3D scanning is becoming much more accessible, which means it’s more likely that the average hacker will use it to solve problems — possibly odd ones. That being the case, a handy tool to have in one’s repertoire is a way to work with point clouds. We’ll explain why in a moment, but that’s where CloudCompare comes in (GitHub).
Not all point clouds are destined to be 3D models. A project may call for watching for changes in a surface, for example.
CloudCompare is an open source tool with which one can load up and do various operations on point clouds, including generating mesh models from them. Point clouds are what 3D scanners create when an object is scanned, and to become useful, those point clouds are usually post-processed into 3D models (specifically, meshes) like an .obj or .stl file.

We’ve gone into detail in the past about how 3D scanning works, what to expect from it, and taken a hands-on tour of what an all-in-one wireless scanner can do. But what do point clouds have to do with getting the most out of 3D scanning? Well, if one starts to push the boundaries of how and to what purposes 3D scanning can be applied, it sometimes makes more sense to work with point clouds directly instead of the generated meshes, and CloudCompare is an open-source tool for doing exactly that.

For example, one may wish to align and merge two or more different clouds, such as from two different (possibly incomplete) scans. Or, you might want to conduct a deviation analysis of how those different scans have changed. Alternately, if one is into designing wearable items, it can be invaluable to be able to align something to a 3D scan of a body part.

It’s a versatile tool with numerous tutorials, so if you find yourself into 3D scanning but yearning for more flexibility than you can get by working with the mesh models — or want an alternative to modeling-focused software like Blender — maybe it’s time to work with the point clouds directly.

hackaday.com/2025/04/05/if-you…

Usually when we talk about retrocomputing, we want to look at — and in — some old hardware. But [Z→Z] has a different approach: dissecting MacPaint, the Apple drawing program from the 1980s.

While the program looks antiquated by today’s standards, it was pretty hot stuff back in the day. Things we take for granted today were big deals at the time. For example, being able to erase a part of something you drew prompted applause at an early public demo.

We enjoyed the way the program was tested, too. A software “monkey” was made to type keys, move things, and click menus randomly. The teardown continues with a look inside the Pascal and assembly code with interesting algorithms like how the code would fill an area with color.

The program has been called “beautifully organized,” and [Z→Z] examines that assertion. Maybe the brilliance of it has been overstated, but it did work and it did influence many computer graphics programs over the years.

We love digging through old source code. Even old games. If you do your own teardowns, be sure to send us a tip.

hackaday.com/2025/04/05/a-look…

Quasi due dozzine di aziende che lavorano nel campo dell’informatica quantistica, sono stati selezionati per partecipare alla prima fase dell’ambiziosa Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) della DARPA. La sfida per i partecipanti è dimostrare la fattibilità dei loro approcci unici per creare un computer quantistico utile e a prova di errore entro i prossimi dieci anni.

Il programma QBI è stato lanciato nel luglio 2024 e mira a ribaltare le previsioni scettiche e ad accelerare lo sviluppo di un computer quantistico realmente pratico. L’obiettivo principale della DARPA è determinare se entro il 2033 sia possibile raggiungere una svolta tale per cui una macchina quantistica possa non solo funzionare, ma anche offrire vantaggi reali che superino i costi di costruzione e di funzionamento.

Secondo Joe Altepeter, responsabile del programma QBI, le aziende sono state selezionate in base all’esame delle loro candidature scritte e delle presentazioni di persona a un team di esperti quantistici statunitensi. “Ora inizia il vero lavoro. La fase A è una maratona di sei mesi durante la quale i partecipanti devono presentare concetti tecnicamente validi che dimostrino che sono effettivamente in grado di portare alla creazione di un computer quantistico scalabile e tollerante ai guasti“, ha osservato.

La selezione comprende attori noti come IBM, HPE e Rigetti, oltre a startup provenienti da Stati Uniti, Canada, Europa e Australia che sviluppano tecnologie basate su un’ampia gamma di tipologie di qubit, dai superconduttori e trappole ioniche ai sistemi fotonici e qubit di spin su silicio. L’elenco include, ad esempio, Alice & Bob da Parigi e Cambridge (qubit cat), IonQ dal Maryland (trappole ioniche), Diraq dall’Australia e dalla California (spin in silicio CMOS) e Xanadu da Toronto (circuiti quantistici fotonici). Sono state nominate in totale 15 aziende; altri tre sono in fase di accordo sulle condizioni di partecipazione.

