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Posted at 8:39pm on 16 May 2008

Cubescape

Nice little Flash app for creating isometric pixel art-esque images: Cubescape

Except that it's not a Flash app at all - this is all done with JavaScript and CSS. Amazing!

Posted at 12:30pm on 16 May 2008

Bat Hat

Dr. Kevin Warwick from Reading University has developed an echo location hat for blind people. Using the same principles as a bat, it allows them to navigate via utrasonic sonar.

For those not familiar with his work, Warwick is the guy who's famous for using himself as a human guinea pig for microchips implanted into the nervous system:

Kevin has carried out a series of pioneering experiments involving the neuro-surgical implantation of a device into the median nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer in order to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled

Posted at 12:17pm on 16 May 2008

Games With a Purpose

Interesting new site: gwap.com, purports to solve difficult pattern recognition problems by repackaging them as a game and getting humans to do the work.

This is similar to something Google did with their image search service: Google Image Labeler

It's also similar in concept to Amazon's Mechanical Turk, which makes micropayments to users in return for solving simple processing tasks.

This all seems like a brilliant idea - I really love the concept of seemless web services where you can't tell if a problem is being solved by a computer or a person. It's similar to a concept in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, where a girl's story book automatically outsources voiceover work to an actor via the Internet.