MIT has developed a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. According to the MIT site, “The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user’s hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques.”

The prototype has a map application, where users can zoom in and out supported by intuitive hand movements and the main menu is somewhat like a screen of iPhone applications. Users can check their mail, make calls, and do lots of other cool stuff. Brace yourself, the prototype costs less than the average retail value of a laptop. The prototype only cost $350 to make!It’s mind-boggling that every move we make would be inputed into a stored hard-drive for later retrieval. Recording of every second of every day of our lives will be stored for later analysis, retrieval, and manipulation.  Every conversation we ever have can be similarly be archived and later retrieved.

This definitely brings up the issue of privacy. Would cell phones and organizers and things like purses become obsolete? It is definitely an interesting concept. What would it be like to not have to carry a cell phone every day?

The December issue of the esteemed magazine National Geographic covered the “Carbon Bathtub” as framed and explained by Climate Interactive partner Dr. John Sterman of the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Check it out online. This beautiful and information-filled graphic illustrates a powerful way to think about the dynamics of the climate system: as behaving a lot like a simple bathtub.

Dr. Sterman has been developing this idea with various colleagues (many of them part of the Climate Interactive greater team) over the past years, going back to two seminal papers with Dr. Linda Booth Sweeney on studies at MIT:  “Bathtub Dynamics” and “Understanding Public Complacency About Climate Change.” These papers culminated in an important Policy Forum piece in the journal, Science.

For a lighter read, explore the popular version in Rotman Magazine. And experiment with the Bathtub Simulator we built and one that Dr. Sterman built.

Indeed, it was the clarity and explanatory power of the Carbon Bathtub that helped lead several of us here at Sustainability Institute to focus on applying systems thinking and system dynamics modeling to climate issues six or so years ago.

Great work John and great work National Geographic designers and illustrators.  Beautiful and important work!

Na segunda-feira, 16 de novembro, professores e alunos da Faculdade
de Comunicação Social (Famecos) da PUCRS, representantes do Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) e jornalistas do Grupo RBS reuniram-se
para dar inicio ao projeto denominado Locast. A primeira etapa da pesquisa,
que se dará pela produção de conteúdos envolvendo o jornalismo
geolocalizado, acontece até o dia 23 de novembro.

LEIA MAIS NOS SITES
:: SORTIMENTOS :: http://www.sortimentos.net/?p=4696
:: GEBBEG VARIEDADES :: http://gebbeg.com.br/?p=7548

.

It’s been two weeks and I’ve taken a ton more photographs of people. Only one event this time and a trip or two to the Chicken Bone and another to the Cambridge Brewing Company. Good times and great faces.

What do you think?

Ao mesmo tempo em que muitas empresas, principalmente na área da comunicação, mostram preocupação com a autoralidade e o destino dado aos  seus conteúdos online, enquanto apenas engatinham rumo às plataformas oferecidas pela internet, a academia, distante de ter o rabo preso ao mercado e às garantias exigidas por ele, arrisca-se mais e acaba por encabeçar ideias capazes de mostrar como é possível criar ferramentas eficientes para a disseminação de informações menos padronizadas, mais interativas e, por que não, mais eficientes.

É o caso do Locast, um projeto desenvolvido pelo famoso Massachusetts Institute of Technology, o MIT, cuja primeira experiência ocorreu na Itália em parceria com a RAI TV, umas das maiores empresas de telecomunicação da Bota.

Como o vídeo demonstra, o projeto visa a utilização de dispositivos móveis como meio para criar e  interagir com dados a respeito de fatos marcantes, monumentos ou locais que são destaque em um determinado centro urbano, no caso, a cidade de Veneza. Neste site é possível conhecer todos os detalhes sobre como é realizado o processo, além de oferecer acesso a todos os conteúdos postados pelos usuários a respeito da cidade italiana.

Porto Alegre sediará os primeros conteúdos gerados no Brasil

Agora, a equipe do MIT tem uma nova instituição parceira. A Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul,  com o apoio do grupo RBS de comunicação, será responsável por uma nova etapa do projeto cuja base será Porto Alegre. Na capital gaúcha, coordenados por professores da Faculdade de Comunicação Social, um grupo de alunos atuará produzindo e disponibilizando conteúdos para a plataforma. Os trabalhos tiveram início nesta segunda-feira, 16 de novembro, em um encontro com os pesquisadores David Boardman e Steve Pomeroy, vindos do instituto estadounidense. Mais detalhes a respeito do início dos trabalhos do LocastPOA podem ser encontrados aqui e através do site oficial da pesquisa.

