Assigning textual tags to an image is an important task because tags are needed for things like image search. When you search for an image of a “cat,” modern search engines can only identify an image as containing a cat if the tag “cat” is associated with it.

Having people tag images by hand is an onerous task. Shenoy and Tan of Microsoft Research developed a way to tag images automatically by reading people’s brain scans while they look at images. The people did not even have to specifically think about trying to tag the image; they merely had to passively observe it.

Reading Minds

The technique requires using an electroencephalograph (EEG), a cap with electrodes placed on the scalp in regular locations that can each measure brain activity in their local area.

This image shows the layout of the electrodes.

The brain reacts differently when a person views different kinds of stimuli.  For example, the following diagram shows the average brain response when the user views a picture of a face and a picture of a non-face (i.e. anything else).  Red areas show high activity and blue areas show low activity.  Each line on the graph corresponds to the activity levels recorded by a single electrode.

As can be seen, the brain response is not static but varies over time.  However, the graphs show that the brain’s changing responses over time are predictable based on what kind of stimulus is shown.

Image Labeling through Mind Reading

Shenoy and Tan then used a machine learning algorithm called Regularized Linear Discriminant Analysis (RLDA) to develop an image tagging system.  The researchers recruited several test users.  The researchers presented a series of images to the users, and an EEG reading of the user’s brain was made upon presentation of each image.  Users were not required think about tagging the image or think about what kind of image it was.  As is common in psychological experiments, they were given a distracter task, a task that ensures they are paying attention to the images but does not specifically relate to the experiment.  In this case, they were asked to remember the images so they could identify them later in a post-experiment test.  The RLDA algorithm could then take as input the associated pairs – image and EEG scan – and learn to recognize what kinds of EEGs were associated with what kinds of images.  This learning is often termed the building of a learned model, which represents everything that the artificial intelligence knows.

The system can then be used to automatically tag images.  A user wearing an EEG is shown an image to which the tags are unknown, and the system uses the learned model to predict from the EEG what the appropriate tag for the image would be (e.g. this is a face or this is not a face).

The following are some of the images used in the study.

The users only had to view the images for short periods of time for the system to work, which means that many images could be labeled quickly by presenting them in rapid succession.  The researchers experimented with different time lengths, but there was no difference between allowing the subject to view the image for 500 ms, 750 ms, or 1 whole second.

Results

The following graph shows how accurate the system was at assigning the correct tag.  The vertical axis shows “classification accuracy,” which is the percent of time the system assigned the correct tag.  The different lines show the accuracy on different kinds of tagging tasks, e.g. tagging faces versus inanimate objects, faces versus animals, etc.  The horizontal axis shows “number of presentations,” which is how many times a user was shown each image (EEG readings are noisy so multiple EEG readings for the same image made the system more reliable).

Conclusion

The new method invented by Shenoy and Tan is certainly not as accurate as current methods of image labeling and also not as discriminative: most of the results reported in the graph above are for discriminations between only two kinds of images, for example pictures of faces and pictures of animals.  Only one of the experiments used the system to try to discriminate between three kinds of images (the results of which are labeled “3-class” in the graph).

Companies can get image labeling done just by hiring employees to do it.  An even cheaper way is to use Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, which pays people a few cents to do simple tasks online.  Image labeling is a common job on Mechanical Turk.  Google also has their own novel method, a game called Google Image Labeler, which tries to make image labeling fun by making the task multiplayer and giving people points when they provide the same label as another player.  Google Image Labeler was based on the original ESP Game created by Prof. Luis von Ahn of Carnegie Mellon.

However, the mind reading approach has the advantage that it does not require any work at all from the user.  The user merely has to passively observe the image, for as little as 500 ms.  One can imagine a system that tags images by reading your mind as you surf the web.  If Google Image Search needed to tag an image, it could just pop it up in a window for 500 ms and read your thoughts to get the tag.

Work needs to be done in getting the system to discriminate between more kinds of images and making it more accurate.  Challenges are posed by the coarseness of the data that is gathered by EEGs (after all they are reading your brain from all the way up on your scalp), and scientists’ currently weak ability to interpret what brain scans mean.