Coloro che supereranno con successo questa prima fase passeranno a una seconda fase, della durata di un anno, durante la quale la DARPA valuterà attentamente i propri piani scientifici e tecnici, gli approcci di ricerca e la fattibilità degli obiettivi dichiarati. Successivamente inizierà la fase finale C, in cui il team di verifica e convalida indipendente (IV&V) testerà tutto, dagli algoritmi e componenti ai prototipi funzionanti. Allo stesso tempo, come sottolinea la DARPA, il programma non è di natura competitiva: il compito non è quello di scegliere un vincitore, ma di valutare il più accuratamente possibile il potenziale di ciascun approccio al calcolo quantistico.

È interessante notare che QBI è diventato la logica continuazione del progetto pilota US2QC (Underxplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing), a cui stanno già lavorando Microsoft e PsiQuantum. Entrambe le aziende sono ora entrate nella fase finale di questo programma, i cui obiettivi sono completamente allineati con la fase finale di QBI.

La DARPA punta sulla tecnologia profonda e non su affermazioni ad alta voce. Come afferma Altepiter, l’agenzia sta creando un team di esperti IV&V composto da specialisti di primo piano e sta utilizzando siti di prova sia federali che regionali per distinguere le tecnologie reali dalle esagerazioni. Tutti questi sforzi mirano a un solo obiettivo: aiutare il governo degli Stati Uniti a comprendere quali sviluppi commerciali ci stanno davvero avvicinando all’era di un computer quantistico pratico e robusto.

L'articolo Basta Chiacchiere! Il DARPA vuole vederci chiaro sui Computer Quantistici. Entro il 2033 il primo? proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

[Antoine Pirrone] and [Grégoire Passault] are making a DIY miniature re-imagining of Disney’s BDX droid design, and while it’s still early, there is definitely a lot of progress to see. Known as the Open Duck Mini v2 and coming in at a little over 40 cm tall, the project is expected to have a total cost of around 400 USD.
The inner workings of Open Duck Mini use a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, hobby servos, and an absolute-orientation IMU.
Bipedal robots are uncommon, and back in the day they were downright rare. One reason is that the state of controlled falling that makes up a walking gait isn’t exactly a plug-and-play feature.

Walking robots are much more common now, but gait control for legged robots is still a big design hurdle. This goes double for bipeds. That brings us to one of the interesting things about the Open Duck Mini v2: computer simulation of the design is playing a big role in bringing the project into reality.

It’s a work in progress but the repository collects all the design details and resources you could want, including CAD files, code, current bill of materials, and links to a Discord community. Hardware-wise, the main work is being done with very accessible parts: Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, fairly ordinary hobby servos, and an BNO055-based absolute orientation IMU.

So, how far along is the project? Open Duck Mini v2 is already waddling nicely and can remain impressively stable when shoved! (A “testing purposes” shove, anyway. Not a “kid being kinda mean to your robot” shove.)

Check out the videos to see it in action, and if you end up making your own, we want to hear about it, so remember to send us a tip!

hackaday.com/2025/04/05/disney…

We’ve seen a Linux-based operating system made to run on some widely varying pieces of hardware over the years, but [Dimity Grinberg]’s latest project may be one of the most unusual. It’s a PCB with 3 integrated circuits on it which doesn’t seem too interesting at first, but what makes it special is that all three of those chips are in 8-pin SOIC packages. How on earth can Linux run on 8-pin devices? The answer lies as you might expect, in emulation.

Two of the chips are easy to spot, a USB-to-serial chip and an SPI RAM chip. The processor is an STM32G0 series device, which packs a pretty fast ARM Cortex M0+ core. This runs a MIPS emulator that we’ve seen on a previous project, which is ripe for overclocking. At a 148 MHz clock it’s equivalent to a MIPS running at about 1.4 MHz, which is just about usable. Given that the OS in question is a full-featured Debian, it’s not running some special take on Linux for speed, either.

We like some of the hardware hacks needed to get serial, memory, and SD card, onto so few pins. The SD and serial share the same pins, with a filter in place to remove the high-frequency SPI traffic from the low-frequency serial traffic. We’re not entirely sure what use this machine could be put to, but it remains an impressive piece of work.

hackaday.com/2025/04/05/8-pins…

"Zero Day", su Netflix, interpretato e prodotto da Robert De Niro.

Sei episodi.

Ve lo consiglio.