Is it Hollywood or is it for real?
This is one of the question that I have wondered ever since watching the first Terminator movie where Arnold, aka Mr Governor, identified his victim by analyzing video images. I am glad to report that, with no casualty count, there is indeed similar technology at work at PARC.
I have covered some of the details on this entry Video Analysis and Responsive Mirror part II. Now, I've got Maurice Chu, who worked on and modeled this technology, to share a clip.
Face tracking on a video feed
Maurice's explanation: The clip demonstrates the processing of video to track the face and its parts. In particular, the six face parts are the left and right eyes, the left and right eyebrows, nose, and mouth. The output of the face tracker is a cloud of points representing the location of the six face parts in image coordinates. These can be used to determine the 3D orientation of the face relative to the camera. Some of the challenges that the algorithm overcomes is that it can handle when people put on glasses, eye blinking, and other deformable movements like the lips. The algorithm runs in real-time, currently at about 10 fps, is people-generic, and requires no initial calibration.
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sotomayor Web Chatter Index - Week 9
Senate Judiciary Committee Confirmation
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted, 13 to 6, today to endorse the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor
New items and faded topics
The term "nlj" which refers to "National Law Journal", has kept up its ranking and added a related term "pubarticlenlj.jsp" "judgepedia" - a wiki on judges - kept its place.
Foxnews has come back with a vagence as #3 on Google. On the other hand, Washingtonpost.com disappeared from the top 20 ranking. "wsj.com" continues to do well losing one notch, edged out by "Obama" on Microsoft ranking.
Also interesting is to see the term "dissented" in the top 20. We will see if it would stay next week.
More on the results
A reminder, if you are interested in finding out more about the result details or the inference engine used in this analysis, please let me know at yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com.
Results (top 20 terms ranked in the order of relevance with the most relevant on top)
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The Senate Judiciary Committee voted, 13 to 6, today to endorse the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor
New items and faded topics
The term "nlj" which refers to "National Law Journal", has kept up its ranking and added a related term "pubarticlenlj.jsp" "judgepedia" - a wiki on judges - kept its place.
Foxnews has come back with a vagence as #3 on Google. On the other hand, Washingtonpost.com disappeared from the top 20 ranking. "wsj.com" continues to do well losing one notch, edged out by "Obama" on Microsoft ranking.
Also interesting is to see the term "dissented" in the top 20. We will see if it would stay next week.
More on the results
A reminder, if you are interested in finding out more about the result details or the inference engine used in this analysis, please let me know at yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com.
Results (top 20 terms ranked in the order of relevance with the most relevant on top)
| Yahoo | Microsoft | |
|---|---|---|
justices www.foxnews.com sotomayorâ rulings cityâ dissented judiciary defenses sotomayor courts americans souter malesko hearings â senators circumstances krimstock issued reversal | sonia sotomayorâ sotomayor souter destefano krimstock nominee ginsburg nlj hearings morgenthau judgepedia tasini leahy judiciary malesko cuomo judgeship supreme justices | sotomayor statehood moynihan obama leahy online.wsj.com nlj souter destefano cuomo stating rulings ginsburg cabranes republicans prosecutor affirmative pubarticlenlj.jsp politico gained |
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Monday, July 27, 2009
PARC's Longevity
PARC is better than NASA
That should get your attention.
In a Harvard Business blog (http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/sviokla/2009/07/organized_information_is_the_n.html), John Sviokla argued that we need another ambitious project like NASA's Apollo on organizing information. Then, he concludes by arguing that for a cost of $100 million, PARC is a better investment than NASA's $150 billion.
With all due respect, I suspect his is a minority view. A better description is that both PARC and NASA spectacularly fulfilled their respective raison d’être in intended dimensions and beyond.
PARC's Longevity
Indeed, in my mind, a more interesting question is how has PARC kept up its role as a world leading source of technology and innovation.
For those who are looking for the Cliffs Notes version on PARC's longevity, the short answer is that PARC has continuously evolved existing know-how and invested in new ideas as each new generation of global technology and innovation come on-line.
I should start a new short series on PARC's longevity.