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Während Bündnis’90/Die Grünen einen besonders wichtigen (und überfälligen) Antrag in die Beratung des Lingener Rates eingebracht haben (mehr…und zur Erinnerung), hat mich ein Text der Lokalpresse irritiert und ich habe ihn zwei Mal lesen müssen. Zunächst hatte ich den Bericht über ein Interview mit den Stadtwerkechefs Arno Ester und Ulrich Boss so verstanden, dass die Strompreise der Lingener Stadtwerke um 70 Euro steigen, hieß es doch:

„70 Euro mehr für Strom

Die Entlastung für unsere Kunden bei den Strompreisen wird im kommenden Jahr geringer ausfallen als erwartet. Die Verbraucher müssen sich ab Januar 2010 mit 2,047 Cent je Kilowattstunde an einer bundeseinheitlichen Umlage für die Förderung sauberer Energien beteiligen. Für einen durchschnittlichen Lingener Haushalt bedeutet das rund 70 Euro netto an Mehrkosten im Jahr.“

Stabil bleibt der Strompreis für die Lingener im kommenden Jahr, obwohl die Preise für Strom durch eine Umlage des Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetzes (EEG) um etwa 75 Prozent geklettert sind. Das erklärten Arno Ester und Ulrich Boss, beide Geschäftsführer der Stadtwerke Lingen, in einem Gespräch mit unserer Zeitung. (mehr…)

Was ist also los? Das Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG) regelt die Vergütung für Strom aus regenerativen Quellen. Die Mehrkosten für Strom aus Sonnenenergie, Windkraft, Bioenergie, kleinen Wasserkraftwerken und Erdwärme werden mittels einer Umlage von allen Stromkunden bezahlt. Die so genannte EEG-Umlage ist die Differenz zwischen den Vergütungskosten für EEG-Strom und dem Börsenpreis für herkömmlichen Strom. Sie wird nach einer Prognose der großen Energieversorgungsunternehmen von ca. 1,1 Cent pro Kilowattstunde in diesem Jahr auf rund 2 Cent im Jahr 2010 ansteigen.

Dieser Anstieg hat nach Angaben des Verbandes Erneuerbarer Energien im Wesentlichen drei Gründe:

1.) Aufgrund der Wirtschaftskrise ist 2009 die Stromnachfrage und damit der Strompreis an der Börse gesunken. Die Differenzkosten zwischen herkömmlich erzeugtem Strom einerseits und nach EEG vergütetem Strom andererseits wurden dadurch größer. Außerdem verteilt sich die EEG-Umlage auf einen geringeren Gesamtstromabsatz. Sobald jedoch die Wirtschaft wieder Tritt fasst und Strom wieder stärker nachgefragt wird, reduzieren sich die Differenzkosten und die EEG-Umlage sinkt.

2.) Durch eine neue Ausgleichsmechanismusverordnung, die ab 2010 in Kraft tritt, werden Bestandteile des Strompreises schlicht umgeschichtet: Waren bislang mit dem EEG-Strom verbundene Netzdienstleistungen Teil der Netzentgelte, so werden diese Kosten künftig über die EEG-Umlage abgerechnet. Diese wird auf der Stromrechnung der „nichtprivilegierten Letztverbraucher“, das sind v. a. Haushalte und mittelständische Unternehmen, gesondert ausgewiesen. Durch die Entlastung der Netzentgelte müsste auch der Strompreis entsprechend sinken. Bislang hat jedoch kein Stromversorger erklärt, diese reduzierten Netzentgelte an seine Kunden weitergeben zu wollen.

3.) Der Ausbau der Erneuerbaren Energien wird auch im Jahr 2010 dynamisch weitergehen. Obgleich die garantierte Vergütung je eingespeister Kilowattstunde EEG-Strom für neue Anlagen Jahr für Jahr sinkt („Degression“), wird sich die EEG-Umlage noch ca. bis ins Jahr 2014 leicht nach oben entwickeln, bevor sie anschließend deutlich abnimmt. Dies prognostiziert z. B. die Studie „Stromversorgung 2020“ der Agentur für Erneuerbare Energien und des Bundesverbands Erneuerbare Energie (BEE).

