Triumph of the cyborg composer
Posted in computer stuff, music, technology on Feb 27th, 2010
From Miller-McCune.com: Triumph of the Cyborg Composer: David Cope’s software creates beautiful, original music. Why are people so angry about that?
Category Archive for 'technology'
Technology to amaze you
Posted in technology on Dec 29th, 2009
This makes me feel like a Luddite. Here I am running around with a plain old digital camera (yeah, yeah, I know Luddites don’t use digital cameras… but still!) and this guy’s taking photos by framing what he wants with his fingers.
I might as well go join the old-order Amish.
Computer recognises archaeological material and fake Van Goghs
Posted in art, history & archaeology, technology on Jun 30th, 2009
From physorg.com: Computer recognises archaeological material and fake Van Goghs.
People find it very easy to recognise a face, even under very different circumstances. For a computer, on the other hand, it is extremely difficult. Dutch researcher Laurens van der Maaten has developed a new analytical technique which enables the computer to better interpret the content [...]
How technology lifts Pixar’s ‘Up’
Posted in technology on May 28th, 2009
From CNET: How technology lifts Pixar’s ‘Up’.
If you want to consider a difficult computational problem, try thinking of the algorithms required to animate more than 10,000 helium balloons, each with its own string, but each also interdependent on the rest, which are collectively hoisting aloft a small house.
That was the challenge the production team at [...]
Revolutionary book machine launches in London
Posted in books & lit, technology on Apr 27th, 2009
From the Guardian: Revolutionary Espresso Book Machine launches in London.
It’s not elegant and it’s not sexy — it looks like a large photocopier — but the Espresso Book Machine is being billed as the biggest change for the literary world since Gutenberg invented the printing press more than 500 years ago and made the mass [...]
Recaptcha helps to decipher old texts
Posted in books & lit, internet, technology on Mar 2nd, 2009
Captchas are those words or non-words you see in squiggly letters when you try to comment on some websites. You’re commanded to type the letters you see into a little box to prove that you’re a human, not some automated spam machine. From the Walrus Magazine we have this article on the new and improved [...]
Helicopters learn tricks ‘watching’ other helicopters
Posted in technology on Sep 16th, 2008
From discovery.com: Helicopters Learn Tricks ‘Watching’ Other Helicopters.
Birds learn to fly by watching other birds. Now helicopters can watch each other to learn complex aerial tricks and maneuvers.
In 10 minutes, a computer algorithm developed by Stanford University scientists learned, and then flawlessly replicated, more than 20 years of radio-controlled helicopter expertise.
The team has already been [...]
Putting a ear to the past
Posted in history & archaeology, technology, unusual musical instruments on Sep 15th, 2008
From the Beeb: Putting a ear to the past.
When a Scottish academic discovered a piece of 17th Century harpsichord music in a little known archive, he was keen to hear it played on the instrument for which it was written.
But bringing the music back to life proved a hard task for Dr Kenny McAlpine, a [...]
Hi-tech centre brings abbey alive
Posted in history & archaeology, religion, technology on Sep 5th, 2008
From the Beeb: Hi-tech centre brings abbey alive.
Holograms, a virtual reality tour and 3-D goggles are being used to bring a 14th Century abbey back to life.
They are part of a new “interpretation centre” designed to explain in an interactive way what life was like at Valle Crucis Abbey, near Llangollen.
Visitors can take a [...]
Ancient musical instruments play again through Astra project
Posted in history & archaeology, technology, unusual musical instruments on Sep 3rd, 2008
From Bios Magazine: Ancient Musical Instruments Play Again Through Astra Project.
Ancient musical instruments can now be heard for the first time in hundreds of years, due to a new computer modelling project. ASTRA (Ancient instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) has recreated the sounds of the harp-like Epigonion musical instrument from Ancient Greece and has performed one [...]
Putting a face to the past
Posted in history & archaeology, technology on Sep 1st, 2008
From the BBC: Putting a face to the past.
What do Johann Sebastian Bach, Saint Nicholas, and the firstborn son of Pharaoh Rameses II all have in common?
The answer? All their faces have been reconstructed using cutting-edge computer technology.
Dr Caroline Wilkinson is a forensic anthropologist, recreating faces from human remains for archaeological and police investigations – [...]
Robo-skeleton lets paralysed walk
Posted in health, technology on Aug 27th, 2008
From the Beeb: Robo-skeleton lets paralysed walk.
A robotic suit is helping people paralysed from the waist down do what was previously considered impossible – stand, walk and climb stairs.
ReWalk users wear a backpack device and braces on their legs and select the activity they want from a remote control wrist band.
Leaning forwards activates body sensors [...]
Sign language over cell phones
Posted in language, technology on Aug 26th, 2008
From the University of Washington: ‘Can you see me now?’ Sign language over cell phones comes to United States.
A group at the University of Washington has developed software that for the first time enables deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans to use sign language over a mobile phone. UW engineers got the phones working together this spring, [...]
