Folke Lemaitre's blog

Software turns cheap webcam into instant 3D scanner

Folke — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:44:40 UT

submitted by Arve to programming
[link] [99 comments]

Google introduces machine-generated captions for YouTube vid

Folke — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:00:00 UT

Filed under: Internet, Video, Google, Web
Google has given users the ability to caption their YouTube videos for a while now. But that can be a cumbersome, time-intensive process and most of the millions of videos hosted on YouTube are uncaptioned. That could change soon, as Google is beginning to roll out a new automatic captioning system that will analyze speech in videos and create machine-generated captions.

This means that users who are hard of hearing will have an easier time using YouTube. And because Google can translate text into 51 different languages, it means that you'll have a much easier time understanding those German and Japanese videos you're so fond of watching.

The technology for the machine-based captions is the same as the tech that allows Google Voice to automatically transcribe your voicemail messages and send them to you as emails. That is to say, it's not perfect, and we can expect to see a fair number of mistakes in YouTube captions for the foreseeable future. But this is an excellent start at making web video significantly more accessible.

Automatic captions are only available on a handful of YouTube channels right now, including Google, YouTube, PBS, National Geographic, MIT, and UCLA. A wider release is scheduled soon, with auto-caps expected on English videos by the end of the week.

Google introduces machine-generated captions for YouTube videos originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

[url=http://www.pheedcontent.com/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:23b01565cf83693bfb74765112ec8fcbff6GRC3T1mK0CbCVHgDMeF8q55IQ%2F7HobLtPu9ZWxr5zhDZOCsXolIcUpSjBj%2FlnVUn7YzPk2vXmg%3D%3D][/url]

YouTube - Google - Google Voice - Download Squad - Closed captioning

Chromium OS open source project released

Folke — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:02:06 UT

submitted by mbrubeck to programming
[link] [524 comments]

Explore images with Google Image Swirl, now in Labs

Folke — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:17:00 UT

Back in 2001, to give people a new, quicker way to find images, we launched Image Search. When you do a search for [eiffel tower] you'll find an array of images of the tower in the daytime, in black and white, at sunset and more. With Similar Images, which recently graduated from Google Labs, you can click "Find similar images" to narrow your search to, say, pictures of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. Today, we've launched an experimental feature in Labs called Google Image Swirl, which builds on new computer vision research to cluster similar images into representative groups in a fun, exploratory interface.

For example, if you search on Image Swirl for [washington], you'll see 12 image thumbnails including President Washington, the Washington Monument, a map of Washington D.C. and the Capitol Building:

Once you find the group of images you're interested in, you can click on the thumbnail and a cluster of images will "swirl" into view. For example, here's what you'll see if you click the image of the Washington Monument:

You can then further explore additional sub-groups within any cluster. The interface may look familiar to those of you who have tried Google's Wonder Wheel available in the Search Options panel, which enables you to explore related search queries.

Image Swirl expands on technologies developed for Similar Images and Picasa Face Recognition to discern how images should be grouped together and build hierarchies out of these groups. Each thumbnail on the initial results page represents an algorithmically-determined representative group of images with similar appearance and meaning. These aren't just the most relevant images — they are the most relevant groups of images.

Image Swirl currently works for more than 200,000 queries and we plan to include more queries in the future. Available queries will auto-complete as you start to type in the search box, similar to Google Suggest.

You can try out Google Image Swirl in Google Labs today. The feature is experimental and the underlying technology is a work in progress, so please share your feedback and let us know how we can make it more useful.

Posted by Aparna Chennapragada, Product Manager, and Yushi Jing, Google Research

Most likely the coolest machine vision video you've seen in

Folke — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:51:05 UT

submitted by neoabraxas to science
[link] [183 comments]

This is how IRC works. Well, in Hollywood's vision anyway.

Folke — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:34:29 UT

submitted by Skee to geek
[link] [441 comments]

#1276000

Folke — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:27:47 UT

Today, my sister and I were hungry so we went through the Mcdonalds drive through. I drive a rather old beat up car, and as we pulled up to the window to get our food the worker looked at me and sarcastically said "Nice car." Without missing a beat my 10 year old sister leans over the seat and said "Nice job." That shut him up. MLIA

The most puzzling however is not so much how Piri Reis manag

Folke — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:55:43 UT

submitted by toldimikloss to WTF
[link] [12 comments]

The boss took one look at the speed test, and shook his head

Folke — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:51:53 UT

submitted by xach to programming
[link] [101 comments]

Antimatter Detected In Lightning

Folke — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:27:42 UT

submitted by masta to science
[link] [214 comments]

#1254240

Folke — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:54:22 UT

Yesterday when I went into the bathroom stall, written on the wall beside me was,"If you watch jaws backwards its about a huge shark that throws up so many people that they need to open a beach." I laughed hysterically in the stall. I hope nobody heard. MLIA

Art or Virus? Symantec Villifies Spoof Apple “Trojan”

Folke — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:50:20 UT

Security firm Symantec is warning computer users about a new Mac-specific Trojan that deletes files on the user’s hard drive, according to Techworld.com. It has dubbed the piece of malware “OSX.Loosemaque,” and uploaded a YouTube video of how it goes about its nefarious purpose.

