https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/rana_el_kaliouby_this_app_knows_how_you_feel_from_the_look_on_your_face.html
Rana el Kaliouby, a Cambridge- and MIT-trained scientist and leader in facial-recognition technology, is concerned about how computers are affecting the emotional lives of her two small children.
There is much research that suggests that emotional intelligence develops from social interactions, yet children are increasingly spending their days in front of computers, tablets, and smartphones. Today, children under the age of eight spend on average two full hours a day in front of screens. El Kaliouby is deeply concerned about what happens when children grow up around technology that does not express emotion and cannot read our emotion. Does that cause us, in turn, to stop expressing emotion?
The answer, according to recent research, is yes. A University of California-Los Angeles study last year found that children who had regular access to phones, televisions, and computers were significantly worse at reading human emotions than those who went five days without exposure to technology.
But El Kaliouby does not believe the solution lies in ridding the world of technology. Instead, she believes we should be working to make computers more emotionally intelligent.
READ MORE: What Emotion-Reading Computers Are Learning About Us | Fast Company | Business + Innovation
Some great design app suggestions that I had not heard of before (like Axure, IFTTT and Processing) and a wide range of design books recommended. Something for everyone.
35 Books Every Designer Should Read | Co.Design | business + design We asked some of the world’s top design schools to share their favorite books. Here’s what they recommend for your summer reading list.
27 Apps Designers Can’t Live Without | Co.Design | business + design
Maybe it’s just Gmail, or maybe it’s something more esoteric like Processing, but there are certain apps we rely on so much that if they suddenly went missing, we’d have a hard time getting by. That’s especially true for designers. Their livelihoods depend upon great software. What’s more, as people who dissect design details all day, they have unique insights into what makes an app great. They can see UI/UX friction points the way Superman can see microscopic structural flaws in steel. So we combed out rolodexes and reached out to more than two dozen designers to ask about the apps they couldn’t live without.
Turning a cube into a rotating multi-colored puzzle isn’t terribly difficult. Ernő Rubik did it back in 1974 without the need for a computer. For other shapes, though, like a complicated 3D bunny, you need to figure out the perfect way to slice it up so that every sub-section can rotate freely. But thankfully there’s now software that can automatically do that for you.
Developed by Timothy Sun and Changxi Zheng at Columbia University, the software first requires you to have a 3D CG model of whatever object or shape you want to convert to a Rubik’s-like puzzle. READ MORE: This New Software Turns Any Object Into a Rubik’s Cube Puzzle | Gizmodo
Blue may seem like a safe bet for a brand’s identity. The data suggests otherwise…There is plenty of psychological research on reactions to blue and other colors, but to evaluate the strategy of choosing blue for a brand, we wanted to measure how blue actually performs, to examine how it measures up against other colors in competitive environments. After all, brands have to compete—they have to work against the idea of sameness and command a premium. So we looked at the comparative performance of blue and other colors in several real-life contexts
READ MORE: The Problem With The Color Blue | Co.Design | business + design
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02tx270/player
Instead of grabbing the remote or poking at your smartphone, the BBC thinks the future of TV navigation could lie in mind control. For its latest experiment, the broadcaster is testing a brainwave reading headset developed by This Place that lets you launch iPlayer and choose programmes with your thoughts. READ MORE: BBC experiment lets you control iPlayer with your mind | Engadget
The adorable Pepper robot unveiled a year ago by Japan-based mobile and telecommunications company SoftBank has finally been made available to consumers, and it’s been a roaring success.
According to CIO, the robot was launched on to the market at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 20. Within a minute, all 1,000 robots in the first wave had been snapped up by customers, going for 198,000 yen (around $1,610) apiece.
Pepper aims to act as a household companion. It is programmed to communicate with users, follow vocal commands, and, in what SoftBank claims is a first, read human emotions and react accordingly. Pepper is not built for physical tasks. The robot’s role is more emotional. READ MORE: Caring Pepper robot hits the market, sells out in a minute – CNET
There’s no question that the Raspberry Pi is successful among the homebrew computing crowd. However, it’s not what you’d call consumer-friendly — the bare circuit board you normally get is clearly intended for tinkerers who plan to put the mini PC inside their own projects. Mercifully, you won’t have to devise a shell for it (or run it exposed) for much longer. READ MORE: At last, the Raspberry Pi mini PC has an official case | Engadget
I wonder what we do if we don’t remember which Emoji character we used for our “Emoji Code”…there are too many Emoji now IMO…and with so many accounts as a techie I’m sure won’t remember them all if Emojis are eventually used for logins of services beyond just bank accounts.
A UK company claims to have invented the idea of using a set of emoji to replace a PIN number, suggesting that our stupid brains find it easier to remember the silly drawing people face things — and that the increased complexity of the emoji character set makes brute-forcing into our bank accounts substantially harder. READ MORE: Emoji Passwords are Coming: Harder to Hack and Easier to Remember | Gizmodo.
Researchers at the University Of Tennessee At Knoxville have confirmed what my kids believe they already know – that some video gaming can be as physically intense for younger gamers as playing outside.
Before you let your toddlers have a four-hour Minecraft session, however, check out the methodology [hint “active gaming”]. READ MORE: Study Finds That Active Video Gaming May Be As Good For Kids As Playing Outside | TechCrunch.
infophile 