The movie of your mind! Shades of Shinigami!
It seems that the scientists at University of California, Berklee have quite a lot in common with the dapper death gods that populate modern anime. Like the Shinigami of the popular Kuroshitsuji aka Black Butler series and others, these scientists are coming close to extracting the movie of your mind and keeping it on file.
University of California, Berklee scientists have developed a computer program that monitors the blood flow of your visual cortex and turns it into a type of pixel that can be correlated and put onto a screen.
They have done experiments where a subject will watch a movie and then they will look at the computer generated images this action creates. The results thus far are sketchy, but amazing.
If you are looking a human being, the computer generates a picture that looks like a human being. It can't replicate close facial features but it is remarkably close to a human image.
A pair of elephants walking left to right doesn't look exactly like elephants but there is certainly a large set of objects moving left to right.
Details and contrast are sure to come in time. If one looks at what passed for special effects in the 1980's versus what is available now, we can be sure that programs can and will be tweaked for accuracy.
Here are the articles and the video of the research:
https://sites.google.com/site/gallantlabucb/publications/nishimoto-et-al-2011
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies/
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Big Brother IS Watching You - Koch Brothers Acquire Molex
The notorious and ultra-conservative Koch Brothers have acquired Molex - MOLX
In case you are unfamiliar with Molex, they manufacture a multitude of electronics components for things like the Apple iPhone, connectors for computer peripherals, connections for motherboards, internal components for cars and innumerable appliances.
It seems that owning products like Brawny paper towels, Dixie Cups and Lycra aren't enough. They attempted to buy Tribune broadcasting but the economics of the deal didn't materialize. Now they've set their sights on something far juicier - electronic components.
Let all your science fiction conspiracies run wild because this is probably the most under-reported, under-noticed story of the month, if not the year.
Do we really want people with an ultra-conservative agenda controlling the intrinsic guts of our most beloved vehicles and appliances?
Suppose in the future, a protest became uncomfortable or if there was an incident happening that would be better off unseen - what's to stop a company like this from flipping a giant OFF switch?
What's to stop a company with an extreme political agenda from putting all their efforts into developing a giant OFF switch?
Your iPhone suddenly stops working? Your completely electronic car stops dead on the highway, along with thousands of other completely electronic cars? Note that they're eliminating dials on cars now and anything remotely mechanical.
Hmm. Well perhaps there's something on the other side of town you shouldn't know about. Perhaps it's something you shouldn't see.
I'm not uncomfortable with the concept of this research but I am uncomfortable at the prospect that people with extreme political agendas control this research and this technology.
Nor do I think speculating about a giant OFF switch is out of the question or out of the realm of current research. Think of how many governments would love to shut the majority of the phones off and most of the cars down if they could. It's not out of the realm of possibility.
When you purchase an appliance or a vehicle is it truly yours if someone might have control over it from the outside?
Will cars and phones eventually be given away free or inexpensively in exchange for given someone a certain amount of power over you the same way free email on the internet works?
If company A makes the product, but company R makes the components and they have some kind of external programming or on/off control over the device, what are you really buying and did you really buy it? Is the actual transaction free and clear or are their strings attached?
These are questions we need to be prepared to answer.
In case you are unfamiliar with Molex, they manufacture a multitude of electronics components for things like the Apple iPhone, connectors for computer peripherals, connections for motherboards, internal components for cars and innumerable appliances.
It seems that owning products like Brawny paper towels, Dixie Cups and Lycra aren't enough. They attempted to buy Tribune broadcasting but the economics of the deal didn't materialize. Now they've set their sights on something far juicier - electronic components.
Let all your science fiction conspiracies run wild because this is probably the most under-reported, under-noticed story of the month, if not the year.
Do we really want people with an ultra-conservative agenda controlling the intrinsic guts of our most beloved vehicles and appliances?
Suppose in the future, a protest became uncomfortable or if there was an incident happening that would be better off unseen - what's to stop a company like this from flipping a giant OFF switch?
What's to stop a company with an extreme political agenda from putting all their efforts into developing a giant OFF switch?
Your iPhone suddenly stops working? Your completely electronic car stops dead on the highway, along with thousands of other completely electronic cars? Note that they're eliminating dials on cars now and anything remotely mechanical.
Hmm. Well perhaps there's something on the other side of town you shouldn't know about. Perhaps it's something you shouldn't see.
I'm not uncomfortable with the concept of this research but I am uncomfortable at the prospect that people with extreme political agendas control this research and this technology.
Nor do I think speculating about a giant OFF switch is out of the question or out of the realm of current research. Think of how many governments would love to shut the majority of the phones off and most of the cars down if they could. It's not out of the realm of possibility.
When you purchase an appliance or a vehicle is it truly yours if someone might have control over it from the outside?
Will cars and phones eventually be given away free or inexpensively in exchange for given someone a certain amount of power over you the same way free email on the internet works?
If company A makes the product, but company R makes the components and they have some kind of external programming or on/off control over the device, what are you really buying and did you really buy it? Is the actual transaction free and clear or are their strings attached?
