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Showing posts from December 9, 2017

Giving Dogs A Sound Voice.

By: Thad Starner, Professor of Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology and a Technical Lead on Google's Glass A dog walks up to a woman and says "Follow me. My owner needs your help." The woman stops and stares at the dog, disbelieving what she has just heard. Fortunately, the service dog is trained for this situation, and tugs on his wearable computing vest again, causing it to repeat "Follow me. My owner needs your help." The dog trots back to its owner with the woman following. Soon she discovers that she has been part of a Georgia Tech experiment to determine which pre-recorded messages are the most effective for service dogs requesting help from strangers. Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations (FIDO), is a collection of projects by my colleague Professor Melody Jackson and I that use wearable computers to help man's best friend communicate. Service dogs currently alert their owners or caregivers about incipient seizures for people wit...

8 Cognitive Benefits of Playing Video Games for Kids.

Contrary to the traditional belief that gaming is merely an addictive source of entertainment and diversion, recent research has proved that gaming has numerous benefits and key among them, is the development of cognitive skills in both children and adults. Just as physical exercise helps in improving and strengthening your muscles, cognitive games help to indulge one's brain in constant stimulation, thus improving the brain's performance. The following are some of the cognitive benefits of playing video games. 1. Improves coordination When an adult or child is playing a video game, he or she is not only staring at the computer inactively. The activities and actions on the screen provide a lot of mental stimulation. For one to play, he or she will need to coordinate their visual, audial and physical movement. 2 . Improves problem-solving skills Video games involve certain rules. This means that the player has to think carefully before making any move to ensure that they...

The Fake News Fueling the Uproar Over Self-Driving Vehicles.

It may seem obvious that a major consequence of self-driving trucks would be a lot of unemployed truck drivers, but the reality -- at least for those who drive tractor trailers -- could be better jobs. Autonomous vehicles have massive potential benefits. Models suggest that in the U.S. alone, between 30 thousand and 40 thousand lives would be saved annually (for perspective, about 3 thousand died on 9/11). There will be some job losses, and adjustments will need to be made. I'll share my thoughts on the job reshuffling while the industry works to stop what has become, thanks to smartphones, a growing cause of premature death in the world. I'll close with my product of the week: the Jedi Challenges, a joint offering from Disney and Lenovo I've been playing with. Damn thing is a ton of fun. Truck Drivers Are Safe Initially, I too thought autonomous vehicles meant truck drivers were toast -- but according to the trucking companies, there is so much value in the ...

How to make Budget Arduino Star Wars Projects You Can Make Right Now..

What if that’s not enough for you? If you are a more hands on person who loves tinkering with DIY electronics in your spare time, then this is for you! In this article we will cover 10 Arduino based Star Wars projects you can make on a budget. Some of these projects only cost a few dollars, some of them up to $40. We’ve also included links to some bigger projects, and while none of them could be described as budget conscious, they are just way too cool to ignore. 1. Imperial Death Buzzer Piezo buzzers are included in many Arduino starter kits, and are a great way to add sound to projects, we used one in our Buzz Wire Game tutorial. Instructables user eserra used one to play the always foreboding Imperial Death March. The project is powered by an Arduino UNO board, though any other Arduino compatible board will work just fine. This video was taken from the tutorial on Instructables , and uses the built in tone library for Arduino. ...

How To Become A Mathematical Genius Overnight.

Everyone’s out of school and so this post is not strictly about game theory but rather a case study in strategic thinking. For 7 years I was called very few names online. Then one day my math video Multiply Numbers By Drawing Lines went viral and got over 1 million views. Suddenly people were talking about me on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. I was not a nobody; I was called a “math genius.” I am, in fact, not a math genius. I am good at math and I’m a good student. No one ever called me a math genius because I studied math. What I learned from the experience is how to earn the public title of “math genius.” And I want to share what I’ve learned because the world needs more math geniuses. You too can become a mathematical genius overnight. And you don’t have to be that good at math either. So what’s the magic formula? Let me cut right to the chase. The secret ingredient to being called a math genius depends on one factor: publicity . If you can demonstrat...