In the meantime, here is an interactive tool that highlights some of the milestones at PARC since 1970. (http://www.parc.com/about/milestones.html)
Organized Information at PARC
Coming back to John Sviokla's entry, PARC has a lot of investment into this precise issue. Here is a blog that talks about the notion of Augmented Reality as a way of intelligently organizing information. (http://blogs.parc.com/blog/2009/07/augmented-reality-increasing-collective-intelligence/)
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That should get your attention.
In a Harvard Business blog (http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/sviokla/2009/07/organized_information_is_the_n.html), John Sviokla argued that we need another ambitious project like NASA's Apollo on organizing information. Then, he concludes by arguing that for a cost of $100 million, PARC is a better investment than NASA's $150 billion.
With all due respect, I suspect his is a minority view. A better description is that both PARC and NASA spectacularly fulfilled their respective raison d’être in intended dimensions and beyond.
PARC's Longevity
Indeed, in my mind, a more interesting question is how has PARC kept up its role as a world leading source of technology and innovation.
For those who are looking for the Cliffs Notes version on PARC's longevity, the short answer is that PARC has continuously evolved existing know-how and invested in new ideas as each new generation of global technology and innovation come on-line.
I should start a new short series on PARC's longevity.
In the meantime, here is an interactive tool that highlights some of the milestones at PARC since 1970. (http://www.parc.com/about/milestones.html)
Organized Information at PARC
Coming back to John Sviokla's entry, PARC has a lot of investment into this precise issue. Here is a blog that talks about the notion of Augmented Reality as a way of intelligently organizing information. (http://blogs.parc.com/blog/2009/07/augmented-reality-increasing-collective-intelligence/)
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P@P
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Sotomayor Web Chatter Index - Week 8
Confirmation Hearing
With the confirmation hearing done, it is interesting to see how the discussion has shifted into some factual and some "speculative" terms.
New items and faded topics
"judgepedia" - a wiki on judges - kept its place. It is also joined by the term "nlj" which refers to "National Law Journal"
Foxnews has completely dropped off from the top 20 rankings after being highly ranked for most weeks. Interesting to see Washingtonpost.com making a come back - I wonder if it is a reflection that now the denizens inside the Washington DC Beltway are doing most of the chattering. As for wsj.com's come back, do you have any thoughts?
Also interesting is to see the term "unanimous" in the top 20 which does seem to reflect the mainstream media's consensus on her confirmation.
More on the results
A reminder, if you are interested in finding out more about the result details or the inference engine used in this analysis, please let me know at yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com.
Results (top 20 terms ranked in the order of relevance with the most relevant on top)
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With the confirmation hearing done, it is interesting to see how the discussion has shifted into some factual and some "speculative" terms.
New items and faded topics
"judgepedia" - a wiki on judges - kept its place. It is also joined by the term "nlj" which refers to "National Law Journal"
Foxnews has completely dropped off from the top 20 rankings after being highly ranked for most weeks. Interesting to see Washingtonpost.com making a come back - I wonder if it is a reflection that now the denizens inside the Washington DC Beltway are doing most of the chattering. As for wsj.com's come back, do you have any thoughts?
Also interesting is to see the term "unanimous" in the top 20 which does seem to reflect the mainstream media's consensus on her confirmation.
More on the results
A reminder, if you are interested in finding out more about the result details or the inference engine used in this analysis, please let me know at yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com.
Results (top 20 terms ranked in the order of relevance with the most relevant on top)
| Yahoo | Microsoft | |
|---|---|---|
justices repeatedly stating americans sotomayor questioning judiciary dissented reversing helped defenses lawyers nyt â cityâ souter www.washingtonpost.com saying became unconstitutional | sotomayorâ sotomayor sonia souter krimstock ginsburg nominee judgepedia nlj morgenthau tasini cuomo hearings leahy judgeship supreme justices judiciary republicans hispanic | sotomayor moynihan statehood online.wsj.com obama nlj souter banc cuomo leahy rulings politico gop stating reversals ginsburg prosecutor unanimous affirmative cabranes |
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Monday, July 20, 2009
Opportunity Discovery
Fail fast fail cheap
This is probably the slogan that best captures the operandi modus of Silicon Valley and, to some extent, to innovation in general. The trouble is that "fail" is a dirty word in most places outside of Silicon Valley but the innovation imperative is not any less.
