Acoustic Location (Sound Mirror Devices) January 11, 2007
Posted by goss in Lost & Found, WEB LOG.2 comments
Acoustic location was originally applied to determining the presence and position of ships in fog.
Such devices (as well as sound mirros) were used from mid-WW1 to the early years of WW2 for the passive detection of aircraft by picking up the noise of the engines.
Of course this technologies were rendered obsolete before and during WW2 by the introduction of radar, which was far more effective. More of those strange devices can be found here , and focusing on the german ones is this site.
There is a strange beauty in such images depicting technological achievements of the past, and although they might seem funny nowadays, there’s a lesson there too I believe, concerning our notions of greatness and achievement (as a race) when put to the test of time.
Google Fingers January 11, 2007
Posted by goss in Curiosit-es, WEB LOG.add a comment
While Dan Cohen was looking at nineteenth-century books in Google’s massive digitization project realised that despite our perception of Google as a collection of computer geniuses, and despite their use of advanced scanning technology, their library project involves an almost unfathomable amount of physical labor. And witness to that stand some screenshots of his encounters while browsing the pages of a Victorian edition of Plato’s Euthyphron, a dialogue about the origin and nature of piety.
The good professor concluded “I’m glad that here and there, the people doing this difficult work (or at least their fingers) are being immortalized”. After all the root of the word “digitization” is “digit,” which is from the Latin word “digitus,” meaning finger.
And I would agree with him, but this next one I think actually contradicts the very goal of the project altogether if this is the preservation and accessibility of the original texts.
You be the judge! There are plenty more examples in Plato’s Euthyphron and in others.
And if you are curious (as I were) on how an actual book scanner works here’s a video of one in action.
Teddy: A simpy unique 3D Drawing System January 11, 2007
Posted by goss in Software, WEB LOG.add a comment
Teddy is a sketch-based modeling system to quickly and easily design freeform models such as stuffed animals and other rotund objects. The user draws several 2D freeform strokes interactively on the screen and the system automatically constructs plausible 3D polygonal surfaces.
The system supports several modeling operations, including the operation to construct a 3D polygonal surface from a 2D silhouette drawn by the user: it inflates the region surrounded by the silhouette making wide area fat, and narrow area thin. Teddy was developed as a research project by Takeo Igarashi and is implemented as a Java program.
Watch the above video demostrating the use of the applet, and then try it yourself at the creator’s site! A free download is also available there, although I would suggest to visit the SmoothTeddy the new enhanced version of the program to experiment.
Ms. Dewey – search slow but with style January 11, 2007
Posted by goss in Curiosit-es, WEB LOG.1 comment so far
Why make a search engine that loads in just a second or two like Google, when you can make a really annoying search engine designed completely in flash with lots of video animations. Arm yourself with patience and check out this unusual search engine called Ms. Dewey.
Annoyingly slow and pointless – but not without style (if you’re a web designer) & powered by LiveSearch, MS. Dewey is not surprisingly another MicroSoft footle.
Visit http://www.msdewey.com (if you don’t have a DSL or faster connection don’t even think about it).
