Video games in the 80s only depicted a certain amount of pixels on the screen. Fortunately, that didn't hold developers back from pushing the limits of the available hardware to play with our imagination by creating beautiful, handsome characters.
This week?starting off with the 80s?we're going to explore the hottest, most attractive video game characters to see how gaming tastes and technology have changed over the years.
It's not surprising to see the first few instances of popular characters represented in video games as blocky blobs. It may not seem like Smurfette and Snow White are beautiful in these images by today's standards, but it's what we had in the 80s.
Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (1982)
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1983)
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Nintendo stuck to a formula in their early games: After beating the game, players were rewarded with an ending animation featuring a cute princess or?in Metroid's case?a really hot, shocking reveal.
Pauline in Donkey Kong (1981)
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Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. (1985)
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Samus Aran in Metroid (1986)
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Princess Zelda in The Legend of Zelda (1986)
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Things changed a bit by the end of the decade. Because of technical limitations, in most cases instead of named characters we got beautiful intros, endings or title screens. And of course there were exceptions and experiments, like the interactive movie-like Dragon's Lair released on laserdisc or the prankish, comedic text adventure Leather Goddesses Of Phobos.
Dragon's Lair (1983)
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Leather Goddesses of Phobos (1986)
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California Games (1987)
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Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987)
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The Great Giana Sisters (1987)
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Super Robin Hood (1987)
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Maniac Mansion (1987)
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Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987)
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Snatcher (the PC-8801 version from 1988)
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Battle Chess (1988)
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Street Rod (1989)
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Keef The Thief (1989)
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Super Monaco Grand Prix (1989)
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Spellcasting 101 (1989)
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Prince of Persia (1989)
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It didn't take too long to see adult games pop up and find their audiences. Although we won't focus on them in the series, we can't ignore their presence. Japan already had a decent library of adult games by the end of the decade, but the West took their own active part in various so-called Atari porn titles (Custer's Revenge) and poker games. One of the earliest ones was Artworx' Strip Poker for the Apple II.
Strip Poker: A Snizzling Game of Chance (1982)
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The closest you could get to hot male characters in video games were sword & sorcery type fantasy titles, movie adaptations, run-and-gun action games or a combination of these. Basically: full of testosterone.
James Bond: A View To Kill (1983)
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Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
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Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter (1986)
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Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior (1987)
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Contra (1988)
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Moonwalker (1989)
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Super Spike Volleyball (1989)
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Tomorrow we step forward to the 90s to see how tastes evolved in that decade.
Can you recall any other great games from the 80s that featured beautiful characters? Hit the comments and post 'em!
sources: Allen Kesinger, C64 Endings, Matt Barton, 007Museum, Highretrogamelord89, Hardcoregaming101, CDKgaming, Combolations, DavetheUsher, RagoGamer, Highretrogamelord89, Atarimania
For better or worse, sex sells. And for some of Japan's most famous game companies, it was? Read?
Scanners and mice are more similar than you might expect. Just as a mouse can sweep the breadth and height of an on-screen page, a device like a wand scanner can capture images of physical documents as it sweeps across lines or blocks of text. The IRIScan Mouse merges the two devices. You can use it as a mouse, and with a click of a button you can scan a physical document, OCR it, save it in various formats, or send it to social media or the Cloud.
The Mouse Scanner as a Mouse
The IRIScan Mouse is a wired mouse, connecting to a computer's USB port. The device is reasonably attractive, black (glossy on top, matte on the sides and bottom) with green trim. The Scan button, on the left side, glows blue, and blinks when a scan is in progress. On the bottom of the mouse is a plastic window through which the scan element can read the page. A flickering white light illuminates the page while you're scanning.
I've used the IRIScan Mouse as my normal work mouse for about a week, and in that capacity?in terms of scrolling and doing other typical mouse tasks?it's operated smoothly, with only a single issue of note. The scan button is on the left side of the mouse, right where I rest the ball of my thumb. The scan button requires a bit of pressure to activate, but nonetheless I've triggered it accidentally while writing a review or working in a Word document. Doing so is an annoyance, as it takes a few moments to stop and then cancel the scan. It happens most frequently when I'm standing at my test bench taking notes, though I've also accidentally initiated scans while typing at my desk.
