| Wheii.com | Understand Change > Be in the Know

Main menu

SITE FEED

RSS

ARCHIVE

September 2002October 2002November 2002December 2002January 2003February 2003March 2003April 2003May 2003June 2003July 2003August 2003September 2003October 2003November 2003December 2003January 2004February 2004March 2004May 2004June 2004July 2004August 2004September 2004October 2004November 2004December 2004January 2005February 2005March 2005April 2005May 2005June 2005July 2005August 2005September 2005October 2005November 2005December 2005January 2006February 2006March 2006April 2006May 2006June 2006July 2006August 2006October 2006November 2006December 2006January 2007February 2007April 2007May 2007June 2007July 2007September 2007October 2007December 2007January 2008February 2008March 2008April 2008

SUBSCRIBE

Sunday, June 03, 2007
Posted by Roberto
7:04 PM 0 comments

GHOST BENEATH THE SURFACE :)

INNOVATION
Innovation occurs when someone uses an invention - or uses existing tools in a new way - to change how the world works, how people organize themselves, and how they conduct their lives. Inventions may be concepts, physical devices or any other set of things that facilitate an action. An innovation in this light occurs whether or not the act of innovating succeeds in generating value for its champions. Innovation is distinct from improvement in that it causes society to reorganize. It is distinct from problem solving and is perhaps more rigorously seen as new problem creation. And in this view, innovation applies whether the act generates positive or negative results.

Business literature blurs the concept of innovation with value creation, value extraction and operational execution. In this view, an innovation is not an innovation until someone successfully implements and makes money on an idea.

Here is the definition of innovation given by the Department of Trade and Industry in the UK: "the successful exploitation of new ideas"

INTELLIGENCE
"Intelligence is the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world. Varying kinds and degrees of intelligence occur in people, many animals and some machines. Arthur R. Jensen, a leading researcher in human intelligence, suggests "as a heuristic hypothesis" that all normal humans have the same intellectual mechanisms and that differences in intelligence are related to "quantitative biochemical and physiological conditions". I see them as speed, short term memory, and the ability to form accurate and retrievable long term memories. Whether or not Jensen is right about human intelligence, the situation in AI today is the reverse. Computer programs have plenty of speed and memory but their abilities correspond to the intellectual mechanisms that program designers understand well enough to put in programs. Some abilities that children normally don't develop till they are teenagers may be in, and some abilities possessed by two year olds are still out."
-- John McCarthy, Computer Science Dep., Stanford University.
what is AI
premise.org

IMAGE SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY
By acquiring Seadragon Software in 2006, Microsoft now has one of the most interesting pieces of software for browsing and connecting digital images.

2006 - Seadragon's promises:
1. Speed of navigation is independent of the size or number of objects.
2. Performance depends only on the ratio of bandwidth to pixels on the screen.
3. Transitions are smooth as butter.
4. Scaling is near perfect and rapid for screens of any resolution.

2007 - Microsoft Photosynth:
A software capable of assembling static photos into a synergy of zoomable, navigatable spaces. Photosynth is capable of taking a wide variety of images (flickr could be a source), analyzing them for similarities, and grafting them together into an interactive three-dimensional space. This seamless patchwork of images can be viewed via multiple angles and magnifications, allowing us to look around corners or "fly" in for a (much) closer look.
Blaise Aguera y Arcas, co-creator of Photosynth (TED VIDEO)
Photosynth

Here are some other interesting links that relate to digital photography:
"sumona", by Andries Odendaal (2006) - very cool
flickrvision.com
360° panoramas projected to look like small planets

SURFACE COMPUTING
Surface computing is a natural user interface that allows people to interact with digital content the same way they have interacted with everyday items such as photos, paintbrushes and music their entire life: with their hands, with gestures and by putting real-world objects on the surface.

Jeff Han hi-end surface computing:
Jeff Han 8 ft. Multi-Touch Display Wall (2007)
Jeff Han Multi-Touch Sensing: The Interactive Table (FEB 2006)

Microsoft Surface:
Microsoft Surface (May 2007)

NOR_/D:
NOR_/D CUBIT

iBar - intelligent surface system:
iBar is a system for the interactive design of any bar-counter. Integrated video-projectors can project any content on the milky bar-surface. The intelligent tracking system of iBar detects all objects touching the surface. This input is used to let the projected content interact dynamically with the movements on the counter. Objects can be illuminated at their position or virtual objects can be "touched" with the fingers.
iBar

Natural Interaction:
Natural Interaction is the investigation of the relationships between humans and machines following this vision: we create interactive artifacts that respect and exploit the natural dynamics through which people communicate and discover the real world.
Natural Interaction
iO