Mark Huckabee's Blog – May 2009 Archive (29)

A team from the Technical University of Munich programmed their robot to ask people for directions then set it loose it in the real world. This was no carefully constructed laboratory maze, but real streets with real people, and real obstacles. They told it to get to a destination 1.5 km away. The robot had no pre-made map or GPS. It had to ask for help, look at the direction that people pointed, say "thank you" and try to use their input to get to its goal without running…

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J. Tyler Helms created this great video by using edited footage from Albert Lamorisse's "La Ballon Rouge" (The Red Balloon), and music from Grizzly Bear's "Veckatimest". Why he called it Grizzly Bear "Two Weeks" I have no idea but I really like… Continue

This is a beautiful film made by using 35,000 still photographs. Think about it, this was made entirely of still photographs not video. This allowed him to carefully choreograph every single frame and every transition with complete precision. I have not been able to find out much about Xavier and his work but I certainly hope he makes more beautiful videos like this one. A small amount of info is available… Continue

Aimee Mullins is an awe inspiring woman who blows away any ideas you might have about someone being disabled. In fact she goes beyond normal *abilities* to do things others only dream of. She was born without fibular bones and had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was an infant. By the time she attended Georgetown she was so accomplished on her prosthetics that she became the first double amputee to compete in NCAA Division 1 track and field and then set…

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Zoe Keating is a performer who (in her own words) "fuses information technology and classical music". She uses her cello and Macbook to create beautiful multi-layered melodies that sound more like a complete orchestra than one live performer. She is currently touring with Amanda Palmer and in March she appeared at ETech in San Jose (video above). Also in this video we see some cool LIDAR technology (like radar but with lasers).



Zoe was trained in classical music…

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This is a stunning video of a 600 foot long ship moving through the Houston Ship Channel at night. It was made by Louis Vest ("OneEighteen" on Flikr here). Here's his description "... 2000 still images taken by using a Nikon D700 in the "interval timer" mode. The camera was fastened to an outside rail and set to take a photo every six seconds. Quicktime then assembled the photos into a .mov file that plays back at… Continue

This video was produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting as part of the Geospatial Revolution Project. This is an integrated public media and outreach initiative about the world of digital mapping and how it is changing the way we think, behave, and interact. This technology touches almost everything in our modern life: how we plan communities, how we find a restaurant, how Obama's election team found likely voters, how we measure climate change, and how we deploy our… Continue

This video was shot by Greg Williams for Esquire Magazine's upcoming issue. It takes us on a journey with Megan Fox from waking up through her day. He used the RedONE, a video camera that captures images at four times the resolution of high-definition, to make this video and also take the image that will be on Esquire's cover. She is one beautiful lady and it is an impressive…

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Many billboards in New York are apparently illegal. Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign mapped them out and then a group called the New York Street Advertising Takeover whitewashed them and converted the space to public art. The results remind me of Banksy and are much more appealing than the original billboards.

More pictures are… Continue