computers

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How Robots Make Sense of Our World

Robot Readable World is a short film assembling footage from computer vision experiments -- in other words, "what robots see" as they look at video footage. Or, more appropriately, "What you'd see if you were a Terminator." The footage is strangely beautiful, though it takes about two minutes to get really interesting (the whole thing is only five minutes long). We start with cars, and note how robots detect cars and draw boxes around them. Then we start tracking people. Subsequent footage includes... READ ON

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Your Daily Mind-Blow: The Lumarca

In this short documentary by Jason Scott, we see a beautiful work of sculpture/installation art made by Matt Parker, Albert Hwang and Elliot Woods. I won't spoil how it's done -- stick around through at least 1:50 for "the second blowing of [your] mind" when it's explained how exactly this is put together. If you're in New York, you can experience the Lumarca for yourself at Eyebeam -- for two more days, anyway! You can also learn more and even build your own. Pro tip: try fullscreen mode, and watch... READ ON

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News: Another Lost Jim Henson Robot Film Found!

Last week I came across a long-lost film by Jim Henson from 1963. Here's a companion piece featuring Jerry Juhl, Henson's longtime collaborator. Juhl stars as "Charlie Magnetico" and Charlie's mother, "Mom Magnetico," as well as various other human roles. The AT&T archive released this film to the public today. Here's part of what AT&T's archivists say about the film: Juhl’s collaborations with Henson, especially in the late 1960s, with their commercial work for IBM and American Oil,... READ ON

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How Apple's '1984' Ad Was Almost Canceled

In 1984, Apple defined the Super Bowl Commercial as a cultural phenomenon. Prior to Super Bowl XVIII, nobody watched the game "just for the commercials" -- but one epic TV spot, directed by sci-fi legend Ridley Scott, changed all that. Read on for the inside story of the commercial that rocked the world of advertising, even though Apple's Board of Directors didn't want to run it at all. The AdIf you haven't seen it, here's a fuzzy YouTube version:Why 1984 Won't Be Like 1984The... READ ON

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Jim Henson's Rediscovered 1963 Robot Film

"The machine is busy digesting vast oceans of information in a single, all-encompassing, gulp. INTERRUPTION! INTERRUPTION! INFORMATION ALERT!" -Computer H14, in a 1963 film made by Jim Henson for The Bell System (now AT&T). This film is a piece of Henson ephemera -- a three-minute work created by a young Henson for a business seminar in Chicago. From the archive page: The organizers of the seminar, Inpro, actually set the tone for the film in a three-page memo from one of Inpro's principals,... READ ON

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Lectures for a New Year: God, the Universe, and Everything Else

Ready for a spectacular late-80s treat? Here we have Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and Arthur C. Clarke in discussion with Magnus Magnusson shortly after Hawking's A Brief History of Time was published. This discussion was sparked by the book (Sagan wrote the introduction), and it shows three visionaries at a time in history when Hawking's book was a massive bestseller. In addition to the men on stage, Sagan joins via satellite (which we're reminded was nominally invented, or at least envisioned in great... READ ON

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Robot Pets Cat; Cat is Not Amused

You know it's officially The Future when a human-like robot (the NAO) is able to pet (well, brush, actually) a cat via a complex hack involving a treadmill, Kinect, Wii, and Head-Mounted Display (HMD). Taylor Veltrop shows us the future of human/robot/cat interaction in this video: Here's how he describes it (emphasis added): This is the culmination of my last year's work. I control the robot's arms through the Kinect and Wii remotes. I control the robot's navigation through the Kinect and... READ ON

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What's Wrong With PROTECT IP and SOPA?

You may have heard about some new bills making their way through the U.S. Congress, related to piracy on the internet. But what are they and what's the big deal? Here's a simple guide to what the laws are and why so many internet nerds (like myself) are against them. Executive summary: the new laws could make you, as an individual, liable for a five-year prison term for posting any copyrighted work; they would hand massive new power to the entertainment industry (and other content-owning interests)... READ ON

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Why Angry Birds is So Addictive

In this analysis, usability expert Charles Mauro dissects the wildly successful game Angry Birds in order to explain why it's so engaging -- what factors in the game affect human cognition so that we'll spend hours flinging virtual birds at virtual pigs? I love Mauro's dry explanation of the game's premise: ... For those who don’t have a clue what Angry Birds is all about, here is a quick synopsis. The game involves employing a sling shot to propel small cannonball-shaped birds with really bad... READ ON

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I Am Unreasonably Excited About This Thermostat

I consider myself a computer geek -- I'm comfortable with that. But today I'm having a new feeling: apparently I'm a thermostat geek. Yesterday I came across the Nest "Learning Thermostat," which has been making the rounds of nerd blogs. Basically, this is a computer-driven thermostat with some fancy features: wifi, various sensors, a HAL-like Big Red Eye, and even remote control (via wifi/web). There's also an aspect of gameplay built into the thing -- much like some hybrid cars have an indicator... READ ON