The $35 Computer

From the Popular Mechanics magazine - April 2013:


http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/a8807/35-computer-the-vast-possibilities-of-raspberry-pi-15294806/

How To Build Your Own Cockroach Cyborg

From the Popular Science Magazine - January 2013:


http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-12/how-build-your-own-cockroach-cyborg

What happens if robots take the jobs?

From the Brookings Institution (www.brookings.edu) a research paper by Darrell M. West on "What happens if robots take the jobs?"

We read:

"Automation is appearing everywhere. Ready or not, innovations like robotics, computerized algorithms, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, medical sensors and machine-to-machine communications, 3-D printing, and autonomous vehicles will increasingly transform the global economy, even displacing many in the human workforce."

The synopsis is @ http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2015/10/26-robots-emerging-technologies-public-policy-west

and the research paper may be accessed @ http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/10/26-robots-emerging-technologies-public-policy-west/robotwork.pdf

Data Visualization with Dance

This is an idea that I tried to get patented but was denied by USPTO  (see please http://www.google.com/patents/US20100039434 ).  Nevertheless, I think the idea has merit (say in visualization of the dance of life within a cell) and I am sharing it here, hoping others would pick it up and run with it.

Data Visualization with Dance

The core idea is to visualize statistical properties of single and multi-variate data by means of dance movements of computer generated animation figures.

Traditional visualizations utilize basic dimensions of graphical representation to portray multi-modal time-varying data: color, shape, size, and location. The dimensionality of these representations is limited and their aesthetic quality on the whole is generic. Moreover, the visualization is often static, the time dimension is "frozen-out".  This IDF aims to make improvements to the visual display of time-varying data.

The first computerized dance notation system, which displayed an animated figure on the screen which performed the dance moves specified by the choreographer, was the DOM dance notation system, created by Eddie Dombrower on the Apple II personal computer in 1982. (See Dance Notation Journal, Fall, 1986, 4(2) pp. 47-48.)  This solution consisted of a single figure, and the movements of that figure were not based on any external data sources or their statistical properties.

There are numerous COTS packages used in Web Design and Electronic Games industry that enable one to create figures and to animate and display those figures.  I envision leveraging such tools in building this system.

I propose there to use the language of dance in particular and the language of movement in general to visualize statistical properties of single and multi-variate time varying data.  These streams of data may originate from sensors, from real-time structured and un-structured data, or may be the outputs of forecasting calculations.

My approach consists of several steps.  Through a user interface, a user selects the data stream(s) that he wishes to visualize using dance. Next, he uses software based tools to create a figure the movements of whose limbs are going to indicate the data and its statistical properties.  For each data stream he will create a distinct figure.  The figures will differ in color, shape, and size thus visually indicating the distinct time-varying data streams that are being visualized.

The system saves the results of the figure creation.

Next, the user, will choreograph these figures based on statistical properties of the data.  For example, the user may decide to assign specific dance moves to those figures for which the data streams are beyond a certain threshold as defined by the mean-value of the data, or as defined by degrees from the standard deviation of that mean.  Or the user may decide to indicate those data streams that have positive correlations with one another by figures that dance with and around each other in close proximity of one another- depending on the degree of the correlation.  In a similar manner, the user may choreograph these figures with dance steps so that other statistical properties of data are thereby indicated - higher moments of the distribution function and so on.

The user will input the choreography in the form of one of the available dance notation systems such as Labanotation system or the Sutton Movement system.  An embodiment of this invention using the Sutton Movement system enables inclusion of skate-boarding, pantomime, gymnastics and other such activities as ways of indicating time-varying data.  The user connects his dance choreography with the statistical properties of the time-varying data through this interface.

The system saves the results of the choreography which consists of dance movements as well as statistical properties that trigger those movements and guide them.

At this stage, the user has accomplished 3 tasks: he has created figures, he has identified his data streams with specific figures, and he has choreographed dance moves for each figure based on the statistical properties of (potentially all of) these time-varying data streams.

Next the user indicates to the system to animate these figures based on the input data streams and the dance moves that were choreographed and saved earlier.  The system will begin processing the data stream(s) and compute the statistical properties of the time-varying data.  Based on these statistical properties, the system will automatically load the figure from its data store and invoke the corresponding dance movements for each figure (data stream).  The system will then display animated dancing figures on a display device that indicate the statistical properties of the data stream(s).