Poor earning virtual gaming gold
Posted in technology on Aug 24th, 2008
From the Beeb: Poor earning virtual gaming gold.
Nearly 500,000 people in developing nations earn a wage making virtual goods in online games to sell to players, a study has found.
Research by Manchester University shows that the practice, known as gold-farming, is growing rapidly.
The industry, about 80% based in China, employs about 400,000 people who earn [...]
Laser technology helps visually impaired enjoy Thornton Abbey
Posted in technology on Aug 21st, 2008
From 24 Hour Museum: Laser technology helps visually impaired enjoy Thornton Abbey.
Thanks to the latest laser technology, visually impaired and partially sighted people are being given the chance to get to grips with history at Thornton Abbey in North Lincolnshire.
English Heritage has been working with Visually Impaired Media Access Consultants (Vimac) to create a range [...]
CAPTCHAs work—for digitizing old, damaged texts, manuscripts
Posted in books & lit, technology on Aug 14th, 2008
From Ars Technica: CAPTCHAs work—for digitizing old, damaged texts, manuscripts.
Over the course of history, humanity has suffered some horrifying damage to our collective cultural legacy in the form of books and other text lost to accident or neglect. The digitalization of text holds out the promise of permanently preserving the written word in an archive [...]
Home smart home
Posted in technology on Jul 1st, 2008
If you suffer from dementia and can no longer remember basic things, how will you manage to perform simple tasks? A University of Toronto professor is designing tools that can help. From the University of Toronto Magazine: Home Smart Home.
Mihailidis and his colleagues have built an artificial intelligence system that can recognize when patients need [...]
‘Mobile’ phone enjoys centenery
Posted in history & archaeology, technology on May 11th, 2008
From the Telegraph: ‘Mobile’ phone enjoys centenery.
Photographs of the world’s first "wireless telephone" have revealed that it was not quite as mobile as its modern counterparts.
Invented by Nathan Stubblefield in 1908, the device came complete with an unwieldy metal transmitter.
A far cry from the tiny mobile phones in use today, the telephone was made up [...]
Reassembling a puzzle with 600 million pieces
Posted in history & archaeology, technology on Jan 24th, 2008
From TheStar.com: Reassembling a puzzle with 600 million pieces.
Nineteen years ago, as the Berlin Wall crumbled and democracy swept through communist East Germany, STASI agents – members of the secret police – worked feverishly to destroy millions of top-secret documents in an effort to keep them from Western eyes. (…)
Then, in May 2007, the German [...]
Escape old London’s most feared prison — guided by GPS
Posted in history & archaeology, technology on Nov 1st, 2007
From Wired: Escape Old London’s Most Feared Prison — Guided by GPS.
Through a thick drizzle I gaze at the ominous gray stone buildings of the Tower of London, England’s most notorious prison. I wander from one to the next, trying to imagine what it was like to be held captive here hundreds of years ago. [...]
Your plant just called to say ‘I’m thirsty!’
Posted in technology on Jul 29th, 2007
From zdnet.com: Your plant just called to say ‘I’m thirsty!’.
Imagine answering your cell phone to hear your Scotch Moss plant telling you in a fake Glaswegian accent that it needs a drink.
This scenario is not far from reality, as a group of postgraduate students at New York University is developing a way for over-watered or [...]
Computer program can learn baby talk
Posted in language, technology on Jul 27th, 2007
From Reuters: Computer program can learn baby talk.
A computer program that learns to decode sounds from different languages in the same way that a baby does helps to shed new light on how people learn to talk, researchers said on Tuesday.
They said the finding casts doubt on theories that babies are born knowing all the [...]
New software lights up archaeology
Posted in history & archaeology, technology on Jul 10th, 2007
From the BBC: New software lights up archaeology.
New software which works out much more realistically how ancient buildings would have looked in their glory by generating accurate plays of light sources has been developed by scientists in England.
The project, developed at Warwick University in the West Midlands, brings ancient architectural features to life through a [...]
Beating congestion with mobiles
Posted in technology on Jul 3rd, 2007
From the Beeb: Beating congestion with mobiles.
If you do not like crowds, congestion, chaos — and few do — then you might want to avoid Rome’s rush-hour. But congestion in the city might be about to ease a little as researchers use Italy’s passion for mobiles to combat Rome’s daily war on wheels.
Researchers from Massachusetts [...]
Virtual explorers comb Egypt’s ruins
Posted in history & archaeology, technology on Jun 20th, 2007
From Boston.com: Virtual explorers comb Egypt’s ruins.
With a click of his computer mouse, Peter Janosi, a lecturer at the Institute of Egyptology in Vienna, analyzes ancient statues and decodes hieroglyphs unearthed in the distant Giza Necropolis.
From the comfort of his study in Norwich, England, Colin Newton, a retired television repairman, explores rare Giza maps and [...]