Over the years, companies have looked to PARC as a partner in creating innovation solutions. And, we have developed a methodology on how to "fail fast fail cheap" without the "fail".
Now, we are talking!
PARC's Opportunity Discovery service
The insight is that while small validations upfront to test assumptions and ability to consider all adjacent applications may add some additional initial overhead, they will yield a more robust and successful result and generally result in lower overall project resource and time requirements.
With PARC's Opportunity Discovery service, or O/D, we have created a systematic framework and a set of tools to unearth market and user insights which provide the basis to design a product/service.
On a per product/project basis, O/D allows the client team to capture and share information for better decision making. At the corporate level, O/D allows the management to feel comfortable that all reasonable options have been actively considered and explored before making a large investment.
This is probably the slogan that best captures the operandi modus of Silicon Valley and, to some extent, to innovation in general. The trouble is that "fail" is a dirty word in most places outside of Silicon Valley but the innovation imperative is not any less.
Over the years, companies have looked to PARC as a partner in creating innovation solutions. And, we have developed a methodology on how to "fail fast fail cheap" without the "fail".
Now, we are talking!
PARC's Opportunity Discovery service
The insight is that while small validations upfront to test assumptions and ability to consider all adjacent applications may add some additional initial overhead, they will yield a more robust and successful result and generally result in lower overall project resource and time requirements.
With PARC's Opportunity Discovery service, or O/D, we have created a systematic framework and a set of tools to unearth market and user insights which provide the basis to design a product/service.
On a per product/project basis, O/D allows the client team to capture and share information for better decision making. At the corporate level, O/D allows the management to feel comfortable that all reasonable options have been actively considered and explored before making a large investment.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Video Analysis and Responsive Mirror part II
Responsive Mirror part II
For those who are interested in what happened to the responsive mirror as discussed, here is a look at the second generation of the technology.
It is more integrated in terms of form factor and uses an enhanced video analysis core. As reported by Boing Boing: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/30/how-parcs-responsive.html
Video Analysis
For the inner geeks in us, here is a high level description of the video analysis technology used for Responsive Mirror
1. Finding matches across images is performed by deriving a metric of similarity (i.e., a distance) between two images.
2. Then, an optimization is performed to find the best matches across two sets of images that minimize the aggregate distance between the two sets.
Some technical details
1. What is the similarity metric between two individual images?
Modified version of Euclidean distance by treating an image as a large vector of pixel values.
2. What is the “aggregate distance” between two sets of images (as opposed to two individual images)?
Contact me (email: "yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com") for more information on the answer
3. How is the optimization performed?
Greedy descent algorithm to minimize aggregate distance.
For those who are interested in what happened to the responsive mirror as discussed, here is a look at the second generation of the technology.
It is more integrated in terms of form factor and uses an enhanced video analysis core. As reported by Boing Boing: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/30/how-parcs-responsive.html
Video Analysis
For the inner geeks in us, here is a high level description of the video analysis technology used for Responsive Mirror
1. Finding matches across images is performed by deriving a metric of similarity (i.e., a distance) between two images.
2. Then, an optimization is performed to find the best matches across two sets of images that minimize the aggregate distance between the two sets.
Some technical details
1. What is the similarity metric between two individual images?
Modified version of Euclidean distance by treating an image as a large vector of pixel values.
2. What is the “aggregate distance” between two sets of images (as opposed to two individual images)?
Contact me (email: "yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com") for more information on the answer
3. How is the optimization performed?
Greedy descent algorithm to minimize aggregate distance.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Sotomayor Web Chatter Index - Week 7
Confirmation Hearing
Now that the confirmation hearing for Ms Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the US Supreme Court has started, I am curious to see how the chatter profile would change.
New items and faded topics
"Litigator" did not have the staying power to remain in the top 20. "Firefighters" is also waning. The new entrant to the top ranking is "judgepedia" - a wiki on judges, did not know one existed.
Foxnews has dropped in rankings after being highly ranked for most weeks. Would it come a come back now that the confirmation hearing is now?
More on the results
A reminder, if you are interested in finding out more about the result details or the inference engine used in this analysis, please let me know at yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com.
