ABOUT
'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.
We've evolved over millions of years to sense the world around us. When we encounter something, someone or some place, we use our five natural senses to perceive information about it; that information helps us make decisions and chose the right actions to take. But arguably the most useful information that can help us make the right decision is not naturally perceivable with our five senses, namely the data, information and knowledge that mankind has accumulated about everything and which is increasingly all available online. Although the miniaturization of computing devices allows us to carry computers in our pockets, keeping us continually connected to the digital world, there is no link between our digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. Information is confined traditionally on paper or digitally on a screen. SixthSense bridges this gap, bringing intangible, digital information out into the tangible world, and allowing us to interact with this information via natural hand gestures. ‘SixthSense’ frees information from its confines by seamlessly integrating it with reality, and thus making the entire world your computer.
The SixthSense prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction.
The SixthSense prototype implements several applications that demonstrate the usefulness, viability and flexibility of the system. The map application lets the user navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures, similar to gestures supported by Multi-Touch based systems, letting the user zoom in, zoom out or pan using intuitive hand movements. The drawing application lets the user draw on any surface by tracking the fingertip movements of the user’s index finger. SixthSense also recognizes user’s freehand gestures (postures). For example, the SixthSense system implements a gestural camera that takes photos of the scene the user is looking at by detecting the ‘framing’ gesture. The user can stop by any surface or wall and flick through the photos he/she has taken. SixthSense also lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using the movement of the index finger and recognizes those symbols as interaction instructions. For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user to the map application or drawing an ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his mail. The SixthSense system also augments physical objects the user is interacting with by projecting more information about these objects projected on them. For example, a newspaper can show live video news or dynamic information can be provided on a regular piece of paper. The gesture of drawing a circle on the user’s wrist projects an analog watch.
The current prototype system costs approximate $350 to build.
For video travel here
Friday, November 6, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Fat Youth Equals Headaches and Opportunity For the Army
The size of the all American teenager is squashing the army's get up and go and making it difficult to recruit that fighting machine the American Soldier. Even General John Shalkashvili, the former joint chief of staff is concerned
"We've never had this problem of young people being obese like we have today,"
"We should be concerned about how this will impact this overstretched Army and its ability to recruit."
Not too mention all that extra fatigue cloth we will be needing, which by the way
America, will create jobs, jobs, jobs, if we require the fatigue cloth to be made in the good old USA. Yes a fat soldier needs a bigger uniform and this means jobs for all you resurrected textile workers out there.
Happy days are here again Americans, keep eating soldier, keep gobbling, just don't get so big you cannot reach your joy stick... marine.
'Shalikashvili is among dozens of retired generals, admirals and civilian Pentagon officials who have banded together as Mission Readiness: Military Leaders for Kids. The group, which includes former NATO commander and presidential candidate Wesley Clark, will appear with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the National Press Club on Thursday to urge immediate action to reduce dropout rates and improve the physical and moral fitness of the nation's youth.
They will cite research that shows quality early childhood education raises graduation rates by up to 44 percent and reduces the odds of being arrested for a violent crime by age 18.
Douglas Smith of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command said 2008 data shows about three in 10 youths have an initial "barrier to enlistment."
Most aren't insurmountable. "If you're overweight, we tell you to come back when you've lost the weight. If you don't score well on the armed forces aptitude test, we suggest you study and take it again," he said.
Between 2004 and 2008, the Army more than doubled the number of "conduct" waivers it granted to would-be soldiers with criminal or misdemeanor records. The loosened standards proved necessary in a time of war and amid a booming economy that forced military recruiters to work overtime to fill the ranks.
The new warnings about a generation of couch potatoes comes just weeks after the Pentagon announced its best recruiting year since the all-volunteer force began in 1974. The economic meltdown and rising unemployment, combined with bigger military bonuses and benefits, enticed hundreds of thousands to enlist despite the inevitability most would be sent to war.'
