My life, my interests, my research
These last days, I spent some time searching for datasets containing images that could be used as benchmark for information retrieval purposes. Here are few links I found useful:
Peter Skomoroch’s dataset and image Bookmarks
Image databases, University of Essex
Here is a list of “idea labs” around the country/world. It is a list of places where they carry out work very similar to what is done at MIT Media Lab – lots of engineering, design and rapid prototyping/fabrication for projects that push the envelope of technology and its application to our lives.
USA – ACADEMIC
D-Lab/Media-X/CDR, Stanford, http://mediax.stanford.edu/
Infolab, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, http://infolab.northwestern.edu/
Information Sciences Institute/Institute for Creative Technologies, Los Angeles, http://ict.usc.edu/
Georgia Tech GVU, Atlanta, GA, http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/
Human-Computer Interaction Institute, CMU, Pittsburgh, http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/
CMU Entertainment Technology Center, CMU, Pittsburgh, http://www.etc.cmu.edu/
NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, NYC, http://itp.nyu.edu/itp/flash/Home
Berkeley Institute of Design, Berkeley, CA, http://bid.berkeley.edu/
Four Eyes Lab, UCSB, CA, http://ilab.cs.ucsb.edu/
USA – COMMERCIAL
MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA, http://www.media.mit.edu/
MERL – Mistubishi Electric Research Laboratories – http://www.merl.com/
Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA, http://www.parc.com/
Eyebeam, NYC, www.eyebeam.org.
Applied Minds in L.A., http://www.appliedminds.com/
Yahoo! Design Innovation Team, design.yahoo.com
Idea Lab, http://www.idealab.com/
Willow Garage, Menlo Park, CA, http://www.willowgarage.com/
Squid Labs, Berkely, CA, http://www.squid-labs.com/
Institute for Human- and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL, http://www.ihmc.us/
Accenture Technology Labs, http://www.accenture.com/Global/Services/Accenture_Technology_Labs/default.htm
IBM Research, http://www.almaden.ibm.com/software/disciplines/user/
Docomo Communications Labs, http://www.docomolabs-usa.com/
EUROPE / ASIA
Innovation Lab, Denmark, http://innovationlab.dk
medialab prado madrid, spain, http://medialab-prado.es/
v2 rotterdam, holland, http://www.v2.nl/
interactive institutes, sweden, http://www.tii.se/
ars electroncia futurelab, linz, austria, http://www.aec.at/en/futurelab/index.asp
fabrica, treviso, italy, http://www.fabrica.it/
c3, budapest, hungary, http://www.c3.hu/
distance lab, scotland (former ML europe staff), http://www.distancelab.org/
art+com, berlin, germany, http://www.artcom.de/
meso, frankfurt, germany, http://www.meso.net/
Knowledge Media Institute, Milton Keynes, UK, http://kmi.open.ac.uk/
HumLab Blog, Sweden, http://blog.humlab.umu.se/
ITRI Creativity Lab, Taiwan, http://www.itri.org.tw/eng/
Sony Computer Science Lab, Paris and Tokyo, http://www.sonycsl.co.jp/
DFKI, Saarbrucken, Germany, http://www.dfki.de/web
Creativity & Cognition Studios, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, http://www.creativityandcognition.com/
Mobile Life, Stockholm, Sweden, http://www.mobile-life.org/index.php
Studio Creatif, France Telecom, France, http://www.studio-creatif.com/
HITLabNZ, New Zealand, http://www.hitlabnz.org/
Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Korea, http://www.sait.samsung.co.kr/eng/main.jsp
Free or free-ish:
Plot - http://plot.micw.eu/
Python Graph Library – http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/
DataGraph – http://www.visualdatatools.com/DataGraph/index.html
ParaView (3D visualization) – http://www.paraview.org/
GraphSketcher – http://www.graphsketcher.com/
R (statistical) – http://www.r-project.org/
Not so free:
Numbers – http://www.apple.com/iWork
Aabel – http://www.gigawiz.com/aabel.html
Citrin – http://www.gigawiz.com/citrin.html
Smile – http://www.satimage.fr/software/en/index.html
Profit – http://www.quansoft.com/
FixMyStreet is a Location-Based Annotation platform where users report problems with the street system around where they live. Once in a while when enough complaints are filled, the system sends them all together to the council responsible for these particular streets. Complaints could also ranked socially so that most urging problems are sent first.
This is one of those iMode services that emerges from the FOMA ecology. We are not going to see it soon in Europe. The concept behind is really interesting. showing your position while you chat enriches each message with contextual information. Then the chat participants can phrase their messages in a different way. They do not have to specify lots of details as these are already encoded by the availability of their position.
“iMapFan” is a map service for imode which offers a range of services including a map-based search, car navigation and “I’m here!” emails. Today they launched a new service, “Map Messenger” – a map-based GPS chat application.
