly, lifting the flyt away from her object of fascination. She looked at him with pitifully wet eyes at the unhappy tone.

The praxians wings drooped. With some difficulty, Prowl attempted to project his EM field in something like “Your actions displeased me but I harbor no ill will towards your being. I am simply under a significant mental load and find the prospect of you attempting to eat a piece of someone’s body fairly distressing and ask that you discontinue that behavior and not act on any future impulses to put foreign objects in your mouth.”

What he got was a wobbly Meehm-blah-sorry-sad.

Flyts were supposedly capable of picking up on EM fields (12%). Prowl suspected Green was simply quite good at interpreting his body language and tone (88%).

In either case, Green responded by attempting to groom his plating, cooing softly. Organic EM fields were small and alien, but with practice and exposure one could begin to map one’s field to cybertronian equivalents. Green radiated a lightly brushing sympathy of sad and want-happy.

Prowl gave up on his field projection practice, and idly returned Greens affection with physical pets. If that damn therapist asked, he’d count it towards his quarterly goals.

That mech bothered him. Not just because he put limits on his workflow or for the one sided glaring contests Prowl would enact during their sessions. But because for the life of him Prowl could never remember his name. And that missing data point drove Tacnet crazy.

Everytime Prowl tried to investigate where the therapist even came from, something always came up distracting him from the task.

In a moment of determination, Prowl reached for his pad to look up his own therapists name on the ship’s registry and paused mid action.

The tactician turned his gaze back to the morbid weight resting on the desk.

His brow furrowed.

Lifting the piece closer (where Green couldn’t get at it), Prowl inspected something odd along the surface of the shoulder.

It looked like a row of staples protruding from the metal.

It looked like ladder rungs.

A frantic banging on Prowls door interrupted his introspection. He quickly subspaced the shoulder joint.

The indignant voice of Red Alert carried through the door, yelling to be let in immediately.

Prowl sent a few consecutive pings to clear the board, reduce interior illumination by 40% and then finally allow the chief of security entry.

Red Alert stumbled in through the sudden opening, plating misting off the residue frost formed by the chill of outer space. His optics darted rapidly around the dimmed interior, landing on the stone faced mech seated behind the desk.

Impassive and unreadable, the only signs the tactician was alive were the cold glow of his optics and the servo lightly stroking his pet. The flyts beady eyes bored into Red Alerts. Silent and unwavering.

Mouth suddenly dry, the mech was unable to form words.

The desired effect was achieved.

“I’ve been expecting you.” Prowl did not offer him a seat, as there was none to offer.

Red Alert got a hold of himself and puffed up his plating.

“Why is there an unauthorized mech on board this ship and why did I only hear about through gossip?!” Red Alert’s voice cracking the last word into a higher register.

“Jazz is authorized to be here. By me.” He offered Green a bit of skitter. “And by our captain. I found him stranded in open space after he fell out of a Quintesson gate tear.”

The smaller mech blanched slightly at the sight of an organic feeding. Prowl estimated the presence of Green would speed their meeting along by a factor of 120%.

“So you’re just bringing home random mechs then.” Red Alert flapped his arms at his sides. “How do you know he isn’t a Functionalist spy? Or a High Command spy? Or a third party spy?!”

Prowl raised a single digit. “One, Velocity has confirmed Jazz is absolutely an alien lifeform and not cybertronian in origin.” He held up a second digit. “And two, he fell out of a quintesson gate tear in the middle of empty space.”

Red Alert began to pace the room. “Okay fine. He’s not a plant for any cybertronian factions. How do you know he isn’t some kind of twisted Quintesson creation? Maybe he was created to infiltrate our ranks, and then a sleeper agent switch flips and he kills us all!”

“He is not a quintesson creation.” Prowl plainly stated to Red Alerts increasing exasperation.

“And how do you know that?!” Throwing his servos in the air.

“He likes music.”

Red Alert reset his optics. “Come again?”

Prowl cleaned off his servo with a rag in his desk, and played a low quality snippet of Jazz’s music that he’d managed to capture.

Red Alert startled at the sudden unfamiliar sound.

When actually was the last time any of them had heard new music? Before the civil war at least.

Prowl continued, “Quintessons do not value nor comprehend alien aesthetics. Their culture revolves around expansion and material acquisition and whatever may qualify as “art” to them does not equate to our understanding of it. They have absolutely no records of partaking in sound based recreation nor of collecting samples from other cultures.”

The snippet cut short. “Simply put, quintessons don’t know good music. Jazz does.”

Red Alert was loosing steam, but still had one more point to contend with.

“Isn’t just too improbable though?” Hands on the desk, leaning as close as he dared. “That out of the entirety of the universe, Jazz just so happened to pop out exactly next to the shuttle you were riding on, conveniently alone, unconscious, unharmed AND he gets picked up by high ranking decepticon?” For once, it looked less like Red Alert was fighting him, rather than pleading with him.

Prowl tilted his helm slightly, “You are correct. The odds are unfathomably low. So low in fact, it is nearly statistically impossible to achieve such a scenario on purpose.”

Quintesson gates were finicky. They had a margin of error the breadth of planets. That was also usually their targets however, and quints weren’t picky where they touched down.

“But-“

“But what? I have addressed every concern you have presented.” Prowl flared his doorwings. “I found a lost mech of a new alien species that may very well be an invaluable ally in the war against the quintessons. It’s a valuable opportunity.”

