Dove – Evolution

No, this is not a commercial for Dove.  And no, I do not get a cut of sales.

But my photography classes have been watching a short documentary produced by Dove showing off the abilities of the Photoshop photo editing suite.

The next bit, then, is interesting. It comes from ArsTechnica.

The French parliament has held its first hearing of a proposed law that would require every advertisement to display a disclaimer telling the public that images of people were manipulated. The goal is to help cut down on body issues in adolescents, and violating the law could be costly.

Random Technology… Furbys and Pleos!

Caleb Chung is the inventor of, among other things, the Furby.

Today on Random Technology Friday ™, my robotics classes watched a TED Talk by Chung in which he showed his process of design, moving from concept to a final product.

His newest toy is an animatronic robot called PLEO. Here it is.

But it’s much more than just a robot. From the Wiki:

Pleo is an animatronic dinosaur toy designed to emulate the appearance and (imagined) behavior of a week-old baby Camarasaurus. It was designed by Caleb Chung, the co-creator of the Furby, Chung’s company Ugobe sold pleo and was manufactured by jetta. Chung selected this species of dinosaur because its body shape, stocky head, and relatively large cranium made it ideal for concealing the sensors and motors needed for lifelike animation. According to Ugobe, each Pleo would “learn” from its experiences and environment through a sophisticated artificial intelligence and develop an individual personality.

Everything about this company smells of “fun”. Take a lok at their news release that addresses issues about Plea’s durability and waranty:
The evolution of Pleo progresses – just like in nature, Pleo occasionally suffers from life’s minor ailments.

• At times, Pleo’s skin suffers from fading and cracking – ouch!
• Pleo’s “wake-up” mode can be too short and Pleo can get exhausted much too soon.
• Some of the neck and tail tendons can break after rough play which can result in restricted motion and cause Pleo pain.

To address these issues, Innvo Labs “Life Form Scientist” began work in June to improve Pleo’s physical condition. And, after a few months of concentrated effort the Innvo Labs Team has made great progress to cure Pleo’s ills.

• The “Dino-Skin” specialists have successfully modified Pleo’s skin to improve its texture, pigmentation and toughness. Now Pleo is thrilled to have new improved skin to show off.
• The “Food-Energy” specialists have implanted a new “Revival Power Recovery System” in the form of a high efficiency charger. Now after one 16 hour recharging, Pleo is ready to resume normal activities at a much higher level.
• The “Dino-Orthopedics” specialists have redesigned the neck and tail sections to remove a previously detected “spur” that was causing wear issues so Pleo’s range of movement and toughness is greatly improved.

Sounds like a cool company to work for.

Talk to the hand

We’ve begun the robotics class with a video clip of a unique and ground breaking robotic hand.

From Hizook, the Robotics News Portal:

A few blogs are passing around videos of the Ishikawa Komuro Lab’s high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation.  However, the video being passed around is slight on details.  Meanwhile, their video presentation at ICRA 2009 (which took place in May in Kobe, Japan) has an informative narration and demonstrates additional capabilities.  I have included this video below, which shows the manipulator dribbling a ping-pong ball, spinning a pen, throwing a ball, tying knots, grasping a grain of rice with tweezers, and tossing / re-grasping a cellphone!

There are more vids from the Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory, website directly.

Team Canada

Team Canada paid David Thompson School a visit today in advance of the World Skills Competition being held in Calgary. DTS and Acadia students welcomed the team at a Pep Rally, and  number of dignitaries spoke to the assembly, wishing them good luck.

The event was ably MCed by Chantal and Lauren.  They even made it to the local news!

And the kids seemed pretty excited.

The day began with the pep rally, but continued with a rotation of student through a mini skills competition in the areas of math, construction, design, technology, and foods. The morning ended with a BBQ lunch for students…

… and then an impromtu bridge building competition between teachers.

Please take a look at the DTS Flickr page for larger versions of these, and more photos form the day’s events.