Challis Hodge’s UXblog

Still a few days lefty to check out Open House at Art Center College in Pasadena, CA. It’s running through July 1.

Open House: Architecture and Technology for Intelligent Living envisions the house of the future as a place for new spatial experiences, new systems of sustainability and new sensory enhancements. This open-ended exhibition and multi-faceted research initiative, incorporating Art Center research studios, as well as a series of public programs, encourages creative individuals to make a substantial contribution to the dialogue on how we will live in the future.

The traveling exhibition, organized by the Vitra Design Museum and Art Center College of Design, opened August 2006 in Essen, Germany. The exhibit is anchored by 10 commissioned exploring future dwellings.

Penn State researchers have “taught” computers how to interpret images using a vocabulary of up to 330 English words. The new system, which can automatically annotate entire online collections of photographs as they are uploaded, means significant time-savings for the millions of Internet users who now manually tag or identify their images. It also facilitates retrieval of images through the use of search terms.

Microsoft believes the demand for consumer, research, and military robots will grow significantly–and it wants to own the market, with Microsoft Robotics Studio (MSRS) and the Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE).

MSRS is a visual programming environment, similar to the LabView-based software provided with LEGO’s Mindstorms NXT kit. It allows users to drag and drop box-like symbols for simple, low-level behaviors and services (such as accessing a sensor) and string them together to create complex robotic programs.

MSRS also uses the AGEIA PhysX physics engine, which powers many PC games, to provide a visual simulation of the robot and its environment, complete with realistic friction, drag, gravity, and other factors.

Thomson Financial has begun replacing humans with computers to write stories in the newsroom. The computers work so fast that an earnings story can be released within 0.3 seconds of the company making results public. You can’t break a story much faster than that!

This is not about cost but about delivering information to our customers at a speed at which they can make an almost immediate trading decision, said Matthew Burkley, senior vice-president of strategy at Thomson Financial.

This means we can free up reporters so they have more time to think.

Think about updating their resumes ;-)

I had a slingshot when I was a kid but it didn’t look like this!

Potential applications of this family of machines include ground-to-space or intercontinental launch, for which large L/D projectiles would be required as shown in some images. The machine would also be of interest in providing a very high impact power source for physics experiments, including possibly impact fusion using magnetized fuel targets for which shorter L/D projectiles would be used.

It looks like Ed Schmidt and Mark Bundy of the Army Research Lab are looking at ways of firing projectiles into orbit.

Korea has developed its own android capable of facial expressions on its humanoid face, the second such machine to be developed after one from Japan. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy invited some 60 children to the Kyoyuk Munhwa Hoekwan in Seoul to introduce Ever-1 to the public. The name combines the first human name found in the Bible, Eve, with the “r” in robot.

The Korean Institute for Industrial Technology (KITECH) said the android, which has the face and body of a woman in her 20s, is 160 cm tall and weighs 50 kg. Ever-1 can move its upper body and “express” happiness, anger, sadness and pleasure. But the robot is still incapable of moving its lower half. Ever-1’s skin is made from a silicon jelly that feels similar to human skin. The face is a composite of two stars, and its torso on a singer.

Honda will soon become the first auto manufacturer to include, as standard equipment in some models, technology that enables drivers to converse with their cars about where to go and how to get there.

Using voice-recognition and text-to-speech technology from IBM, the 2005 Acura RL, available in October, and Honda Odyssey, available in September, will produce maps and “speak” turn-by-turn directions from the navigation system.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are aiming to create biologically inspired “roboflies” — tiny, inexpensive, quick-moving robots they can send into space for planetary exploration. Imagine swarms of inexpensive robots seeking out life in other galaxies. The concept is simple really, just as schooling fish and flocking birds have evolved to take advantage of the increased odds of survival so too would the robots. Of course there are the usual military applications as well. Check the Roboflies out here.