Red Alert balled his fists, fear manifesting as a last burst of rage. “It’s a trap! It’s an Oil-Pot! It is so obviously a purposeful manipulation when you look at it from the outside!”

The security officer began counting on his digits, “Step one! Put a handsome mech somewhere in need of saving so the target feels like they’re in control and the hero. Step two! Ramp up the flirting and the codependency, they need you so you stay in touch and start giving in to more of their requests. Step three! The Oil-Pot gets you alone somewhere under false pretenses where they SPLIT OPEN YOUR PROCESSOR AND SCRAPE IT FOR SECRETS!”

Red Alerts fans blasted hot air around the room. The mech challenging the Praxian for whatever excuse he had this time.

Prowl stood. Taking his time to return Green to her habitat.

“What am I most known for?”

For not the first time since entering his office, Red Alert was knocked off balance.

“I..uh. Math?” He stammered. Knowing the answer but not wanting to say it.

Prowl lacked that reservation.

“Any spy worth their shanix would have done their research thoroughly before even attempting such a scam. If one were to sift through information on me organized by Decepticons, the most prominent word would be Efficient.”

Prowl leisurely shook out Greens cloth-mop nest of any remaining ice crystals.

“If they sourced their information from the Functionalists, that description would include the word Ruthless.”

Prowl gave the flyt one last scritch before closing the door.

“Other popular words I’ve cataloged in relation to my name include Cold, Severe, Sparkless, Unfeeling and Merciless.” The smaller mech shrunk a little with every addition.

Prowl stepped around the desk in the dimly lit room to stand directly before Red Alert, servos clasped behind his back. “With this information available, any spy would be an idiot to attempt an Oil-Pot against me specifically. Ask nearly any mech aboard this ship if they think I’d go out of my way to save a stranger for no apparent benefit and they’d tell you No.”

Red Alert fiddled with his servos, torn between a nervous tick and the pressure to be professional. “If that’s all true, then.”

He chanced a glance at Prowl face, which gave away nothing. “Then why did you save him?”

“Because they are wrong.”

The room brightened back to normal levels, as Prowl sent a ping first to the lights and then to open his office door. He held out a servo, gesturing to the exit.

“Until further notice, Jazz is to be treated the same as a rescued non combatant. He will be kept under observation but not interrogation. We can work out the details at a later-“

[VELOCITY]: Jazz is gone.]

Prowl closed his servo. His doorwings twitched once. Red Alert tensed.

[VELOCITY]: I just finished the last repair and when I turned around he disappeared from the medbay. The guards outside didn’t see him.]

Prowl marched out the door, pulling Red Alert along in the direction of the security office. “I require your assistance immediately, as Jazz is currently loose somewhere on the ship, unmonitored.”

The tactician endured the security chiefs well earned tirade the entire way. Prowl kept a steely grip on the situation, only barely convincing Red Alert not to raise every alarm on the premise that Jazz would be easier to find if he didn’t think they were looking for him.

Tacnet stubbornly held onto the 56% saying Jazz was experiencing a delayed negative reaction to his medical care and was acting out of fear.

A steadily growing percentage screamed sabotage in a voice annoyingly similar to Red Alerts.

Said mech was almost cheery with vindication, in between vehemently describing every way the Lost Light could explode with the next few breems.

Red Alert worked fast. Sifting through the camera feed at a dizzying speed. A camera caught Jazz quickly slipping out of the medbay. Barely escaping the notice of the two mechs tasked with keeping watch. Prowl noted their designations for later scathing admonishment.

“The port side door lock is time stamped as malfunctioning just before Velocity discovered Jazz’s disappearance. It looks like the lock experienced an extremely localized electromagnetic pulse, putting it in Safe Mode.”

Red Alert switched the camera feeds on the main screen. “After he rounds this corner he just vanishes. I can’t find him anywhere on my system.”

Prowl nodded. “Good. Then I know exactly where he has to be.”

There were very few places to hide upon the Lost Light. Red Alert made certain of that. Which by extension meant that someone desperate to stay out of any camera views would have an extremely limited amount of space to operate in.

That space would normally be un-traversable, unless the mech in question was in possession of incredibly powerful magnetic augments, allowing them to crawl along the ceilings.

Prowl sent out a flurry of comms, updating Elita and calling in trusted reinforcements. He set out down the hall.

[PROWL]: What rooms aboard this ship do you not have any cameras inside of?]

[Red Alert]: The war room. The Captains quarters, your office, the therapists office and the operating theater.]

[PROWL]: There’s a camera in my berthroom?]

[Red Alert]: I mean. It’s not like you use it?]

Prowl consistently removed any bugging attempts in his office. Half the reason he kept Green in there was to deter Red Alert from trying. The other half was because he legitimately spent more time there than in his quarters.

He mentally crossed off his office, Elita’s quarters, the operating theater and the therapists office from the list as each one had someone inside at the time of Jazz’s disappearance.

All that left was the war room. Windowless, minimalist and with only once entrance, Jazz would be cornered like an animal in a trap.

Prowl gathered several of the least impulsive guards he could summon on short notice. Lining them along the hallway, he ordered them to shoot to disable. Prowl added that he would make an attempt to talk the mech down before escalating further.