„Aus volkswirtschaftlicher und klimaschutzpolitischer Sicht ist das Wachstum der Erneuerbaren Energien sehr zu begrüßen“, betont Jörg Mayer, Geschäftsführer der Agentur für Erneuerbare Energien. „Schließlich überwiegen die Kosteneinsparungen für vermiedene Brennstoffimporte sowie Umwelt- und Klimaschäden die EEG-Umlagekosten bei weitem.“

Mayer kritisiert in diesem Zusammenhang die Strompreiserhöhungen mehrerer Energieversorger, die sich auf die gestiegene EEG-Umlage berufen: „Die Erneuerbaren Energien taugen nicht als Sündenbock für Strompreiserhöhungen. Was bei der EEG-Umlage steigt, sinkt gleichzeitig bei den Netzentgelten. Wer unter Verweis auf die EEG-Umlage die Strompreise massiv erhöht, gleichzeitig aber günstigere Beschaffungskosten an der Strombörse und sinkende Netzentgelte nicht an die Kunden weitergibt, spielt mit falschen Karten.”

Soweit die Information der EEG-Vertreter. Also mein vorläufiges Fazit:
Die Stadtwerke erhöhen die Preise nicht. Warum sie sie trotz deutlich günstigerer Beschaffungs- und Netzkosten nicht senken, weiß ich nicht; das wird nur in den Gremien der Stadtwerke hinter verschlossenen Türen dargestellt. Aber ich weiß, dass zB die Kosten der atomaren Endlagerung für den “herkömmlichen Strom” -wie es Arno Ester und Ulrich Boss im Interview (nur) für die Erneuerbaren Energien erklärt haben- tatsächlich “von allen bezahlt” werden – dauerhaft, also in dieser Generation und der nächsten und der nächsten und der nächsten und der nächsten und der nächsten und der nächsten und …. Da zahle ich gern für erneuerbare Energien und ertrage auch nicht ganz vollständige Interviews.

Übrigens, liebe Stadtwerke-Geschäftsführung, so ein ganz großer PR-Knaller war Euer Interview über die Preiserhöhung, die nur eine indirekte ist, wirklich nicht. Da wäre es besser, wenn meine Stadtwerke mehr für erneuerbare Energien täten. Gab es nicht einmal den Plan, in Hanekenfähr ein Wasserkraftwerk zu bauen? Damit könnte man doch nach 15 Jahren endlich mal loslegen. Oder anlässlich der Renovierung Sonnenenergiemodule auf die Eisenbahnhalle I/II zu setzen, wäre doch auch eine Idee.

Und ansonsten: Axel Hingst, übernehmen Sie!

(Foto © Tim-Heinrich Noll, pixelio)

Treating traumatic brain injuries @ the LATimes

They can’t be set like a bone or staunched like a bleed. They can be difficult even to detect, but the military and others are working to improve care.

Larry Ewing’s life changed last year on a construction site in Victorville; Larry Carr’s changed in 2004 on a road in Iraq. Unlikely brothers in arms, both men now share the same invisible wound — traumatic brain injury.

They tire easily, forget often and lose their balance and concentration without warning. They struggle to make peace with personality changes that have made them barely recognizable to loved ones.

Read the whole story here

Since first realising that an electrode slapped in the middle of the forehead gives very acceptable indications of entrainment, my Pendant gets a lot more use. I have now used this setup enough, with all manner of AVS, to believe it is adequate for most AVS/entrainment purposes.

Usually I use a single electrode in the middle, just below hairline. If I’m working with an asymmetrical session, I’ll place two electrodes, one over each eye, just below the hairline. I have had more frequent “pleasing” recordings, ones that at least vaguely show something I’m hoping to see, than when I have carefully considered placement with the 10-20 system. Obviously this approach is for personal experimentation only – serious science demands repeatability, which demands standards. Herein lies one of the joys of not being a scientist – I can freely ramble on about the results of sloppy experiments and my “impressions” of what’s going on. Obviously some neurofeedback protocols also require correct placement, cases where the activity of a particular brain structure is of interest.

Anyway, I have found that forehead electrode placement frequently provides recordings that correctly correspond to my “mental state” and/or the entrainment frequency.

Although I’m mostly interested in frequency independent and broadband techniques, I still spend quite a bit of time with straight entrainment. I’ve been experimenting with means of making a simple, single frequency session more effective. For no particular reason except that it’s a nice, innocuous, general purpose relaxation frequency, I’ve been using 7.8Hz as my test frequency. That single line in MindWorkstation has undergone many permutations.

