Senses: A blog about the Thirdi Software perception » Technology

SixthSense defies conventions (and no, this isn’t about ghosts)

Jordana — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:04:14 +0000

I’m not sure what’s more intriguing about this video: the content itself, or the fact that my own father is tech-savvy enough to have found this for me! Either way, it’s exciting. In this video we meet Indian researcher Pranav Mistry and his mind-blowing demonstration of his latest project to make waves in the tech world – SixthSense.

SixthSense is 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.” Basically, it allows users to ditch computers, walk away from their desks, and have ready, interactive access to all the information they’d normally get from a computer, anywhere. SixthSense makes iPhones look antiquated and is the kind of innovation that gets my nerdy side all quivery. When the full potential of SixthSense is realized, you could transform any surface, from a wall, to a tabletop, to even your hands, into a functioning computing device. A large part of Mistry’s research focus is also on how to make computers more intuitive, something he claims is sorely lacking from current interface design. SixthSense technology captures normal human gestures and conventions and uses it; for example, a pad of sticky notes becomes a SMS, or an online “to-do” list; and in another example, Mistry easily transfers information from paper documents to his desktop computer simply by “grabbing” it with his fingertips. By utilizing the latest technology and merging it with an understanding of human interactions, Mistry and his team have managed to build technology that feels natural to use – a feat never achieved before, despite Apple’s best marketing claims of otherwise. Best part of all, the technology for SixthSense will eventually be released as open source, freeing its knowledge to anyone who wishes to learn it.

HP’s New Racist Webcam

Peter — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:47:54 +0000

Screen grab from the YouTube video

If you’re looking for a great last minute Christmas gift idea for your favorite racist, look no further. A new face-tracking webcam from Hewlett-Packard may be just the thing.

A video was posted to YouTube the other day by two co-workers who were testing a new HP webcam. The video shows a demonstration of the webcam’s facial tracking capabilities when attempting to follow the face of a white woman. It performs admirably. The problem arises when the same camera tries to track the face of the other tester – an African-American man. The camera doesn’t move an inch, with absolutely no detectable facial tracking happening. This prompts the man to firmly declare that the HP webcam is racist. And really, how can you argue?

The video quickly went viral (it has over 500,000 views on YouTube, and counting) and prompted a whole lot of those intelligent and reasonable user comments that YouTube is so famous for. The popularity of the video went a bit further though… as in all the way back to HP HQ. It prompted a quick reply from the company, wherein they declare they really aren’t racist, and the whole problem is the result of a lighting issue. Their reply states, in part:

“The technology we use is built on standard (racist) algorithms that measure the (racist) difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose. We believe that the (racist) camera might have difficulty “seeing” contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting.” (the notes in brackets are mine, by the way)

And while this may be the first example of an actual recent computer technology being perceived as racist, it’s certainly not the first time a tech company has gotten some bad press. From a Google Image Search controversy, to a variety of questionable (to some) iPhone apps, there have been more than a few situations where stereotypes were used and abused.

How bad is Britain’s new Digital Economy Bill?

Peter — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:44:47 +0000

Once upon a time, Britain had a working draft of a new bill that was primarily meant to help improve the country’s broadband infrastructure. It was being spearheaded by the British Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, and many in the media though it sounded pretty good.

But then something odd happened. Entertainment industry kingpin David Geffen invited Mandelson down to the Greek island of Corfu for a little all-expenses-paid mixer. They presumably ate some moussaka, drank a little retsina and talked. And soon after that meeting, the Digital Economy Bill underwent a few minor tweaks. News of those tweaks recently leaked to the media, and have provoked a growing storm of reaction. Mostly because the bill now has nothing to do with broadband infrastructure improvement, and everything to do with giving the entertainment industry free rein to investigate and punish illegal file sharers by cutting off their internet access, fining them enormous sums of money and possibly even throwing them in jail.

