Douwe Osinga’s LandGeist project measures the frequency of certain words appearing on web pages together with country names. This is an attempt to see which countries are associated with different words. The generated maps tell their tale. – Land Geist
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
LandGeist: The World According to the Web
Posted in english on January 14, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
CAD System for Modeling Animals
Posted in english on January 14, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
This article talks about a CAD system called Vertebrate Analyzer that is being created at the University of Buffalo. The Vertebrate Analyzer is supposed to be able to simulate the functions of vertebrates’ skeletons and muscles. Casting light upon questions such as: – Why Did Sabertooth Tigers Need Such Big Teeth? – ScienceDaily
Play 20 Questions Against a Computer
Posted in english on January 13, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
This AI implementation of 20 Questions is incredibly good. It can pretty reliably guess what you thought of by asking 20 questions about it. And it is based on the same thinking as my Norm: Let the users have fun while adding value to an AI knowledge base. Most cool! – 20 Questions – Directly [...]
SETI@home Interview: Tapping the Grid
Posted in english on January 13, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
Here is a most interesting interview with David Anderson, Project Leader for the SETI@home distributed computing program. Among the interesting facts: SETI@home now involves 0.1% of the world’s total computing capacity 4.7 million volunteers in 226 countries are chipping in with computing power SETI@home has performed 1.6 million years of computer processing time The network [...]
MIT’s Picower Center: Brain Sciences with Broad Backgrounds
Posted in english on January 12, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
MIT is opening the Picower Center for Learning and Memory in 2005. It “focuses the talents of a diverse array of brain scientists on a single mission: unraveling the mechanisms that drive the quintessentially human capacity to remember and to learn, as well as related functions like perception, attention and consciousness.” How come the kids [...]
Breakthrough in Brain-Computer Interfaces
Posted in english on January 10, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
Researchers have developed a promising new way to control computers by thought alone – Computers that read your mind – (The Economist)
Squid inspires nanolights
Posted in english on January 10, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
This overview provides a nice insight into reports about optical nanotechnology tools that are based on how an Hawaiian squid that uses reflective plates to confuse predators. – Squid’s Flashlight May Lead to New Nanolights (Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends)
Professor Lives Life As a Cyborg
Posted in english on January 10, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
An article from AP News on Steve Mann – Professor Lives Life As a Cyborg (AP News)
More on Artificial Actors
Posted in english on January 8, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote a little piece on Wetware the other day about artificial actors in Lord of the Rings. The latest issue of Wired has a very interesting article on rendered artificial stunt men. One question though: Do they get paid extra for the more dangerous stunts? – Attack of the Stuntbots – Wired
Retina implant aims to help blind see
Posted in english on January 8, 2004 | Leave a Comment »
MIT and Harvard Medical School collaborators are producing a sophisticated engineering tool that electrically stimulates the retina to provide vision of a sort for people who are totally blind. – Retina implant aims to help blind see – MIT News







