The Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth Tech Preview is so cool my leg is shaking. It's a pretty fun little application where you fly around in a 3D photospace which has been created from a set of photographs of a particular subject (in the main demo it's Piazza San Marco in Venice).
The interesting bit is how this is achieved. A whole bunch of pictures are taken of a place or object, from all angles, just like you might snap yourself if you were there as a tourist. Then, each picture is examined via funky algorithms for distinctive features and these features are mapped to a photospace so that by the time the analysis is finished, the photospace is a 3D cloud of those features as points in space. Because the photos overlap and share features, they can be automatically fit together in that space to make a three-dimensional collage.
The result, in Photosynth, is that you are able to examine the subject of a collection of photos in a more cohesive and comprehensive way because you understand how each part fits into the whole. At the moment, this is a technology preview, so you can only view the demo collections, but in the future you will be able to do this to your own collections of photographs and relate your own photographs to everyone else's photographs to contribute to a kind of photo gestalt. One of the architects at Microsoft Live Labs, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, describes how the software can join smaller collections together into a larger connected universe in terms of the Wood between the Worlds in C. S. Lewis' Narnia, for which I pretty much fell in love with Blaise Aguera y Arcas (in a completely manly way thank you very much).
The really wild thing is actually not about giving you better tools to inflict your vacation photos on people, but the implications of the "smart photo". The image feature analysis technology at work here can be employed to create image "identities" and to then automatically create associations with similar images and contextual information about the image subject. This concept is immensely powerful: think about how, at present, any correlation between the image of something and a description of that thing must be made inside your head. Imagine being able to take a photo of something to find out more about it.
Some ideas.
- Photospace/map/GPS mashups for waypoint navigation. (Some people are bad at navigating maps top-down and would benefit from seeing landmarks along a route from an on-the-ground perspective.)
- Walking tours where taking a picture of something triggers/fetches a recording or textual description describing it.
- Search engine based on supplied image(s).
Dana and Tracy Trousil had twin boys on January 9, 2007. They were quite premature (25.5 weeks I think), but they're doing well. We got some pics in the ICU when they were just 24 hours old.
Fig. 1 - (Above) Connor celebrating his first birth day. His was the butt trying to force its way out way too early - hips are still recovering from the jacknife "flying-V" position. I think he weighed in at 2 lbs. 7 oz.
Fig. 2 (Above) Rowan trying to get the hang of this "breathing air" deal. Still hadn't broken out of the placenta when the doctors when in to scoop him out, but when they cut it he crawled out on his own which the attending had never seen before. He's the runt, I can't remember for sure but I think he was approx. 2 lbs. 5 oz.
Actually, it's a funny story because Rachelle and I went to visit Tracy on the 9th. We found her lying on her side having mild contractions with parents hovering. Actual labour still looked a ways off (possibly days and days), but we left after 10 minutes so she wouldn't have to deal with pain and visitors simultaneously. Five minutes after we left the doctor came in, examined Tracy for the first time that day, saw Connor's rear end staring him the face, went "meep!" and RAN like hell to get the OR ready for the C-section. We had left at about 5:10PM. They were both born by 6:00PM.
Congratulations, Trousils!
Troglodyte! Bashi-bazouk! In my rantiferous odes, I like to assault my foes with polysyllabic violence. Each little part of a long word is like a rat- or a -tat-, so that when I squeeze the mental trigger I can fire long machine-gun bursts of lettery lead at whatever happens to be in my sights that day. Die! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-a-tat!! I smoke come out you! *
I recognize I have had a long love affair with imaginary violence, yes. One can either suppress or sublimate one's predilections.
That being the case, one of my longstanding heroes has been the bluff, short-tempered Captain Haddock of the Tintin series, prone to outbursts of extremely creative expletives. What he taught me to do is to find difficult words that are not in themselves offensive, but when chained together and thrown into an outburst, carry all the weight and snarling colour of the kind of salty curse that can only be produced after 20 years at sea.
So very satisfying.
Curse and enjoy with this exhaustive (English) list of Captain Haddock's best: http://www.tintinologist.org/guides/lists/curses.html. But don't stop there - it's only to get you warmed up. Comment and hit me with your best shot, you purple pockmarked poltroons! Sea-gherkins! Ostrogoths! Et cetera.
* When I was small, Mum did not allow herself to hear me say "I shoot you" so I improvised.
I suffer from occasional sleep paralysis, which means sometimes I am unable to move (and am aware I am unable to move) while waking up. It's a very panicky feeling, wanting to move and not being able to. I also can't open my eyes, which is creepy.
It happened this morning again, but I noticed something this time. I was dreaming just before I woke up, and I fell asleep in my dream. Then, while paralyzed, I had to wake up twice.
I wonder if there's got be something I can take for this.
Sometimes I get up from my computer and walk about. I tend to get my best ideas on these rambles. When I sit down, they're gone, but, hang it, I just *know* they were my best ideas. I have some ideas on how to get them back though, based on a thought I just had while walking around the house.
Everyone knows you can go back into the past and retrieve lost memories through hypnosis. I'll just go back far enough to get my ideas and stop short of remembering I was Caesar Augustus.
With the aid of an electric clock-radio dangled pendulously from its cord (I have no pocket watch) I shall listen only to my voice, just my voice and no other voice, safe and sleepy, sleepy, feeling sleepy, slipping deeper and deeper, deeper and deeper...
<Snap!>
I am under my power. I am a chicken. I am a chicken in a barnyard. Bwerk! I am a rooster. Bwerk. Peck! The rooster is king; I am the king of chickens. I am Chicken Augustus. Bwerk bwaaark! *
No, too far! I am an ordinary citizen chicken, not even a senator. In an ordinary barnyard. On fire. An ordinary barnyard fire. I am a chicken on fire in a barnyard. I am running around like a chicken on fire with its head cut off, looking for something. Something good. Something best. Ouch, my head is cut off. Is that the good idea? No. The best? No. Ouch. Where is my head? Is that my head? It feels like my head. No, that is not my head. That is sheep pucky.
<Snap!>
Dang, that didn't work as well as I expected. I guess those good ideas are bwerk forever. Scratch.
* Luke 2:1 "And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Chicken Augustus..."
http://www.dontdatehimgirl.com
Don't date him girl dot com is all about empowering us girls. "Before the purchase of something new, whether it's a house or a car, you evaluate it -- give it the once over before you close the sale." That is so true. Whenever I purchase a man*, I want to make sure he's got all his teeth, a strong back, and enough brain to follow orders but not think too much. A clever slave is a danger to himself, his mistress, and my silver mine.**
Once you're done slagging your ex, head on over to the online shop where you can further empowersize yourself by purchasing don't-date-him-girl thong underwear, which, when you drop your pants at the next frat party, will get you the respect you've been missing. Finally those jerks will stop staring at your breasts!
Just for the record, I am against slavery, but I argue strongly in favour of underwear.
* As the Good Book says: "As for your male and female slaves who may belong to you, you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you." (Leviticus 25:44)
** You thought I had a cotton plantation? Slavery is older than that. The slave-worked silver mines at Laurion were a big source of revenue for ancient Athens. My classics education is paying big dividends, here.
