3 Kinect Sensors + 3D Printer = Action Figure of YOURSELF

Image via PopSci

In Barcelona, blablabLAB set up an installation where visitors could stand on a small podium in any pose they wanted, and three hacked Kinect sensors would take a 360 degree video to capture that pose. Then the information was sent to a 3-D printer which would print out a tiny figure of the person, as a souvenir!

How cool is that? I would love one of these! For one, I didn't even realize there was such thing as a 3D printer, which means I must be behind in the times because apparently it's existed for a while now. And using the technology of the Kinect sensors in this way is such a great idea! I love seeing how this kind of technology is affecting things around us. In a way, this is even a form of art! Popular Science describes it as an "interactive art installation".

Here's a video showing people using it and looking at their prints:



Be Your Own Souvenir! from blablabLAB on Vimeo.


Check out articles about this on Gizmodo and PopSci.

Handheld Photoshop

Photoshop Express has been available on the iPad and iPhone for a while, but it didn't have all the features of the full program. Yesterday Adobe demoed a full version of Photoshop on the iPad. This didn't necessarily mean a ton to me at first, because I don't have an iPad. But then I started thinking about how this could develop, which is exactly what the Gizmodo article talked about. Check the full article on Gizmodo for a more in-depth explanation. Basically they are saying this is just the start of a new era in computers. These new hand-held and touch-pad computers can make it more intuitive to use certain programs, making us more productive. The way computers and programs are evolving, this really does look like the start to the future of technology. Hopefully someday in the future I'll have my own hand-held touch-pad computer to edit my photos on site, or work on the go. It's a nice thought, at least.

Here's a video of the demo that shows some new features:

Portal 2

 Ever since completing Valve's Portal and listening to GLaDOS sing "Still Alive" I've been pumped for the sequel. With the brilliant dialogue, innovative game play, and fantastic story line, how could you not? And guess what? Portal 2 is scheduled to come out next month!

An adorable new trailer was just released. View it below.






I found the video on Kotaku, and if you head over to Portal 2's offical site you can find more information, including other trailers, and even some game play footage. It seems to follow along with the first game's great dialog, game play, and story line, and adds in some bonuses such as new characters, new science-y tools, and cooperative multiplayer. This is a huge plus for me because multiplayer is my favourite way to play games!

Needless to say, this is definitely something I'm looking forward to!

My Website: Dorky Dino

Logo © Brandi Miller

I now have my own website! It can be found at dorkydino.com! What is this all about? Here's a little background information. Towards the end of our college career we are required to do a big project for The Honors College called an honors project. The student gets to choose their own project, and if it is approved, they take a semester to work on it, and will receive a final grade from a mentor. For my project I decided to start my own business! I am a graphic design major, and I wanted to do something relating to that. I decided to use the skills I've learned in college to design cute characters and have them printed on a variety of products. I will be selling these products online through my website.

Image © Brandi Miller

Getting the site up and running was a huge step for me. I designed the entire thing myself and had to learn new software to be able to create it. Please look around and check back for updates! I am working on the products and hope to have them up soon.

I was also selected to present my findings at the 2011 Scholars Symposium.

Video Games Not Linked to Violence (for once)

Image via ICGamers

I'm sure you've all heard of tons of studies and statistics about how video games are linked to violence and depression. However, most of these studies don't actually take everything into consideration. In my mind questions always arise about whether or not the correlation actually implied causation. Meaning, just because there is a correlation in the statistics, does that necessarily mean one caused the other? And even if it does, how do we know which came first, the chicken or the egg? (Or in this case the violent behavoirs or the video games?)



Comic via xkcd

Recently a study was done that actually evaluated both violent media, and personality features. The paper was titled "Personality and media influences on violence and depression in a cross-national sample of young adults: Data from Mexican Americans, English and Croatians" and was written by Christopher J. Ferguson.

Basically, the study showed that after a personality profile was taken into account there was no longer a correlation between video games and violent behaviors or depression. This was something previous studies failed to take into account.

