In Search Of An ‘Ear Linguist’

Several years ago, I came up with an idea for an “Earlingo Headband.” You can see my original post via this link: Earlingo – The Animal Assisted Therapy Headband.

Earlingo is a headband with controllable canid (wolf/dog) ears on it. It can be used in human-animal assisted interactions, as well as to signal captive wild canids (wolves, foxes, etc.) in zoos or other such environments. This can aid in bio-behavioral studies.

I was really excited to build this project, but it was outside my scope of expertise. I quickly learned to really make this idea happen, I needed a university bioengineering student. A student who could become not only a designer, but a wild canid ‘ear linguist’ as well.

I decided that I needed to place an ad in a university setting and student newspaper. I chose Cal Berkeley as my first target, as they have superior engineering programs.

I asked my techie friend Larry what he might suggest. As typical he had a great idea; use a QR code, something that I would never have thought of doing.

I wrote up some text and gave him suggestions for a graphic. He used his AI expertise to come up with this ad design, which included the QR code.

Check out the QR code to read the ad. If you are not familiar with using QR codes, one way to access it is to focus your phone’s camera on the QR graphic. Your browser will detect the link. Just click on the displayed link to access the ad. Really cool!

Hopefully, I will find an engineering student who likes the Earlingo project as much as I do!

The Flux Capacitor

A few years ago, I converted my 30-plus-year-old mountain bike to electric (eBike Build), a really fun project!

Because my battery holder design looked like a giant capacitor, I added a ‘Flux Capacitor‘ decal to each side, a nod to a classic 1980’s movie. Do you know which movie it is?

Recently, I went to a classic movie night, you guessed it, I saw “Back To The Future.” They even had a Delorean outside the theater for pictures – a very cool Car! This old guy (below) asked me take his picture for him, which, of course, I did. The theater was packed, and the movie, well… it is still a Great movie!

After the movie, it dawned on me that my bike had an energy storage device (battery), but not a Flux Capacitor. I wondered if they might make a small, movie prop Flux Capacitor. A quick search, and behold… a 3 inch Flux Capacitor, complete with light and sound. Perfect! I bought one.

After some thought on the best place to mount it on the bike… eureka, it looked fabulous. Now, when I ride down the street, the bike really turns heads, especially at dusk!

If they show the movie next year at classic night, I think I’ll put on a gray wig, a lab coat, and park my bike right next to the Delorean.

Imagine, a time traveling car and bike together. “Great Scott Marty!