Software
The scanning software comes on an included disk, which you install on your PC (it is Windows only). Software includes IRISCompressor, which enables compression of image and PDF files. You can send notes to Evernote?the IRIScan Mouse includes 3 free months of Evernote Premium. You can also send scanned text directly to Google Translate. Output formats include PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PDF, XML, and DOC.
Scanning With the Mouse
To scan, you place the mouse on a document, press the scan button, and sweep the mouse across the parts of the document you want to scan. As you scan a larger area, the view will automatically zoom out. You'll want to have plenty of free room to the sides of the document if you want to scan the whole thing. I found the scanning process awkward, as tracking wasn't that great.
When you're done scanning, you press the scan button again; the scan will appear rectangular and properly aligned. The Edit menu will appear; you can Paste the scan (either as image or text); Share (to email, Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr); send it to Apps (Evernote or Google Translate); Save (to the file formats mentioned below); Print; Edit; or access Settings.
When you paste a scan as text to a program like Word, the IRIScan software will perform text recognition on it, a quick process. Then you can edit or save the document. OCR performance was a mixed bag. It read our Arial test page at sizes down to 8 points without a mistake, but with Times New Roman it had some errors at all sizes up to 12 points.
The IRIScan Mouse is best for scanning individual sheets of paper; scanning from a magazine proved tricky at times as the text wouldn't always stay flat enough for a clean scan. Also, since the scan window is on the left side of the mouse, it was hard (and sometimes impossible) to scan to the inner margin on left-handed pages.
For about $50 more than you'd pay for a normal wired mouse, you can get the IRIScan Mouse, a wired (USB-connected) mouse that can scan to text or image, provides text recognition, and can save scanned documents to various formats as well as perform as a typical mojuse. It's best for occasional, light-duty scanning of documents or images. The scanner portion is most akin to a wand scanner such as the Editors' Choice VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Wi-Fi PDSWF-ST44-VP
. However, most wand scanners operate PC-free, while the IRIScan Mouse doesn't.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Tony Parker could only shake his head at the travails of the Los Angeles Lakers, who probably packed more drama and turmoil into this season than the Spurs point guard has experienced in his entire career with steady San Antonio.
Parker is just grateful the Spurs sidestepped the drama and kept moving steadily into the second round of the playoffs.
Parker scored 23 points, Kawhi Leonard and DeJuan Blair added 13 apiece, and San Antonio eliminated the injury-plagued Lakers with a 103-82 victory in Game 4 on Sunday night, completing a one-sided series with a second straight blowout on the road.
San Antonio trailed for fewer than five combined minutes in the four-game series, grinding out points and defensive stops with the steady professionalism of coach Gregg Popovich's best teams. The Lakers played the finale without Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Metta World Peace and two key reserves, tamping down most of the playoff vibe.
"It was just a weird feeling," Parker said. "Obviously, I am happy we won, but it was just weird. They were missing a lot of guys, so we're just happy to go to the next round."
Tim Duncan had 11 points and six rebounds for the second-seeded Spurs, who will face the winner of Denver's series with Golden State in the second round. They'll get plenty of rest after flattening the Lakers, who staggered through their first opening-round exit since 2007.
"Obviously, it wasn't a fair fight," Popovich said. "When you're a competitor, you want to compete on an even basis, and the Lakers weren't able to do that. ... Even though it wasn't a fair fight, we still want to win the series, and I'm glad we did. Our focus was great."
San Antonio never trailed in the clincher, leading by 25 points in one more businesslike effort against the seventh-seeded Lakers, who provided their usual drama right down to their last gasp.
After Duncan led the Spurs' blowout in Game 3, Parker took the lead in the clincher, scoring 15 points in the first half while exploiting the Lakers' hastily assembled backcourt. Los Angeles' top four guards are out with injuries, including backups Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks, and Parker was merciless against third-stringers.
"This is a good start for us," Duncan said. "We like the pace we're at right now. We like the rhythm we're at right now, and how healthy we are right now. Hopefully it can stay that way."
In his final game before unrestricted free agency, Dwight Howard scored seven points before getting ejected early in the third quarter for arguing. Pau Gasol had 16 points for the Lakers, who were swept from the postseason for the second time in three years despite a late courtside appearance by Bryant on crutches.