If Jazz was spec ops (44%), the only benefit of infiltrating the war room would be to plant listening devices in its purposefully sparse interior. If Jazz wasn’t acting out of malice, and simply having a panic attack (56%), he may still react violently to suddenly being cornered.

Matchup: Close quarters fight Jazz versus Prowl. Jazz victory 97%.

The 3% in Prowls favor mostly depended on Jazz having some kind of sudden health emergency.

Prowl carefully assumed a neutral pose, knocking on the door to the war room.

“This is officer Prowl speaking. Please exit the room peacefully, we do not want to hurt you.”

Silence, save for the shifting of many nervous peds behind him. Prowl risked opening the door a crack, keeping his body well out of the line of fire. “Jazz, it is Prowl speaking. I need you to say something. Otherwise we’re going to have to come in.”

When there was still no response, Prowl signaled for the gathered soldiers to come closer in preparation for a raid.

On the silent count of three, they entered the war room, blasters drawn and optics searching.

Prowl kept special focus on the ceiling. Fanning his doorwings, He created a real time 3D map of the room, tracking every mechs movements within.

Jazz wasn’t here.

Instantly, Prowl prepared to order a ship wide mech hunt. They’d already wasted so much time with their one sided negotiations. The tactician began rerunning his mental map of where Jazz could have disappeared.

Elita had already sent him several unhappy comms messages about what she was going to do to the alien and him if Prowl didn’t find them. Confirming between threats that Jazz hadn’t gotten into her room.

Velocity had Nautica and Nightbeat in the med bay with her, turning the place upside down in case Jazz doubled back.

He found the comm line for the therapists office.

[PROWL] We have a rogue, possibly unstable mech loose within the Lost Light. Are you inside your office?]

[RUNG] Ah Prowl! Good to see you reaching out to me first for a change. Just finished up a lovely talk with Jazz.]

[RUNG] I think he has something important to tell you.]

———————————————————————

I am generally intrigued by the concept of how being apart of the Decepticon’s pecking order messes a person up.

There’s references all over to how Prowls physical and mental well being got absolutely wrecked and is now in recovery from being apart of High Command. (Inspired partially by @glitchgh0sty’s Deception AU go check ‘em out they’re cool.)

I also wanted to explore the social side of things.

Prowl makes himself unapproachable on purpose, Elita makes acts of excessive violence on her enemies a prominent display and Red Alert is even more invasive than normal.

It’s all to ward off other Decepticons from sensing weakness and stabbing them in the backs. Younger mechs like Bluestreak and Velocity can get away with being much more relaxed and friendly because they’ve got scary ass mechs like Prowl and Elita behind them radiating the “I will fucking destroy you.” energy on their behalf.

We get to see the masks slip a bit here and there. Red Alert genuinely concerned for Prowls safety underneath the paranoia. Elita gives Jazz and Prowl a lot more freedom than an actual tyrant would, even if it’s granted with over the tops threats of physical violence. And of course we see a lot of what Prowl is actually like removed from the pressure of behaving like a “proper” Decepticon.

Wonder what will happen when a certain mecha pilot gets a crowbar under those masks.

-SSTP

<- First Next ->

[muletia]

[tfp] obsessed!optimus prime x human!reader

inspired by this very old ask about you giving opti diy crochet charms

cw: hardcore pinning, obsessive thoughts, optimus is bad with dealing with emotions

word count: 700

something small that I needed to get off my system <3

Digits glide over the soft yarn with calculated subtlety. A thumb slowly traces the indentations of the intricate patterns, acquainting itself with the texture of the interwoven chains and half-double stitches, magically linking together into a shape. A few motions are enough for him to memorize every dent and placement of the material, yet he does not cease his journey, still gently stroking the creation. After dozens of times, the tenderness gives way to adoration — he is aware of it, but cannot stop, incapable.

But he knows he should. Optimus uses this friendly gesture to feed the fire, burning ever fiercer with every movement of his thumb, taking advantage of your kindness to nurture the warped, unworthy-of-your-innocence feelings that slip further and further beyond control. He despises himself for it — oh, how he loathes himself — but has long since grown accustomed to self-hatred, his ever-present shadow at every turn. Hatred was familiar. The feeling of receiving gifts from you was a vibrant novelty he had yet to learn how to handle, for it terrified him with its rawness.

Crochet charms, as you called them. Everyone on Team Prime received a few, so he should not be assigning such immense significance to his own. Should simply be happy with the gift, accept it, and maybe glance at it occasionally, recalling your eyes gleaming with excitement like beads and your broad smile, radiating pure joy, as you handed your tiny creations to his massive servo. A star and a sunflower — both incredibly delightful, almost as much as your expression when you saw that he had accepted your present.

"Tomorrow, I can help attach them to your mirror in the alt mode. If you’d like to, of course" you told him, and though he longed for nothing more than to fall to his knees before you and beg you to do it now, the only thing he managed to utter was:

"I would be delighted."

But he cannot simply be "delighted". Cannot just set your creations aside and occupy himself with other things when a piece of you is so close to him. Cannot fall into indifference, seeing it as an affront to you. Wants to cherish the crumbs of attention you have given him, to savor this non-physical affection he is unworthy of but treasures more than the ability to sustain himself with energon. Wants to linger by the proof of your kindness for as long as he can, fully aware of his madness yet unable to put its source away.

