Google just launched Body Browser that let you explore the human body just like you explore the world with Google Earth.But, you need a browser that support WeBGL like Firefox4 beta and Google Chrome Beta. See the unofficial blog for Body Browser http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/12/google-body-browser.html. I have it tried it out.Impressive but not stable in some PC. Excellent tool for teaching staff in sport science, and biology.
Well,
that was quick. Right after yesterday's surprising announcement,
Sony flew its yet-to-be-released NEX-VG10 camcorder into London just in time for
today's showcase event. Naturally, we had to get our hands on this shiny baby,
and boy we were impressed. In case you missed the news, this snazzy device is
the world's first consumer HandyCam with interchangeable lens, meaning you can
share E-mount lenses with your young NEX DSLRs, or take advantage of
the abundant A-mount lenses with the help of an adapter (which will cost you
extra, mind you). Likewise, there are also hot and cold shoe mounts on the mic
shaft to cater your current camera accessories. Read on for our thoughts on the
rest of the camcorder -- we've put together a little sample clip for you at the
end as well.
There
isn't much to complain about with this $2,000 (and, sadly, possibly £2,000 for
the Brits) piece of kit in terms of appearance and ergonomics. We like being
able to hold it by either the seemingly solid body (using the strap) or the mic
shaft, and both ways provided comfortable grip without much fatigue due to the
light weight (even with the bundled lens). We were also able to quickly master
the jog-dial control next to the 3-inch screen, but for this price, we expected
a touchscreen interface as well to make life easier. As for the bundled F3.5-6.3
18-200mm lens, we found that zooming required a bit more effort than we liked,
so thankfully there's auto focus mode -- just like any ordinary camcorder -- to
save us from further wrist work with the focus ring. We must also point out that
unlike the Olympus PEN,
this Sony camcorder didn't pick up any mechanical noise from its lens auto
focussing; otherwise, this kit totally wouldn't deserve such price tag.
Of
course, what we really care about is the picture and sound quality. All is
revealed in our sample reel below (remember to enable HD playback mode), but in
brief: stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio
sensitivity (notice how the mic was able to pick up conversations from afar; you
can also enable just the front mics to minimise background noise). You may
notice some shakiness while we were adjusting the lens -- we'll blame it on our
lack of practice from the little hands-on time we had. Regardless, the NEX-VG10
certainly lived up to our expectation, and we look forward to hear what the
filming hobbyists think of this prosumer-level camcorder when it comes out in
September.
Update: commenter
aim120 dropped us a link to Sony's own sample clip. Enjoy!
YouTube announced a new batch of partners that were added to its Education Channel today and noted that nearly 80% of the viewership of educational content on the site came from outside the United States. Less than 70% of the site's total traffic is International, so the educational content is disproportionately viewed by global audiences.
Both YouTube and iTunes U are serving up huge quantities of educational content to a world already in the throes of a 50 year revolution in global education. In some ways they represent exactly the kind of education that a new world needs, too: learning that augments existing education and fosters life-long development of non-routine analytical and interactive skills. That's a recipe for good times.
YouTube now hosts more than 500,000 educational videos, on a wide variety of topics. The new mobile-friendly iTunes U also offers 500,000 educational resources and says that 60% of its viewership comes from outside the United States. This global consuption of US-created online educational content may be the newest chapter in a radical transformation of global education over the past 50 years. Life in this world is not like it used to be just a few decades ago, and the availability of world-class education on-demand, at almost no cost, is likely to help things change all the more as this century unfolds.
A trend began, at least in the United states, as far back as 1985: demand for "routine manual skills" has held relatively steady, demand for non-routine manual skills has plummeted. Demand for routine cognitive skills climbed through 1970, then fell. What's hot? Non-routine analytic and non-routine interactive skills.
Those are things that a good YouTube or iTunes U video about world history or global ecology can help improve, your non-routine analytic and interactive skills. More than for just economic well-being, those are skills that positively impact quality of life in many ways.
Augmented reality, or the blending of the real world with computer graphics on the fly, is one of the most exciting fields in tech right now
Zugara, an interactive marketing agency, has built something a bit more practical for the time being. It’s put together the Webcam Social Shopper, offering a way to help you try on clothes online from the comfort of your bedroom.
t lets you overlay a static image on top of your body and pretend you’re wearing it. Which is sort of a start.
Zugara is also trying to weave a social element into the application, offering examples of sharing outfit choices over Facebook or allowing friends to help choose outfits in real time, which could turn out to be the app’s real strength.