"It's like a nightmare," Howard said. "It's like a bad dream we couldn't wake up out of. That's what it felt like. It seemed like nothing could go right from the start."
There's almost no turbulence around the Spurs, who seamlessly replaced injured starting center Tiago Splitter in Game 4 with Australian rookie Aron Baynes, who had six points and played decent defense in his first NBA start.
The Lakers gave away thousands of white towels to their fans Sunday, and they acquired an unfortunate symbolism. They had just nine available players in uniform for the final minutes.
"I'm proud of them, because they fought," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "It was kind of a year that was all upside-down, but I appreciate the effort to get us into the playoffs. We just didn't have it."
After an unimpressive game featuring just two field goal attempts in 20 minutes, Howard was tossed with 9:51 left in the third quarter for his second technical foul. The All-Star center, furious with the Spurs' unpunished physical play, yelled a few parting words at the court after walking past general manager Mitch Kupchak in the tunnel to the locker room.
Afterward, Howard said he must "do a better job of keeping my cool."
"I hate it for him," D'Antoni said, lamenting the lack of fouls called against players guarding Howard. "He gets banged up so much in there that I'm sure he didn't mean to (get ejected), but he takes a pounding, and after a while, I guess his nerves were shot."
Moments later, Bryant got the solemn Staples Center crowd on its feet when he hobbled out of the tunnel to a seat behind the Lakers' bench, making his first appearance at courtside since tearing his Achilles tendon 16 days ago. Bryant, who might not be healthy by the start of next season, repeatedly yelled instructions and encouragement at the Lakers' young backcourt, Andrew Goudelock and Darius Morris, and fill-in starter Earl Clark.
The Spurs had control of this series from the start: They posted two methodical victories at home before sending the Lakers to their biggest home playoff defeat in their long franchise history in Game 3, 120-89. The clincher was more of the same, with the Lakers unable to mount enough teamwork to challenge the smooth Spurs.
The Spurs have swept three of their last four playoff series, winning every game in the first two rounds last season before losing in six games to Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals. San Antonio is in the second round of the postseason for the fourth time in six seasons since their last championship in 2007.
NOTES: Gasol got a standing ovation when he left the game with 3:08 to play. The two-time NBA champion has one year left on his contract with the Lakers, but could be a trade chip in the Lakers' rebuild. ... Splitter has a sprained ankle and is out indefinitely, although his teammates think he can return during the second round. F Boris Diaw practiced with contact this weekend in his comeback from a back injury. ... The Lakers faced an 0-3 series deficit for the eighth time in franchise history ? and for the eighth time, they were swept. ... Jack Nicholson and Lil Wayne watched at courtside, but both left early in the fourth quarter.
Zynga's first quarter results are in for 2013, and it's a mixed bag. The company showed a profit, but all of its major metrics were down. Zynga's executives put their best spin on the numbers, but the hard truth is that it was a tough quarter in a tough year. Still, while the current situation is rough, there is reason to be optimistic that things can improve.
Many analysts were expecting lower results from Zynga, though Michael Pachter had nailed it pretty closely. Zynga handily outperformed the consensus estimates of about $209 million in GAAP revenue; the company actually pulled in $263.6 million, mostly due to to a strong performance by FarmVille 2. Still, the company's stock fell nearly 10 percent in after-hours trading, as investors absorbed the news that next quarter isn't going to look very good and that Zynga expects a "significant" decline in bookings.
The difference between Zynga's GAAP results and the non-GAAP results are particularly striking. Typically, companies present non-GAAP earnings because they feel it represents a truer picture of the state of the business. When you look at Zynga's non-GAAP results compared to last year, the company's shrinkage is clear. Bookings for Q1 2012 were $329 million; for Q1 2013 they were $229 million. Non-GAAP net income was $47 million last year, and only $9 million this year.
It's at this point that you want to look at the overall metrics of the company's audience to see how it looks. Not good; all the key metrics are down. The daily active users (DAU) dropped from 65 million in Q1 2012 to 52 million in Q1 2013; monthly active users (MAU) dropped from 292 million to 253 million.