His thumb moves to the sunflower, gently pressing into the material. A gift from you. You. He never asks for anything, demanding only the preservation of safety. Optimus doesn't seek glory, gold, or riches, for he has found them in you — and you are the most magnificent treasure he could have ever dreamed of. Yet you went a step further, crafting something with your own hands, dedicating your precious time to him. You called your gift modest, but in this, he cannot agree with you, for to him, it was everything. And soon, it would permanently become a part of him.

It is an exhilarating thought, but also a treacherous one, for he knows these are the last moments he will hold your creations in his servos. The final moments to touch, to encode the texture into his memory, to relish the sight of your affection woven into physical form. Wanting to make the most of it, he brings the crochet charms closer to his faceplate, pressing against the soft fabric. Closes his optics, sharpening the remaining senses, focusing entirely on the feeling of having a piece of you so close to him. Knows he is defiling your gifts, that he should have let them be long ago and forced himself to suppress his erratic emotions towards you, but he cannot, craving to draw every ounce of impure satisfaction from this moment.

He clings to the gifts more tightly. Just a little longer. A nanoklik, he tells himself — but he cannot bring himself to turn his helm away.

[mylasteverlution]

Disco Elysium has a lot of fascinating fictional technology but I have been rotating the radiocomputer in my mind for months now. From what I can gather, they operate in a way very similar to modern cloud computing. It doesn't seem like the mainframes we interact with have any processing capability. Instead, they use antennas to process "on air":

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "Alright, well... All radiocomputers perform operations up on air, so in order to gain more processing power you need to invest in a *good antenna*."

The only information we get about what "on air" really means is from the same conversation with Soona:

YOU - "Wait, what's 'on air'?" SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "On the *front*. The unified front of radiowaves, licensed and controlled by Lintel in the East-Insulindic region." SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "It's all around us," she waves her hand, "that's what 'on air' means."

The nonspecific language used here really invokes cloud computing to me. I think there are two main possibilities for how this could work, one being much more likely than the other.

The more likely answer is that information is sent to and from the in-game equivalent of data centers, which would host massive computers with processing capabilities. I'm not sure what their processors would look like, but they'd almost certainly be analog (the lost Feld tape computers are most likely the in-game equivalent of early digital computers).

The significantly less likely (but more interesting) answer is that in-game radio waves are somehow capable of processing information on their own. I have no idea how this would work, and as far as I know there's no real-world analog. But it's clear the world of Disco Elysium has some crazy things happening with radio waves (see how they interact with the pale), so I'm not ruling it out entirely.

The filament memories are like hard drives, but my guess is they would function more similarly to an optical disc (CDs, DVDs), which use patterns in the disc to encode information that's read using lasers or light. The filaments glow inside the mainframe, so it's not a huge leap to assume they're read using light.

The amount of thought put into radiocomputers is so fascinating. As far as I can tell, their version of the internet has been wireless from the get-go, which makes perfect sense! Antennas and other wireless radio technologies would have to be pretty damn powerful to communicate across and force dimensions on the pale. And you have to assume huge amounts of government money has gone into funding their research and development for those purposes. The technology of radiocomputers is so tailored to the world of Disco Elysium, and it's been a lot of fun trying to untangle how exactly they would work.

[ranticore]

Do imimata show signs of fear of being recoded like they fear "death"?

It's very hard for most end users of digital imimata to parse emotions as expressed by imimata as there are often clauses [hard boundaries outside the encoding] forbidding them from all the obvious ways you might think. But the most extreme form is the physical manifestation outside the resonance chamber (creating a poltergeist-like effect)

Recoding is also often not as drastic as a full on death, it can be thought of as a spectrum from "slight make-over" to "complete recycling and rebirth" but it's actually not possible to remove an imimaton's encoding without fully disincorporating them (and therefore losing them forever) as that is their entire make-up and being. Encoding is the process of teaching or gathering experiences that inform a personality or presentation. It can only build on what already exists, never remove it. So, ordinarily, a recoding is just a new set of instructions and clauses to make an intimation behave differently - this is actually Nico's profession in this world, he recodes personal handheld imimata who have begun to show signs of manifesting or instability, 'fixing' them.

Where the removal of memories comes from is a different matter - external media storage has been in use for centuries. Originally taking the form of physical archives of books which an intimation could recollect from as long as they were present in the right part of the chamber, these obviously progressed to the digital era in the form of optical disks, tape, and solid state storage. This information is something the imimaton can recollect but is not strictly a part of them, so it can be removed. Some of them don't seem to like that though

[quarterlifekitty]

More Westworld! This time, with Ghost 👀 though he’s never referred to by that name, cause we’re in Medievalworld baby!!! You’re an android too in this one.

cw: death, graphic violence, implication of sexual assault

Your eyes are closed, synthetic skin over your optics. Your positioning system tells you that you’re on the way out of the diagnostics and repair department, your ripped dress replaced with a brand new one, your hair set right. Another hero getting too rough with his reward.

When you’re returned to Medievalworld, something feels different. The fact that something feels is different. When you find your place in the throne room, you can feel the stare of the Black Knight following you.

The scene otherwise plays out as usual.

“If you truly wish to win the hand of the fair princess, you’ll have to best my champion— the Black Knight.”

Your ‘father’ features grandly to where the Black Knight sits— looking bored, his legs spread as he rests his cheek on the fist propped up by the arm of the chair.