An article about this study can be found at Kotaku, and it has some more information about it.

Cheetah-Bot: Faster Than the Fastest Human

Image via Wired

How cool is this? Funded by DARPA, Boston Dynamics is working on a robotic cheetah! It will have run faster than any human, be able to make sharp turns to "chase and evade", and stop on a dime. It will be used in military, but they haven't specified how yet, and they also plan to use it in emergency situations such as, "emergency response, firefighting, advanced agriculture and vehicular travel."

Boston Dynamics is the same company that made "Big Dog". If you haven't seen Big Dog, here's a video that will either make you go "AWESOME!" or give you nightmares (most likely both). I remember seeing it a couple years ago and freaking out, with a mixture of amazement and fright. Here's another video, showing it walking through different types of terrain, slipping on ice, and being kicked. It's impressive how it regains its balance in each situation. 

Image via Wired

Another design they're working on is Atlas, a bipedal humanoid type robot capable of walking over difficult terrain, crawling, and turning to fit into narrow spaces. It's an advancement from their earlier robot, PETMAN. Here's a video showing the PETMAN walking, and, of course, being kicked. 

I've pretty much always thought robots were awesome, and Boston Dynamic's creations are no exception. They're super cool, and I can't wait to see the new ones! But I also mentioned how creepy I find them, at the same time. I think the odd feeling I'm getting from these is caused by the Uncanny Valley, which basically says that the closer something is to looking like a real human, the more empathy a person will have for it, until a point in human likeness is reached where the response becomes a strong revulsion. (Please read more about it at the link I provided to get a better idea of this; it truly is a remarkable topic.) There are different theories about what causes this, but I think it has to do with the fact that when something looks extremely realistic, but isn't real, your mind subconsciously picks up on the minor differences, which kind of amplifies them (read in that Wiki article about "Violation of human norms" for more about what I mean). In this situation, the robots don't necessarily look very realistic, but the movement is so strangely realistic that I believe the Uncanny Valley still applies. 

Either way, yes, robots rule, and I can't wait to see videos of the Cheetah-Bot! Heck yeah!

Read the full article at Wired.

Webcomic: Failure Confetti

Webcomics are an interesting development of technology and the digital age. Comic authors used to often struggle to try and find an outlet to publish their strips. Now on the Internet, these authors can publish all on their own! The result is thousands of webcomics, most free to read, and catering to any sense of humour or set of interests.

I am the author of the webcomic, Failure Confetti. It can be found at failureconfetti.smackjeeves.com. It's hosted by a free webcomic host called Smack Jeeves, which has over 33,000 webcomics on it, and counting.

Failure Confetti is inspired by the things I see around me. I often use dialog that I actually hear people say, or thoughts that pop into my head in every day situations. I sometimes make references to video games, or poke fun at technologies.

A few other webcomics and artists inspired me in my art style and humour. I would say my biggest influences for this are xkcd (my favourite webcomic of all time), Cyanide & Happiness, and the work of Don Hertzfeldt.

The comic is updated every Wednesday. You can also become a fan on Facebook!

Hyperlinks In Real Life: Technology Inspired Art



Image via Fubiz


While not very practical, this idea makes for a really cool piece of art. This book was created by a German designer named Maria Fischer. It's titled "Thoughts on Dreams", and for her the lines of thread help to physically show "the confusion and fragileness of dreams".



Image via Fubiz

 The arist sewed real thread into the book, using it to underline key terms which allowed readers to follow this thread to related content, much like a hyperlink on the Internet.



Image via Fubiz

 As an artist, I think using technology as an inspiration is a neat idea. I continually use video games to inspire some aspects of my art, and I may start thinking about other technologies to delve into.

Image via Fubiz

An article about this can be found on Gizmodo, and an article (in German) with more photos of the art piece can be found at Fubiz.

We're Running Out of Internets



Image via Wired

Most Internet users seem to think of the Internet as an infinite amount of space, that couldn't possibly fill up. We're finding out just how un-true that is. As of Thursday, February 3rd, all available IP addresses have been exhausted.Yes, we've completed the Internet.

