Monthly Archives: April 2005

CASSIE=virtual Eve?

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Someone over on CGTalk posted a link to a University of Buffalo news story about a “self-aware” computational agent being incorporated into virtual reality.

We started thinking, ‘What happens if you put a powerful artificial intelligence system — which is what Stu has developed — together with drama and stories?

Not sure why they’re focusing on an interactive “movie” version to be honest, since I don’t see any need to have a narrative structure of any kind. I can’t think of a better drama than real life.

There’s a couple of QT videos to watch as well. Might check out the second one – halfway through it starts to get interesting. I can imagine just programming a particular set of behaviors into an AI and letting it do it’s own thing. What could be more interesting than watching an AI develop (and perhaps multiply) in cyberspace?

RepRap v.2

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{Note: 17 Feb, 2010 – for Boing Boing visitors who apparently read an entry today on 3D printing of ceramic material, it’s actually not a new development. In fact, Ceramics Monthly did a whole issue on the topic of 3D printing ceramics a year ago (Link).

Bowling Green researchers Sebastien Dion and John Balistreri were, to my knowledge, the first people to 3D print ceramic materials back in 2006 (Link); using a modified ZCorp printer, if I’m not mistaken. I think I posted something here about it – or maybe I just saved the link to my Del.icio.us account – but yesterday’s headline on Boing Boing, “3D printing comes to ceramics”, is very misleading. Bruce Sterling more accurately reports “A RepRap printing in clay” (Link), which is probably a first for that particular effort. Some one should tell Doctorow to post better headlines.}

{Note: 1 Sep, 2008 – for the Sterling readers surfing through from Instructables, you’re almost certainly going to find these of interest: latest news on house “printing” and a ZBrush forum thread showing/explaining someone’s custom jewelry operation (both by way of my Twitter account, where I now post quick news bits; this blog is now for deeper discussion on such topics.)}

{Note: Oct 24, 2006 – for all the Make: visitors, you might want to do a search here on “reprap“. There’s more going on that just this thing. Cheers.}

In memory of the original “RepRap” entry lost in the Spam War earlier, I present a small update. Vik Olliver has submitted images of his device pictured here.

gluegunfabber

From his Listserv entries:

I’ve constructed a prototype turntable from Meccano that automatically lowers itself up to 60mm, currently at 0.75mm per revolution though this can be changed. This is intended for use in experiments in continuously
extruding recycled HDPE…

Recent fabrications include a 18mm high 19mm diameter cylinder with 0.85mm walls, and a 13mm high 43mm diameter cylinder with 1.75mm walls. Each layer is 0.25mm thick. It’s fascinating to watch in the same way as a potter is, at work on their wheel.

Maybe we can get him to post a short video clip. Industrial designers as well as all glue gun user’s the world over would probably love it. Nice.

Inside the Fortress… and Outside

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magickingdomSL

Wired is carrying an update of sorts on the problem of orphaned copyrighted work. If companies like IBM are tearing down the walls to let some light in to spur overall growth and opportunity, I have to wonder what’s going on inside the barricades at places like Disney (both the buildings and the mental erections). Speaking of which, I happened across an interesting place in the Second Life simulation: a vendor selling Disney items on the island of Erotica (no kidding). Now that puts an interesting spin on the label “Magic kingdom”.

More Massive, Baby. More. More. Advertising in Videogames

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omigod, the pic isn't loading!

Another NYTimes article of note (registration required): add this one to the list of stories of how Massive is preparing to change videogame advertising forever. Having read about this for some time, can they just get it over with already? I’m looking forward to everyone’s reaction. My first reaction to Ubisoft’s inclusion of an Axe Deodorant ad in the above game (see image) is to question if Axe makes sex toys too. This could get pretty funny.

Pulling for the Tortoise: On Studying Real People in Virtual Worlds

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I just posted my blog entry over on Core. Per my own directive, I’m attempting to segregate topics, but that sometimes proves difficult. When I first read this article on New Scientist, William Gibson’s “The Winter Market” came to mind and reminded me that for all the technological and scientific advancements humanity makes, we still have a lot of social ground to cover and related issues to resolve – and most of those will be documented in psychological journals; issues I now see bleeding into the “virtual” interactions around me. Perhaps the researchers who use simulations to study real world problems could extend their focus to the seemingly “normal” people who populate them. No doubt we could all use a bit of advice.