Pranav Mistry, o estudante por trás do projeto Sixth Sense, do Media Lab do MIT, anunciou que o projeto vai ser Open Source.

With exams going on I made it a habit to wake up early ( meaning before 7.30).So for the first time after coming to MIT I saw sunrise .it was really beautiful.I snapped few pics as well.Please bear with my bad photography…

Recently, I’ve been thinking about taking my GPA of 7 to companies to get a summer vacation job, but I’m having difficult deciding between which engineering design studio to work for.

The ones that have particularly caught my attention are:

• SRI (Stanford Research Institute) International
• PARC (Xerox Corporation Palo Alto Research Center)
• MIT Media Lab

Not only are they all first class research institutions, but they have their claims to fame.

Stanford is also nearby to Palo Alto, and one of the most prestigious private co-ed Universities in the USA.  They have an excellent medical center, and has a distinguished faculty, including Nobel prize winners Milton Friedman (economics), U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and strangly enough… Tiger Woods!

Xerox was the company behind the first personal computer; the first graphical user interface; the first laser printer; and the Ethernet networking technology.  Based in Silicon Valley, this location would also be good for my transportation needs.

MIT, although based in Massachusetts on the other side of the US (North Eastern), is also well known particular for the computer sciences.  The Media Lab name is also fantasticaly attractive.

So there you see my dilemma.  By transport needs, it was going to be either Stanford or Xerox.  More recently Xerox has sold a technology to 3M, but it’s still awaiting to cross the chasm, so there I thought, SRI was probably the best choice.

However, I then had another friend who recommended Disney Research, which I thought would be particularly interesting considering my involvement with Disney’s other commercial interests, particularly in the area of film and radio.  Recently, I was so honored to talk with Raffay Hamid from Disney Research, who gave me a bit of a recommendation regarding the very secretive (but strategic!) Imagineering area of The Walt Disney Company.

I remain to see to it though, that I choose the best option for the indicia cards that I draw out.

Some things like ripping out the old squash vines, making butter and extra sewing have gone by the wayside the last two weeks. Why, you ask? Because this manager of the Green Anthropology Homestead had her wisdom teeth pulled. While it has always seemed to me a sort of rite-of-passage that so many people go through, I would NOT recommend it. Oh no. And the older you are when you have it done makes it worse, so I hear. So hooray for me- pulled teeth at 30 years. I’ll take 15 hours of child-birth again before having teeth pulled, thank-you-very-much!

So with this notch in my belt and being fairly healed, I’ve gotten back into my groove this weekend. The dried squash vines have been crammed into my tiny compost bin, and the remaining bits donated to the neighbor’s compost pile. All the work done just in time for a lovely rain that heralds a cool front to bring more autumn-like weather.  I will be thankful for a Turkey Day on which I am not inclined to wear shorts!

I missed one night at the farmer’s and crafters’ market night, but was there again this Friday, and doing fairly respectably. I love sewing, and being able to provide unique items in such a way to the locals feels great. I just wish there was more time to get things done! All of us regular vendors are hoping the economy will not let us down on Black Friday- we all need the extra income this year. And here at the GAH it’s not for buying presents to place under a tree- it’s to pay the mortgage on this expanding homestead! So if you would like to support the GAH, you can get your beautiful baby and toddler accessories here, at my quaint little shop: www.RainyDaySmocks1.etsy.com. For all you health nuts like me here is a tidbit of information on the laminated bibs: the laminate I use is a reformulated plastic that is PVC-free. Done promoting myself, thank you for your attention to this advertisement.

My sweet husband found this article published in MIT News and sent it to me this week: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/foodshed.html

It discusses the childhood obesity epidemic among the children and teens in the US, and how suggested foodsheds (like watersheds) can help to make healthier, more affordable foods more readily available and decrease the obesity epidemic. The study was done as a collaborative work between MIT and Columbia scholars. ( Columbia is the primary source of historically influential Anthropologists- the guys that came up with the theories we as Anthropology students study today! Just a note, as I still hope to finish that Masters in Anthro…)

It is quite interesting, so please take the time to click on the link and read the article. But what makes me chuckle a bit is that if you are a regular reader of GA, the topic of the article is probably common sense to you! And to think they had to have our gurus at MIT and Columbia come up with what we homesteaders already knew.