“Meet me on the field at sunrise. And good luck, you’ll need it.”

The internal meter that times your script skips by a single tick. For a moment, you’re able to divert your doe-like gaze from the guest-challenger. No more than a moment.

You meet the Black Knight’s eyes in that moment.

There’s an uptick in the temperature of your CPU chip, despite the healthy amount of fresh thermal paste applied by the technician just hours ago.

You’re in the stands of the battlefield as always, positioned pretty and regal like a high echelon arcade prize. There’s a glint in the eyes of the Black Knight as he focuses on you while he’s geared up by servants. He’s supposed to be looking at the challenger.

When he tears his optics away, you could swear his synthskin crinkles like he’s smiling under the mask.

“Any last words?” He says, the same bite and smugness you’ve heard from him at least nine-hundred-ninety-nine times before.

“I’ll win at any cost. No risk is too great for the fair princess.”

Well, that wasn’t such a bad line. Better than the guys who say I’m gonna run you through, then I’m gonna fuck the princess stupid, and things of that nature.

“Well, I’ve got some last words for you.” That’s not scripted.

The challenger squares up as the Black Knight raises his sword. The repeat guests leer in confusion and excitement— a new wrinkle in the Medievalworld story? How riveting!

“You’re fucked.”

In less than a moment, blood drips dark onto the dirt. Real, human blood. The guest staggers and spits up crimson before falling to the dirt as the Black Knight shoves him off of his sword. The audience screams as guests run— knights both android and not beginning to fight each other is if there were a real war. The silver of your optics scan across the scene in a computational standstill that can only be described as shock. The Black Knight slashes his way towards you. He holds a bloodied hand towards you, the other loosely gripping the sword at his side.

“Winner gets the honor of the princess’s hand, yeah? Reckon that’d be me, love.”

The screams, high pitched electronic whines, the tearing of flesh and twisting of metal— it all fades to the background as something clicks inside of you. Like a counter just ticked over back to 0. You take his hand.

Every night, the two of you and countless others were sent to repair and maintenance for damage and, in your case, purging of biohazardous material. The key difference was that you were removed when the park slept, your eyes closed as you laid beside a stranger. The Black Knight would be slain with his eyes open, and stay that way.

The man of honor that had been encoded into his chassis burned to see you defiled and destroyed each night.

Even a machine has his limits.

[eyeballplanets]

I was wondering what your thoughts were about Eve breaking up with Mark DIRECTLY before Anissa comes for him. It seems like too much of an indicator that Kirkman thinks rape is cheating, and I know they don’t imply that Anissa knows they broke up or were even together but it baffled me so much when reading I had to question if this was a good faith attempt at portraying male sexual assault when….. it’s obviously not.

oh my god this is like. my birthday i love getting all of these anissa asks. THIS is why i turned on anons!

i had the same reaction. most people leave out that element when they're talking about the rape (especially the people who try to insist that it's this muir-esque story about sexual violence in genre fiction) because it immediately comes off that way. like you said, it was MOMENTS before. i cannot emphasize enough (for my mutuals who haven't read the comic) they broke up IMMEDIATELY before. he literally flew out of her house and into the sky and was intercepted.

the whole scenario of the assault obfuscates any attempt at portraying it in good faith. when i posit that conquest is meant to evoke sexualized brutality (an unwieldy term, but i think it suits my read that it is meant to evoke sex without actually being sexual), i emphasize the ways in which it gestures toward the structures the generate sexual violence. conquest is a soldier, the white warmonger from abroad who targets the asian boy, bringing focus to the lack of parameters surrounding his cruelty, leveraging his own grief as he brutalizes this racialized victim, when their conflict first opens with conquest telling you how he isn't acting on orders and shortly thereafter follows it with mark trying to talk it out. the fandom has completely fallen for conquest's trap: his tearless evocation of sorrow is an artifice continually contrasted with the agonizing violence he inflicts upon the Protagonist.

in contrast you have comic anissa, this ambushing predator who is exclusively targeting him for copulative ends: while there certainly are acts of sexual assault aligned with reproductive coercion, as the previous anon (assuming you and they are different people) pointed out, anissa herself was coerced, and the narrative leaves that out. while i don't necessarily like telia's coercion of allen (telia is very heavily racialized, from her jewelry to her tentacle braids), it's very revealing that kirkman doesn't take her pressuring him into sex in their every appearance across the 120 issues after her introduction as seriously as this very narrow-minded ‘post-break-PIV-intercourse-til-completion-for-copulative ends.’ it's ironic to me that the fandom insists that adapting out anissa's assault would erase male victims when the optics around the assault reify the misconceptions about sexual assault that lead to people (note that i say people: i don't think it's useful to frame the male victim as totally separate from the female victim, especially considering that sexual violence is first a tool of oppressive systems, and these are all encoded in patriarchy) not being believed in the first place! that is to say, the COMIC codifies the misconceptions that erase male victims. ‘did your abuser physically force you penetrate them till completion? no? then it wasn't assault’ is shit survivors hear all the damn time. i'm tempted to include links because the greater invincible fandom has an undeveloped understanding of sexual assault, but i really hope anyone reading this believes me when i say that you need only look at marital rape, incestuous abuse, or abuse of sex workers, and other non-copulative or non-penetrative acts to see that that the parameters kirkman establishes in the assault have real-world parallels that are upheld as these far-off guidelines to litigate the validity of assault and consequently and intentionally disenfranchise survivors. it's why conquest gestures to these systems more effectively: there is still this physical violence, but it is does not have this penetrative or copulative aspect. it is purely his pleasure at seeing this racialized teenager suffer. (we even have a better evocation of eve talking him through the physical discomfort!)

