“Of Course Machines Can’t Think As People Do. A Machine Is Different From A Person. Hence, They Think

Human Pose Detection - Mining Body Language from Videos

Machine Learning investigation from samim examines body language in video using recently released open-source code library OpenPose:

From Gene Kelly’s Step-Dance to Bruce Lee’s Kung-Fu — iconic movement has made history. Communicating through Body Language is an ancient art form, currently evolving in fascinating ways: Computationally detecting human body language is becoming effective and accessible. This experiment explores enabling technologies, applications & implications.

For over 20 years, Motion Capture has enabled us to record actions of humans and then use that information to animate a digital character or analyse poses. While movie makers and game developers embraced such technologies — it until recently required expensive equipment which captured only few aspects of the overall performance.

Today, a new generation of machine learning based systems is making it possible to detect human body language directly from images. A growing number of research papers and open-source libraries addresses key aspects: Body, Hand, Face, Gaze Tracking. Identity, Gender, Age, Emotion and Muscle strain Detection. Action Classification & Prediction. We now can…

More Here

First underwater entanglement could lead to unhackable comms: A team of Chinese researchers has, for the first time, transmitted quantum entangled particles of light through water – the first step in using lasers to send underwater messages that are impossible to intercept. http://ift.tt/2vnLups

THIS IS THE VIRTUAL REALITY I WAS PROMISED

Presenter Erika Ishii presents a wireless solution for Virtual Reality experiences, with a high powered laptop strapped to the back with an Htc Vive pro (though it isn’t clear how long the batteries will last):

THIS IS THE VIRTUAL REALITY I WAS PROMISED. @TeaganMorrison built us a wireless VR rig! @Alienware 15 laptop, @htcvive pro, army frame backpack. 

Source

How does cashless society work?

If there is one post to this tumblr I want to see reblogged like crazy, it’s this one.

So how would a cashless society work? This is, IMHO, one of the most important questions to ask when discussing Star Trek in general. 

Roddenberry had a vision which continues to motivate and inspire people today, because it envisioned humanity so far beyond its time. It allowed the show to craft an ideal. Something that may never be completely achieved, but that should be strived for continually. Providing not a roadmap, but a light to follow. 

Social issues are incredibly important, and are not to be understated when discussing this specific topic- they are the fundamental ideals within the Star Trek universe. But close behind this is the concept of economic enlightenment. In fact, I would argue they are fundamentally one in the same. In order for us to find love among all of us, without any hate or envy or fear, we need to find means of providing for everyone, so that everyone can be given the same opportunities to choose how they live their lives. 

One aspect of this Roddenberry version of a fair and enlightened global society would be one with no cash. 

But How Does That Work?

How, can anything work without cash? Or to clarify, money? I don’t believe it could right now, but in the future, if certain issues were solved, we could be well on our way. Here are three aspects of our society that will need to be addressed or achieved before we would even be close:

1. There needs to be a movement to Post-Scarcity

People need to have easy access to homes, health, and the basic comforts that money currently is required to attain. 

There’s a lot of talk about a “post-scarcity” economy. With 3d-printers, efficient production, and global access to information we are already moving towards this. But one big hurdle in this issue is energy. Until we find a means of providing nearly limitless energy to the entire planet, a post-scarcity society will be very hard to maintain. (Cold fusion is an exciting potential leap forward)

2. Automation for the dangerous jobs and Universal Basic Income

We need robots to do the repetitive and dangerous jobs people shouldn’t do or just don’t want to do. The more these jobs are taken up by robots, the more there will be a need for a Universal Basic Income. The general concept is this: companies that produce goods while removing jobs from the market will need to pay tax on the robots that were once paying jobs. The money will then be given to the citizens as a dividend. This will eventually be the foundation for providing a universal live-able distribution of resources to everyone. 

3. Debt needs to be reversed 

The final issue is debt will need to be removed from society. This is arguably the hardest to understand and I imagine even harder to implement. Our current understanding of economics runs on debt. Person A gives money to Person B so that person B can make more money and give back that money (plus interest) to person A. The problem is this seems to allow the money to be consolidated into large pools. Currently the top 8 richest people in the world hold more wealth than the bottom half. 

