Class blog
Getting started with blogging as a Portfolio tool
I never had a online portfolio before, so it is an interesting experience to apply myself and write down my thoughts as different topics cross my mind or everyday observations occur. We'll see how this evolves in time, hopefully it will become a more natural task and ideas will flow freely.
Networks and existing video needs as bandwidth needs increased
While planning the goals for this year at work, it cross my mind the quantity of applications that can be created if a) video analytics required low resolution for its algorithms to work or HD video would be easy to remotely stream using internet ( I mean 1080p resolution) and b) if there was a smarter way to define or detect the video buffer or frame where the information to analyze resides. The overall direction of technology shows that it is a matter of time for this to become a reality and as a trend analytics are starting to move to the client side, within the camera guts, next to the encoding system.
Change of human values and interaction as technology evolves
This previous week I tried to pay close attention to people and their computer interactions. First, it is amazing the levels computers permeate everyday actions. Allow me to explain myself. Today my gas tank was low, at least that is what my vehicle showed me, so I decided to head towards the gas station and after pulling in front of the pump I used my credit card to pay for the transaction, filled the tank and headed to work. After reflecting a little about this, I realized my interaction with nearly 100 little computers. My vehicle has at least 50 small microcontrollers that monitor, control and provide multiple UI for personal comfort, to mention a few (tire pressure, gas, airbags, stereo, passenger's seat, antilock brakes, steering wheel, speed sensors, etc) the pump also has multiple computers, at least for credit card network transactions, the database computer for my credit card data, the fuel measurement system, the computer of the pump, the internal cash register in case I use cash. If I take a closer look, my watch, the soda machine, the traffic light, my cell phone, they are everywhere.
After realizing how this invisible invasion of computers makes my life so easy, I started to wonder about the underlying effects this has on people. This issue is better reflected in the paper “reflecting human values in the digital age” and “fogies at 20's”. All this was become clearer when I observed a couple next to the table my friends and I sat while lunch. The interesting thing was that human interaction was gone and each one was one hundred percent immerse in a different computer, one was using his net-book and the other was reading her nook. This made me wonder if this phenomenon was caused by technology (maybe it is easier to interact with a computer) or our culture drives us to always feel in a rush to keep up with something and we can share “it” better after our devices keep an eye for us and just interrupt us when necessary.
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Problems as opportunities
Mostly new developments are been used in the area of technology been along the mentality of faster and less power. So far, it seems that HCI needs to catch up and in order for this to happen our understanding of Human interaction with computer needs to be better understood.
However, more applications (music instruments, gadgets, gesture detection) and lack of a framework to understand the interactions leads to gadgets that are cool but do not survive in time.
It seems however that no understanding of the application or lack of human motive is further develop (which means it is a verge of development and a cool area to work on).
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Writing about my thoughts has never been easy, I always found reason why I could not write or when I would try it would be hard to describe, it was better to draw or to paraphrase it in another way. I am eager to see what results from this e-diary.
Stanford lectures
Personally there were two things that I felt were very applicable to myself. One is to take the chance to be fabulous and talk to people, I guess that I tend to get entangled in my own thoughts that even when walking do not pay much attention around me. By taking the chance to be fabulous I force myself to be aware, to express what I think and to think more about what is going on around me, this also allows me to talk to other people more and discuss about the same topic from a different perspective. All that has been fascinating and an eye opener about who you can meet if you are in the right place.
The other topic from this talk I felt was appealing was the envelope with five dollars, this part made me think about how limited we can be sometimes if we do not look at things from a different perspective. There can be multiple solutions to the same problem and sometimes we also develop a deaf ear because we think we heard everything before. This seems to be the case because of been in the industry for long, it shapes the way I think. Since I started this class, I tend to think lees of cost or technology available and more about the new concepts and if it would be acceptable or change the way we perform certain tasks. It creates a new level of thinking, more freedom I guess.
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I received today the book of the Universal Traveler. It is a very interesting book, it provides different sets of tools for problem solving and creative thinking, it will be very useful in creative thinking which is an area I want to develop further before I apply any problem solving skills.
Hopefully not like Susumu Yokota’s song titles
Some very cool TED talks
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=as-luck-would-have-it
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Computers helping us to become aware of our behaviors and dealing with other people’s behaviors
Links to explore:
http://ict.usc.edu/projects/elect_bilat1/
http://ict.usc.edu/projects/full_spectrum_command/
inspiring
http://www.ted.com/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_how_to_listen.html
Group Project
Behaviors and what impact they can have in our society and environment
Smart house and power consumption awareness
Use for monitoring behavior today, this can have a great impact. First step is to realize that we as a group or global culture have a sometimes terrible effect in nature, and natural or human resources.