Members of the chat are displayed on the map with according to their GPS location and the application has three modes – centre on yourself, centre on the other parties or an automatic mode which zooms in and out of the map to provide the best view of all chat members. It also has an alert function which vibrates when someone on your buddy list is near.
Gilles Barbier pointed me to his geo-localized application using Google Maps: Tellmewhere (dis moi ou). This site is basically a geo-wiki where everybody can describe collaboratively what they know on earth! They are currently focused on France, but they plan to expand quickly after opening. This service is a sort of hyper-local site: they are going to add some social tools to help people of the same neighborhood to realize they share the same places.
I really likes the interaction. The reviews of the locations are quite detailed, it is possible to add pictures, and it allows social ratings on the posts. Really nice!
Nicolas pointed me to this superb page containing a periodic table of visualization methods. The authors tried to define and compile existing visualization methods in order to develop a systematic overview based on the logic, look, and use of the periodic table of elements.
In this paper, they describe the current fragmented state of the visualization field. Then they outline the rules and criteria they applied in conducting their research in order to present a revised periodic table of 100 visualization methods with a proposition how to use it.
Interestingly, in the same page it is possible to see two nice visualizations on software visualization in engineering and visualization studies. Both are of high interest for the work I did at Microsoft Research this last summer. Here a working draft.
Tags: information metric, information visualization, research, research methodology, reverse engineering, software visualization
Social policy makers and town planners will soon be able to play ‘SimCity’ for real using grid computing and e-Science techniques to test the consequences of their policies on a real, but anonymous, model of the UK population. Dr Mark Birkin and colleagues, who are developing the model at the University of Leeds, will be demonstrating its potential at the UK e-Science stand at SC06, the world’s largest supercomputing conference in Florida, this week.
[more]
Tags: education, eGov, politics, simulation, urban, urban exploration, urban planning
Nothing new here, but still nice to see that people are interested in multemedia content attached on a map:
bliin YourLIVE! is a social networking service where users can spot, trace and share experiences — pictures, videos, audio and text — with one another in real-time on a Google Map.
Users create ‘bliins’ to navigate and monitor their interests in a location or area. bliins can be saved and shared amongst users. bliin is powered by GeoTracing and built on KeyWorx.
Tags: map algorithms, maps, urban exploration
The easiest program I was told about was Comic Life for Macs (http://plasq.com/comiclife), but Apple’s Photobooth was also mentioned (although I didn’t try it). I also was given a link to a how to for Photoshop (http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-popart.html) which looks like it is much higher quality than Comic Life but also much more work.
Comic Life let’s you use image filters to make the image look comic-y, but it doesn’t work well with all images. It does let you put in speech bubbles and stuff, though, and it looks pretty good.
Tags: art, image processing
Attrape-moi si tu peux (catch me if you can) is a network game where the goal is to catch a murderer, Mister X, who is hiding in the center of London. The Scotland-Yard inspectors, the players, have to follow some hints to find him but dealing with “the city” transport system. They have a limited number of tickets to move around and they have to spend them consciously to find the murder. The game has been developed at Software Engineering Laboratory, at EPFL.
AT T R AP E – MOI SI TU PE UX est un jeu de stratégie en réseau où une équipe de détectives tente d’arrêter Mister X dans sa fuite. Une bonne communication et un sens aigu de la déduction sont nécessaires pour réussir à AT T R AP E – MOI SI TU PE UX, que l’on soit détective ou Mister X.
Tags: map algorithms, maps, games
The Carnivorous Syndrome in 3D explores the astounding lives of the carnivorous plants, in mind-bending 3D. Travel to the Venezuelan tepuis, African Savannahs, and the rainforests of Borneo, while learning about the mysterious plants which live there. Discover the beauty and complexity of these fascinating creatures.
Featuring unprecedented close up 3D time lapse video shot by jasper, a robot made of Lego (R) bricks. Additional habitat photography by Chiaki Shibata and Romuald Anifraix. Also featuring stunning 3D animation, and an incredible electronic soundtrack composed by John Teagle. Narrated by Marguerite C. Wilson. Written and directed by Mike Wilder.
Tags: ecology, education, hack, new technology, open source, plants
Here are some of the resources that people pointed me towards:
- http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net (project management tool with timeline feature)
- other gantt chart tools, like http://echo2gantt.sourceforge.net
- MS Project
- Other, more free-form project organization tools, such as “Basecamp” at: http://www.37signals.com
- http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/ (simile timeline – this is what I think I’ll end up using)
Fabien pointed me to this nice project of the University of Madrid and the MediaLab Madrid. The idea is similar to many other projects on collaborative annotations of maps like: YellowArrow, DigitalGrafffiti, etc. Their interface though is really sexy!
I/O Plant is a tool for designing a content that utilize plants as an input-output interface. It enables designers to connect actuators, sensors and database servers to living plants. This means that plants become a part of an electric circuit or a network terminal.
For example: you can control a switch of a household electric appliance by touching a plant.
Tags: interaction design, plants, domotic, user experience
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