Critically, monthly unique payers (MUPs), the folks who actually give Zynga money, declined from 3.5 million to 2.5 million. Zynga's business has clearly shrunk significantly since last year.
"Zynga's business has clearly shrunk significantly since last year"
What's the good news? The company managed its reversal of fortune well over the last year, and demonstrated this by turning a $4 million GAAP profit versus the same quarter last year that had an $85 million GAAP loss. It's also significant to note that Zynga had only two minor new releases in Q1, which definitely hurt revenue. CEO Mark Pincus also noted that during Q1 the company killed two products in development because they didn't show sufficient promise.
COO David Ko said that Zynga would be "picking up the release cadence for the latter half of the year." In other words, more product releases, more on mobile and more midcore games. There are early signs from Zynga's midcore efforts of much higher monetization, and once a number of those games reach the market this may improve Zynga's revenue picture.
Zynga is also making progress on advertising, as ad bookings per DAU more than doubled. Several big accounts have renewed ad contracts, and Zynga will be looking for more. The other growth area of significance is real-money gaming (RMG), as Zynga has just launched RMG in the UK and is applying to launch in states like Nevada where legalization of online real-money gaming is making progress. The potential for revenue from people gambling on mobile devices is large indeed, but there are many competitors and problems to overcome.
The larger picture for Zynga is shifting its development into mobile and mobile/multiplatform games, "where the growth is" as Pincus puts it. The company has shrunk, but it's still putting money in the bank ($23 million added in Q1, for a total cash horde of $1.7 billion). Zynga's audience may have diminished, but it's still larger than any other social game company. That audience is crucial when it comes to promoting new games, as it neatly sidesteps the problem of increasing user acquisition costs. When you have a new game, cross-promote to your existing audience and you can get a sizable audience in days without spending anything on marketing. (In fact, Zynga's marketing expenses were down significantly.)
"Zynga is managing to turn a profit despite falling audience numbers, but investors are looking for a bigger audience and reasons to believe in growth"
Pincus stressed that 2013 will be "nonlinear" and difficult to predict. Aside from warning that Q2 won't be very good, Zynga is still projecting positive earnings for the full year. Reading between the lines, Zynga's got a number of games in the pipeline and many of them will be arriving in the second half of the year. While the company hopes these games will do well, it's wisely not getting too specific about any particular release or what it thinks that game might achieve.
Zynga has been ruthlessly pruning its game library (several more, including The Ville and Empires & Allies, are slated for removal) to focus on fewer, better-performing games. There's a strong emphasis on midcore titles, with Pincus admitting that there are more resources focused on midcore games than on any other genre the company produces. Many of the new titles will be mobile, or multiplatform. Zynga is also pushing some of the games from its partners that it feels can grab a big audience, like Village Life. Real-money gaming should start contributing to the bottom line this year, and become significant next year.
The bottom line for Zynga's year of transition: New games arrive in the second half of the year, and the company's turnaround depends on how well those new games perform. Zynga is managing to turn a profit despite falling audience numbers, but investors are looking for a bigger audience and reasons to believe in growth. New games, real-money gaming, mobile dominance and ad revenue all have potential to boost Zynga's growth, but Zynga has to start showing strong results in one or more of these directions before the stock price makes real progress.
MOSCOW (AP) ? Two men in their early twenties lie face down in the snow, hands tied behind their backs, heads doused with dark red paint. A dozen young men, some wearing surgical masks, wreck a car with hammers and axes. One sets fire to a plastic bag filled with a greenish powder and a stack of cards that read: "Aroma. Smoking mixes."
The powder is a synthetic drug known as "spice" that is Russia's latest scourge. The pair on the ground are pushers. And the hammer-wielding men? Vigilantes fighting the drug's spread with widespread public approval, admiring television coverage ? and, according to critics, the Kremlin's tacit blessing.
The anti-drug gangs roaming streets in Moscow and other urban centers are an offshoot of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Young Russia. The vigilantes, who call themselves the Young Anti-Drugs Special Forces, have tapped into rising public outrage over the spread of drug use in Russia, and the impotence of law enforcement to stop it. They are also stirring concerns about President Vladimir Putin's perceived tolerance for extralegal actions against forces considered harmful to the regime or to public order.
