Innovation at Sundance Film Festival January 28, 2009

Think the latest film technology was only for the mega-rich Hollywood studios? Not so fast! New innovations in film, social media, and scientific innovators  crossing-over to be artistically innovative as well.

Excerpt: “[One] scientist showcasing work at New Frontier on Main is John Underkoffler, who helped out on the film Minority Report and invented that trick in which Tom Cruise wears gloves that could grab and move computer images in space. Underkoffler developed that idea into a new system for editing film that’s the focus of his installation, Tamper.”

More from CNET

Satellite views of Obama’s inauguration January 27, 2009

For the past week or so satellite photographs of the Obama Inauguration have been floating around the Internet. I was waffling over posting them, but figured I should go ahead and join in with the mob mentality. They are actually amazing photos, even if no artistry was really involved in their creation. Perhaps a little bit of artistry went into the merging of several photos to create the long photo, but otherwise it was all GeoEye-1 at work. But, with a president campaigning on the promotion of science, it seems fitting to have NASA help capture the moment.

There is a growing trend with Google Maps and other map-plications where people are collaborating by taking photos and posting them all to one site, creating maps of their hometowns, and collectively the world.

The one big fear people have – they’ll be caught picking their nose.

The impossible – in 3D! January 26, 2009

Hopefully by now we are all familiar with optical illusions, from M.C. Escher’s drawings to the impossible triangle. My personal favorite has been the dots that appear at intersections on a grid of squares. Usually these visual illusions are only possible because they are drawn onto a 2D space, and our brain has to translate it into 3D, hence with translation errors and cool effects.

That said, some artists/engineers/architects/lego enthusiasts just couldn’t leave good enough alone, or simply got tired of confusing their brain on a 2D level, and have successfully engineered and re-created some of the world’s most famous optical illusions into 3D optical illusions, or even created a few of their own. This requires some serious dedication and knowledge of space and optics, not to mention creativity and artistic flare.

Scientific American has a slideshow depicting and describing some of this work. My favorite is the motorcycle. I’m also surprised nobody thought of the Lego ones sooner; you can make a Lego guy walk on the ceiling with ease.

Happy Lunar New Year, and year of the Ox!

New video games are adorable January 23, 2009

One review of the Independent Games Festival finalists essentially came up with this conclusion: they are so basic they are ingenious. 

The Independent Games Festival was established in 1998 “to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers,” somewhat in the same vein as the Sundance Film Festival, but for gamers. The winners are presented with their awards every year at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

This year’s games featurea few game with the traditional killing of aliens and dictators, and maybe some alien dictators, but many of the games also have a different feel and look to them than has been the norm for the past ten years or so. For one thing, many of them have a more rudimentary look, either looking more like the original Mario Bros. or even a kindergartener’s drawings. Games like Osmos, Dyson, PixelJunk Eden, and others are more graceful in its appearance, but is one of the most elemental games, almost like Spore, and probably inspired by the huge excitement surrounding the game’s release. A lot of the games focus on exploration and puzzle-solving rather than fighting, and are not so keen on sleight of hand but sleight of mind. There is even one that basically involves a grandma going for a walk in the park.

A few of the games have free previews or even full downloads for free.

The Anti-GeekDad, Circa 1914 January 22, 2009

Featured in GeekDad a couple of days ago:

I submit for your attention this comic strip from 95 years ago regarding the exploits of a ‘lectric-obsessed child and his less-than-supportive father. (Click through for the rest of the comic.)The Anti-GeekDad, Circa 1914, Jan 2009

This is a really cool insight into how tinkering (and electricity) were viewed at the turn of the last century through public art. Granted it’s a caricature, but ironically it seems like tinkering and being fascinated with technical intricacies were still considered uncool until the 2000s.

TV Science: Lying January 21, 2009

The new Fox TV show “Lie to Me“ features Tim Roth as a behavioral scientist whose specialty is detecting people in mid-lie. I’m sure it’s a gift many a stilted lover or loan officer wishes they had, but what is the actual science behind lie-detection and honesty? 

Science-y excerpts from the Discover Magazine Discoblog (all other links in the excerpts go to other Discover Magazine articles):

“[Roth's character's] near-perfect skills supposedly come from interpretation of body language and facial expressions that let him in on whether this week’s murder suspect or shifty spouse is spinning a big one.

“Both the main character and his skills are reportedly based on the persona and work of Dr. Paul Ekman, the facial expression expert who advises the [U.S.] Department of Defense on lie detection. Ekman’s method is based on what he calls “microexpressions,” small facial movements that he says present evidence of what you’re really feeling. We don’t necessarily know we’re doing them, so we can’t necessarily control them—say “I am saddened by my wife’s death” but flash a happy or disgusted microexpression, and a detective should take note.

“As DISCOVER reported in 2005, Ekman’s colleague Maureen O’Sullivan found that a tiny group of people can become nearly 100 percent accurate at lie-catching. These mendacity savant, known as “wizards,” can not only recognize every microexpression, but can also read the “whole picture” of the situation—a necessary task, since not every liar shows anything on their faces, meaning that microexpressions aren’t a perfect method.”

“It’s true that, when it comes to lie-detection science, reading behavioral cues is still the best technique we have.”

Editor’s note: They have produced more studies recently that found facial expressions to be more accurate signals of lying than lie-detectors, so using behavioral signals is surprisingly effective. Not sure if it will make engaging television, however.

VERY accessible DIY January 20, 2009

For anybody who really, REALLY enjoys do-it-yourself magazines and TV shows, MAKE magazine has debuted a tv/webcast series for your viewing pleasure, and to help cut down on the inevitable piling up of old DIY magazines and video tapes of episodes recorded off the TV.