These are questions we need to be prepared to answer.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Beer is Better than Water - Hydrating Beer
While the micro brewery was the story of the 1990's, over the past few years there have been some discoveries about the ancient world's most wonderful invention - beer.
Back in 2009, Manuel Garzon of Granada University did an interesting experiment. He had some students run on a treadmill in a room that was heated to 104 degrees Farenheit. Naturally, the students started sweating and rapidly tired out; their bodies depleted of electrolytes and water.
Garzon gave half the subjects Spanish lager and the other half plain water. The group of students who drank the Spanish lager were hydrated faster and to a better level than the ones who drank plain water. The reason being that the lager beer contained calories, sugars, carbohydrates and salts.
It's no wonder they call beer "liquid bread".
The second part of the modern beer story comes from Griffith Health Institute in Australia in August 2013. GHI’s Centre for Health Practice Innovation Associate Professor Ben Desbrow had been studying the ability to reduce alcohol and improve the hydrating effects of commercial beer.
By manipulating the electrolytes on different types of commercial beer, regular and lite beer, GHI came up with a lite beer that was one third more hydrating than normal commercial beer.
GHI's team is focusing on reducing the dangers associated with beer as a product, rather than trying to get people to change their recreational behavior.
They realize that people engaged in highly physical types of work often have a beer after their shift and seem to recover quickly or do not seem to have any effects at all, but they maintain that having a regular beer after being depleted of water and electrolytes is not the optimum way to rehydrate.
Ben Desprow's work can be found in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.
Back in 2009, Manuel Garzon of Granada University did an interesting experiment. He had some students run on a treadmill in a room that was heated to 104 degrees Farenheit. Naturally, the students started sweating and rapidly tired out; their bodies depleted of electrolytes and water.
Garzon gave half the subjects Spanish lager and the other half plain water. The group of students who drank the Spanish lager were hydrated faster and to a better level than the ones who drank plain water. The reason being that the lager beer contained calories, sugars, carbohydrates and salts.
It's no wonder they call beer "liquid bread".
The second part of the modern beer story comes from Griffith Health Institute in Australia in August 2013. GHI’s Centre for Health Practice Innovation Associate Professor Ben Desbrow had been studying the ability to reduce alcohol and improve the hydrating effects of commercial beer.
By manipulating the electrolytes on different types of commercial beer, regular and lite beer, GHI came up with a lite beer that was one third more hydrating than normal commercial beer.
GHI's team is focusing on reducing the dangers associated with beer as a product, rather than trying to get people to change their recreational behavior.
They realize that people engaged in highly physical types of work often have a beer after their shift and seem to recover quickly or do not seem to have any effects at all, but they maintain that having a regular beer after being depleted of water and electrolytes is not the optimum way to rehydrate.
Ben Desprow's work can be found in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.
***
Looking for funny beer t-shirts and gifts for birthdays, graduations, Christmas and other holidays? Check out Beer Mania !!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Mixbit is Live
Mixbit has been live for a few days now and it's already overwhelmed with the usual fare: #cats #kids #sports #travel #photography and people doing things that are probably not in their own best interest.
I pretty much figured that would be the case. Content doesn't really change much. The video quality is pretty good considering this is all being done on phones and on the fly.
Have any of you downloaded the app? What are your opinions?
Is it just a vine with a capability for longer videos or do you see a real difference in the product? Is it changing your life?
Curious minds want to know.
I pretty much figured that would be the case. Content doesn't really change much. The video quality is pretty good considering this is all being done on phones and on the fly.
Have any of you downloaded the app? What are your opinions?
Is it just a vine with a capability for longer videos or do you see a real difference in the product? Is it changing your life?
Curious minds want to know.
Friday, June 7, 2013
The Mystery of Mixbit
I just signed up for mixbit.com. Any emerging video content provider intrigues me. Thus far there is very little known about mixbit.com and what it hopes to accomplish.
Here's what we know:
- Mixbit.com is being developed by YouTube founder Chad Hurley and Avos Systems.
- Mixbit.com appears to be primarily be a phone centered software application, judging from the landing page of mixbit.com
- Mixbit.com domain was purchased recently for a little over $2000.00.
- Mixbit's official twitter is: @MixBitApp
- As of this writing @MixBitApp has 655 followers, 2 tweets and is following 6 accounts.
- The mixbit newsletter isn't really a newsletter, it's a downloadable contact sheet.
Mixbit will focus more on making creating content easier and more collaborative than YouTube. Which makes me think that they might focus more on a simpler, more powerful editing application that can be easily accessed from a smart phone. Thereby, creating and editing videos will be more on the fly rather than having to drag your video files back to a more powerful computer or laptop for the editing and uploading process. One can only speculate.
Mr. Hurley has also made a rather unusual statement to the New York Times that people "Unless it's pretty, they don't share" video content as much as they could or should.
There is an element of truth to that statement. While the internet is inundated with cute cats and dogs (which most of us love), more technical or educational information is shared at a much lesser rate.
Will mixbit compel us to share useful information and how will they entice us to do so? Will mixbit be picked up more by business and collaborative teams who are working in the field rather than bored office workers on lunch break?
Will mixbit actually make work fun? Or will it become another venue for all things kawaii?
Release is slated for July or August 2013.
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