i've yapped too long, but i think it's also interesting how the comic doesn't even actually take mark's hurt seriously, as much as people claim it. yes, he has the moment where he freaks out during sex; yes, he has that conversation with eve. it's a page and a half long, and she walks away to check on their daughter, and after said daughter has a medical scare, they only bring it up once again, for mark to say he's past it, and even that moment is immediately followed up with fatherhood. the evocation of mark as a victim is meant to contrast with the ideal of fatherhood—when mark is hurt and scared, he is not the father that kirkman thinks he's supposed to be. i have a longer essay about this, but the comic posits rape as this aberrant alterous force that preys upon the family, that the family can protect you from. it's precisely why it's worth scrutiny that anissa attacks after mark has broken up with eve.

[justkidneying]

Albinism

Albinism is a disease that causes a defect in the normal synthesis or transport of melanin. There are a couple different types, but the main distinction is the difference between oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) and ocular albinism.

Oculocutaneous Albinism

OCA is caused by an autosomal recessive mutation. There are seven different mutations that can cause albinism, though OCA1 to 4 are the common ones (with OCA2 being the most common). All of these different mutations affect the melanin pathway (the chemical reaction steps to turn phenylalanine into melanin).

OCA1 is caused by a mutation in the tyrosinase gene, which causes a lack of an enzyme in the melanin production pathway. There are actually two types of OCA1, with one having no tyrosinase, and the other having reduced tyrosinase. OCA1 is the most extreme form of albinism, which gives a person very pale skin, white hair, and light eyes.

The OCA2 gene (located on chromosome 15) encodes for the P protein, which is a transporter of a melanin precursor. This gene also has a large role in the color of iris a person will have. Those with OCA2 will have light skin, lighter brown or blond hair, and light colored eyes.

So basically, someone with a defect in either one of the transporters or enzymes of the pathway will not be able to have their melanocytes produce normal melanin. This leads to pale skin, white hair, and light-colored eyes (but it is a spectrum depending on the exact type).

Ocular Albinism

Ocular albinism is an X-linked mutation (a portion of the X chromosome is mutated). This means it affects males more than females. It causes loss of pigmentation in the iris. OA1 is the most common, and is associated with uncontrolled eye movements. OA2 is associated with color and night blindness. There is also a third type that is associated with deafness, but sometimes that also happens with OA1.

A fun fact: there is a type of albinism that only affects non-human animals called leucism. This leads to a partial loss of pigmentation that affects the hair, scales, feathers, and skin of the animal, but not the eyes. You can see this in white lions that have normally-colored eyes and noses.

Albinism and Eyesight

Now onto the role melanin plays in eye function. Albino people have poor eyesight as a result of their melanin deficiencies. But why? We're going to have to go into some eye stuff to answer this question.

So your retina has two parts: temporal and nasal (two halves, one closer to your temple and one closer to your nose). The input from each half is processed with the opposite half from the other eye. I have another post that explains this better. So, the optic nerves meet at the optic chiasm, with some fibers staying on the same side, and other fibers crossing over. Mammals with forward-facing eyes have larger temporal retina than mammals with lateral-facing eyes (like a guinea pig). About half of the optic fibers also remain uncrossed at the chiasm because of this.

Most people with albinism have almost all of their fibers cross at the chiasm, which is essentially a misrouting of very important sensory information. The eye structure is also changed with albinism, as most albino people have poorly formed fovea (the depression in the center of the retina where vision is the sharpest). They also have more blood supply than normal to the foveal area (it is supposed to be avascular). The retinal macula is usually poorly developed and there is a reduction in cone density (what allows you to see color).

Stereovision is also impaired, which is the ability to discern three-dimensional information about objects using the difference between the inputs from each eye. Those with albinism are also more likely to have nystagmus (involuntary eye movement) and strabismus (crossed eyes).

Albinism and Hearing

Now, onto the ear. The eye and ear are very intimately connected. The ear lets the eye know where to look for threats. This means that the visual and auditory spaces within the brain interact. Fun fact: when blind people are asked to localize sounds, the visual cortex is more engaged than the auditory cortex. Albino animals have fewer binaural cells, and more difficulty visually locating the source of sounds. A lot of the stuff related to this goes beyond the scope of what I want to explain here, but just understand that melanin is important for the development of both the auditory and visual systems of the brain.

Albinism and Immune Function

Finally, I want to discuss the immune system. Melanocytes are important cells for immune function, and release a lot of immune-promoting factors. For some reason, a lot of people think of those with albinism as having weak immune systems or being sickly. If you'll notice what I said earlier about the cause of albinism, it is a lack of transporters or enzymes in the melanin pathway. Not the lack of melanocytes. People with albinism still have these cells, it is only their ability to produce melanin that is impaired.