MAKE:Television recently debuted both online and on two public televsion stations, Twin Cities Public Television and American Public Television. You can also get RSS feeds, stream the episodes through other media, and according to their website “Make: television is the first TV show in history to launch on public television, iTunes, blip.tv, vimeo, YouTube & direct (full) HD downloads, and Bittorrent – each week when the episodes come out we’ll post all the ways to get them!”

Their first few episodes have had different make-your-own methods for aerial photography, as well as catapults and pretty gizmos. MAKE just loves Steampunk stuff.

Solar-Powered Punk January 19, 2009

Courtesy of the Times of India, a story about a band from New York, called Solar Punch, that is all about promoting solar power. They use solar-powered instruments, get around in solar-powered vehicles, and even sing environmentally-friendly themed songs.

The Times of India covered the band as part of a tour in India promoting solar energy, called the “Climate Solutions Road Tour,” put on by the organization Indian Youth Climate Network. Apparently the crowd went WILD when they sang a popular pop song in Hindi. The band is schedule to perform at the Pune University campus on Friday, so if you’re in the area…

The article:
“Solar Powered and How”

PUNE: Solar Punch, a New York-based pop-rock band, powered completely by solar energy, had schoolchildren on their feet most of Thursday. They performed at the Kalmadi high school and Indira Gandhi Prathamik Shala in Aundh in the morning and at the Vidya Valley school in Sus gaon in the afternoon.

 

Playing on a 120 volts AC system, which was powered by just three, small, foldable solar mats, this unique band sang a string of songs all based on earth, environment and conservation to strongly drive home message of global warming to the young minds.

 

Playing under a warm 3 pm sun, the band belted out several foot-tapping compositions like Reflections on the Sea’, Spinning Around’, Sunset’, Hydrolise’ and Running Clean’. Children from three schools, Vidya Valley, Abhinava Vidyalaya and Bharati Vidyapeeth could not stop dancing. However, when singers James Dean and Alan Bigelow started singing the Hindi song, Yuheen Chala&’ from Bollywood film Swades,’ all hell broke loose. “We have been practicing this song for several months in New York,” grins Alan after the show.

 

The four-man band is part of a month long, Climate Solutions Road Tour’ covering 4,000 kms from Chennai to New Delhi via Pune, Goa and Mumbai. The tour is the brainchild of the newly-formed Delhi-based Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN), which has been busy finding solutions to climate change and global warming.

 

Interestingly, the 15-member team, which includes a multinational group of environmentalists, along with the solar band, are travelling in three battery and solar-powered cars, a jeep run solely on jatropha oil and a van, driven by Czech national Stanislav Miler, which runs on oil produced from vegetable waste.

 

Says Caroline Howe, a mechanical and environmental engineer and the Climate solutions coordinator of IYCN, “We have had many lectures and panel discussions on global warming. Now is the time for action. We decided to undertake the road tour because it is the longest road tour by an electric car in India and it drives home a strong environmental message.”

 

According to Caroline, the biggest challenge on the tour was to find the right places to recharge their car batteries. “We stopped at petrol stations, ironically during the diesel strike and recharged our batteries. The owners of the pumps told us that the day of the electric car had arrived!”

 

The IYCN, according to Caroline, was keen to communicate the message of energy conservation through music, song and dance. This was one reason, the event on Thursday, also had two groups from Shiamak Davar’s dance academy perform for the school children. One group was from the Shiamak’s special potential batch’, while the other came from two orphanages, Saraswati Anaathashram and Hope House trained by Shiamak’s team.

 

It was fitting therefore, that the road show, the solar rock band and the efforts of the young environmentalists was best exemplified by the evergreen hope song, “Aashayen&’ from the film Iqbal,’ which was performed so well by the Shiamak troupe.

 

The IYCN team will interact with the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Young Indians and University of Pune students at the Pune University campus on Friday.

Direct your own film January 16, 2009

In the day of interactive everything, the film Late Fragment is still a step ahead of the game. It is the first interactive film where you can choose scenes and watch them in any order you want. There is an option to watch the film all the way through, but if you do you won’t understand at all why people do what they do. Sort of like the Choose Your Own Adventure books, but with less imagination and using your thumb to push a remote rather than keeping your last place in the book so you can go back and choose a different option (admit it, you know you did it too).

“Click at the beginning of a scene and you’ll be taken somewhere totally different than if you do so at the end. Any given viewing might weave 90 or so of the 139 available scenes.”

The Canadian trio that wrote and directed the film, and are now circulating the film at film festivals all over North America, say they were inspired by video games and multi- and nonlinear films like The Usual Suspects and Memento.

“Audiences are getting used to participating in their entertainment experience,” says Ana Serrano, one of Fragment’s producers. “And we wanted that participation to be on two levels: physical, by clicking the remote, and also cognitive, where audiences are trying to figure out what’s happening in front of them.”

Their last showing of the film was at the National Restorative Justice Week in Kitchener, Ontario. Hopefully the website will be updated soon as to when they’ll show the film next. If you can find information on their web page as to where to actually purchase the film, let me know in the comments.

Micro-Artistry refined January 15, 2009

Are you into miniatures? No, I mean into REALLY miniature miniatures? If you are, you’re in luck, Russian artist Anatoly Konenko is making a big name for himself in the art world in Europe. He sculpts normal-looking everyday objects, except they are so small you can only see them under a microscope. According to the story, some of his biggest fans include  Kim Jong-il and Vladimir Putin.

Matthew Stock from Reuters has the video story.

*Spoiler Alert*: Koneko has now moved onto mini bottles of champagne, with real alcohol. I wonder what type of champagne he uses? Probably one from a small vineyard.