Insights into Sarah Palin
THE OVERPOWERING SMELL OF cheeseburgers and French fries saturated the candidate's suite at the Philadelphia Westin Hotel. About a dozen staffers shuffled around the table set up in the middle of the room where hundreds upon hundreds of five-by-seven-inch note cards were spread out in two-foot-high stacks. Palin had been locked in there for hours, cramming for her debate against Joe Biden. The biggest test of the campaign was less than a week away.
On the heels of the first round of Katie Couric interviews, her margin for error was nonexistent. Joe Lieberman, a veteran of a previous vice presidential debate, had been brought in to give Palin an idea of what to expect. The stifling air shortened everyone's patience, and tensions were running especially high between debate prep coordinator Mark Wallace and foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann. It was the note cards that had first led to the longstanding feud between Wallace and Scheunemann a couple of weeks earlier. One of the aides wanted Palin to memorize them, while the other thought it better for her to learn conceptually. The spat made it all the way up the chain to Steve Schmidt, who told Scheunemann in no uncertain terms that he did not have the time for bickering between staffers and that they needed to sort it out. But the two men were still fuming at one another, and negative vibes permeated the room along with the smell of greasy food.
Read
On the heels of the first round of Katie Couric interviews, her margin for error was nonexistent. Joe Lieberman, a veteran of a previous vice presidential debate, had been brought in to give Palin an idea of what to expect. The stifling air shortened everyone's patience, and tensions were running especially high between debate prep coordinator Mark Wallace and foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann. It was the note cards that had first led to the longstanding feud between Wallace and Scheunemann a couple of weeks earlier. One of the aides wanted Palin to memorize them, while the other thought it better for her to learn conceptually. The spat made it all the way up the chain to Steve Schmidt, who told Scheunemann in no uncertain terms that he did not have the time for bickering between staffers and that they needed to sort it out. But the two men were still fuming at one another, and negative vibes permeated the room along with the smell of greasy food.
Read
Read Garrison Keillor
"I grew up with the Kellogg's Variety Pack in a family of eight and so I know about unfairness. Some mornings your beloved Raisin Bran with its crunchy chewiness is snatched away by swifter hands and you sit staring into a bowl of soggy Rice Krispies or the wretched Sugar Pops and feel resentful, cheated, abused. Some days Mother embraces socialism and cooks a pot of Cream of Wheat, take it or leave it, but you look forward to the day when you take your place in the great emporium of adult life and can enjoy Raisin Bran whenever you like."
Continue Reading
Continue Reading
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sick of Xenephobia
What a disgusting country some Americans make us....Those who seem to forget what we are about in the first place.
America...Bring us your poor, your starving, your disenfranchised, your huddled masses..To paraphrase Emma Lazurus.
We are a nation of the melting pot. A nation of diversity, a nation of immigrants... but try to convince the white oaf Republicans of America this is the case, the poor Xenephobes or the rich hypocrites like Lou Dobbs of the Spanish wife and the affluent horsey daughters.
These descendants of those who stole the land from the Indians who now complain of illegal immigrants, many of these 'illegals' of Indian heritage, of DNA that once owned America. The West, the East, The South, The North, no land in our nation could possibly belong more to some Oaf of German or Irish or English decent than from Mayan, Anasazi, Apache, Navaho, Zunni, Iroqouis, Huron or any other indigenous DNA.
These same clowns of relatively recent heritage ( only a few hundred years at best) now are blogging and disparaging, in protest, the American of Kenyan decent, Meb-Mebrahtom Keflezighi, an American of twenty two years and a citizen who just won the New York City Marathon, complaining that he is not a real American. Well give us a break. Look at this magnificent American
And if you don't think it is not going to get worse in our nation of the expanding economicaly disenfranchised then you are fooling yourself. On every street corner and in every little village there will be more and more of these uneducated Embarrassments to our nation... The Xenophobic white man, protesting his lost standard of living and needing some one to hate.