Results (top 20 terms ranked in the order of relevance with the most relevant on top)
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P@P
Now that the confirmation hearing for Ms Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the US Supreme Court has started, I am curious to see how the chatter profile would change.
New items and faded topics
"Litigator" did not have the staying power to remain in the top 20. "Firefighters" is also waning. The new entrant to the top ranking is "judgepedia" - a wiki on judges, did not know one existed.
Foxnews has dropped in rankings after being highly ranked for most weeks. Would it come a come back now that the confirmation hearing is now?
More on the results
A reminder, if you are interested in finding out more about the result details or the inference engine used in this analysis, please let me know at yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com.
Results (top 20 terms ranked in the order of relevance with the most relevant on top)
| Yahoo | Microsoft | |
|---|---|---|
senators esquire judiciary www.foxnews.com jury sotomayorâ reversing senator ruled dissented courts sotomayor reversal sued rulings nominated attorney married belief securities | sotomayorâ sotomayor sonia souter gillibrand krimstock ginsburg schumer judgepedia nominee cuomo judgeship justices morgenthau supreme leahy cabranes firefighters www.foxnews.com republicans | sotomayor gillibrand obama schumer moynihan souter cuomo rulings centrist reversals politico gop republicans leahy ginsburg firefighter prosecutor mahoney cabranes affirmative |
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Monday, July 13, 2009
Video analysis and shopping
Responsive Mirror
One downside of working at PARC is that a lot of technologies sound so out there or address very specific (fundamental) problems that they don't make for good cocktail tales.
Responsive mirror, on the other hand, uses cool technology in a context that we can all relate to. It lets you do side by side real-time comparisons of clothing with prior pieces as you put on a new one instead of conjuring up the images of what the prior piece look like.
Of course, this is not one of 'em before/after pictures in diet pill infomercials. Responsive mirror follows your actual movement and plays back the same movement with the prior article. In other words, you can do not just "apple-to-apple" comparison but "same-side-of-apple-to-same-side-of-apple" comparisons. Now, that is cool!
Here is a link on the tool: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=21045
Video Analysis
Of course, under the hood, PARC has built up a platform on a robust video analysis and given the proliferation of both cameras and screens beyond laptop computers (think smart phones), there are a lot of applications that are still waiting to be imagined.
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P@P
One downside of working at PARC is that a lot of technologies sound so out there or address very specific (fundamental) problems that they don't make for good cocktail tales.
Responsive mirror, on the other hand, uses cool technology in a context that we can all relate to. It lets you do side by side real-time comparisons of clothing with prior pieces as you put on a new one instead of conjuring up the images of what the prior piece look like.
Of course, this is not one of 'em before/after pictures in diet pill infomercials. Responsive mirror follows your actual movement and plays back the same movement with the prior article. In other words, you can do not just "apple-to-apple" comparison but "same-side-of-apple-to-same-side-of-apple" comparisons. Now, that is cool!
Here is a link on the tool: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=21045
Video Analysis
Of course, under the hood, PARC has built up a platform on a robust video analysis and given the proliferation of both cameras and screens beyond laptop computers (think smart phones), there are a lot of applications that are still waiting to be imagined.
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P@P
Friday, July 10, 2009
Migitti: Mobile Recommendation Systems
Reality Mining
Most of us have heard of data-mining even if we cannot write a nested query to save our lives. With the proliferation of rich-media mobile devices, there is a new gold mine in the form of reality-mining. In other words, instead of firing up a browser on my phone to do a search on Yelp and decipher what catches my fancy given where I am at, a system can be built to incorporate my personal preference and location information to give me the most tantalizing (and relevant) choices.
Migitti Project
Well. We've built one at PARC.
Here is the link to the slide-ware
http://www.slideshare.net/begole/activitybased-serendipitous-recommendations-with-the-magitti-mobile-leisure-guide
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P@P
Most of us have heard of data-mining even if we cannot write a nested query to save our lives. With the proliferation of rich-media mobile devices, there is a new gold mine in the form of reality-mining. In other words, instead of firing up a browser on my phone to do a search on Yelp and decipher what catches my fancy given where I am at, a system can be built to incorporate my personal preference and location information to give me the most tantalizing (and relevant) choices.
