Miniature blacksmithed fire steel. Together with a piece of tinder fungus it makes an ancient pocket lighter.
Fire steel
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Author Archives: linse
Fahrtenbär / hiking backpack
A modern ultralight version of a classical European scouts backpack (schweizer Affe).
The shoulder straps in preparation.
The cover for the tunnel which houses the aluminium frame.
The finished backpack, empty.
The triangle which attaches the shoulder straps to the backpack.
Top view.
Back pad, shoulder straps and hipbelt.
Me, carrying the backpack.
Back view of us.
I published a tutorial in the scouts magazine “Der Eisbrecher”.
The scouts magazines (here: Ostrakon) love it. 
My tutorial inspired somebody to build his own fahrtenbaer, and travel the world with it!
hippie jeans
Redone hippie jeans similar to those my parents are wearing in an old photo when they were young. For historical correctness, I also wear the red sweater which my mum has knit for my dad back then.
Back view.
Front pocket detail.
Back pocket detail.
Front view.
RNA sonification
We made an interactive browser for RNA secondary structures, which allows to browse the structures by a sonification of their abstract shapes.
cancer database
For a medical professor in cancer research, we set up a searchable online database. The database holds cancer related gene expression data collected from different studies. I implemented two different search modes, which search either for a probe or for a gene expression scenario. The list of search results includes links to the biological protein databases at the NCBI and Uniprot, as well as links to PubMed, a biomedical publication database.
The structure diagram of the database.
Probe search for a probe identified by the protein name “keratin”.
The search result for “keratin”.
Expression profile search: a logical search that is a chain of simple search queries connected by AND or OR.
Expression profile search result.
solderin’ skaters / Tilt’n'Roll
With a group of nine students we were one of the winning teams of the Nokia push n900 challenge with our idea of using a real skateboard to control a game.
We equipped the board with custom truck spacers, which are able to send sensor data from the board to a smartphone via bluetooth. On the smartphone, a trick detector is running, which detects skate tricks and sends an according event to the game, which also runs on the smartphone. The skater may earn points by performing skate tricks, and is rewarded not only by the possibility to enter a high score, but also by sound feedback and change of background music, and the possibility to report performed tricks via a microblogging service such as twitter.
Our hack was presented at the Nokia push party, on hackaday.com and at the decode exhibition in the Victoria&Albert museum in London. It also resulted in a scientific publication.
As you can see, I am part of the software team.