Led by individuals like this Typical Rich Xenophobe Oaf
See the New York Times
America...Bring us your poor, your starving, your disenfranchised, your huddled masses..To paraphrase Emma Lazurus.
We are a nation of the melting pot. A nation of diversity, a nation of immigrants... but try to convince the white oaf Republicans of America this is the case, the poor Xenephobes or the rich hypocrites like Lou Dobbs of the Spanish wife and the affluent horsey daughters.
These descendants of those who stole the land from the Indians who now complain of illegal immigrants, many of these 'illegals' of Indian heritage, of DNA that once owned America. The West, the East, The South, The North, no land in our nation could possibly belong more to some Oaf of German or Irish or English decent than from Mayan, Anasazi, Apache, Navaho, Zunni, Iroqouis, Huron or any other indigenous DNA.
These same clowns of relatively recent heritage ( only a few hundred years at best) now are blogging and disparaging, in protest, the American of Kenyan decent, Meb-Mebrahtom Keflezighi, an American of twenty two years and a citizen who just won the New York City Marathon, complaining that he is not a real American. Well give us a break. Look at this magnificent American
And if you don't think it is not going to get worse in our nation of the expanding economicaly disenfranchised then you are fooling yourself. On every street corner and in every little village there will be more and more of these uneducated Embarrassments to our nation... The Xenophobic white man, protesting his lost standard of living and needing some one to hate.
Led by individuals like this Typical Rich Xenophobe Oaf
See the New York Times
Monday, November 2, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Obummer Solves Afghanistan Problem
Today President Obama revealed a secret government program and announced he is prepared to spring the program on Afghanistan, bringing the troops home and letting our new team of cats take charge. The decision was held up for weeks because of worries how PETA might respond, but today the President announced,
"We have met the challenge of our age, no longer will our hero's die on foreign shores. These creatures will devour the Taliban. We worried, we studied and now we act! And rest assured citizens the homeland will be safe. Cats hate water, they will never swim home to trouble us once we release them."
The giant kittens are being prepared for transport aboard the George Bush, our newest navy zoo and cargo ship.
And take note investors in the Military Industrial Complex, there is sure to be a demand surge for Kitty Litter... so Deeply recommends... invest, get in on the ground floor... to quote Commander Fullbright Jones... "At Sea, odor control is paramount..."
"We have met the challenge of our age, no longer will our hero's die on foreign shores. These creatures will devour the Taliban. We worried, we studied and now we act! And rest assured citizens the homeland will be safe. Cats hate water, they will never swim home to trouble us once we release them."
The giant kittens are being prepared for transport aboard the George Bush, our newest navy zoo and cargo ship.
And take note investors in the Military Industrial Complex, there is sure to be a demand surge for Kitty Litter... so Deeply recommends... invest, get in on the ground floor... to quote Commander Fullbright Jones... "At Sea, odor control is paramount..."
A Metaphor For America
A Metaphor For America
Think of a Dam. It is a perfect metaphor, substantial, factual. It creates and it limits, it traps and it holds back. It preserves, protects and yet it stops the progress of time's erosion, limits the future, and expands the present. Think of this dam in some high mountain valley. The river that once roared there now trickles. Yes, we can even tie in Trickle Down with the metaphor if we wish. This dam could describe our nation in centuries of paragraphs. It could describe the small event and the large, an appropriate metaphor, and one that will not be exhausted in these few sentences.
But, take the economy for example. Our nation was the dam and we were developing, are developing, and will continue to develop fissures. We can patch these. We may cement the many holes. We may jamb a thousand Dutch Boy's fingers in the holes of our dam and hold back the waters to preserve ourselves as we keep the barbarians at bay in the valleys below our dam, and we can eventually float all boats. Wow what a metaphor.
And yes, while the dam of us might have burst and did not, we are still leaking. And, yes, if we leak too much we destroy the progress climbing up the valley below us as well as our civilization floating on our lake above that valley. Leaks, large and small... We seem to have patched the one or many of our current economic nightmare. But wait, the patches are not holding, and with every bungled patch the pressure grows, until the patch fails, and then the deluge.