Hey guys! Thanks for all of the submissions to last week’s “Your Photos” Brainypics contest. I know it was tougher than usual because you had to take or dig up photos you’d taken before and then turn it into a Brainypic flashcard, but the turnout will still great. We basically matched last week’s record best of 540 pics. :]

This week’s contest: Brainypics About Brainypics. We got this idea from some really funny users. Basically, you create Brainypics with sentences that talk about the Brainyflix.com website, refer to other Brainypics, mention you as the creator of the Brainypic, etc.

Not quite sure what we mean? Check out these examples:

wrath (n): vengeful anger, punishment

assail (v): to attack

Belligerent (adj): Warlike; given to waging war

Good luck, guys, and get started —>>> Brainyflix

Here are the 10 “Funniest Photo” Winners. You’ll notice that we have an affinity for picking Brainypics where the creators weren’t afraid of getting a bit goofy (kinda like us). Enjoy!

animated: (adj) lively; (v) to give life to

garish (adj): gaudy, in bad taste

gratuitous (adj): Unnecessary; free, voluntary; without reason or cause

aberration (n): The act of departing from the normal course; the act of deviating from the usual type

despondent (adj): Discouraged; disheartened

quandary (n): A puzzling predicament

adhere (v): to stick to something ; to follow devoutly

lethargic (adj): sluggish, weary, apathetic

somnolent (adj): Sleepy, drowsy

vocation (n): A particular occupation or profession; calling

Congrats to Maddio28, Drewprice11, Sarahskewl, Countrymusiclover, Isaac12, Bsaia, A. Damitz, B. Rudy, E. Knezz, and C. Vandersnick for these Brainypics. And thanks again to everyone who participated by creating, voting and leaving comments.

If you’d still like a chance to win iTunes and compete for our $200 Grand Prize, we’ve got 3 more weeks of our Brainypics contests left! This week’s theme: Brainypics about Brainypics. Click here to learn more. :]

Obrazy i fotografie będące ilustracją do wpisu na Wizji Lokalnej pt. “NARCYZ” .

Benczur Gyula ("Narcyz")

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Photo: Brandon Herman ("Narcyz")

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Naśladowca Leonarda da Vinci ("Narcyz")

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Adolf Joseph Grass ("Narcyz")

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Francois Le Moyne ("Narcyz")

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Placido Costanzi ("Narcyz")

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Nicolas Poussin ("Echo i Narcyz")

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Narcyz z Pompei

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"Narcyzi nimfy"

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Pat Brennan ("Przekleństwo Narcyza")

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Richard Baxter ("Echo i Narcyz")

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Salvadore Dali ("Metamorfoza Narcyza")

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"Narcyz"

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Liz Schamehorn ("Narcyz")

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Photo: Michael Zavros ("Narcyz")

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"Narcystyczne bliźniaki"

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Yayoi Kusama ("Ogród Narcyza")

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Paul Dubois ("Narcyz")

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Un grupo de investigadores del MIT ha tenido la feliz idea de crear una macro estructura que sostendrá una pantalla digital gigante que iluminará el cielo de Londres durante los Juegos Olímpicos de 2012 (ZASS7: Proyecto Blue Beam a la vista?). El proyecto ha sido bautizado como ‘La nube’ y consistirá en dos torres de 122 metros de altura que estarán conectadas por una serie de burbujas de plástico interconectadas que harán las veces de pantalla.

En ella se mostrarán los resultados de la evolución de los Juegos y servirá como ‘barómetro del estado de humor de la ciudad’. Lo mejor del asunto es que esperan financiar el macro proyecto por donaciones populares (que determinarán el tamaño final de la pantalla) y será autosuficiente energéticamente (se alimentará de luz solar y una sistema de regeneración energética de frenos de los ascensores de las torres). Tienes un vídeo tras el salto.

