blacksundae

Interactive Video Object Manipulation from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

“Existing approaches to interaction with digital video are complex, and some operations lack the immediacy of interactive feedback. Our research in video annotation, visualization, and interaction harnesses computer vision to aid users in understanding and communicating with digital video. We are developing new approaches for computing the motion of points and objects in a video clip, and interactive systems that utilize this data to visually annotate independently moving objects in the video. We have applied this interface to construct visualizations of a short video clip in a single static image, using the visual language of storyboards. The principal advantage of the storyboard representation over standard representations of video is that it requires only a moment to observe and comprehend but at the same time retains much of the detail of the source video. The layout of the storyboard can be optimized to place the elements in a configuration that maximizes the clarity of presentation. We also explore novel interaction techniques for random video frame access using the natural spatial dimensions of a storyboard representation or an individual video frame.”

Read on.

sweetgifs.com Via NOTCOT.org

Here at blacksundae we, or at least two of us, are into pneumatic delivery systems - you know, those cool retro tubes that used to snake around inside department stores, delivering layaway slips and cash and other paper. And you see them at drive-through banks; you put your transaction in a plastic capsule and it gets sucked through a “pipeline” to where the teller is.

Well, come to find out we don’t know jack. Tim Howgego, on the other hand, is a certified capsule pipeline nerd! His Capsule Pipelines web site is a serious look at the history and status of pneumatic, hydraulic and other tube systems of various sizes used, or intended to be used, for carrying … no, not just money orders and retail paperwork, but … freight and passengers!

Pack a lunch; there’s lots to peruse on Tim’s site. You’ll, uh, get sucked in. (Sorry.)

Saw this bizarre flier in South Park the other day. It appears to be related to this group, founded by “Octavio Coleman, Esquire.” (I wonder what you have to do these days to have Esquire appended to your name.)

Did a bit of Googling and apparently this is what it’s about.

This is the jack-o-lantern Brooke and I just carved. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Associated Press:

Canadian director David Cronenberg is swapping his camera for a pen.

The moviemaker, who was attending the Rome Film Festival on Thursday, said he has written 60 pages of a novel, but besides ruling out that it would be a horror or science fiction, offered few details on the project.

I love Cronenberg’s work and can’t wait to read this. Actually, I find it interesting that Cronenberg has waited this long to do this. His two major, avowed influences have been Nabokov and Philip K. Dick (No wonder I love his cinema.) and has said he’s been more influenced by them and other novelists than any filmmaker.

Link! Via CHUD

New Scientist:

Elementary physics tells us that we actually can move the planets. Launching a rocket into space pushes the Earth a bit in the opposite direction, like the recoil from a gun.

Science-fiction author and trained physicist Stanley Schmidt exploited this fact in his novel The Sins of the Fathers, in which aliens built giant rocket engines at the South Pole to move the Earth. (Read about other sci-fi novels and films that have tackled the problem of moving worlds.)

In real life, however, the Earth is so massive that a rocket would have little effect on its motion. Launching a billion 10-tonne rockets in exactly the same direction would change the Earth’s velocity by just 20 nanometres per second – peanuts compared to the planet’s current speed of 30 kilometres per second.

A few astronomers have tackled the problem of moving planets, but not for dealing with emergencies on human time scales. They’re actually devising thought experiments to understand the dynamics of planetary systems, says Greg Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz. So processes that occur on geologic time scales work perfectly well.

Link! Via MonkeyFilter

“When you have Optimus Prime AND Master Chief cheering from the Superdome, is there really any doubt which team is superior?” - io9

BBC:

Sesena was designed as a major urbanisation for Spanish professionals who could not afford city prices, with more than 13,500 flats built on scrubland.

Fewer than 3,000 have been sold. Hugh Pym takes a look at this modern ghost town.

Link! Via Ballardian

For the humans co-ordination is important, but for the zombies it’s absolutely vital. Slower than the living (and with only a couple of seconds of “lunge” ability), the zombies must use teamspeak servers to flank their opponents. It feels odd to charge a machine-gunning foe with nothing but your rotting fingers - but the fact that you’ll come back from the dead is good. Watching your teammates creeping up behind your killer with your meaningless life as a distraction is better. And the fact that your newly-zombified former enemy will then help you kill his former teammates is absolutely priceless.

How have I never heard of this?! Link! Via Reddit.