Migitti Project
Well. We've built one at PARC.
Here is the link to the slide-ware
http://www.slideshare.net/begole/activitybased-serendipitous-recommendations-with-the-magitti-mobile-leisure-guide
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P@P
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Sotomayor Web Chatter Index - Week 7
New items and faded topics
Firefighters made the top 20 list this week. Litigator also made the top 20. Two timely entries on the current discussion. We will see how long they last.
As noted last week, "racist" made an appearance. It disappeared this week and "centrist" actually made its appearance. Gingrich completely dropped off in all three results. Also interesting to note that Foxnews dropped significantly in one of the rankings.
More on the results
A reminder, if you are interested in finding out more about the result details or the inference engine used in this analysis, please let me know at yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com.
Results (top 20 terms ranked in the order of relevance with the most relevant on top)
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P@P
Firefighters made the top 20 list this week. Litigator also made the top 20. Two timely entries on the current discussion. We will see how long they last.
As noted last week, "racist" made an appearance. It disappeared this week and "centrist" actually made its appearance. Gingrich completely dropped off in all three results. Also interesting to note that Foxnews dropped significantly in one of the rankings.
More on the results
A reminder, if you are interested in finding out more about the result details or the inference engine used in this analysis, please let me know at yfjuan (at) parc (dot) com.
Results (top 20 terms ranked in the order of relevance with the most relevant on top)
| Yahoo | Microsoft | |
|---|---|---|
rulings www.foxnews.com dissented sotomayorâ sotomayor souter litigator questioning nominees krimstock proceedings republicans defenses â cityâ ended res judges reversing efforts | sotomayor sotomayorâ sonia souter krimstock schumer ginsburg nominee cuomo judgeship justices supreme cabranes judgepedia biden firefighters hispanic republicans www.foxnews.com leahy | sotomayor schumer obama moynihan souter cuomo rulings gop centrist republicans politico reversals cabranes ginsburg firefighters prosecutor leahy affirmative litigator nominees |
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Monday, July 6, 2009
Projectors today and tomorrow
Ethnography and Social Science at PARC
I suspect nobody would be surprised to know that technical merit is not the sole success factor of a technology. Everything roughly equal, the more user-centric solution usually wins.
What may be a surprise for some though is that PARC has a long history investing in ethnography and social science as part of its technology platform. And, the ability to view the world with human factors an integral part of the overall context has been viewed as an important competencies for our clients.
What is wrong with my projector?
Below is a video that talks about projects which highlights the complex issues when human and technology mix.
I will confess that it really forced me to think about how I interact with it and its potential problems. You would too!
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P@P
I suspect nobody would be surprised to know that technical merit is not the sole success factor of a technology. Everything roughly equal, the more user-centric solution usually wins.
What may be a surprise for some though is that PARC has a long history investing in ethnography and social science as part of its technology platform. And, the ability to view the world with human factors an integral part of the overall context has been viewed as an important competencies for our clients.
What is wrong with my projector?
Below is a video that talks about projects which highlights the complex issues when human and technology mix.
I will confess that it really forced me to think about how I interact with it and its potential problems. You would too!
===
P@P
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Boing'd
Boing Boing
Boing Boing is a technology blog run by a group of writers. They visited PARC recently to see what cool stuff PARC is working on today.
You can see a series of entries on PARC here (http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/30/today-at-boing-boing-62.html)
Organic food, Unix parties, coyotes, and geeks
Lisa, a Boing Boing writer, call me up for a few questions on life at PARC. For those of you who do not have time to read the entire entry, just know these two words "Sushi Wednesday!" (http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/30/a-day-in-the-life-of.html)
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P@P
Boing Boing is a technology blog run by a group of writers. They visited PARC recently to see what cool stuff PARC is working on today.
You can see a series of entries on PARC here (http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/30/today-at-boing-boing-62.html)
Organic food, Unix parties, coyotes, and geeks
Lisa, a Boing Boing writer, call me up for a few questions on life at PARC. For those of you who do not have time to read the entire entry, just know these two words "Sushi Wednesday!" (http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/06/30/a-day-in-the-life-of.html)
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P@P
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