Young Russia and a half dozen other pro-Kremlin youth groups were formed in the mid-2000s, analysts and opposition figures say, to prevent street protests similar to those that ushered pro-Western opposition forces into power in three ex-Soviet states: Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Russian authorities are accused of encouraging violence, or the threat of violence, by youth gangs when dealing with what they see as threats to stability. The vigilantes' free hand indicates that the spice epidemic is seen as one of such threats.
The Interior Ministry, which controls Russia's police, declined comment to The Associated Press on the gangs. The head of Russia's anti-drugs agency, Viktor Ivanov, criticized the group's actions as illegal and "nothing but noise."
Spice consists of herbs coated in chemicals that mimic the effects of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. In recent years, millions here, mostly teenagers, have smoked various kinds of spice, attracted by its cheapness, availability and reputation for being harmless, officials and anti-drug campaigners say. Reliable figures on usage are not available because of the variety of kinds of spice on offer and the lack of official studies on the phenomenon.
Pushers sell bags of spice for less than $15, in schools or online, from bulletproof cars and shops with barred windows and metal doors. Their phone numbers are often scrawled on walls or sidewalks, or printed on business cards that carry messages such as "100 percent harmless smoking mix" and "Smoke and go to paradise." Some pushers never see their customers and text message the whereabouts of a spice stash after getting a money transfer.
Spice is mass produced in China and Southeast Asia and exported to Russia as bath salts, incense and slimming additives, often in mail packages.
Ivanov, who heads Russia's Federal Drug Control Agency, said fighting spice is nearly impossible, because banning one or more ingredients means manufacturers simply change the molecular structure of the chemicals or replace the herbs to skirt the law.
"There are 900 versions of it, and every week they come up with a new one," Ivanov told The Associated Press.
And that's where the masked men with hammers come in. The Anti-Drugs Special Forces, widely known by their Russian acronym, MAS, was formed last year and includes dozens of activists in Moscow, many of them with a background in martial arts. Leaders say the group gets funding from donors and small city-run construction projects that its volunteers work on.
And the group has its own formula for hunting down spice traders. They track down a pusher. One of them uses a hidden camera to videotape a "control purchase." And then a dozen or more attack, while one or two of them shoot video.
They sometimes face no resistance from lone pushers who beg to be released and swear never to sell spice anymore. Other times, they fail to break into their fortified shops, leaving after painting the doors and bullet-proof windows with graffiti saying: "Drugs are sold here" or "They kill your children with impunity." On rare occasions, pushers fight back or call their bosses ? burly men with guns and knives.
An Associated Press reporter observed the Moscow attacks on the two pushers who were doused with red paint in the snow.
Screaming obscenities and threats, more than a dozen vigilantes wearing masks and holding hammers surrounded a man with a baseball bat who had just jumped out of a parked car. The man moved backward, swinging his bat as several masked vigilantes closed in. The driver sat in the car, face convulsed with fear.
The attackers broke a window of the car and threw in a smoke candle, forcing the driver out. They punched and kicked him, tied his arms and legs with duct-tape and threw him to the snow, dousing his head with paint. From the car's front seat, they took a plastic bag with spice and set it afire. Seconds later, the first man was tied up and also soaked in paint. The assailants smashed the car with metal bars and hammers and turned it on its side.
The group admits that its methods are illegal.
"We're walking on the edge, but you have to understand that fighting drugs is a serious thing," said group leader Alexei Grunichev, fair-haired and gaunt, while showing raid videos on his laptop at the group's headquarters in several decrepit rooms. "We also understand our guilt for what we do, but I think that what we do is right and we will fight, keep fighting using these methods until law enforcement agencies, authorities can put everything under control."
The group claims to have conducted more than 300 raids over the past year in Moscow alone, and posts many raid videos online. These short clips are the backbone of the group's reputation and popular support ? despite the violence, obscenities and property damage they contain. They are available on YouTube, the website of their mother group, Young Russia, and on the group's page on vl.com, Russia's most popular social networking site.
Hundreds of Russians leave encouraging messages on the group's webpages, young rappers praise them in songs and Russian television networks run reports on the group's raids.
"People often say, 'You should just kill those pushers,' although that's not the way we work," says Arkady Grichishkin, an agitated 21-year-old martial arts student often seen on the group's videos as a leader of raids.