Obviously there’s been ramps from various frequencies. And steps. I’ve found 30-60 second steps more effective than ramps. Define “effective” – objective EEG recordings and subjective impressions. I’m more likely to follow the beat and end up at the target frequency if I step to it than if I ramp to it, less likely to find my thoughts drifting off into modes contrary to the entrainment.

Waveforms, entrainment types, entrainment depths and so on and so forth – as far as I can tell, the more distinct the beat, the more likely it will be followed. Playing with pulse lengths and phase shifts, it would appear that the leading edge is the significant part of the signal. Fast rise times elicit stronger entrainment over the sensory cortices, and this is reflected in frontal lobe recordings. Too fast becomes a problem – square waves tend to result in very messy recordings – many other frequencies activated in addition to target. Fast rise times also tend to sound a bit intense, which I happen to like, but others find unpleasant. Note that I’m referring to real square waves here - the things called square waves in MWS are “optimised” to avoid these problems by adding a bit of slope to the leading and trailing edges. MWS optimised square waves work beautifully, and they are particularly good for striking AudioStrobe displays.

The most interesting way I’ve found to increase EEG response, and improve my ability to “stay on task” has been to add just a little bit of frequency modulation to the signal. The following image is a screen capture from Audacity, showing a fragment of this 10 minute WAV file, 7Hz8PlusMinus0Hz5.

What we have is a signal consisting of 7.8±0.5Hz pulses, with random deviation in 0.1Hz increments. In this case, the frequency changes every 0.76923 seconds, resulting in a frequency changes approximately every 6 cycles. If you don’t believe me, measure the distance between corresponding points in cycles 5 & 6 and 6 &7 (approx 7.5 and 7.9Hz). For me it resulted in significant activity in the 7.5-8.0Hz range after less than 60 seconds of sound and light stimulation, and the activity remained consistent for the duration of the session.

Just as a by-the-way, the “fuzziness” of the waveform is the 19.2kHz AudioStrobe signal riding on the 180Hz carrier, made much more apparent in the single cycle below.

I’ll be most interested to hear whether others find these little tricks useful.

Cheers,
Craig

from February 24, 2008

I have been to countless doctors and had countless tests to get a diagnosis for my seizures… with NO luck.

My GP thinks I’m nuts… My first neurologist was willing to try medication but he moved away and left me in the hands of another neurologist. THIS neurologist suggested I go to therapy. I beg your pardon, sir, but I’ve already got my shit together, thanks. I don’t need to pay someone to tell me how I’m feeling and why. I think I’ve got that under control far more than many of the other people in this world. Do you get some kind of a commission for referring people to therapists? jeeze.

My current neuro not only thought I should try therapy, but also that I should continue “dancing” (as I told him I like to dance for fun [ like to footloose!]).

I don’t have a problem with dancing, not at all, in fact, I was doing it today. And guess what… I had a SEIZURE.

Everyone who thinks it is caused by my excessive caffeine consumption… I haven’t had ANY caffeine in OVER two weeks, so…. I don’t think that’s it.

Today is the second day in a row during which I’ve had a seizure. I had one yesterday, too. And the past few times I’ve had them, it’s only been once per day rather than 5-7 times a day.

I guess that’s good, but god effing damned if I’m not frustrated as all hell.

I’m going to the hospital for 5 days in mid December for a Video EEG. I will be confined to my hospital room… hooray.

I’m just SO frustrated that it has been almost a YEAR since these things started and STILL no one can give me any answers.

And no, I can’t avoid the activites I’m doing when they happen… If I did that I would have to stop: Dancing, Showering, Looking at Calendars, Attending Class, Running Errands, Getting Juice, Entering my Kitchen and/or Bathroom.

Just not practical I tell you!

ughhhh….. sorry, needed to vent.

Update: Rhema is sick with the flu. EEG cancelled!

Rhema will have a sleep deprived EEG Tuesday morning.

That means I have to keep her up all night tonight and then drive her into Boston for her EEG, during which time they expect her to sleep.