Fuente: Engadget

]]> http://dmfc.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/mit-techtv-%e2%80%93-old-tv-commercials/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:59:06 +0000 dmfc http://dmfc.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/mit-techtv-%e2%80%93-old-tv-commercials/

This is a video from MIT TechTv – meant to test VodPod:

Here is an interesting article from MIT on patterns in high math achievement based on a study of AMC data.  This research follows on the heels of the paper written by Dr. Andreescu and his colleagues last year.  The study seems to conclude that girls (and presumably also boys) thrive when they are able to study math in a community that reinforces their interests and encourages their talents.

Here are some key excerpts from the article:

Ellison and Swanson arrived at their findings by using a novel source of data: the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC), a 60-year-old annual contest involving 125,000 exceptional high-school students. A select group of students who do especially well on the AMC compete in a series of annual competitions, the U.S. Mathematical Olympiad and the International Mathematical Olympiad. This focus on standout students differs from most studies about math and gender in schools…

The numbers Ellison and Swanson scrutinized indicate that the gender disparity among star math students widens as performance levels increase. In 2007, about 800,000 girls took the math SAT, compared to about 700,000 boys. Yet at the 99th percentile of the math SATs, boys outnumber girls two to one. In their research, Ellison and Swanson divide that upper tier into even smaller segments, using AMC results. Among students in the 94th percentile of the AMC tests, they found, the top boys outnumbered the top girls four to one; at the 99th AMC percentile, six to one; and at the 99.9th AMC percentile, 12 to one…

Ellison thinks this huge gender disparity is linked to another fact: Among those students scoring so highly on the AMC and participating in the math Olympiads, the range of high schools represented is much greater for boys than for girls. “The top boys in the Olympiads come from all over the United States,” says Ellison. “Some of them are from big powerhouse schools, and some are from schools where they’re the only student who’s really good at math. But it’s these 20 high schools where the majority of the girls are coming from.” Those institutions range from Phillips Exeter Academy, an elite New England prep school, to a fistful of public high schools in Northern California, from Palo Alto to San Jose. By contrast, Ellison and Swanson note, half of the boys in the Olympiads come from about 200 high schools…

O’Keeffe, who has a daughter who competed in the math Olympiad, is inclined to agree. “Anecdotally, I do think the difference a community makes is enormous,” she says. “If you’re lucky enough to be at a school with a math club, you might be the only girl in it. At Exeter or Stuyvesant [a prominent Manhattan public high school], you might be in a minority, but you won’t be alone.” To be more rigorous, though, Ellison wants to track many individual students over time…

How does the internet see you?

I stumbled over this fascinating installation, Personas, that was recently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab. It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one’s aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.

Personas was created by Aaron Zinman, with help from Alex Dragulescu, Yannick Assogba and Judith Donath.

1:00 – 2:00 pm

Con el objetivo de comprender mejor la naturaleza del pH estuvimos viendo la clase “Acids and Bases: Arrhenius, Brønsted-Lowry, and Lewis Definitions, Acid Strength and pH” dictada por Donald Sadoway en el MIT (lecture 26 del curso 3.091):

Puntos claves:

Lavoisier (en Francia, 1779): Trató de entender los ácidos y las bases y concluyó que la clave era el oxígeno, razonando que el oxígeno estaba presente en todos los ácidos (ahora sabemos que ésto no es así).

Sir Humphrey Davy (en Inglaterra, 1810): Observa que no es el oxígeno sino el hidrógeno el que está presente en todos los ácidos (ahora sabemos que ésto sí es así).

Arrhenius (en Suecia, 1887): Confirma que el hidrógeno está presente en todos los ácidos y define un ácido como una sustancia que disuelve en agua donando un protón (H+).

Adicionalmente, Arrhenius menciona la existencia de las bases como el complemento que neutraliza un ácido, indicando que una base es una sustancia que también disuelve en agua donando el grupo OH- (hidroxilo).

Más adelante se encontró que el amoniaco (NH3), era una sustancia que también se disuelve en agua y tiene la capacidad de neutralizar ácidos, pero que no posee el grupo hidroxilo (OH-), entonces algo estaba faltando en la teoría de Arrhenius.

La explicación tuvo que esperar hasta 1923 y fue enunciada simultáneamente por Brønsted y Lowry trabajando separadamente, quienes enunciaron una nueva definición de ácidos y bases:

un ácido es una sustancia capaz de donar protones (igual que Arrhenius)

una base es una sustancia que tiene la capacidad de aceptar protones.

