With a service as big as?YouTube ? with literally dozens of hours of new content popping up every minute ? it's easy to forget how it all began. Today marks the seventh birthday of YouTube's very first clip which, like much of the site's user-generated content, is a bit humorous but almost entirely pointless.
The 19-second video is entitled?Me at the zoo, and it features YouTube co-founder?Jawed Karim as he talks a bit about elephants and their?really long trunks. The short clip has tallied nearly 7.5 million views since it popped online in April of 2005, which is an impressive number but nowhere near some of the heavy viral hitters like?Evolution of Dance (194 million views) or?Charlie bit my finger (448 million views).
In the seven years since its launch, YouTube has seen some truly explosive growth. The site now enjoys over 800 million unique viewers per month, watching over four billion videos each day. 60 hours of video is uploaded to the?streaming portal every minute, which is the equivalent of roughly 11,368 copies of?Me at the zoo. That's a lot of elephants.
Light-based communication seems to wind throughout the MIT Media Lab -- it is a universal language, after all, since many devices output light, be it with a dedicated LED or a standard LCD, and have the capacity to view and interpret it. One such device, coined Droplet, essentially redirects light from one source to another, while also serving as a physical interface for tablet-based tasks. Rob Hemsley, a research assistant at the Media Lab, was on hand to demonstrate two of his projects. Droplet is a compact self-contained module with an integrated RGB LED, a photodiode and a CR1216 lithium coin battery -- which provides roughly one day of power in the gadget's current early prototype status. Today's demo used a computer-connected HDTV and a capacitive-touch-enabled tablet. Using the TV to pull up a custom Google Calendar module, Hemsley held the Droplet up to a defined area on the display, which then output a series of colors, transmitting data to the module. Then, that data was pushed to a tablet after placing the Droplet on the display, pulling up the same calendar appointment and providing a physical interface for adjusting the date and time, which is retained in the cloud and the module itself, which also outputs pulsing light as it counts down to the appointment time.
StackAR, the second project, functions in much the same way, but instead of outputting a countdown indicator, it displays schematics for a LilyPad Arduino when placed on the tablet, identifying connectors based on a pre-selected program. The capacitive display can recognize orientation, letting you drop the controller in any position throughout the surface, then outputting a map to match. Like the Droplet, StackAR can also recognize light input, even letting you program the Arduino directly from the tablet by outputting light, effectively simplifying the interface creation process even further. You can also add software control to the board, which will work in conjunction with the hardware, bringing universal control interfaces to the otherwise space-limited Arduino. Both projects appear to have incredible potential, but they're clearly not ready for production just yet. For now, you can get a better feel for Droplet and StackAR in our hands-on video just past the break.
Robots fighting wars could be blamed for mistakes on the battlefieldPublic release date: 23-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Molly McElroy mollywmc@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
As militaries develop autonomous robotic warriors to replace humans on the battlefield, new ethical questions emerge. If a robot in combat has a hardware malfunction or programming glitch that causes it to kill civilians, do we blame the robot, or the humans who created and deployed it?
Some argue that robots do not have free will and therefore cannot be held morally accountable for their actions. But University of Washington psychologists are finding that people don't have such a clear-cut view of humanoid robots.
The researchers' latest results show that humans apply a moderate amount of morality and other human characteristics to robots that are equipped with social capabilities and are capable of harming humans. In this case, the harm was financial, not life-threatening. But it still demonstrated how humans react to robot errors.
The findings imply that as robots become more sophisticated and humanlike, the public may hold them morally accountable for causing harm.
"We're moving toward a world where robots will be capable of harming humans," said lead author Peter Kahn, a UW associate professor of psychology. "With this study we're asking whether a robotic entity is conceptualized as just a tool, or as some form of a technological being that can be held responsible for its actions."
The paper was recently published in the proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.
In the study, Kahn and his research team had 40 undergraduate students play a scavenger hunt with a humanlike robot, Robovie. The robot appeared autonomous, but it was remotely controlled by a researcher concealed in another room.
After a bit of small talk with the robot, each participant had two minutes to locate objects from a list of items in the room. They all found the minimum, seven, to claim the $20 prize. But when their time was up, Robovie claimed they had found only five objects.
Then came the crux of the experiment: participants' reactions to the robot's miscount.