A couple years ago when Rhema did her first BEAM study at Children’s Hospital, a technician sat us down and told us everything that would happen. It was 12:30 in the afternoon when he explained that he expected Rhema to sleep during the 4-hour study. Brandon and I stared at him for a moment and then, as politely as we could, laughed in his face.

“Oh, she won’t sleep.”
“Oh, yes she will.”
“Oh, no she won’t.”

He explained that he had been doing this for a billion years and was a master at getting the kids to sleep during the test. He said that once the leads are on, he lays the child down with mom or dad, turns down the lights, turns on music or a video, and the kid always sleeps.

We bet him a pizza our kid would not.

Needless to say, I have a handful of reports from BEAMs and EEGs performed over the past couple years that say, “Unfortunately, we could not achieve sleep.”

In fairness to our BEAM friend, I must admit that one particular day, Rhema was off her game and did actually sleep for a few minutes. She was quite disgusted with herself when she woke up.

But back to this week’s sleep deprived EEG. I called the kind folks over at Children’s and explained that Rhema is quite used to being up all night and then going through a full day of school (including an hour long bus ride each way) and after-school therapy without so much as a yawn.

It would be better to do the standard 24- or 48- hour EEG in the hospital – this is what we usually do – because she will sleep at some point in that period of time.

But the epilepsy floor is currently filled and we’d have to wait several more weeks for a bed to free up.

“I understand. I’m just worried she won’t sleep for the EEG Tuesday morning.” I said.

“We’ll try our best,” the woman on the phone said.

So there it is. All-nighter tonight. EEG in the morn.

As my blogging buddy Tiredmama would say, To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question.

(We actually really need her to sleep during the EEG, so that her doctor can determine whether her anti-seizure med is still working. Ideally, those beautiful brown eyes will close once the 32nd electrode is glued to her scalp.)

Anyone wanna bet me a pizza?

Firma nimeltä Cortech Solutions myy g.MOBIlab+ nimistä biosignaalintallennus ja – prosessointijärjestelmää. Perusjärjestelmä tarjoaa 2 EEG-kanavaa, 2 EEG-/EOG-kanavaa, 2 EKG-/EMG-kanavaa, 2 vapaasti käytettävää analogista kanavaa ja 4 digitaalista kanavaa. Saatavilla on myös versio, jossa on 8 monopolaarista EEG-kanavaa ja 4 digitaalista kanavaa, sekä kevytversio kahdella kustomoitavalla kanavalla. Aksessori- ja ohjelmistotarjonta vaikuttaa runsaalta. Data voidaan lähettää suoraan läppärille tai vastaavalle. Saatavilla on USB ja WIFI versiot.

Das Projekt Open Wall aus Leipzig steckt in diesem Jahr noch in den Kinderschuhen, soll aber in den folgenden Jahren das Stadtbild beleben. Ziel ist es mit dem Projekt Muralisten und Interessierten die Möglichkeit zu geben, einen freien Zugang zu Räumen der Kunst, der Kreativität und Kultur zu finden. Gleichzeitig sollen die Themen lizenzrechtliche Bestimmungen und neue Wege im Umgang mit dem „digitalen“ Urheberrecht diskutiert werden.
Durch die Gestaltung der eigenen Ideen für einen diskursiven Kunstraum entwerfen die Kreativen auch gleichzeitig einen Entwurf für die Stadt, in der sie leben wollen! Am Montag, dem 9. November 2009 wird in der EEG der erste Gewinner des Wettbewerbs OPEN WALL feierlich präsentiert und prämiert.
Il-Jin Choi (ATEM), GRAFFITIST aus Frankfurt/Main arbeitet dafür seit dem 4.11. in den Ausstellungsräumen der EEG im Westwerk an seinem Konzept.

9. November 2009, 19.00 Uhr, EEG (essential existence gallery), Westwerk Leipzig-Plagwitz, Tor B, Gebäude Karl-Heine-Straße 93, Leipzig-Plagwitz
Mehr Informationen unter www.eexistence.de

Again at Medialab-Prado for a workshop, last time we held a two-days-build- your-own-light-harp session. This time I joined as a collaborator on Demodrama, one of the HelloWorld! projects. During their presentation, the siblings that started the project, said that one of their original ideas were to use an EEG-machine as a possible controller for the mask. A perfect project to test my machine. I really enjoyed the talk that Zachary Lieberman gave about his search for jaw dropping moments when making interactive pieces.