Bajo el punto de vista de Brønsted y Lowry las reacciones ácido/base son reacciones que involucran la transferencia de protones.

Los protones son los portadores de la acidez.

alejandro

Here are some more augmented reality news stories that happened this week:

• MIT’s Sixth Sense to be open-sourced. Well, I know most don’t see any future in projector enabled augmented reality, yet there’s more to Sixth Sense than a projector (gesture recognition, image recognition), and it’s a lot more feasible than see-through HMD AR at this stage, so quite exciting news.
• Augmented Planet has started doing a head to head comparison of the different AR browsers out there. Rumor has it that round two features very surprising results.
• More from Augmented Planet – vote for your favorite AR application this year and you may win a Chumby.
• Campaigns:
• A demo of Esquire’s augmented reality issue. The comments are even more interesting than the video itself – “Holy balls you guys are innovative! Props!”.
  
• Wear a virtual hockey mask by Xcel Energy, or in other words, augmented reality is for kids.
• Seat using augmented reality to sell cars? That’s nothing like I’ve seen before.

We are signing off this week with a new video out of TU Graz, showing adding annotations online to panoramas. I’ve written about it in more detail before, here, so we can just relax and enjoy the video this time:

Have a nice week!

Este é um dos textos que estavam na gaveta. Foram alguns meses de
pesquisa, até compilar todas as opiniões. Mas a demora valeu. Afinal,
não poderia haver momento melhor para uma matéria que fala sobre
tecnologia e experiência do que essa, na qual os currículos enganosos
e a jactância estão em alta.

Indexação e a vida antes do Google

Muita gente pode não acreditar, mas existia vida antes do Google. Era
uma vida mais colorida, com mais opções e, talvez, menos eficiente
(pelo menos do ponto de vista da informação).

Nessa época existiam vários mecanismos de busca que usavam tecnologias diferentes para vasculhar a rede. Altavista (o melhor), Hotbot, Yahoo!, WebCrawler e outros buscadores brigavam pela preferência do internauta.

“O Altavista era tido com uma grande ferramenta, mas vinha um bocado de lixo nos resultados; o Yahoo!, no mais das vezes, dava uma resposta mais objetiva. O Google chegou de mansinho, mas foi tomando o lugar dos outros, porque com aquele design limpinho, voltado só para a busca (sem aquela barafunda visual da página do Yahoo, por exemplo), e os algoritmos poderosos, era irresistível.”, diz o mestre André Machado.

Era um tempo onde indexar e conseguir recuperar uma página tirada do
ar não era uma tarefa fácil. Hoje, embora muitos responsáveis pelo
conteúdo de sites não têm idéia de que é possível resgatar sites
apagados. Aliás, muitos deles não têm ideia sobre muita coisa.

“Um dos grandes problemas do jornalismo online continua sendo a falta de conhecimento dos gestores. Muitos deles continuam vindo de mídias tradicionais, sem nenhum conhecimento prévio sobre a internet.”, diz um estudo que está sendo feito pelo MIT (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology).

Quando li o trecho acima (o estudo deve ser publicado até o fim deste
ano) fiquei feliz. Como já citei em posts anteriores, cansa uma certa
presunção de pessoas que leem um livro e acham que descobriram todas as respostas do mundo e que já sabem até o que é Web 2.0 ou mídias sociais.

Mas a pergunta que sempre faço é: “É mais fácil encontrar algo hoje na
Internet do que 6 anos atrás”? Algumas respostas.

“De nada adianta buscar, simplesmente, sem ter um mínimo conhecimento prévio do assunto que se está buscando (especialmente no caso do jornalista). Do contrário, a pesquisa pode levar a resultados
incompletos ou subjetivos. É preciso correr atrás de várias fontes, e
fazer o trabalho jornalístico também na hora da pesquisa. Nessa hora,
nada substitui uma boa formação, o gosto pela leitura e pelo estudo, e
o desejo de aprofundar a contento uma informação”, sentencia André
Barba Machado .

“É mais fácil para quem tem um mínimo de experiência na rede. Saber
técnicas de pesquisa boleana – que nem são mais ensinado – pode fazer uma grande diferença”, afirma o estudo do MIT.

