Happy Friday, Public Lab! Lots happening this week between updates on two Kickstarters, hundreds of new potential contributors to our infrared photography project, and various announcements and upcoming events. Stay cool, summer’s almost over!

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Announcements

We’re proud to announce that Public Lab is a Semi-Finalist for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge!

Public Lab’s store is now carrying balloon mapping kits with a new box design by Nickolas Peter Chelyapov.

Upcoming Events

Planning and registration continues for the October Public Lab Barnraising in Cocodrie, Louisiana

Sunday Aug 25th, 11am-4pm in Manomet Massachusetts: Infrared balloon mapping event at Tidmarsh Farms with the MIT Media Lab’s Responsive Environments group and Public Lab http://ow.ly/oal7q

The Open Hardware Summit 2013 is coming up on September 6 at MIT (a number of Public Lab folks will be there!), and there is an open call for nominations to the board of the Open Source Hardware Association.

At Mozilla’s Mozfest in October in London, Public Lab has proposed a session on “Open source science: not just for scientists”: http://publiclab.org/notes/warren/08-21-2013/public-lab-sessions-mozfest-oct-25-7-2013

New and ongoing projects with Public Lab tools

Infragram webcam tests continue as part of the Infragram Kickstarter project

Infragram DIY Filter Packs have begun shipping from Portland Oregon as part of the Infragram Kickstarter project.

Public Lab Organizers have compiled a “Give or get help!” list of troubleshooting resources for the hundreds of new Infragram contributors we’ll see in coming weeks and months.

Smartphone spectrometer injection molding samples have returned from ProtoEdge and final plastics decisions are being made as part of the DIY Spectrometry Kit Kickstarter.

Japanese Public Labbers recently took their first balloon mapping photos:

Research Notes Highlights

Californian Public Labbers recently did coastal observations with kite mapping setups in Malibu Lagoon & Surfrider Beach, Malibu, CA

Chris Fastie and others have been exploring techniques for post-processing white balance on multispectral plant photographs.

Contributor bc512 from Australia discusses infrared vineyard monitoring with quadcopters

Public Lab in the media this week

Liz Barry, Public Lab, and partners were featured in a short piece in the New Yorker this week on p.22, which covered the urban agriculture pole photography they are doing in NYC.