Demodrama uses the same infrared camera trick as we used with MouseMan, but the software is openFrameworks. It comes with libraries that tracks, calibrates and reproduce image and video, but a bit too much C ++ for me. The system of projecting green dots in the space that you later mark for the camera is the best. Thinking back I really don’t know how we managed to calibrate MouseMan that good without something like this.

It was originally thought to be a work with digital masks, but in my opinion it became more of a face as screen. No longer a tribal/animal mask with the head working as an extension of the body, but a free-floating white wall/black hole machine. My inital scepticism towards the lack of physicality, it is only a surface loosely connected to the head, was brought to shame when we saw the thing working. This will be magical.

from here.

In my writing I got so interested in fakes that I finally came up with the concept of fake fakes. For example, in Disneyland there are fake birds worked by electric motors which emit caws and shrieks as you pass by them. Suppose some night all of us sneaked into the park with real birds and substituted them for the artificial ones. Imagine the horror the Disneyland officials would feel when they discovered the cruel hoax. Real birds! And perhaps someday even real hippos and lions. Consternation. The park being cunningly transmuted from the unreal to the real, by sinister forces. For instance, suppose the Matterhorn turned into a genuine snow-covered mountain? What if the entire place, by a miracle of God’s power and wisdom, was changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, into something incorruptible? They would have to close down.

In Plato’s Timaeus, God does not create the universe, as does the Christian God; He simply finds it one day. It is in a state of total chaos. God sets to work to transform the chaos into order. That idea appeals to me, and I have adapted it to fit my own intellectual needs: What if our universe started out as not quite real, a sort of illusion, as the Hindu religion teaches, and God, out of love and kindness for us, is slowly transmuting it, slowly and secretly, into something real?

We would not be aware of this transformation, since we were not aware that our world was an illusion in the first place. This technically is a Gnostic idea. Gnosticism is a religion which embraced Jews, Christians, and pagans for several centuries. I have been accused of holding Gnostic ideas. I guess I do. At one time I would have been burned. But some of their ideas intrigue me. One time, when I was researching Gnosticism in the Britannica, I came across mention of a Gnostic codex called The Unreal God and the Aspects of His Nonexistent Universe, an idea which reduced me to helpless laughter. What kind of person would write about something that he knows doesn’t exist, and how can something that doesn’t exist have aspects? But then I realized that I’d been writing about these matters for over twenty-five years. I guess there is a lot of latitude in what you can say when writing about a topic that does not exist. A friend of mine once published a book called Snakes of Hawaii. A number of libraries wrote him ordering copies. Well, there are no snakes in Hawaii. All the pages of his book were blank.

Of course, in science fiction no pretense is made that the worlds described are real. This is why we call it fiction. The reader is warned in advance not to believe what he is about to read. Equally true, the visitors to Disneyland understand that Mr. Toad does not really exist and that the pirates are animated by motors and servo-assist mechanisms, relays and electronic circuits. So no deception is taking place.

And yet the strange thing is, in some way, some real way, much of what appears under the title “science fiction” is true. It may not be literally true, I suppose. We have not really been invaded by creatures from another star system, as depicted in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The producers of that film never intended for us to believe it. Or did they?

And, more important, if they did intend to state this, is it actually true? That is the issue: not, Does the author or producer believe it, but—Is it true? Because, quite by accident, in the pursuit of a good yarn, a science fiction author or producer or scriptwriter might stumble onto the truth… and only later on realize it.

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words. George Orwell made this clear in his novel 1984. But another way to control the minds of people is to control their perceptions. If you can get them to see the world as you do, they will think as you do. Comprehension follows perception. How do you get them to see the reality you see? After all, it is only one reality out of many. Images are a basic constituent: pictures. This is why the power of TV to influence young minds is so staggeringly vast. Words and pictures are synchronized. The possibility of total control of the viewer exists, especially the young viewer. TV viewing is a kind of sleep-learning. An EEG of a person watching TV shows that after about half an hour the brain decides that nothing is happening, and it goes into a hypnoidal twilight state, emitting alpha waves. This is because there is such little eye motion. In addition, much of the information is graphic and therefore passes into the right hemisphere of the brain, rather than being processed by the left, where the conscious personality is located. Recent experiments indicate that much of what we see on the TV screen is received on a subliminal basis. We only imagine that we consciously see what is there. The bulk of the messages elude our attention; literally, after a few hours of TV watching, we do not know what we have seen. Our memories are spurious, like our memories of dreams; the blank are filled in retrospectively. And falsified. We have participated unknowingly in the creation of a spurious reality, and then we have obligingly fed it to ourselves. We have colluded in our own doom.

from here.