"Most argued with Robovie," said co-author Heather Gary, a UW doctoral student in developmental psychology. "Some accused Robovie of lying or cheating."
(Watch a video of one of the participants disagreeing with Robovie: http://depts.washington.edu/hints/video1b.shtml.)
When interviewed, 65 percent of participants said Robovie was to blame at least to a certain degree for wrongly scoring the scavenger hunt and unfairly denying the participants the $20 prize.
This suggests that as robots gain capabilities in language and social interactions, "it is likely that many people will hold a humanoid robot as partially accountable for a harm that it causes," the researchers wrote.
They argue that as militaries transform from human to robotic warfare, the chain of command that controls robots and the moral accountability of robotic warriors should be factored into jurisprudence and the Laws of Armed Conflict for cases when the robots hurt humans.
Kahn is also concerned about the morality of robotic warfare, period. "Using robotic warfare, such as drones, distances us from war, can numb us to human suffering, and make warfare more likely," he said.
###
The National Science Foundation funded the study. Co-authors at UW are Nathan Freier, Jolina Ruckert, Solace Shen, Heather Gary and Aimee Reichert. Other co-authors are Rachel Severson, Western Washington University; Brian Gill, Seattle Pacific University; and Takayuki Kanda and Hiroshi Ishiguro, both of Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute in Japan, which created Robovie.
For more information, contact Kahn at pkahn@uw.edu or Gary at 206-221-0643 or hgary@uw.edu. Pdf of the paper: http://depts.washington.edu/hints/publications/Robovie_Moral_Accountability_Study_HRI_2012_corrected.pdf
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Robots fighting wars could be blamed for mistakes on the battlefieldPublic release date: 23-Apr-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Molly McElroy mollywmc@uw.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington
As militaries develop autonomous robotic warriors to replace humans on the battlefield, new ethical questions emerge. If a robot in combat has a hardware malfunction or programming glitch that causes it to kill civilians, do we blame the robot, or the humans who created and deployed it?
Some argue that robots do not have free will and therefore cannot be held morally accountable for their actions. But University of Washington psychologists are finding that people don't have such a clear-cut view of humanoid robots.
The researchers' latest results show that humans apply a moderate amount of morality and other human characteristics to robots that are equipped with social capabilities and are capable of harming humans. In this case, the harm was financial, not life-threatening. But it still demonstrated how humans react to robot errors.
The findings imply that as robots become more sophisticated and humanlike, the public may hold them morally accountable for causing harm.
"We're moving toward a world where robots will be capable of harming humans," said lead author Peter Kahn, a UW associate professor of psychology. "With this study we're asking whether a robotic entity is conceptualized as just a tool, or as some form of a technological being that can be held responsible for its actions."
The paper was recently published in the proceedings of the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.
In the study, Kahn and his research team had 40 undergraduate students play a scavenger hunt with a humanlike robot, Robovie. The robot appeared autonomous, but it was remotely controlled by a researcher concealed in another room.
After a bit of small talk with the robot, each participant had two minutes to locate objects from a list of items in the room. They all found the minimum, seven, to claim the $20 prize. But when their time was up, Robovie claimed they had found only five objects.
Then came the crux of the experiment: participants' reactions to the robot's miscount.
"Most argued with Robovie," said co-author Heather Gary, a UW doctoral student in developmental psychology. "Some accused Robovie of lying or cheating."
(Watch a video of one of the participants disagreeing with Robovie: http://depts.washington.edu/hints/video1b.shtml.)
When interviewed, 65 percent of participants said Robovie was to blame at least to a certain degree for wrongly scoring the scavenger hunt and unfairly denying the participants the $20 prize.
This suggests that as robots gain capabilities in language and social interactions, "it is likely that many people will hold a humanoid robot as partially accountable for a harm that it causes," the researchers wrote.
They argue that as militaries transform from human to robotic warfare, the chain of command that controls robots and the moral accountability of robotic warriors should be factored into jurisprudence and the Laws of Armed Conflict for cases when the robots hurt humans.
Kahn is also concerned about the morality of robotic warfare, period. "Using robotic warfare, such as drones, distances us from war, can numb us to human suffering, and make warfare more likely," he said.
###
The National Science Foundation funded the study. Co-authors at UW are Nathan Freier, Jolina Ruckert, Solace Shen, Heather Gary and Aimee Reichert. Other co-authors are Rachel Severson, Western Washington University; Brian Gill, Seattle Pacific University; and Takayuki Kanda and Hiroshi Ishiguro, both of Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute in Japan, which created Robovie.