Some of the highlights of the new bill include:

Fines of 50,000 pounds if someone in your household is accused of illegal file sharing.
A requirement by internet service providers to spy on their customers in order to look for evidence the entertainment industry can use to sue illegal file sharers.
Fines of 250,000 pounds for ISPs who refuse to take part in this spying.
“Deputizing” entertainment industry groups with the power to investigate and impose punishments.
And, best of all, the ability for the British Business Secretary to just make up new punishments and enforcement systems whenever he wants. And yes, that ability is actually written into the bill. There’s no review or oversight built into the bill for these new punishments.

For those who believe in a free internet, it certainly raises some ugly questions around freedom and privacy issues. And the bill’s seeming disregard for due legal process and that whole innocent-until-proven-guilty thing raises some red flags. But at least David Geffen’s happy with it…

Hundreds of flights delayed today in the US as software gliches cause problems again

Wes — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:29:39 +0000

Thousands of air travelers were stranded today, waiting for computerized air traffic control systems to come back online after malfunctions hit some of America’s busiest airports. Vancouver YVR airport has not been listed as affected yet but it is expected that the problems caused by hundreds of flight cancellations and delays will reverberate throughout the airline industry. A software glitch is the likely suspect at this point, the second time in 15 months that a glitch has caused widespread problems. The last time the source of the computer software malfunction was a “packet switch” that “failed due to a database mismatch” according to the FAA. The air traffic gliches today had been fixed as of 10 am eastern time but passengers are still encouraged to check their flight status before coming to the airport.

Software problems have increasingly affected flights themselves too and some believe that the complex machines pilots are flying have become largely unfamiliar to them; the most common comment heard in the cockpit being “What’s it doing now?”. A recent article in the Times UK looks closely at the crash of Air France flight 447 and examines how the increasingly complex human-machine interface can suffer from disconnects between the extremely advanced computer systems and pilots themselves, many who have been at the controls for 20 years or more as the technology has rapidly changed around them.

The most common cause of plane crashes before computerized systems with protective redundancies was human error. Now some worry that the increasing divide between computerized autopilot systems and the knowledge of their software and hardware that pilots posses should be of concern. And if human-machine interface issues aren’t enough now we have to worry about cosmic rays too apparently. A recent Quantas flight that plunged twice just off the coast of Australia may have been affected by cosmic rays (in particular neutrons in the rays) that interfered with the avionics boxes that feed information to the flight computers. A hundred people were injured in that accident but the plane landed safely and the problems it experienced were not associated with the same gliches related to the Air France tragedy, namely faulty air speed sensors.

I’m of the firm belief that as jet airliners become more and more complex that pilots need to be trained and retrained to catch up to the pace of software development and hardware upgrades that create disconnects between human and machine. All that being said, air flight is still considered the safest mode of transportation and several sites give extensive overviews of all safety advancements in aviation, debunking popular myths and reassuring the nervous flyer.

After all the money that has gone into hardware and software upgrades that bewilder pilots you’d think they’d have the budget to do something about that airline food.

New bathroom scale tweets your weight to the world

Peter — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:49:18 +0000

There are inventions that make life better, like iPhones and the Slap Chop. There are inventions that make life worse, like the fat substitute Olestra (may cause anal leakage!). And then there are inventions that are sort of terrible and awesome at the same time. Like, for example, the world’s first Twitter-enabled bathroom scale.

When the Withings bathroom scale was first released a month or so ago, it was billed as the world’s first WiFi-enabled bathroom scale. It sends updates to your private webpage or iPhone, allowing you to track your ups and downs in an easy and convenient way. Which all sounds kind of handy, if potentially frustrating at times.

But the good folks at Withings didn’t stop there. The next logical step, it seems, was to create a scale programmed to send your weight out via tweet every time you step on the scale. Oh, and it will also send out your latest Body Mass Index details, too.

But if you think your BMI is TMI, you don’t have to use the Twitter and WiFi functions on the scale. They can be toggled on and off, most likely as the weight comes on and off. Lose a few pounds? Twitter that result. Put on a bit from too much leftover Halloween candy? Well then just turn off the tweet function, and get chubby in peace. Or better yet, do what I do and just avoid scales, mirrors and tight clothing until, oh, around March.