The Federal Drugs Control Agency said it does not condone the group's raids.
"We cannot welcome it," said Ivanov. "It lies beyond law ? first of all. And secondly, it makes nothing but noise." The vigilantes, however, appear to see Ivanov as an ally, posting his portrait on the walls of their headquarters.
Users say that the high they get is extremely intense and hallucinogenic. After several weeks of using spice, the drug causes sleep and weight loss, hypertension, seizures and can even lead to schizophrenia, according to officials, health experts and studies in Russia, EU and the U.S.
Users' parents also appear to be worried.
"Eighty per cent of phone calls our hot line gets are about spice," says Alexander Bysov of the Moscow-based Sodeistvie ? or Assistance ? anti-drugs fund that has a hotline for drug addicts and their parents and runs a rehab. "Parents are already crying SOS."
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Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr. contributed to this report
With wave of the hand, Carnegie Mellon researchers create touch-based interfacesPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Byron Spice bspice@cs.cmu.edu 412-268-9068 Carnegie Mellon University
Depth cameras and projectors combine to make smart environments
PITTSBURGHResearchers previously have shown that a depth camera system, such as Kinect, can be combined with a projector to turn almost any surface into a touchscreen. But now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated how these touch-based interfaces can be created almost at will, with the wave of a hand.
CMU's WorldKit system enables someone to rub the arm of a sofa to "paint" a remote control for her TV or swipe a hand across an office door to post his calendar from which subsequent users can "pull down" an extended version. These ad hoc interfaces can be moved, modified or deleted with similar gestures, making them highly personalized.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) used a ceiling-mounted camera and projector to record room geometries, sense hand gestures and project images on desired surfaces.
But Robert Xiao, an HCII doctoral student, said WorldKit does not require such an elaborate installation. "Depth sensors are getting better and projectors just keep getting smaller," he said. "We envision an interactive 'light bulb' a miniaturized device that could be screwed into an ordinary light fixture and pointed or moved to wherever an interface is needed."
The system does not require prior calibration, automatically adjusting its sensing and image projection to the orientation of the chosen surface. Users can summon switches, message boards, indicator lights and a variety of other interface designs from a menu. Ultimately, the WorldKit team anticipates that users will be able to custom design interfaces with gestures.
Xiao developed WorldKit with Scott Hudson, an HCII professor, and Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student. They will present their findings April 30 at CHI 2013, the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in Paris.
"People have talked about creating smart environments, where sensors, displays and computers are interwoven," said Harrison, who will join the HCII faculty this summer. "But usually, that doesn't amount to much besides mounting a camera up on the ceiling. The room may be smart, but it has no outlet for that smartness. With WorldKit, we say forget touchscreens and go straight to projectors, which can make the room truly interactive."
Though WorldKit now focuses on interacting with surfaces, the researchers anticipate future work may enable users to interact with the system in free space. Likewise, higher resolution depth cameras may someday enable the system to sense detailed finger gestures. In addition to gestures, the system also could be designed to respond to voice commands.
"We're only just getting to the point where we're considering the larger questions," Harrison said, noting a multitude of applications in the home, office, hospitals, nursing homes and schools have yet to be explored.
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This work was sponsored in part by a Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship, a Microsoft Ph.D. Fellowship and grants from the Heinz College Center for the Future of Work, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the National Science Foundation.
The HCII is part of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Follow the school on Twitter @SCSatCMU.
About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.
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With wave of the hand, Carnegie Mellon researchers create touch-based interfacesPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Byron Spice bspice@cs.cmu.edu 412-268-9068 Carnegie Mellon University
Depth cameras and projectors combine to make smart environments
PITTSBURGHResearchers previously have shown that a depth camera system, such as Kinect, can be combined with a projector to turn almost any surface into a touchscreen. But now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated how these touch-based interfaces can be created almost at will, with the wave of a hand.
CMU's WorldKit system enables someone to rub the arm of a sofa to "paint" a remote control for her TV or swipe a hand across an office door to post his calendar from which subsequent users can "pull down" an extended version. These ad hoc interfaces can be moved, modified or deleted with similar gestures, making them highly personalized.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) used a ceiling-mounted camera and projector to record room geometries, sense hand gestures and project images on desired surfaces.