Assim como os meios de mídia tradicionais (impressos) passam por uma
crise, causada em grande parte por falta de visão do que o público e
os anunciantes querem ou falta de capacidade de encontrar uma solução para unir circulação e verbas publicitárias, a Internet sofre com a falta de conhecimento de muitos de seus executivos.

“Não é incomum encontrar gente que foi colocada em cargos de chefia apenas por terem estudado com alguém que faça parte na diretoria da empresa ou porque é amigo de outro alguém. Isso acontece não só em países menos desenvolvidos ou empresas familiares. Acontece até mesmo nos Estados Unidos e Europa, onde é grande o número de sucessos, APESAR de chefias despreparadas”, afirma outra parte do texto do MIT, acompanhado de uma série de gráficos com percentuais de incompetência.

To be continued…

On Friday night, my friend and I went to a production of The Rocky Horror Show, produced by one of BU’s resident theater companies, BU on Broadway. We shouted at the actors, threw rice and watched as others squirted water guns in the air. The acting was impressive (particularly BU junior Matthew Lerner as Brad Majors); the sets were pure Rocky Horror – tacky and alien; the lighting every bit as flashy and coordinated as a professional production. The only difference between BU on Broadway’s production and a profession production was the cost; the tickets for Rocky Horror were a mere $10, far less than they might have been at another theater.

I’m a huge fan of student theater…and not just because I’m a student. Student theater is a great way to expose yourself to a wide variety of inexpensive theater. This might seem sacrilegious to bigger Broadway buffs, but sometimes I can’t get interested in shows just from the cast recording. Of course, music is an important part of well, MUSICAL theater, but the music isn’t everything. Great music is nothing without the people who bring it to life. Collegiate theater is an expensive way to see all of the scores (that’s Broadway speak for music) I love on stage.

If you’re interested in Broadway-quality work, you might not find it. But when people think student theater, they generally think off-pitch, haphazard and cheap. One out of three isn’t bad (cheap – for you and the students) but the other two just aren’t true. Collegiate theater companies pride themselves on getting talented actors and crew members, and training them to the best of their abilities For some who intend to work in theater, college is an opportunity to get some much-needed career experience.

And if the opportunity to see some high quality shows at a low cost isn’t enough, think of it this way – you’re seeing the stars of tomorrow, today. Past attendees of shows at Emerson College, Boston University and the Boston Conservatory might have had the opportunity to see Olympia Dukakis, Marisa Tomei, Gina Gershon, Andrea Martin or Constantine Maroulis, among others, during their time in school. Of course, star appearances aren’t guaranteed, but when they happen, you can say you saw them “when.”

I don’t really need to tell you that there are many colleges in Boston. As such, there are many opportunities to see inexpensive student work. At BU alone, there are two student theater companies, On Broadway and Stage Troupe, which hold regular shows, as well as occasional pieces by the students of the College of Fine Arts (including their very own Fringe festival).

But beyond the walls of my humble university, theater thrives at other universities around Boston and Cambridge. Emerson is well known as a theater school and Emerson Stage, its resident theater company, produces some amazing work. Last year a friend and I attended their production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. As you can imagine based on the title, it was both risqué and hilarious. The sets were particularly impressive – detailed, interesting, well made and most importantly, aesthetically pleasing. Not to say that other schools don’t live up to their quality, but at Emerson, I forgot that I was seeing student theater entirely. I left feeling convinced that the $14 I paid for my ticket was well worth the night of entertainment.

Other notable student theaters groups include Northeastern’s The Great White Way Musical Theater Group, the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club and MIT’s Musical Theater Guild.