Use this data to show it:
http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html
Energy logistics
http://www.gapminder.org/videos/gapcasts/gapcast-10-energy/
I never had a online portfolio before, so it is an interesting experience to apply myself and write down my thoughts as different topics cross my mind or everyday observations occur. We'll see how this evolves in time, hopefully it will become a more natural task and ideas will flow freely.
Networks and existing video needs as bandwidth needs increased
While planning the goals for this year at work, it cross my mind the quantity of applications that can be created if a) video analytics required low resolution for its algorithms to work or HD video would be easy to remotely stream using internet ( I mean 1080p resolution) and b) if there was a smarter way to define or detect the video buffer or frame where the information to analyze resides. The overall direction of technology shows that it is a matter of time for this to become a reality and as a trend analytics are starting to move to the client side, within the camera guts, next to the encoding system.
Change of human values and interaction as technology evolves
This previous week I tried to pay close attention to people and their computer interactions. First, it is amazing the levels computers permeate everyday actions. Allow me to explain myself. Today my gas tank was low, at least that is what my vehicle showed me, so I decided to head towards the gas station and after pulling in front of the pump I used my credit card to pay for the transaction, filled the tank and headed to work. After reflecting a little about this, I realized my interaction with nearly 100 little computers. My vehicle has at least 50 small microcontrollers that monitor, control and provide multiple UI for personal comfort, to mention a few (tire pressure, gas, airbags, stereo, passenger's seat, antilock brakes, steering wheel, speed sensors, etc) the pump also has multiple computers, at least for credit card network transactions, the database computer for my credit card data, the fuel measurement system, the computer of the pump, the internal cash register in case I use cash. If I take a closer look, my watch, the soda machine, the traffic light, my cell phone, they are everywhere.
After realizing how this invisible invasion of computers makes my life so easy, I started to wonder about the underlying effects this has on people. This issue is better reflected in the paper “reflecting human values in the digital age” and “fogies at 20's”. All this was become clearer when I observed a couple next to the table my friends and I sat while lunch. The interesting thing was that human interaction was gone and each one was one hundred percent immerse in a different computer, one was using his net-book and the other was reading her nook. This made me wonder if this phenomenon was caused by technology (maybe it is easier to interact with a computer) or our culture drives us to always feel in a rush to keep up with something and we can share “it” better after our devices keep an eye for us and just interrupt us when necessary.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Problems as opportunities
Mostly new developments are been used in the area of technology been along the mentality of faster and less power. So far, it seems that HCI needs to catch up and in order for this to happen our understanding of Human interaction with computer needs to be better understood.
However, more applications (music instruments, gadgets, gesture detection) and lack of a framework to understand the interactions leads to gadgets that are cool but do not survive in time.
It seems however that no understanding of the application or lack of human motive is further develop (which means it is a verge of development and a cool area to work on).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Writing about my thoughts has never been easy, I always found reason why I could not write or when I would try it would be hard to describe, it was better to draw or to paraphrase it in another way. I am eager to see what results from this e-diary.
Stanford lectures
Personally there were two things that I felt were very applicable to myself. One is to take the chance to be fabulous and talk to people, I guess that I tend to get entangled in my own thoughts that even when walking do not pay much attention around me. By taking the chance to be fabulous I force myself to be aware, to express what I think and to think more about what is going on around me, this also allows me to talk to other people more and discuss about the same topic from a different perspective. All that has been fascinating and an eye opener about who you can meet if you are in the right place.
The other topic from this talk I felt was appealing was the envelope with five dollars, this part made me think about how limited we can be sometimes if we do not look at things from a different perspective. There can be multiple solutions to the same problem and sometimes we also develop a deaf ear because we think we heard everything before. This seems to be the case because of been in the industry for long, it shapes the way I think. Since I started this class, I tend to think lees of cost or technology available and more about the new concepts and if it would be acceptable or change the way we perform certain tasks. It creates a new level of thinking, more freedom I guess.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I received today the book of the Universal Traveler. It is a very interesting book, it provides different sets of tools for problem solving and creative thinking, it will be very useful in creative thinking which is an area I want to develop further before I apply any problem solving skills.
Hopefully not like Susumu Yokota’s song titles
Some very cool TED talks
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=as-luck-would-have-it
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computers helping us to become aware of our behaviors and dealing with other people’s behaviors
Links to explore:
http://ict.usc.edu/projects/elect_bilat1/
http://ict.usc.edu/projects/full_spectrum_command/
inspiring
http://www.ted.com/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_how_to_listen.html
Group Project
Behaviors and what impact they can have in our society and environment
Smart house and power consumption awareness
Use for monitoring behavior today, this can have a great impact. First step is to realize that we as a group or global culture have a sometimes terrible effect in nature, and natural or human resources.
Use this data to show it:
http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html
Energy logistics
http://www.gapminder.org/videos/gapcasts/gapcast-10-energy/