The display device and the delivery of the images is not part of this; those task scan be accomplished through WEB, Client-Server, Mobile, or other architectures and technologies.

Web References:

1. http://www.movementwriting.org/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labanotation
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_notation
4. http://www.aegean.gr/culturaltec/webdance/

Journal Articles:

1. Eddie Dombrower, Dance Notation Journal, Fall, 1986, 4(2) pp. 47-48.
2. M. Cunningham, Changes/Notes on Choreography, F. Starr, ed., Something Else Press, 1968.
3. D. Tolani, A. Goswami, and N. Badler, "Real-Time Inverse Kinematics Techniques for Anthropomorphic Limbs," Graphical Models, vol. 62, no. 5, 2000, pp. 353-388; .
4. M. Van de Panne, "From Footprints to Animation," Computer Graphics Forum, vol. 16, no. 4, 1997, pp. 211-223.
5.  L. Wilke et al., "Animating the Dance Archives," Proc. 4th Int'l Symp. Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Intelligent Cultural Heritage (VAST), Eurographics Assoc., 2003, pp. 91-99.
6. M. Nakamura, "Text Representation of Labanotation Data for Computer Based Motion Analysis," presented at the World Dance Assoc./Int'l Council of Kinetography Laban/Congress on Research in Dance Int'l Conf., 2004; (http://www.imb.is.ritsumei.ac.jp/~hachihachi_e.html)
7. A. Hutchinson Guest, Labanotation: The System of Analyzing and Recording Movement, Taylor and Francis, 1987.
8. Tom Calvert , Lars Wilke, Rhonda Ryman, Ilene Fox, “Applications of Computers to Dance”, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications  March/April 2005 (Vol. 25, No. 2)   pp. 6-12.
9. “A Prototype Program for Visualization of Dance Performances Using 3DCG Motion Database”,
10. Umino Bin(Fac. of Socil., Toyo Univ.)   Soga Asako (Ryukoku Univ. Fac. Sci. and Technol.)  
11. IPSJ SIG Technical Reports, ISSN:0919-6072, VOL.2006;NO.85(CH-71);PAGE.41-46(2006)

 

Books:

1. Anne Hutchinson-Guest's, Choreographics (1989),
2. Eshkol, Noa & Wachmann, Abraham, Movement Notation (1958)

Patent:

“Dance visualization of music”, United States Patent 6717042

Abstract:

An apparatus is equipped to provide dance visualization of a stream of music. The apparatus is equipped with a sampler to generate characteristic data for a plurality of samples of a received stream of music, and an analyzer to determine a music type for the stream of music using the generated characteristic data. The apparatus is further provided with a player to manifest a plurality of dance movements for the stream of music in accordance with the determined music type of the stream of music.

 

Resolving Windows 10 Wi-Fi Connectivity Problem

I performed a clean installation of MS Windows 10 (64-bit) on a Dell Inspiron machine and lost Wi-Fi connectivity. The card was a Broadcom 802.11n.

I resolved the problem by uninstalling all the protocols that had been installed, such as "Client for Microsoft Networks" and keeping only the IPV4 and IPV6 protocols.  (In fact, the option to uninstall them was not available, it was grayed out.)


That worked and I have not experienced any Wi-Fi connectivity problems since.

Hacking A Traffic Signal

Researchers Demo Hack to Seize Control of Municipal Traffic Signal Systems in a Michigan city:

http://www.eecs.umich.edu/eecs/about/articles/2014/Green-Lights-Forever.html

and the paper:

https://jhalderm.com/pub/papers/traffic-woot14.pdf

Invisible Sensing

Invisible Sensing of Vehicle Steering with Smartphones:

https://kabru.eecs.umich.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/VSense.pdf

More Habits of Employable Developers:

More Habits of Employable Developers:



http://sdtimes.com/code-watch-the-final-habits-of-highly-employable-developers/ 


I would like to add that there is life after programming; in Requirements Engineering, in Application & Solution Architecture, and in Sales Support.

Angular vs. Knockout

FYI:


http://blog.nebithi.com/knockoutjs-vs-angularjs/