For more information, contact Kahn at pkahn@uw.edu or Gary at 206-221-0643 or hgary@uw.edu. Pdf of the paper: http://depts.washington.edu/hints/publications/Robovie_Moral_Accountability_Study_HRI_2012_corrected.pdf
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Today is officially Ivy Bridge day, in case you didn't already know. Intel took the wraps off the latest member of its processor family and the internet wasted no time putting the flagship Core i7-3770K through its paces. The 3.5GHz quad-core desktop chip comes packing not only some architectural tweaks, but a brand new integrated GPU in the form of the HD 4000. Oh, and it does all this using a brand new 22nm manufacturing process and 3D "Tri-Gate" transistors. What does that mean for you, the user? Lower power consumption, better performance and, surprisingly, unbelievably fast media transcoding. When AnandTech turned its eyes towards Quick Sync, the on-die media transcode engine introduced with Sandy Bridge, the 3770K practically buried the competition. Using Cyberlink Media Espresso the new chip turned a DRM-stripped Blu-ray of Harry Potter (130 minutes of 1080p video) into an iPad friendly format in just seven minutes without taxing the CPU.
At idle, power consumption hasn't changed much, but when TechSpot put the pedal to the metal things looked quite a bit different. The new i7-3770K sucked down just 147 watts, which was even four watts less than lower clocked i5-2500K. And, of course, it delivered much better performance. In fact, in Bit-Tech's tests, the only chip that was able to routinely best it was the hexa-core 3960X Extreme Edition -- and even that CPU barely eked out its victories. While AMD's offerings simply can't compete with Intel's on pure performance or power consumption, it does still outrun run Chipzilla's GPU. The HD 4000 is, undeniably, a huge step forward for the Core line, but it falls just short of matching the A8's integrated Radeon on Tech Report's tests. For more benchmarks than your heart can handle check out the pile of links below.
Chloe Moretz hinted for months at a "Kick-Ass" sequel. Jane Goldman, who co-wrote the script with Matthew Vaughn, said the duo probably wouldn't pen the next script, but would oversee the project as producers. And now, Christopher Mintz-Plasse says he'd be on board! With all the rumors and waiting it feels like "Arrested Development" and [...]
The mobile app industry is in a state of confusion in the wake of Apple?s recent measures to wean developers from the UDID (Unique Device Identifier), a function broadly used for determining the effectiveness of mobile advertising. In the short term, it seems that notions of an imminent Apple ban on use of UDIDs are premature. However, most in the market have concluded that they need to move toward new methods of marketing attribution for iOS device based advertising. The key for entrepreneurs and mobile app brands is moving to alternatives that will best allow their businesses to thrive. Here are the alternatives and here's how pick which ones you should use:
Russia has emerged as a strong backer of Kofi Annan's peace plan for Syria, and is now hammering Western nations for not doing enough to support it.
Russia today challenged Western countries to get behind United Nations envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan for Syria, or accept the blame for its failure.
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It's a new role for Russia, which endured months of accusations that it was blocking a solution for strife-torn Syria after it vetoed two UN Security Council?resolutions in the past several months?calling for the removal of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.? ?
But last month, Moscow threw its weight behind Mr. Annan's plan to end the year-long uprising, which has killed more than 9,000 people by UN estimates. It called for a withdrawal of all government forces from Syrian towns and cities, followed by a shaky cease-fire that went into effect last Thursday and appears to be just barely holding despite multiple violations alleged on both sides.
Speaking in televised remarks today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov implied that the shoe is on the other foot now, with Moscow strongly backing the UN peace plan for Syria and willing to hold both Mr. Assad and his opponents to task but, he alleged, the effort is being undermined by unnamed Western and Arab countries.
"There are those who want Kofi Annan's plan to fail," Mr. Lavrov insisted. "Today, those who from the beginning foretold the failure of Annan's plan are doing a lot to see to it that this prophecy comes true? They are doing this by delivering arms to the Syrian opposition and stimulating the activity of rebels who continue to attack both government facilities and civilian facilities on a daily basis."