But Robert Xiao, an HCII doctoral student, said WorldKit does not require such an elaborate installation. "Depth sensors are getting better and projectors just keep getting smaller," he said. "We envision an interactive 'light bulb' a miniaturized device that could be screwed into an ordinary light fixture and pointed or moved to wherever an interface is needed."
The system does not require prior calibration, automatically adjusting its sensing and image projection to the orientation of the chosen surface. Users can summon switches, message boards, indicator lights and a variety of other interface designs from a menu. Ultimately, the WorldKit team anticipates that users will be able to custom design interfaces with gestures.
Xiao developed WorldKit with Scott Hudson, an HCII professor, and Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student. They will present their findings April 30 at CHI 2013, the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in Paris.
"People have talked about creating smart environments, where sensors, displays and computers are interwoven," said Harrison, who will join the HCII faculty this summer. "But usually, that doesn't amount to much besides mounting a camera up on the ceiling. The room may be smart, but it has no outlet for that smartness. With WorldKit, we say forget touchscreens and go straight to projectors, which can make the room truly interactive."
Though WorldKit now focuses on interacting with surfaces, the researchers anticipate future work may enable users to interact with the system in free space. Likewise, higher resolution depth cameras may someday enable the system to sense detailed finger gestures. In addition to gestures, the system also could be designed to respond to voice commands.
"We're only just getting to the point where we're considering the larger questions," Harrison said, noting a multitude of applications in the home, office, hospitals, nursing homes and schools have yet to be explored.
###
This work was sponsored in part by a Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship, a Microsoft Ph.D. Fellowship and grants from the Heinz College Center for the Future of Work, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the National Science Foundation.
The HCII is part of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Follow the school on Twitter @SCSatCMU.
About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.
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There's something strange about Reese Witherspoon's mug shot -- besides the fact that it exists in the first place. After being arrested for disorderly conduct in Atlanta, the actress, who has admitted to having "one drink too many," posed for the obligatory photo. Her husband Jim Toth, who was arrested for DUI, stares straight ahead in his photo. But Reese isn't even looking at the camera. Isn't that a little odd?
AAA??Apr. 25, 2013?4:43 PM ET Already down 0-2 to Spurs, Lakers injuries mount By GREG BEACHAM??By GREG BEACHAM
Los Angeles Lakers' Steve Nash (10) drives to the basket as San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker, right, of France, defends him during the second half of Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio won 102-91. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Los Angeles Lakers' Steve Nash (10) drives to the basket as San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker, right, of France, defends him during the second half of Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio won 102-91. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Los Angeles Lakers' Steve Blake (5) passes to teammate Dwight Howard (12) as he is pressured by San Antonio Spurs' Matt Bonner, left, and Tim Duncan, second from right, during the second half of Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio won 102-91. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker, right, of France, drives as Los Angeles Lakers' Steve Nash (10) defends during the first half of Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan (21) is defended by Los Angeles Lakers' Dwight Howard (12) while trying to score during the first half of Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker (9), of France, drives to the basket as he is defended by Los Angeles Lakers' Earl Clark (6) during the second half of Game 2 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series, Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio won 102-91. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) ? Steve Blake won't play for the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, and fellow guards Steve Nash and Jodie Meeks are doubtful.
The Lakers are running out of healthy guards, and they're increasingly out of ideas on how to stop the Spurs from ending their tumultuous season.
Blake has a strained right hamstring that will keep him out indefinitely, and coach Mike D'Antoni said Thursday that the backup point guard won't play in Game 3.
Nash got two epidural injections in his back and a cortisone injection in his right hip in an attempt to fight off his nagging pain.
D'Antoni says Nash is more likely to play than Meeks, who has a sprained left ankle.
A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? With flight delays mounting, the Senate approved hurry-up legislation Thursday night to end air traffic controller furloughs blamed for inconveniencing large numbers of travelers.
A House vote on the measure was expected as early as Friday, with lawmakers eager to embark on a weeklong vacation.
Under the legislation, which the Senate passed without even a roll call vote, the Federal Aviation Administration would gain authority to transfer up to $253 million from accounts that are flush into other programs, to "prevent reduced operations and staffing" through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.