Ouch we are deluded. We are that lake, impossible to preserve forever, sitting a top that valley, holding back the waters of the future and preserving the liquid of now. And, at the bottom of our dam sits the sludge beneath the floodgates, and when our dam leaks the sludge becomes disturbed. The sludge of Xenophobia, of me, me, me, of get them, get them, get them. The sludge that will no doubt rise up to consume us when our dam finally bursts completely
So are we holding, perhaps? And for how long... who knows? And in holding what future wonder are we limiting in that valley below? Something better waiting to flourish, a different civilization renewed, after our dam bursts.
Now there is a lot of silliness. Happy Sunday. You can play about with this metaphor all over the place for weeks if you wish. CIAO
And by the way; The wind blew gusts as high as sixty here on Blue View Lane the last few days. It blew with such vigor that it blew away the fall!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Sign The Petition to Support A True Public Option
Simply Paste This Link In Your Browser
http://www.democrats.com/donor-strike-for-public-option
You can help make this petition a success by sharing this petition with your
friends and family. Petitions will succeed only by word of mouth, and every
signature makes a difference!
Thank you again for making a difference!
http://www.democrats.com/donor-strike-for-public-option
You can help make this petition a success by sharing this petition with your
friends and family. Petitions will succeed only by word of mouth, and every
signature makes a difference!
Thank you again for making a difference!
Wienie, Wienie, Wienie, The Pelosi Public Option Sucks
What did you expect? Well then you got what you expected...zipidy do dah..because the Pelosi plan public option, oh my, oh my...right... instead of wagging the tail of Big Insurance the option is going to be wagged by Big Insurance. In other words.. it is doomed to fail, the rates scheduled to copy those of rapacious corporate greed, so much for Democrats... a lot of Wagner for so little music.
Or as the New York Times Suggests courtesy of the Nation:
Under pressure from moderate-to-conservative members of the House Democratic caucus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided to propose a government-run insurance plan that would negotiate rates with doctors and hospitals, rather than using prices set by the government...
Ms. Pelosi said the public plan, which she prefers to call a "consumer option," would compete with private insurers. But the speaker was apparently unable to muster the votes needed for the 'robust' liberal version of a public plan, which she has repeatedly said would save more money for consumers and the government.
See the Nation on the matter.
Or as the New York Times Suggests courtesy of the Nation:
Under pressure from moderate-to-conservative members of the House Democratic caucus, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has decided to propose a government-run insurance plan that would negotiate rates with doctors and hospitals, rather than using prices set by the government...
Ms. Pelosi said the public plan, which she prefers to call a "consumer option," would compete with private insurers. But the speaker was apparently unable to muster the votes needed for the 'robust' liberal version of a public plan, which she has repeatedly said would save more money for consumers and the government.
See the Nation on the matter.
The Doofus Lectures
Meet the Public Option
We hear of the public option
Daily
An anthropomorphic thing
Which now is almost human
Does it wear a wig, a ring?
Nice to meet you
Public Option
What an odd name you have
You see.
Hello, I am Mr. Public Option
I talk, I watch
I'm me!
But, do you really know me?
What color is my hair?
Am I rich or poor?
Or am I simply
Just Hot Air?
YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME HARRY
Daily
An anthropomorphic thing
Which now is almost human
Does it wear a wig, a ring?
Nice to meet you
Public Option
What an odd name you have
You see.
Hello, I am Mr. Public Option
I talk, I watch
I'm me!
But, do you really know me?
What color is my hair?
Am I rich or poor?
Or am I simply
Just Hot Air?
YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME HARRY
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Is Your Son Tough Enough For Holloween ?
How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son
AND MAKE SURE YOU SHELTER WITH THE UMBRELLA OF LOVE FOUNDATION
Morning Show Host Starts Charity To Rid World Of Flying Debris
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