The cease-fire remains "quite fragile" because of the reluctance of those outside forces to fully back the Annan plan, Lavrov suggested, although he added that Assad bears a share of blame for the continuing uncertainty. "Of course, government forces are also taking measures to react to such provocations, and as a result it is not all going very smoothly yet," he said.
Students and parents will think so. But blanket amnesty for all student loans could destroy the student-loan system and might not do much to address the underlying problem.?
Large numbers tend to get people?s attention, especially the 13-digit kind. So now with news that student college debt is hitting the $1,000,000,000,000 mark, everyone seems to be talking about it.
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President Obama wants to delay the interest-rate hike on government-backed student loans scheduled for this July and will say so in his Saturday radio address ? and then again when he hits college campuses next week to promote the plan. For their part, Department of Education officials stood up for the plan on Friday. And April 25, the Occupy movement is set to occupy colleges to highlight the issue.?
But an online petition that has gathered nearly 700,000 signatures has a better idea ? erase the debt completely, says creator Robert Applebaum.
?Forgiving the student loan debt of all Americans will have an immediate stimulative effect on our economy," he says in the petition. "With the stroke of the president's pen, millions of Americans would suddenly have hundreds, or in some cases, thousands of extra dollars in their pockets each and every month to spend on ailing sectors of the economy."
Forgiving student loan debt, he adds, ?rather than tax cuts for corporations, millionaires, and billionaires, has a much greater chance of helping to raise [the economic] tide in a much shorter time-frame.?
But while the idea has certainly gotten the ear of beleaguered grads ? and their families ? erasing a?trillion dollars of debt by presidential fiat could destroy the future of college loans while doing nothing to address the underlying problem, economists and financial experts say.
Regardless of whether the loan is a government or private loan, forgiveness will mean someone loses. Either the taxpayers in aggregate in the case of federal loans or private lenders on private loans
?Who in their right mind, A) would make loans to students if the loans can be forgiven later on? Or B) invest in an income trust vehicle where the asset of the investment can disappear due to 'forgiveness?' ??says?Kevin Worthley, a?certified financial planner in?Rhode Island and a specialist in college financial strategies,?via e-mail.?
Even if there were lenders willing to risk their money, ?the interest rate they would rightfully require for the risk incurred may likely be far more than future students would be willing to pay and cries of 'usury' to the government could result,? he adds.
Credit is?fundamentally based upon trust, agrees?Mitchell Weiss, adjunct professor at the University of Hartford's?Barney School of Business?in Connecticut.
?If I loan you some money, I trust that you?re going to pay it back to me,? he says. ?Wholesale forgiveness, amnesty ? whatever you want to call it ? will fundamentally undermine a process that is thoroughly integrated within our society.??
Moreover, it doesn't really solve the problem, says Professor Weiss.
?Students need better financial tools," says Weiss, the author of ?Life Happens,? a textbook for student financial planning. "But the laws need to be adjusted as well, Bankruptcy laws need to be amended."
A 2005 change in bankruptcy law means that "education loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy except in cases of undue hardship.? This, he says, "is really tough to prove.?
Loosening the law would give lenders and ex-students more leeway to find compromises, he says.?
?When a lender knows that the person that?s sitting on the other side of the table has the ability to pull the plug by declaring bankruptcy, and ... that lender doesn?t have collateral to foreclose upon in order to make itself whole, then that lender is pretty motivated to find a compromise solution to avoid the loss that would surely follow,? he says.?
Will the petition make any difference?
Possibly, says Lindsay Hoffman, communication professor at the University of Delaware. Online social media has the ability to reverse the relationship between the government and the governed, she notes.
?Politicians used to set out what they thought was important and voters would respond,? she says, but ?what we are seeing here is a reversal of the agenda-setting process.?
Increasingly powerful social media tools such as this online petition have the power to ?set the agenda and politicians respond to those collective voices being raised.?
"That,? she says, ?is something new.?
Indeed, the political action group Moveon.org has picked up on the momentum behind Mr. Applebaum's original petition to funnel support to a bill now before Congress, the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, which would help students with loans ? though it is not a complete amnesty.?
With the latest success of Answers.com and Ebay.com promoting their online existence, online businessmen are returning to old-fashioned marketing to enhance their businesses, to broaden their market reach, as well as to develop their brand awareness. But still we?re not going to be content with just that. With a lot of competition nowadays, it is just fitting that we have some improvements.