Windows 7 outsells Vista 234% in first week

Peter — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:00:13 +0000

Windows 7 has been on the market for a couple weeks now, and early indications point to this being a pretty good software launch for Microsoft. Sales of Windows 7 are up 234% in the first week, compared to their last OS launch, Microsoft Vista.

Industry pundits point to a couple factors that may have led to the good sales figures: a relatively low price point, lots and lots of advertising, and the pushing of lower-cost pre-sales. You have to think that 7 patty Whopper promotion in Japan helped too.

And while many media types are happy to trot out that 234% number as an indication that Windows 7 is selling well, there are cynics out there that have a different take. After all, that 234% number isn’t in comparison to a competitor…it’s compared to Microsoft’s own product, Vista. The same Vista that was fraught with problems and bad-press from day one. That same Vista that sent new PC purchasers scrambling to uninstall it so they could run on XP. That same Vista that seems to require 95% of my computer’s memory just checking for software updates to keep itself up to date.

That being said, the general consensus out there seems to be that Windows 7 is pretty good (especially compared to you-know-what). Yes, it has some issues, and yes it’s still vulnerable to most of the viruses out there. But hey, it does a lot of stuff well, and by the way, have you seen that 7 patty whopper?

Halloween + Technology = Costume Ideas Galore

Peter — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:41:45 +0000

With only eight costume-shopping days left until Halloween, many of you are likely still desperately searching for ideas. For some of you, inspiration will never come, and you’ll end up buying a mylar helium balloon and going as “Balloon Boy”. Others of you have undoubtedly been planning your costume since July. But for those who want a cool costume, but don’t have any good ideas, why not consider unleashing your inner geek and dressing as your favorite bit of technology?

Like with any costume idea, there is a whole spectrum of effort levels that you could put into this. At one end is the cardboard-and-spraypaint technique. Just choose your favorite gadget, buy $20 worth of supplies, and go to it.

If you want to sink a little more time, moolah and creativity into it, that’s great too. Just check out the costumes in this iPhone and Gadget photo gallery to get a few ideas, but don’t be surprised if yours isn’t the only iCostume at the party.

At then waaaay over there at the extreme end of the effort spectrum, is this guy. These are a couple years old and you may have seen them before, but if you really want to feel bad about your own costume idea, check out his Power Loader, Mech and APU (from the Matrix movies) “outfits”. Obviously he has way too much time on his hands, but he uses it to be incredibly awesome, so more power to him.

Of course, if your favorite tech gadget hasn’t inspired you enough to want to dress as it, maybe it can still be of some assistance. For only $1.99, this iPhone costume-finder app could help. You enter some vital statistics, age, gender, etc., and it will tell you what you should dress up as. For your sake, just hope it doesn’t tell you to whip up a quick Power Loader costume in the next eight days.

New iPhone app from Pepsi pisses off pretty much everyone

Peter — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:02:23 +0000

I can just imagine how the conversation went down. There was a a bunch of guys (definitely guys) from the marketing team for Pepsi’s energy drink, AMP, all sitting around a meeting room.

“iPhone apps are so hot right now. Let’s do one.”

“Yes! Absolutely! Any ideas?”

“Well, I remember this one app that got tons of media attention. It was called Baby Shaker. And it was a virtual crying baby, and the only way to get it to stop crying was to really give it a good shake. After you did that, the baby died or something.”

“That sounds pretty offensive, but I bet we can top it!”

———–

And while the good folks at AMP may not have got quite the negative publicity as the creators of Baby Shaker, their new Before You Score application definitely wins the prize for Most Bone-Headedly Offensive App Idea by a Major Brand.

The idea is pretty simple. Before You Score breaks down all of womankind into 24 categories, from Cougar, to Bookworm, to Rebound Girl. Then it gives you customized tips on how to sex them up. Those tips include things like pick-up lines, the names of bands they might like, even nearby hotels with an appropriate decor for the particular woman you’re looking to get busy with. You can watch a video of the app in action right here.

Oh, and once you use your iPhone-fueled powers of seduction to get some action, the app also allows you to post to a “Brag List” which gets sent out via Twitter.

Unsurprisingly, reaction to the app was, um, mixed. And it wasn’t just bloggers that were angry (and really, aren’t they always angry?). The public, those folks that Pepsi/AMP was theoretically hoping to reach with the iPhone app campaign, were up in arms about it too. Twitter has been afire for the last two days with people pointing out how mad and offended they are. Predictably, Pepsi has reacted to the whole brouhaha by issuing a public apology (and by self-deprecatingly creating a “pepsifail” hashtag).

Of course, for those who believe that any publicity is good publicity, all this attention might just have been the whole point of launching the app. People haven’t been talking about Pepsi this much since those halcyon days of the Pepsi Challenge.

YouTube serves up one billionth video (of the day)

Peter — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:34:05 +0000

If you happen to have dropped by YouTube today, you might have noticed a little addendum to the logo, up in the top left of the page. It reads: “1 billion views per day”. And then there’s an exclamation point, and really, why wouldn’t there be? That’s a crazy number.

In fact, it’s a number that’s a lot more incredible than it might seem at first glance. The news about YouTube’s latest, greatest milestone was first announced this morning on their biz blog, in a post by CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley. It was three years ago today that Google acquired the unquestioned Grand Poobah of online video, and that fact is the focus of Hurley’s post. But he also mentions, almost in passing, that YouTube now serves up more than one-billion-views-per-day.

It’s an apples-vs-oranges thing to compare traditional media to online, but just for fun, let’s take a look at that number in comparison to the big Kahuna of network television…the Superbowl. In the average year, approximately 100 million people worldwide watch the championship football game (that’s according to Wikipedia). And that’s almost always the biggest show broadcast on American TV for the year.

It’s pretty incredible that YouTube now attracts 10x the viewership of the Superbowl, every single day. Granted, YouTube has a lot more international appeal. And most of those 1 billion videos served on YouTube every day are a whole lot shorter than the 3.5 hours or so the game takes. But it’s kind of mind-blowing that we can even compare (however unscientifically) the viewership numbers of an online video site with the biggest annual TV spectacular on US network TV.

It’s cheaper than iTunes, but is it better?

Peter — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:57:28 +0000

The new online music seller 7digital made its U.S. and Canadian launch today, both as a stand-along website, and as a music store for BlackBerry users. And actually, 7digital isn’t new…it’s just new to North America. It’s been rocking out in Europe for 5 years or so, and while it certainly hasn’t knocked iTunes off it’s lofty perch at the top of the online music biz, 7digital has been making waves overseas.

Now that it’s launched on our side of the pond, the question is, can we expect to see it put up a good fight against Apple’s domination?

Well, you have to think it’s not going to win. But in the online music game, just surviving is akin to victory. Like many music stores that came before, 7digital is attempting to do something, anything, better than iTunes. And their main point of attack is price. In keeping with the theme of their name, they offer many (even most) tracks for 77 cents each, and most albums for $7.77. That’s a good 20%-ish lower than the common iTunes price of 99 cents per track.

Sound quality tends not to be a huge deal for most online music consumers (since the compression required by mass digital distribution detracts from the sound quality anyway) but audio connoisseurs would point to the 320kps bit-rate used on 7digital as an improvement over most of their competition. And some will be fans of the fact they distribute their music in mp3 format, rather than, say, the AAC format used on iTunes.

And though it’s not such an issue these days anyway, it’s worth mentioning that 7digital was Europe’s first online music to sell music from all four major music labels, sans-DRM. In fact, a year and a half ago, they made news by beating iTunes to the punch and becoming the first online music retailer to sell Warner Music catalog tunes without DRM.

So will North American users turn their back on iTunes to choose a more budget-conscious music option? Well, BlackBerry users will, but whether anyone else follows suit remains to be seen.