Repurposed Tech

I tried to love Amazon's amazing e-ink electronic book reader, the Kindle, I really did. But I wanted a device that had full color and a higher-resolution display and that didn't limit the content you can view on it. So instead of shelling out $300, I decided to make my own version using a tablet PC -- basically a computer with a stowable keyboard (or no keyboard at all) that you mainly control with a stylus and touchscreen.

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Tinkerers have been turning flatbed scanners into cameras for a while, but this version by a Japanese modder is one of the finest I've seen--both in technical execution and the incredible quality of the massive 130-megapixel images it creates.

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Infrared photography, which blocks visible light and captures only the IR spectrum to produce strange, beautiful images like the one above, has been around for more than a century. But it’s become more popular recently, since now anyone with a point-and-shoot camera can easily take these unusual shots. Not all subjects are suitable—some objects reflect part of the infrared spectrum, making them appear white and almost ghostly, so you won’t want to shoot, say, candid family shots. When done right, however, IR can work wonders. Formal portraits, for example, gain a delicate touch. Because IR softens the image, your subject’s skin will be imbued with a smooth glow that effectively hides blemishes and wrinkles. Landscapes, too, take on an ethereal look.

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Here’s the scenario: You have a thousand MP3 music files sitting on your home computer—which is great when you’re actually sitting at your computer but a lot less useful when you’re in the kitchen or living room. What you need is a dedicated device in another room that can pull songs wirelessly from your PC’s music library and play them through its own speakers. Several off-the-shelf products can handle this task, such as Logitech’s Squeezebox; unfortunately, they start at around $300.

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By now, you’ve probably heard the news: Next February, television will be broadcast only in digital. If you have cable, you’re already covered. If you have an old analog set—anything that pulls in signals over rabbit ears—you can buy a converter box to receive digital signals. But what about that really old TV with the fuzzy screen that takes forever to warm up? Most sets like that can’t receive cable or satellite service and don’t even have any A/V inputs, so a converter may not be an option.

Before you call Antiques Roadshow, however, you should know that with a transmitter kit, a cable and some solder, you can turn it into a monitor for an iPod video, a security-camera feed or an external display for a PC. Not too shabby for a piece of equipment that used to only be good for watching The Jeffersons.

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