Good-Bad Publicity. You have heard what they always say, ?even bad publicity can be good.?It doesn?t necessarily have to be entirely bad. Something bizarre or eye-catching that could hold the people?s attention for a few seconds or minutes is enough. Something that could leave an impression on the public will go a long way in creating a buzz for your online business. Also remember to place ads strategically. This can sound funny and might not be as great in reality as it is in theory. But for all its worth, it really does work.The restroom is considered as one of the most visited places anywhere. Take advantage of the flow of traffic in public restrooms. When you place ads on washroom stalls or on the walls of the urinals, chances are, you?ll get some attention. Anyone doing his or her thing has nothing else to do but to stare on the ads posted to the wall right in front of them. Why not give this ad placing strategy a try. And see if it will generate traffic to your online business? website.
Turn People?s Heads Around. Do something that could turn heads around. Don?t stick with cookie cutter offline marketing strategies and do something incredible; something newsworthy. The media loves sensational events.You will receive some good things for this along with a few bad publicities. But after everything has been said, what remains will be brand name recall. Now you know this, take stock. Or maybe you can do something nice. When people help out, others will see. Perhaps you can try being involved in a charity event, or maybe even better if you sponsor one. The media is always on the lookout for such occasions. As a result, your company is likely to get recognized.
A Little Telemarketing Could Go A Long Way. Someone would surely hang up the phone on you, or even worst, scream at you. But what does that matter? Telemarketing has been and would always be an effective method of enlarging your market. Now it?s time to pick up your phone, get your phone book and find some leads. Or you could even sponsor a local team. The cheapest are the children?s sports teams. If you can afford to sponsor adult teams, then better. Team uniforms are something to start with. You could print your brand on a team?s kit and have a moving advertisement as a result.
Although these offline marketing strategies works, video marketing also has helped several companies advertise their products online. With the help of an excellent info product creation, video marketing can promote your products, services, as well as yourself with a well-made video.
Continued here: Video Marketing As Well As A Few Offline Marketing Methods You Might Like To Try
Many people today are becoming increasingly interested in buying and living in an Ottawa condo. If you think that purchasing a condominium may possibly be in your plans for the future, you should know about the different advantages such a home type can offer. It is very important to be well acquainted with this type of real estate, because unlike a purchase at a retail store, you cannot simply return a condo after you have invested in it. Make sure that you will be comfortable and at home before you make your decision, and really get to know about condominiums.
Here are some starting-off facts you should be aware of:
- The owner of a condominium must pay to keep up the maintenance of his Ottawa condo. This fee offsets the costs of hiring security guards, a bellman, garbage pickup, municipal water costs, etc.
- A condominium property is one of the most popular Ottawa real estate properties. It is usually located in the city, making it an ideal place to live in for people that like city living.
-Owning a Ottawa condo is very different from owning a house, in that you don?t have to worry about the regular home maintenance that usually burdens a home owner
- A person who owns a unit in a condo has only the ownership of his room, but shares ownership of the common areas. He does not own the land on which the condominium is built. This means that there may be access to amenities like a swimming pool, a tennis court, a gym etc.
Living in a Ottawa condo is much more comfortable than living in an apartment for many people. There can be many shared amenities provided by the condo management. Gyms, pools, gaming rooms and special vents add a sense of community that cannot be found in most other living options. This adds to the list of reasons why Ottawa condominiums are becoming the most popular type of real estate on the market.
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Tired of walking from room to room, bringing your Entourage with you via your minty fresh Dish Hopper? Well, now you can sit down, relax and enjoy a hot cup of your favorite tunes from the same box. Dish has introduced the popular Pandora music service into its Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR System. So, you'll be able to pull up tracks, create playlists and all the usual recommendation delights you've come to expect from the personal radio service. We'd normally make Pandora's Box about this time, but we're already knee deep in the Jane's Addiction back catalog...
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Public release date: 23-Apr-2012
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The mobile app industry is in a state of confusion in the wake of Apple?s recent measures to wean developers from the UDID (Unique Device Identifier), a function broadly used for determining the effectiveness of mobile advertising. In the short term, it seems that notions of an imminent Apple ban on use of UDIDs are premature. However, most in the market have concluded that they need to move toward new methods of marketing attribution for iOS device based advertising. The key for entrepreneurs and mobile app brands is moving to alternatives that will best allow their businesses to thrive. Here are the alternatives and here's how pick which ones you should use: