The technomancers at MIT have crafted software that allows a pulse to be visualized, as evidenced by this doughy bespectacled man. The program picks up subtle traces that the human eye cannot, and converts it into something viewable. It would be interesting to see this technology adapted for lie-detecting purposes. Soon, robots will be able to call your bluff in a poker game.

[boingboing]

MIT grad student Charles Guan has converted the go-kart designs from Mario Kart into a real-life mini-vehicle that can hit 26 MPH.

The "Chibikart" has a 30-inch-long frame, making even an average person look like Donkey Kong while driving it around. It's a pretty efficient little cruiser, though, running on electric motors and an e-bike controller.

Oh, and it has four-wheel drive. That probably comes in handy when you're driving over banana peels.

[technabob.]

MIT's campus hackers are on a roll. On top of turning an entire building into a giant game of Tetris, they've also erected a monument to the universe's superior beings, the Daleks.

A giant replica of the iconic Doctor Who baddie is currently sitting atop the Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center, presumably in response to an oversized TARDIS that appeared on campus in 2010.

[nerdapproved.]

The latest in MIT's long tradition of campus hacks took place last Friday night, when students turned the school's Green Building into an enormous, playable Tetris game.

According to the official MIT hack gallery, "hackers have long considered "Tetris on the Green Building" to be the Holy Grail of hacks, as the side of the building is a wonderful grid for the game."

Sure, TU Delft did it first, but the MIT version is perhaps the coolest-looking "building Tetris" hack ever.

[slyoyster.]

MIT's media lab has developed a camera that can see around corners using scatter laser technology.

The camera emits a laser pulse that hits a wall and scatters, resulting in a burst of photons that can bounce off of an object hidden around a corner and then bounce back to the camera. Judging by the time it takes the photons to return, the camera assembles an image of the concealed object.

Only some of the photons will make contact with the target object, so the picture the camera creates is still a bit rough and can take several minutes to complete. Researchers hope to bring that time down to less than 10 seconds in the future.

[geek]