Snoil - A Physical Display Based on Ferrofluid

Snoil, a sensitive skin of oil, is a great interactive piece by Martin Frey.

Ferrofluid is a liquid that reacts to magnetism. It is attracted by magnets, pretty similar to iron. This can lead to areas where the liquid partly resists to gravitation when a magnet approaches. Thereby a small bump is formed close to the loadstone. This behavior is enabled by magnetic nano-particles that are suspended in a carrier fluid. Normally the particles are coated with a surfactant to prevent their agglomeration. This results in stable ferrofluid dispersions.

Snake + Oil = SnOil

There are different reasons, why an interesting application for the ferrofluid-display is based on the game Snake: the food pieces are shaped out of the surrounding fluid and are instantly converted to the snakes body after consumption. So the growth in length of the snakes tail comes along with a real swelling volume of the collected fluid. The snake on the screen is steered by a joystick or a keyboard whereas the input interface of SnOil relies on a straighter action: The player holds the whole ferrofluid-basin in his hands and controls the flow direction of the snake by slightly tilting in the according direction. The controller measures this by tilt-sensors.

See the video here.

Source: Core77

Arial or Helvetica

Once there was a typeface called Helvetica.
It was extremely popular.
Later came a software company called Microsoft.
They “borrowed” Helvetica for their operating system and called it Arial.
This inferior typeface is now on millions of desktops all over the world.
Can you tell the difference between the original and the rip-off
in these ten examples?

Take the Quiz.
(If a little unsecure, read this great article first by Mark Simonson.)

Or, play the Game.

Or, follow the discussion over at Noisy Decent Graphics.