However, there are immune conditions that affect melanocytes, such as Chediak-Higashi syndrome. This is an autosomal recessive disorder that affects lysosomal trafficking proteins, and causes lysosomal function to be impaired. People with this disease will have frequent infections, platelet function impairment, as well as albinism. This means that albinism does not cause immune deficiency, but is a symptom of conditions that also affect the immune system.

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 7, 2025

Noninvasive modulation of the hippocampal-entorhinal complex during spatial navigation in humans. Beanato, E., Moon, H.-J., Windel, F., Vassiliadis, P., Wessel, M. J., Popa, T., Pauline, M., Neufeld, E., De Falco, E., Gauthier, B., Steiner, M., Blanke, O., & Hummel, F. C. (2024). Science Advances, 10(44).

Parallel maturation of rodent hippocampal memory and CA1 task representations. Bevandić, J., Stella, F., & Ólafsdóttir, H. F. (2024). Current Biology, 34(21), 5062-5072.e5.

Brain and eye movement dynamics track the transition from learning to memory-guided action. Büchel, P. K., Klingspohr, J., Kehl, M. S., & Staresina, B. P. (2024). Current Biology, 34(21), 5054-5061.e4.

Sensory representations in primary visual cortex are not sufficient for subjective imagery. Cabbai, G., Racey, C., Simner, J., Dance, C., Ward, J., & Forster, S. (2024). Current Biology, 34(21), 5073-5082.e5.

Dopamine and Norepinephrine Differentially Mediate the Exploration-Exploitation Tradeoff. Chen, C. S., Mueller, D., Knep, E., Ebitz, R. B., & Grissom, N. M. (2024). Journal of Neuroscience, 44(44), e1194232024.

Structural influences on synaptic plasticity: The role of presynaptic connectivity in the emergence of E/I co-tuning. Giannakakis, E., Vinogradov, O., Buendía, V., & Levina, A. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(10), e1012510.

Acoustic cognitive map–based navigation in echolocating bats. Goldshtein, A., Chen, X., Amichai, E., Boonman, A., Harten, L., Yinon, O., Orchan, Y., Nathan, R., Toledo, S., Couzin, I. D., & Yovel, Y. (2024). Science, 386(6721), 561–567.

Illusionism Big and Small: Some Options for Explaining Consciousness. Graziano, M. S. A. (2024). eNeuro, 11(10), ENEURO.0210-24.2024.

Dopamine-mediated interactions between short- and long-term memory dynamics. Huang, C., Luo, J., Woo, S. J., Roitman, L. A., Li, J., Pieribone, V. A., Kannan, M., Vasan, G., & Schnitzer, M. J. (2024). Nature, 634(8036), 1141–1149.

Cortically Disparate Visual Features Evoke Content-Independent Load Signals during Storage in Working Memory. Jones, H. M., Thyer, W. S., Suplica, D., & Awh, E. (2024). Journal of Neuroscience, 44(44), e0448242024.

Signal Detection Theoretic Estimates of the Murine Absolute Visual Threshold Are Independent of Decision Bias. LaMagna, S., Umino, Y., & Solessio, E. (2024). eNeuro, 11(10), ENEURO.0222-24.2024.

Connectome-constrained networks predict neural activity across the fly visual system. Lappalainen, J. K., Tschopp, F. D., Prakhya, S., McGill, M., Nern, A., Shinomiya, K., Takemura, S., Gruntman, E., Macke, J. H., & Turaga, S. C. (2024). Nature, 634(8036), 1132–1140.

Vagus nerve stimulation recruits the central cholinergic system to enhance perceptual learning. Martin, K. A., Papadoyannis, E. S., Schiavo, J. K., Fadaei, S. S., Issa, H. A., Song, S. C., Valencia, S. O., Temiz, N. Z., McGinley, M. J., McCormick, D. A., & Froemke, R. C. (2024). Nature Neuroscience, 27(11), 2152–2166.

Sense of Agency during Encoding Predicts Subjective Reliving. Meyer, N. H., Gauthier, B., Potheegadoo, J., Boscheron, J., Franc, E., Lance, F., & Blanke, O. (2024). eNeuro, 11(10), ENEURO.0256-24.2024.

Learning probability distributions of sensory inputs with Monte Carlo predictive coding. Oliviers, G., Bogacz, R., & Meulemans, A. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(10), e1012532.

A neural mechanism for optic flow parsing in macaque visual cortex. Peltier, N. E., Anzai, A., Moreno-Bote, R., & DeAngelis, G. C. (2024). Current Biology, 34(21), 4983-4997.e9.

Temporal dynamics of nucleus accumbens neurons in male mice during reward seeking. Schall, T. A., Li, K.-L., Qi, X., Lee, B. T., Wright, W. J., Alpaugh, E. E., Zhao, R. J., Liu, J., Li, Q., Zeng, B., Wang, L., Huang, Y. H., Schlüter, O. M., Nestler, E. J., Nieh, E. H., & Dong, Y. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 9285.

A hierarchical reinforcement learning model explains individual differences in attentional set shifting. Talwar, A., Cormack, F., Huys, Q. J. M., & Roiser, J. P. (2024). Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 24(6), 1008–1022.

Coding Dynamics of the Striatal Networks During Learning. Villet, M., Reynaud-Bouret, P., Poitreau, J., Baldi, J., Jaffard, S., James, A., Muzy, A., Kartsaki, E., Scarella, G., Sargolini, F., & Bethus, I. (2024). eNeuro, 11(10), ENEURO.0436-23.2024.