Although Second Life's finances seem to be in the black (it is a
We're already on the cusp of a fully-immersive 3D experience that could go mainstream. Microsoft's Kinect peripheral for its gaming console, for example, allows gamers to control their onscreen characters with body movements captured by 3D cameras. Sony's PlayStation Home offers a sharp, high-definition virtual world. Maybe these companies could teach Linden Labs a thing or two about advancing the technology and vision behind Second Life.
The learning curve for Second Life is also steep, no thanks to its cumbersome user interface. Even a mildly proficient Internet user might be put off.
Blog > Putting Together an Effective Portfolio
Putting Together an Effective Portfolio
most freelancers with a decent body of work nowadays will also have an online presence, used, in the main, to display their work. Take as much care with your online portfolio as you would your physical one. Strive for a uniformity and dynamism in your photography of projects, and make sure that images and pdfs saved from the computer are of sufficiently high and consistent resolution. Write concise, foolproof explanations to accompany the work and organise it all in an intuitive level-based fashion, much as you would a website. Sites like Flickr and View Creatives go some way to aiding the freelancer in this professional-feeling endeavour, but you’ll still need to pour energy and vim into the whole enterprise to create the right appearance.
Useful Top Tips
Keep things small. A portfolio any larger than A3 is really too big
Keep things clean & uncrumpled
Loose-leaf sheets are better than ring-bound sleeves
Assembling a portfolio should not be a one-off exercise, but a dynamic and continual process
Request and absorb other people’s comments and allow this information to flow back into the way you maintain your portfolio
Interleave your loose-leaf sheets with a bold and dazzling substrate, though choose something that doesn’t overpower the work contained within
If you choose to carry your portfolio on a laptop, for pity’s sake avoid using Powerpoint in your presentations!
Noah Rahman has moderate Cerebral Palsy affecting his communication, cognition and upper and lower body movement. When he turned two, his language, cognitive abilitity and fine motor skills were diagnosed by a developmental specialist as being at least 12 months behind. Then Noah got an iPad.
Four months later, his language and cognition were on par with his age level. His fine motor skills had made significant leaps.
On November 4, a solution was discovered—in a videogame. That’s the day Microsoft released the Kinect for Xbox 360, a $150 add-on that allows players to direct the action in a game simply by moving their bodies. Most of the world focused on the controller-free interface, but roboticists saw something else entirely: an affordable, lightweight camera that could capture 3-D images in real time.
When DIYers combine those cheap, powerful tools with the collaborative potential of the Internet, they can come up with the kinds of innovations that once sprang only from big-budget R&D labs. In 2009, a PhD student named Daniel Reetz turned two Canon PowerShot A590s into an improvised high-speed book scanner. He detailed the project on a website, DIYbookscanner.org, where readers have since posted hundreds of tweaks, suggestions, upgrades, and entirely new designs. The open source MPGuino project, which uses an Arduino microcontroller to track gas consumption as you drive, has inspired a small community of fans who help refine and customize the gizmo.
So can computers actually help improve our concentration and contemplation, instead of leading us into distraction?
The problem, as Pang puts it, is that "Technologies that were supposed to help us think better, work more efficiently, and connect more meaningfully with others now interrupt us, divide our attention, and stretch us thin."
In the paper he outlines give principles of contemplative computing;
Build awareness through DIY and self-experimentation
Recognize that we are cyborgs, and humans
Create rewarding challenges
Support mind-wandering
Treat flow as a means, not an end
Pang suggests that we don't have to choose between information technology and contemplation, and suggests contemplative computing as a new way forward. He describes contemplative computing as something you do, not a product. But the principles of contemplative computing could be extending to application design. "The problem is that today's information technologies are often poorly-designed and thoughtlessly used: they're like unreliable prosthetics that we have to depend on, but can't quite control or trust," Pang says.
You might be surprised to see "support mind wandering" on the list. But Pang makes a distinction between mind wandering and distraction, and points out the value creative value of mind wandering and day dreaming (for more on this subject, check out this article by Jonah Lehrer, though Lehrer doesn't really make the distinction between distraction and mind wandering).
A fascinating post on "contemplative computing", where computing can be used to facilitate and even enhance creative education/workflow process... where the software would allow you to try out multiple versions of a music composition / essay / video seamlessly... while enabling you to wander around exploring on relevant topics on Wikipedia without getting distracted off-topic! :)
casey ng on 28 Dec 10Google just launched Body Browser that let you explore the human body just like you explore the world with Google Earth.But, you need a browser that support WeBGL like Firefox4 beta and Google Chrome Beta. See the unofficial blog for Body Browser http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/12/google-body-browser.html. I have it tried it out.Impressive but not stable in some PC. Excellent tool for teaching staff in sport science, and biology.
Sally Loan on 28 Dec 10This is cool, will PESS folks be interested?