What does this mean for us? Well, nothing. At least not yet, for the average Internet user. Basically, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) distributes blocks of IP addresses to five regional registries, which give the IP addresses to companies, ISPs, and telcos. The IANA ran out of IP addresses to give to regional registries, so soon the regional registries will run out of their address pools to give out to clients. This means there won't be unique IP addresses available anymore, starting as soon as this year in Asia.

So what do we do about it? There is an alternative. IPv6 is the next generation of IP addresses, and has 2¹²⁸ available in its system. So why haven't we done it yet? Less than 0.25 percent of the Internet can currently work with IPv6. In short: it will take a lot of work, and most companies are putting it off because "it's expensive and hard!"

It may take a while to switch over to IPv6, and for a few years Internet may become more expensive, more difficult, slower, and have more problems. The good news is, once we get completely switched over, we shouldn't run out of IP addresses again. These IP problems may not affect you personally for quite a while, but you will most likely hear about it again in the near future. In fact, if you happen to own a website, you may even want to participate in World IPv6 Day.

I'm personally interested, because I plan on starting my own website soon, and I'm curious how it will affect me. Joel Conover, the senior manager for IPv6 at Cisco said, "The companies that are going to be the most aggressive in implementing IPv6 are the ones that are the most-concerned about your experience on their website," and I want all users to have a good experience at my website.

If you want more detailed explanations of all of this, you can read the full article at wired.com. I did my best trying to explain it, but it gets pretty technical, and I am trying to keep it brief. I also think that Alt Text at Wired explained it in an interesting and easy-to-understand way (skip to Internet Runs out of Parking Spots).

Razer Switchblade: Handheld PC Gaming

Image via Engadget

Ever wish you could play your computer games on a portable handheld device? Handheld gaming has been limited to handheld consoles (PSP, DS, etc.) until now! Razer is working on a mini netbook that should be able to play PC games. It's only in concept state right now, but the people over at Engadget predict it may be out within the next year.

Image via Engadget

What caught my eye initially was the fact that they used the game World of Warcraft as an example in the article, pictures, and video. I play WoW, and I'm actually the leader of a guild (group of people, similar to a club) there, so for me, it would be convenient if I could log on even when I'm not at my computer.

Image via Engadget

The thing I'm most excited about is the keyboard. The keys are LCD, and can actually change for games that have a keyboard morphing profile. So if you're playing World of Warcraft, your spells will actually show up on the keyboard! How cool is that? I think I'd have a lot of fun with that. Plus, it could save you some screen space (which is precious when on such a small device), because you can get rid of the icons there.

Image via Engadget

I doubt I'd be able to afford anything like this, but I'm still excited about the concept of it, and I'll love to see where else this technology goes in the future.

You can read the full article and watch a video about it at Engadget, and they also have a second article about Ed Fries, a former video game creator and devoloper for Atari and Xbox, joining Razer, possibly to help with the development of the Switchblade.

Video Games at Bus Stops

Image via PSFK.

Yahoo, Clear Channel, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency teamed up to put giant touch screens in 20 different bus stops in San Francisco. These touch screens allow people, who would normally be stuck waiting for the bus, to play online games against the people at other bus stops. As if getting to play a video game (rather than sitting on a cold bench making awkward conversation with the weirdo next to you) wasn't awesome enough, there is a prize involved. Players get to choose which neighborhood they want to represent, and whichever one has the most points at the end of the promotion will get to host a block party with the band OK Go.

Although this is actually an advertising ploy from Yahoo, I think it's a great thing because they're doing something fun, and non-traditional. What better way to get potential customers' attention than getting them involved in a way that hasn't been done before? They really put research into this advertising idea, because it has its roots in guerrilla marketing, wait marketing, and even viral marketing (proven by the fact that I'm here telling you about it now). I'd like to see more marketing techniques like this in the future.

Read articles at:
Gizmodo
The Examiner
PSFK