And—and I say this as a professional fiction writer—the producers, scriptwriters, and directors who create these video/audio worlds do not know how much of their content is true. In other words, they are victims of their own product, along with us. Speaking for myself, I do not know how much of my writing is true, or which parts (if any) are true. This is a potentially lethal situation. We have fiction mimicking truth, and truth mimicking fiction. We have a dangerous overlap, a dangerous blur. And in all probability it is not deliberate. In fact, that is part of the problem. You cannot legislate an author into correctly labeling his product, like a can of pudding whose ingredients are listed on the label… you cannot compel him to declare what part is true and what isn’t if he himself does not know.

We want to thank Philip K. Dick, author of The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch and The Man In The High Castle amongst many other novels, for sticking it to reality and taking time out of his busy afterlife to share with us another excerpt from his 1978 speech “How To Build A Reality That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later.” It also appears as the introduction to his 1985 short story collection, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon. The first excerpt he shared with us is here, and…

…you have to love that PKD fans are called dickheads.

For the sake of truth, we can tell you that Mr. Dick will probably return with another excerpt for us in the next few days. But until then…

Adam Gopnik on PKD.

Stanislaw Lem on PKD.

Jonathan Lethem on PKD.

Jonathan Lethem being interviewed about PKD.

PKD on Kurt Vonnegut.

Spatiotemporal Isosurfaces,Physioinformatic Data,EEG,EMG,EOG,Jeff Sale

Quoted from http://www.banyantree.org/jsale/isosurfaces/:

Spatiotemporal Isosurfaces

Spatiotemporal Isosurfaces of Physioinformatic Data (EEG, EMG, EOG) – Jeff Sale

Spatiotemporal Isosurfaces of Physioinformatic Data A guide to spatialization of information to enhance perceptualization JeffSale San Diego State University Education Center on Computational Science and Engineering

These are images of human bioelectric activity, such as electroencephalographic (EEG) and electrocardiographic (ECG) spatiotemporal isosurfaces rendered using the powerful AVS data rendering software on a Stardent Titan 3000 workstation (MIPS 3000 cpu). We did this work a few years ago and are belatedly getting it up on the web for you to see. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed.

What are these images? Click for an explanation.

Alpha Bursts: The image to the left was created by calculating power in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) using a fast fourier transform (fft) on the eeg in Matlab, and outputing to AVS.

EEG Evoked Potential: Created from EEG data acquired using the P300 “oddball paradigm”. This image comprises roughly one second of data. The blue region is N100, the red region is P300.

EEG Evoked Potential – Detail: Detail of same data as above.

Alpha Bursts: Created by calculating power in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) using a fast fourier transform (fft) on the eeg in Matlab, and outputing to AVS.

Raw Alpha Waves: These are alpha waves acquired from a human subject, relaxed, eyes closed, comprising roughly 3-4 seconds of activity. This particular subject had especially clean and strong alpha activity with eyes closed.

Raw Alpha Waves – Detail: This is a detail of the same waves, with a fancy gradient added in the background (which probably detracts, you decide)

EEG from Electroconvulsive Therapy: This data was acquired intraoperatively from a patient undergoing ECT. Note the “helical” pattern as time increases from left to right.

Electrocardiogram (ECG): This is two heartbeats worth of electrocardiographic data (ECG) acquired by placing a 5×5 grid of electrodes on the subject’s chest. Note the repeating pattern of the beats.

