Two weeks ago, I visited the 78th international motor show in Geneva. It was a very interesting experience. I was particularly interested in seeing all the hybrid cars that were proposed as innovative. With my big surprise there were few. Lots of SUVs and extremely expensive, shiny and pollutant cars. 
For instance, my attention was captured by the great color of the new Alfa Romeo cars presented. They spent a great deal of money to develop a metallic color that shines like hell. They did not care about the car’s consumption though.
Then, I visited the stand of TATA motors. This is an Indian group that is looking for a different approach to car conception. Instead of striving for the style, they look at consumption and costs. They are producing a car called Tata Nano that is going to the market with an initial price of 2000 euro. The car sports a 750 cc engine that reduces of a fourth the usual consumption of a city car. I consider this as a killer product.
Finally, It is worth to mention the PIVO2, a concept car from Nissan. First of all, the car sports an hybrid engine, something rare for its size. Then the design looks really futuristic. The car has one door only, in the front. Then the cabin and the wheels turns in all directions, making it perfect for parking in a densely urbanized area.
Published on
3/17/2008 in
Diary.
I have always been fascinated by the work of Natalie Jeremijenko. She is an artist whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering.
Lately she has been working on installations and projects to make people aware of their ecological footprints. One of her projects I reviewed in the past was OneTrees: a great deal of cloned trees. She planted them in the SF area. Because of their genetic similarities, their differences in growth can be attributed to the different levels of CO2 to which they are exposed. Therefore she thought of using the trees as CO2 sensors.
More recently she worked on the Feral Robots project, an Open Source robotics project providing resources and support for upgrading the raison d’etre of commercially available robotic dog toys. Because the dogs follow concentration gradients of the contaminants they are equipped to sniff, their release renders information legible to diverse participants, provides the opportunity for evidence driven discussion, and facilitates public participation in environmental monitoring and remediation.
A couple of days ago, I received a message on the MIT mailing list. Some journalists are making a documentary film about people who finished “last in class” and the lives they have lived since. I found it extremely interesting as many people that drop out of formal education end up doing great things as well. This is because, I think, each person has different cognitive abilities and ways of acquiring knowledge (a.k.a., learning).
For instance, I think I have good mathematical skills, however, I failed two times the calculous course during my first year in the physics program. I was working hard but my brain just refused to see things as the teacher was pushing me to see.
Anyway, they are still looking for people that fit the bill. If you know somebody that might help just pass the call.
Everyone remembers the college valedictorian, but what about the students who ranked last in the class?
I know what it’s like to be near the bottom (notice the C+ in Archery) and I can tell you that hanging on for dear life is every bit as challenging as finishing first.
Join us as we explore the lives of people not originally destined for greatness. We’re seeking those who finished at – or very near – the bottom of their classes. Was that ranking an indicator of things to come or was it an aberration? I know my story, but what about the others? With your help, we can uncover the secrets to finishing last and learn what they tell us about the future.
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At the CeBit conference in Hannover, Germany, Fraunhofer Institute researchers will present new human-computer interfaces that demonstrate how computers can be operated by gesturing or pointing a finger. The iPoint Presenter uses a series of cameras to observe a person standing in front of a projection screen. When users start moving their hands, the computer reacts without being touched. Users can point to buttons or use gestures to manipulate virtual objects. Multipointing interaction enables users to issue commands using multiple fingers for tasks such as rotating, enlarging, or minimizing objects. Fraunhofer scientist Paul Chojecki says the iPoint Presenter is unique because it is entirely contact-free, making it ideal for use in an operating theater or during a presentation in a large auditorium.
Meanwhile, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) are teaching computers to understand human gestures and are developing a method for automatically recognizing different hand signals. A prototype containing an intelligent camera connected to a computer running IDMT pattern recognition software will be at the conference where it will record and analyze visitors’ gestures, converting the hand signals into machine commands.
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