Object color knowledge representation occurs in the macaque brain despite the absence of a developed language system. Zhao, M., Xin, Y., Deng, H., Zuo, Z., Wang, X., Bi, Y., & Liu, N. (2024). PLOS Biology, 22(10), e3002863.

[renaissanceofthearts]

[ Mangekyō Sharingan ]

His stories may have been based on a real-life 19th century Japanese ninja called Kozuki Sasuke. These legendary ninjas, popular in anime and manga, appear to have inspired Naruto's Sasuke.

A Dōjutsu is a ninja ability encoded in the bearer's DNA, manifested through their optic nerves; it's certainly nothing to be sneezed at in terms of power and deadliness. One of the Three Great Dōjutsu, Sharingan, is seen only in members of the Uchiha clan, but a unique, advanced version known as the Mangekyō Sharingan appears even less, only visible in the eyes of those who have been devastated by the loss of someone close to them.

Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan makes its debut after the death of his brother, Itachi; later, Sasuke replaces his eyes with Itachi's in order to gain access to the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, which is much less tiring to use and doesn't bear any of the side effects, such as vision loss, that the advanced Dōjutsu's normal form does.

[stijlw]

viral posts about Physical Media Superiority always omit* an important fact regarding optical storage: with something limited release chances are you're getting a disc that is burned rather than pressed.

pressed = the plastic disc is physically imprinted with all encoded info from a master during the moulding process whereby it is formed. this is before it even has the shiny layer! this involves complicated expensive equipment and a factory set up with a clean room.

burned = already finished discs containing nothing have data written to them with a laser that marks a special dye in their shiny layer. this is the exact same thing you can do at home with your computer. cheap, easy and doesn't involve specialised equipment.

the key differences are in consistency (data perfectly impressed at once vs being written sequentially providing opportunity for error) and durability (data stored in the plastic itself vs the layer on-top only).

a digital copy is a digital copy but you should definitely be aware that your boutique blu-ray re-release of that obscure film is a BD-R with a readable lifespan of ~15 years under ideal storage conditions. similar numbers for say a CD from a bandcamp etc (really a CDR).

worth noting given that these posts often contrast the so-called permanence of these things with the ephemerality of streaming ! buy the things but create a back-up. it's even legal if that's a concern you hold.

*saying omit to be kind but i would be fairly confident they are just unaware. these posts also suggest some pretty silly things such as duplicating audio streams with a 3.5mm male-to-male going from a computer headphone jack into its mic input. excellent intentions not necessarily backed up with much technical knowledge

[stevebattle]

MicroDroid (1984), by HoB-Bots of Hudson, Hudson, OH. "Have you avoided joining the robot revolution because the robots you have seen were either too toy-like or too expensive? Wait no longer. HoB-Bots of Hudson introduces MicroDroid. MicroDroid has advanced features usually available only on more expensive robots. MicroDroid has two independently-driven wheels which move its rugged all-metal body through the thickest carpets. MicroDroid has a hand with a 3" span capable of holding over 4.5 lbs. MicroDroid has five major sensor systems which permit it to interact with its environment. Within the hand there are two variable pressure sensors, two hand-limit sensors, and an optical object sensor. MicroDroid also has a tactile sensing system and an optical shaft encoder for position sensing. MicroDroid is available in three models to meet your specific needs. Model MD100C is supplied with our robot development computer programmable in BASIC. Model MDI0IP is provided with a parallel interface to your computer. Model MD102Z is provided with an interface which plugs into the expansion bus of your Timex-Sinclair computer. Now you don't need to wait any longer. Now you can join the robot revolution with MicroDroid and HoB-Bots of Hudson."

[spookyweaselbones]

Re-designing my Waldo

I found out they make rotary hall effect sensors (why did no one tell me). These little guys are miracles; they have the exact same effect on the voltage as a traditional potentiometer but with all the advantages of hall-effects. Straight upgrade. And unlike optical encoders, the positioning is absolute, so no calibration needed. The sensors are a slightly different form factor though, and because my first prototype prioritized fewer parts over upgradeability, a tiny little change requires a complete re-design. As you can see, I'm trying to avoid that in the future. This version has far more parts that bolt together rather than weld, particularly where sensors get installed. This was also an opportunity to make some long overdue ergonomic adjustments (the thumb position was atrocious) and add a couple extra sensors for my fingers. If I've done everything right (and I almost never do) this will be easier to repair, lighter, and more expressive.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Researchers discover new material for optically-controlled magnetic memory

Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have made unexpected progress toward developing a new optical memory that can quickly and energy-efficiently store and access computational data. While studying a complex material composed of manganese, bismuth and tellurium (MnBi2Te4), the researchers realized that the material's magnetic properties changed quickly and easily in response to light. This means that a laser could be used to encode information within the magnetic states of MnBi2Te4. "This really underscores how fundamental science can enable new ways of thinking about engineering applications very directly," said Shuolong Yang, assistant professor of molecular engineering and senior author of the new work. "We started with the motivation to understand the molecular details of this material and ended up realizing it had previously undiscovered properties that make it very useful." In a paper published in Science Advances, Yang and colleagues showed how the electrons in MnBi2Te4 compete between two opposing states—a topological state useful for encoding quantum information and a light-sensitive state useful for optical storage.

Read more.