We need a way to believe in a society that can work in reverse. A society where we pay it forward, rather than pay it back. This is where I haven’t fully understood the ideas being proposed. But one thing is certain, those in the top 1% will need to provide for those in need for this to ever work. There needs to be a rational, if not spiritual enlightenment among the richest in the world that we need to all have a place in society. A place unburdened by overwhelming fiscal obligation. When people don’t owe money, they can make the choices that benefit themselves and the rest of us at the same time. Rather than the choice that just makes them money.

I honestly think this is the biggest hurdle out of all of them. Because while the other issues can be solved with technological and political progress, this one truly requires a global enlightenment. Yes things like bitcoin and ethereum might help, but this is a bigger problem than just banking access and credit.

*Takes Deep Breath*

So that’s one take on Roddenberry’s vision of a cashless society. It’s something I truly hope comes to fruition.  A world where people are secure in knowing they have access to healthcare, a home, and the ability to pursue their passion. A world where all its people are freed to be their best self. Where creativity and science and kindness have priority. Orchestras could play in the park for free. Artists could make paintings of anything for anyone they wish. Scientists can spend their time inventing what they believe will help the planet the most. And we can finally get to the business of exploring the stars. 

Clouds That Actually Look Like Things

Webb 101: 10 Facts about the James Webb Space Telescope

Did you know…?

1. Our upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will act like a powerful time machine – because it will capture light that’s been traveling across space for as long as 13.5 billion years, when the first stars and galaxies were formed out of the darkness of the early universe.

2. Webb will be able to see infrared light. This is light that is just outside the visible spectrum, and just outside of what we can see with our human eyes.

3. Webb’s unprecedented sensitivity to infrared light will help astronomers to compare the faintest, earliest galaxies to today’s grand spirals and ellipticals, helping us to understand how galaxies assemble over billions of years.

Hubble’s infrared look at the Horsehead Nebula. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team

4. Webb will be able to see right through and into massive clouds of dust that are opaque to visible-light observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope. Inside those clouds are where stars and planetary systems are born.

5. In addition to seeing things inside our own solar system, Webb will tell us more about the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars, and perhaps even find the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe.

Credit: Northrop Grumman

6. Webb will orbit the Sun a million miles away from Earth, at the place called the second Lagrange point. (L2 is four times further away than the moon!)

7. To preserve Webb’s heat sensitive vision, it has a ‘sunshield’ that’s the size of a tennis court; it gives the telescope the equivalent of SPF protection of 1 million! The sunshield also reduces the temperature between the hot and cold side of the spacecraft by almost 600 degrees Fahrenheit.

8.  Webb’s 18-segment primary mirror is over 6 times bigger in area than Hubble’s and will be ~100x more powerful. (How big is it? 6.5 meters in diameter.)

9.  Webb’s 18 primary mirror segments can each be individually adjusted to work as one massive mirror. They’re covered with a golf ball’s worth of gold, which optimizes them for reflecting infrared light (the coating is so thin that a human hair is 1,000 times thicker!).

10. Webb will be so sensitive, it could detect the heat signature of a bumblebee at the distance of the moon, and can see details the size of a US penny at the distance of about 40 km.

BONUS!  Over 1,200 scientists, engineers and technicians from 14 countries (and more than 27 U.S. states) have taken part in designing and building Webb. The entire project is a joint mission between NASA and the European and Canadian Space Agencies. The telescope part of the observatory was assembled in the world’s largest cleanroom at our Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Webb is currently being tested at our Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, TX.

Afterwards, the telescope will travel to Northrop Grumman to be mated with the spacecraft and undergo final testing. Once complete, Webb will be packed up and be transported via boat to its launch site in French Guiana, where a European Space Agency Ariane 5 rocket will take it into space.

Learn more about the James Webb Space Telescope HERE, or follow the mission on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Quick, Draw! by Google

Quick, Draw! is an artificial intelligence experiment that looks for familiarizing yourself with how neural networks work to identify objects and text in photos 

IT’S OUT!!!

CAN 2017 – Highlights and Favourites

The always-fantastic Art & Tech resource Creative Applications have put together their list of highlights from the year:

As 2017 comes to a close, we take a moment to look back at the outstanding work done this year. From spectacular performances, large scale installations, devices and tools to the new virtual spaces for artistic exploration – so many great projects are being added to the CAN archive! Here are a just few, 25 in total, that we and you enjoyed the most this year.

Have a look for yourself here

‘Overwatch’ fan Chris Guyot created adorable, minimalist animations of the game’s heroes

follow @the-future-now