Category Archives: Technology

Crowdsourced Metadata Games: A Primer | Information Space

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The challenge: You have two minutes to educate a Stupid Robot by describing the picture below as precisely as possible. The catch: you can only list one word of any given length from 4-10 letters, and the robot will reject words it already knows. Therefore, you must be accurate, creative, and specific all at once.

An image from the British Library’s collections on http://www.metadatagames.org

If, like me, you found this challenge oddly entertaining, you might enjoy Metadata Games, a set of interactive tagging games designed to help libraries and museums crowdsource useful metadata for their collections.

READ MORE: Crowdsourced Metadata Games: A Primer | Information Space

Love Comic Sans? Then This is the Typewriter For You | Engadget

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Hey, sometimes actions speak louder than fonts. And if you really, really like Comic Sans, then you’re going to love this. In the name of art, a gentleman named Jesse England has designed the “Sincerity Machine,” a Comic Sans typewriter.

READ MORE: Love Comic Sans? Then This is the Typewriter For You | Engadget

New Tablet Case Recognizes Sign Language and Translates It Into Text | WIRED

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When you’re deaf, finding a job isn’t easy. The trickiest part, explains Ryan Hait Campbell, is the interview. “You’re not required to tell an employer you’re deaf until the interview, but sometimes, they’re a little shocked,” says Campbell, who has been deaf since birth. “They don’t know how to handle it.”

Because of things like this, he says, unemployment rates are staggeringly high among the deaf. Hard numbers are tough to come by, but some figures estimate that around half of people with hearing disabilities are unemployed.

But Campbell wants to change this. He’s the co-founder and CEO of MotionSavvy, an Alameda, California-based startup that’s developing a case for tablet computers that can serve as a virtual interpreter for the deaf. Known as UNI, the case uses gesture recognition technology developed by Leap Motion to translate sign language into audible speech.

READ MORE: New Tablet Case Recognizes Sign Language and Translates It Into Text | WIRED.

The Latest in EdTech Trends: 70 Resources Roundup | OEDB.org

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Lists recently posted resources related to MOOCs, big data, Gamification, The Flipped Classroom, 3D Printing, Mobile Learning and Digital Textbooks. READ: The Latest in EdTech Trends: 70 Resources Roundup | OEDB.org.

Google Just Released Hundreds of Cool Icons That You Can Use For Free | Gizmodo

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As part of its Material Design project, Google has published a set of lovely icons, designed for use in mobile apps or whatever else you fancy using them for. And theyre free!

READ: Google Just Released Hundreds of Cool Icons That You Can Use For Free | Gizmodo

Your Next Psychologist May Prescribe The Legend of Zelda | Mashable

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When Carly McCullar, 32, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as an adult, she wanted to improve her social and communication skills before heading into the next stage of her life.

Never having received such help before, she volunteered to participate in a unique treatment program: virtual reality. Sitting at a computer that tracked her facial expressions, the game tested her social cognition and provided feedback, McCullar played through various realistic scenarios, including a job interview, a confrontation with a loud neighbor and even dating.

The program, a collaborative effort from gaming technology experts and health researchers at the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas, simulates everyday experiences and social situations that are typically difficult for those with autism or anxiety disorders. And its just one example in a growing trend in which video games are forms of therapy. READ MORE: Your Next Psychologist May Prescribe The Legend of Zelda | Mashable

PhotoMath Smart Camera Calculator from MicroBLINK | Vimeo

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MicroBLINK PhotoMath Smart Camera Calculator. From PhotoMath.net “PhotoMath reads and solves mathematical expressions by using the camera of your mobile device in real time. It makes math easy and simple by educating users how to solve math problems.”

PhotoMath from MicroBLINK on Vimeo.

7 Skills New Marketers Need to Succeed [Infographic] | Marketing Darwinism

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7 Skills New Marketers Need to Succeed | Marketing Darwinism

Women in Data Science Are Invisible. We Can Change That | WIRED

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READ: Women in Data Science Are Invisible. We Can Change That | WIRED

Doctor Who’s new web game aims to teach children programming skills | theguardian.com

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Doctor Who’s latest adventure sees him teaming up with a Dalek and trying to save the universe, but also teaching children some early computer programming skills.

This isn’t a TV show, however: it’s a game due to launch on Wednesday 22 October on the broadcaster’s CBBC website. The Doctor and the Dalek includes voice narration from current Doctor Peter Capaldi, and a new story by Phil Ford, who has written for the TV show.

The free web game is aimed at 6-12 year-olds, and involves freeing a battered Dalek from a ship of Cybermen, then building it back up to full strength through puzzles based on the programming elements of the new English computing curriculum.

via Doctor Whos new web game aims to teach children programming skills | Technology | theguardian.com.