Basically, it’s a Space Invader clone wherein when you kill an alien, a file in your home folder is deleted. It looks like it’s evil — and designed to perform such a task without the knowledge of the Mac owner on which the program resides. But it isn’t. It’s an art project that clearly advertises its purpose and nature to all who would wish to use it.

The game, dubbed Lose/Lose, is the brainchild of Zach Gage, who created the program as part of an online art installation and released it for public download in September. It’s intended purpose is not to dupe unsuspecting gamers, but to pose questions about the relationship between killing in video games and real-life moral issues. Gage says as much in a statement on his web site:

By way of exploring what it means to kill in a video-game, Lose/Lose broaches bigger questions. As technology grows, our understanding of it diminishes, yet, at the same time, it becomes increasingly important in our lives.

Even if a user were to download the game from a different, less well-intentioned place, the game itself warns users right when it opens, stating that “Killing in Lose/Lose will likely result in files on your hard drive being deleted. You have been warned.” Of course, that doesn’t mean that an intelligent programmer couldn’t remove or change said message, and redistribute the game themselves with the intent of causing harm.

That’s what Symantec’s worried about, and why the firm decided to issue its warning about the so-called Trojan. Of course, the company took the opportunity to recommend installing security software as a means to protect against this kind of dangerous artistic expression, seeing as that’s the business it’s in.

Should you worry about this game or threats derived from it? Not unless you are one of the slim few whose retro Mac gaming addiction is so acute that you feel the need to hunt around the digital frontier in suspicious and shady locations looking for independent games of questionable quality and without any sort of legit distribution channels. Or if you happen to be a devoted patron of the arts, and therefore can’t resist the urge to download software you know full well will harm your computer and destroy your files, all for the sake of the artistic effect it has. In either case, anti-virus software won’t help.

Been out of the PC gaming gig for a few years and want to ca

Folke — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:50:13 UT

submitted by snowforts to gaming
[link] [12 comments]

I'm 27, have a rare condition that is 100% treatable. Medici

Folke — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:23:21 UT

submitted by hopeseekr to politics
[link] [1305 comments]

Papa 50!

Folke — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:42:55 UT

Date: Dec 15, 2007
Number of Photos in Album: 156

View Album

2009_10_05

Folke — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:48:58 UT

Date: Oct 14, 2009
Number of Photos in Album: 19

View Album

Meanest prank from Japan ever. Interviewee is midway through

Folke — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:06:14 UT

submitted by closetoawesome to reddit.com
[link] [134 comments]

PhotoSketch: Taking image composition to the next level

Folke — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:48:00 UT

We don't often write about work in Computer Vision but when we do we always present something that is likely to blow your mind (see VideoTrace and Adobe's Interactive Video Editing.)

Enter PhotoSketch, work that was recently published in ACM's Transactions on Graphics. The application takes as input a rough, hand drawn sketch of a scene and then generates a realistic image using information found on the Internet. The results are magnificent to say the least considering the difficulty in filtering the vast amount of noise in online images. The application requires that the user supplies labels with each object sketched; these are used to search for relevant images online. The object outline along with automated segmentation algorithms are used to extract specific objects from the photos found, e,g, a dog, an elephant, a car, a Frisbee etc. Another mechanism is used to blend the segmented images together and generate appropriate shadows. The results are jaw dropping to say the least considering how little input from the user is required.

The video below explains the process in more detail.

Hey gaming industry, stop adding age verification checks to

Folke — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:27:54 UT

submitted by smakusdod to gaming
[link] [351 comments]

folke: http://twitpic.com/i2ptr

Folke — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:08:25 UT

folke:

High-Speed Robot Hand Shows Dexterity and Speed

Folke — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:01:00 UT

An anonymous reader tips a blog posting that begins "A few blogs are passing around videos of the Ishikawa Komuro Lab's high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation. However, the video being passed around is slight on details. Meanwhile, their video presentation at ICRA 2009 (which took place in May in Kobe, Japan) has an informative narration and demonstrates additional capabilities. ... [It] shows the manipulator dribbling a ping-pong ball, spinning a pen, throwing a ball, tying knots, grasping a grain of rice with tweezers, and tossing / re-grasping a cellphone!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ultimate iPhone App Organizer Hits The Web

Folke — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:43:37 UT

Have you ever wanted to rearrange your applications on your iPhone, but ended up messing up pages of apps? Well, now there is a solution for that, and it’s called Movement. Movement essentially lets your rearrange all of your applications on your iPhone or iPod Touch, straight from your Mac. Seems too good to be true, right? Of course, there’s a catch. It requires a jailbroken iPhone.

MG Siegler wrote about iTunes 9 a few weeks ago on TechCrunch, with the possibility of app organization, but it’s all up in the air right now.

Overall, Movement is very cool. It provides a tool that many iPhone and iPod Touch users want, but under a cost of jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod Touch. Movement is developed by indie Mac developer Jeff Stieler.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

High speed robot can use tweezers, tie knots, catch (quickly

Folke — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:10:37 UT

submitted by egpeek to programming
[link] [104 comments]

Satellites: How many there are, working or not working, and

Folke — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:56:38 UT

submitted by natezomby to science
[link] [79 comments]