PhotoSketch is an “Internet Image Montage” project from five students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore. The basic premise, which they present in the form of a research paper [pdf], works like this:
Draw the outlines of the figures you want in your picture – anything from seagulls to a wedding kiss;
Add labels for each of the items, as well as for the background.
PhotoSketch will then find real-life images to match your doodles and put them together in a Photoshopped image that will make your jaw drop.
And before you say "it must be fake", download and read the research paper (in pdf), already evaluated by the scientific community.
In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls, and developed with contributions from users. 20 different YouTube videos embed in the same page, each with one instrument playing a tune, but where harmony is very well achieved. The videos can be played simultaneously - the soundtracks will work together, and the mix can be adjusted with the individual volume sliders. And you can combine any choice of instruments and play a different music each time, worth a try.
Google has just launched Street View for the two biggest cities in Portugal, Lisbon and Oporto. And of course, the hunt for images with awkward situations has just began (image taken from Parque Eduardo VII in Lisbon):
CRISTAL (Control of Remotely Interfaced Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living spaces) is a ubber simple user interface for controlling multimedia devices and home automation systems. It's a interactive table, much like Microsoft's Surface, with a huge difference: a camera placed on the top of the living room creates an image which is the interface itself. Confused? Watch the demo and wait for Christmas:
My friend Miguel Muñoz Duarte and his company, iMatch, will bring Ignite to Portugal. But what is Ignite? Ignite captures the best of geek culture in a series of five-minute speed presentations on topics ranging from The Best Way to Buy a Car to Hacking Chocolate. Each speaker gets only 5 minutes, with 20 slides that auto-forwards every 15 seconds. The motto is "Enlighten us, but make it quick".
If you are interested, you can be the next speaker. Visit the Ignite Portugal website and follow the instructions. Still with doubts? Maybe the next Ignite presentation will convince you:
An update on the already famous Marta Kagan's presentation on Social Media (or like Armando calls it, Social Web). Full with pearls of wisdom, a must read.
Yes, really, due to patent infringement. The judge also ordered Microsoft to pay i4i more than $290 million in damages. Maybe now Microsoft will start hating software patents.
A small break in my recovery of a ligament rupture to mark my son's first anniversary... And to remind me of the luck of having health and a very happy family (even with a injured left ankle). Happy birthday son.
Who said E3 was dead? After Microsoft's project Natal, Sony responds with his new motion controller for Playstation Eye:
Millimetric precision, almost instant response, and above all, a live demo with the technology, not an environment controlled, video manipulated demo like Microsoft did. So, Santa, wait up for my Christmas request, will you?
While the buzz from Microsoft these days concentrate on Bing, their new "not a search engine but a decision engine" service, I think the real breakthrough technology people should be looking and talking about is the new project named Natal for XBOX 360.
It's a all new ball game in the human computer interaction, where one does not need a controller to play and interact with the XBOX 360. Just be there and play. Watch the demo:
Natal is the portuguese word for Christmas, does it means it will be available in Christmas? If so, Santa, I know is a bit early to ask for presents, but unless otherwise, this is what I want.
Update 4 hours later:Johnny Chung Lee has some technical insights of this project in his blog.
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