L’idea è di Caterina Fake, quella di Flickr, il più grande contenitore fotografico del web.
Hunch è un motore di ricerca motivazionale: il concetto è lo stesso di Google ma più elaborato, perchè costruito sui nostri gusti personali.
Per capirci: dovete andare in vacanza? Acquistare l’auto dei vostri sogni? Sapere quale serie tv degli anni ottanta è più adatta a voi? E via dicendo. Ogni vostra domanda avrà una risposta. Una super sfera di cristallo virtuale.
A differenza di Google poi, Hunch sfrutta il concetto di comunità. Creando un account, non solo potrete rispondere a una serie di domande utili a elaborare le risposte più adatte a voi, ma potrete contribuire anche ad aiutare gli altri utenti a trovare le soluzioni ai loro amletici dubbi.
A cosa serve? A un sacco di cose, e a niente. Per il momento.
Perché prima o poi i cervelloni del MIT (hanno elaborato loro il super algoritmo capace di dar vita al progetto) o qualche altro nerd (di una volta) s’inventeranno un’altra diavoleria. Perché l’egemonia di Google è tale che nessun altro motore di ricerca, fino ad oggi, è mai riuscito a metterla in discussione.
Nulla toglie che Hunch, reso accessibile al pubblico dallo scorso giugno, qualche interesse per potenziali sponsor e investitori ce l’ha.
Saprà anche diventare un must come Facebook o Twitter? Chissà se l’algoritmo è in grado di dare una risposta a questa domanda.
Di certo potrà essere d’aiuto a tanti futuri scrittori. Se il vostro dubbio è should I or shouldn’t I write a book? Hunch potrà darvi una mano.

MURIEL COPPER (1925-1994)

One of the giants of 20th-century design

Muriel Cooper using a Polaroid SX-70 for a self-portrait; video imaging at Visible Language Workshop, 1977

MIT Media Lab rendred as Soft Type, 1990

Composite comparison of calligraphy at three resolution levels, VLW 1990

Three self-portraits by a Visual Language Workshop student, using early copy, paste, and distort techniques, recorded with Poloroid, 1982

Books produced for the MIT Press during Muriel Cooper’s tenure as media director, 1969-1977

In 1967 Cooper joined the MIT Press as its first art director. Above: her logo for the Press, 1963

MIT Summer Session announcements, 1958

The official history of the Media Lab by Stewart Brand (The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, MIT Press, 1989) makes scant reference to this remarkable woman who was, at the time of her death, the only female tenured professor at the lab. Three entries in the index lead to passing mentions but, despite chapter-length discussions of other departments at this latter-day Bauhaus, not one is devoted to the Visible Language Workshop.

“Muriel Cooper’s Visible Wisdom” by Janet Abrams

Herald Tribune, AIGA website, and in a conversation with Ellen Lupton.

More info:

Muriel Cooper: “The unsung heroine of on-screen style,”

The New York Times

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designKULTUR:

BOOKS: THE BAUHAUS WEIMAR DESSAU BERLIN CHICAGO (1969)

When a long-time friend and well-connected colleague from my Silicon Valley days forwarded me a link for this report “Future Digital Model: Consumers

Swap Privacy for Customization” from Oracle, I couldn’t resist clicking on it. I LOVE to learn about futuristic trends and innovation. I’ve had the good fortune to visit think tanks like XEROX Parc, MIT Media Lab and NASA Ames Research Center to chat with talented mad scientists.

The Oracle report had a bit of corporate blah-blah mixed in, but I was not disappointed by some of the out-of-the-box thinking.

Semantic searching will change users’ relationship with technology

“Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford, foresees the ability to record all of his conversations and then search through them to remember what was said when. He also predicts it will be possible to search through other people’s photographs on the Internet to find images of oneself when a bystander in someone else’s snapshots. It will even be possible to search through videos.”

Semantic searching is here today, admittedly in its infancy, and I’m eager for the next wave of innovation. I use Apple’s iLife software to organize and search my photos by faces and places. Imagine if this capability extended to broader and more complex searches?

Another nugget of info from the Oracle report…

“Predictive software and finer localization capabilities will enable brands to better target consumer whims. In the future, semantic functions will add more meaning to simple data. Over the coming decade, technology will recognize that a person is in one place every weekday at 7 am and at another one hour later, says Carsten Beck, Institute of Future Studies in Copenhagen. It will then deduce a morning commute and make entertainment choices accordingly.”

Human sardines squeezed in the train

I tried to apply this analogy of a morning commute to my own life and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  The massive train strike in France this week caused headaches for many French commuters. Based on my experience, people pushed together like sardines in a can, I can only wonder how the technology would “make entertainment choices accordingly” for me!

Predictive software selects an entertainment activity that mirrors my morning commute

Receive your own free copy of the report by following this link, requires a basic registration for download.