The author describes how science and play blend in his projects, beginning with three inventionsâa CDâbased car MP3 player from 1998, a highâaltitude balloon carrying a miniature ship that beams video to a ground trailer for realâtime motion feedback, and a lockâpicking board game built around acrylic padlocks and deadboltsâand then moves on to recent experiments in CPUâintensive postâprocessing of infrared photos (colorizing night shots) and exploring ZeroMQ as a messaging tool to coordinate large camera arrays for slowâmotion, superâresolution imaging; he concludes that such handsâon experimentation and selfâeducation are far more powerful than textbook study.






