In addition to restoring full staffing by controllers, Senate officials said the available funds should be ample enough to prevent the closure of small airport towers around the country. The FAA has said it will shut the facilities as it makes its share of $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts ? known as the sequester ? that took effect last month at numerous government agencies.
The Senate acted as the FAA said there had been at least 863 flights delayed on Wednesday "attributable to staffing reductions resulting from the furlough."
Administration officials participated in the negotiations that led to the deal and evidently registered no objections.
After the vote, White House press secretary Jay Carney said, "It will be good news for America's traveling public if Congress spares them these unnecessary delays. But ultimately, this is no more than a temporary Band-Aid that fails to address the overarching threat to our economy posed by the sequester's mindless, across-the-board cuts."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a key participant in the talks, said the legislation would "prevent what otherwise would have been intolerable delays in the air travel system, inconveniencing travelers and hurting the economy."
Senate approval followed several hours of pressure-filled, closed-door negotiations, and came after most senators had departed the Capitol on the assumption that the talks had fallen short.
Officials said a small group of senators insisted on a last-ditch effort at an agreement before Congress adjourned for a vacation that could have become politically problematic if the flight delays continued.
"I want to do it right now. There are other senators you'd have to ask what the hang-up is," Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said at a point when it appeared no compromise would emerge.
For the White House and Senate Democrats, the discussions on legislation relating to one relatively small slice of the $85 billion in spending cuts marked a shift in position in a long-running struggle with Republicans over budget issues. Similarly, the turn of events marked at least modest vindication of a decision by the House GOP last winter to finesse some budget struggles in order to focus public attention on the across-the-board cuts in hopes they would gain leverage over President Barack Obama.
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union that represents FAA employees, reported a number of incidents it said were due to the furloughs.
In one case, it said several flights headed for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York were diverted on Wednesday when a piece of equipment failed. "While the policy for this equipment is immediate restoral, due to sequestration and furloughs it was changed to next-day restoral," the union said.
It added it was "learning of additional impacts nationwide, including open watches, increased restoration times, delays resulting from insufficient funding for parts and equipment, modernization delays, missed or deferred preventative maintenance, and reduced redundancy."
The airlines, too, were pressing Congress to restore the FAA to full staffing.
In an interview Wednesday, Robert Isom, chief operations officer of US Airways, likened the furloughs to a "wildcat regulatory action."
He added, "In the airline business, you try to eliminate uncertainty. Some factors you can't control, like weather. It (the FAA issue) is worse than the weather."
In a shift, first the White House and then senior Democratic lawmakers have signaled a willingness in the past two days to support legislation that alleviates the budget crunch at the FAA, while leaving the balance of the $85 billion to remain in effect.
Obama favors a comprehensive agreement that replaces the entire $85 billion in across-the-board cuts as part of a broader deficit-reduction deal that includes higher taxes and spending cuts.
One Senate Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, noted that without the type of comprehensive deficit deal that Obama favors, a bill that eases the spending crunch at the FAA would inevitably be followed by other single-issue measures. She listed funding at the National Institutes of Health as one example, and cuts that cause furloughs of civilians who work at military hospitals as a second.
At the same time, Democratic aides said resolve had crumbled under the weight of widespread delays for the traveling public and pressure from the airlines.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., involved in the discussions, said the issue was big enough so "most people want to find a solution as long as it doesn't spend any more money."
Officials estimate it would cost slightly more than $200 million to restore air traffic controllers to full staffing, and another $50 million to keep open smaller air traffic towers around the country that the FAA has proposed closing.
Across the Capitol, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said, "We're willing to look at what the Senate's going to propose."
He said he believes the FAA has the authority it needs under existing law to shift funds and end the furloughs of air traffic controllers, and any legislation should be "very, very limited" and direct the agency to use the flexibility it already has.
In a reflection of the political undercurrents, another House Republican, Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, said FAA employees "are being used as pawns by this (Obama) administration to be able to implement the maximum amount of pain on the American people when it does not have to be this way."
The White House and congressional Democrats vociferously dispute such claims.
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Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Henry C. Jackson and Alan Fram in Washington and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.
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Public release date: 25-Apr-2013
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