EEG Correlation Dimension: This is my personal favorite. The others were easy to create compared to this one. It took me a week to write the code and the Stardent 2 weeks to calculate the values. I wrote the algorithm to calculate the correlation dimension, similar to the fractal dimension, which is a measure of the complexity of a system, or more generally, a measure of how a system fills a space, real or abstract. The rest was simple. The data consists of one minute of EEG, the first 30 seconds the subjects eyes were open, then they shut their eyes for the remaining 30 seconds. Time goes from left to right. As usual, the visual cortex corresponds to the lower half of the volume, which is where one would expect to see the most significant change when the eyes are closed, and this is in fact quite distinct.

It is difficult to explain what these images are, but click here to get a glimpse…

What is a Spatiotemporal Isosurface of P300 Evoked Potential data?The term “spatiotemporal” implies that the data is of a spatially distributed nature rendered as a function of time, as seen in the diagram. “Isosurfaces” are a graphical rendering technique available on the more powerful computer visualization programs like AVS (Application Visualization System, Developed by AVS, Inc.), which creates 2D contours in 3D space by interpolating between stacked sequential datasets, such as the 2D brain maps which comrise a cross section of the 3D data volume. Normally, neurodiagnostic technicians look at a series of 20 or so squiggly lines representing electrical data from the scalp, and must then develop an abstract image in their mind which hopefully, but probably rarely, provides the detail seen in this image. This image was rendered on a Stardent Titan 3000 (MIPS 3000 cpu) using AVS. I wrote some C code which translates the EEG data from a QSI 9000 EEG data acquisition system and conforms it to the required “3D field” format in AVS.

The image on the right, which we fondly refer to as “volcano-head”, illustrates what you might see if you could perceive and capture a still image of the electrical information “flowing” off the scalp. The squiggly line represents EEG from a single point on the scalp, such as the EEG acquired from a single electrode. Standard clinical EEG consists of as few as 8 electrodes and as many as 64, distributed across the scalp. This squiggly line from a single data point and the isosurface itself are color-coded with red corresponding to higher values in microvolts and blue as the lower values across a range of about 10-100 microvolts peak-to-peak for normal EEG. In reality, the electrical activity extends only a short distance (a few mm) from the scalp before it becomes undetectable. This image is simply intended as sort of a conceptual graphic for understanding these isosurfaces.The data in this image is actual alpha EEG from a subject relaxed with their eyes-closed.

The image above represents 20 seconds of raw EEG data (squiggly lines below) which includes 4 alpha bursts rendered as spatiotemporal isosurfaces (top). If you look closely at the areas in the raw data (bottom) which are circled in light blue, you can see the alpha bursts as an increase in activity, but it requires considerable visualization skills to render in one’s mind what is easily rendered with the right software. The deep blue flow lines in the isosurface image represent the gradient (direction of maximum first derivative), enhancing the dynamic nature of this information.

Hey everyone… if you’re someone who prays, I ask that you please pray for a few things for me

First, I ask that you pray for my Grandmother, who is currently suffering and in a great deal of pain. She has cancer and they stopped chemo in August. She has gone downhill dramatically since then and they don’t estimate that she will have much longer. I ask that you pray for her to find peace and comfort, not that you pray for her to get better. I’m not naive enough to think that will happen.

Second I ask that you pray that my 24hour EEG, which begins tomorrow at 1pm, yields some results to help get me treatment.

Finally, I just want to say thank you in advance to everyone who does take the time to say a quick prayer. It means a lot to me. Thank you.

(P.S. If you play the video I posted a few days ago while praying or thinking.. I find that it intensifies it… a lot. Maybe that’s just me, but it’s worth a try.)

I’m beginning to think that my seizure correlate with the seasons.

During the Spring and Summer I was basically seizure free. Now that it’s starting to get cold again, I’ve been having them, and when I do have them, I have several a day. I’ve had two today in a 5 hour span.  I believe I’ve had 7 in the past 3 weeks.

They started happening in December of last year… and they were pretty frequent up until Spring, when the weather started improving.

I don’t know but they’re really affecting my mood and energy levels now. I get either really upset, over emotional, irritable, or I get extremely lethargic. After the last seizure I had today, about an hour ago, I’ve been extremely tired with a dull yet persistent headache.

Want to know what sucks about having the seizures today? I’m scheduled for a 24hr EEG in exactly ONE week to try to catch one. Think I’ll have one then? Probably not.

I would REALLY, REALLY like to get these things under control because I’m so beyond frustrated at this point.