one liner: web 2.0 creation of top 10 list
A list will have a name and the categories it belongs to.
Each item in the list will have a name, multiple descritions and rating.
The discriptions of the items on the list will have ratings.
The order of the list will be decided through ratings. The description of each item will be the highest rated description.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Product Review Website
one liner: a website with superior product reviews and ratings by offering coupons for helpful reviews.
Reviewing a product well isn't an easy job, you need to have some kind of expertise in the area, you need to know other products in the market, and you need to be able to communicate your feelings about the product in a clear manner. Just look at movie critics, game review magazines, zagat guides, etc. There are millions of people who make their living off of reviewing different kinds of products.
Many restaurants pay bloggers to review their food and make posts of it, but when reading any of those things, you can't help but question whether they really like the restaurant or they just got paid a lot to like it. It's an inherent paradox in product review -- people base their judgment on independant reviewers, but reviewers make their money from companies that make the product they review, which makes them biased. It would be much better if the reward system is fully disclosed or controlled.
Reviewing a product well isn't an easy job, you need to have some kind of expertise in the area, you need to know other products in the market, and you need to be able to communicate your feelings about the product in a clear manner. Just look at movie critics, game review magazines, zagat guides, etc. There are millions of people who make their living off of reviewing different kinds of products.
Many restaurants pay bloggers to review their food and make posts of it, but when reading any of those things, you can't help but question whether they really like the restaurant or they just got paid a lot to like it. It's an inherent paradox in product review -- people base their judgment on independant reviewers, but reviewers make their money from companies that make the product they review, which makes them biased. It would be much better if the reward system is fully disclosed or controlled.
But what is interesting is that these kinds of reviews can be analyzed statistically. There are plenty of signs that would tell if the review is really accurate or not. If people who expected a 5-star hotel, but only got a 2-star service, the probability of them complaining is very high. So it is completely feasible to find out how good the rating is by product sales, amount of use of the product, amount of complaints, etc. Reviewers that have both popularity and accurate ratings are the most valuable for a product review website, and it would be profitable to the website to provide such people some kind of compensation, whether it is a free product to let the reviewer review or a monetary compensation.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Linux command line game
One thing that has turned people off about linux is the scary white-computery-text-on-black-background command line. People who actually use it knows how much easier it is to just type in the commands, instead of looking for the menu for the feature; but for those that don't, it's like opening up a mechanical clock, who knows what will happen if you make a mistake.
Even though they look the same, text-based adventure games are really fun. Way back before graphics were 3d, heck even 2d, there were the text-based games. Just type in what you want to do, and your virtual avatar will try to do it in the virtual world. It is one step up from those choose-your-own-adventure books, ya know, the one where there's a choice at the bottom of each page, and you flip to the page that corresponds to the option that you chose. Good writing and some imagination makes them better than a lot of million-dollar games that are just boring.
Anyways, so I was doing some work on the terminal and I was also thinking about making a text-based game for a friend of mine and I made the connection: a text-based game in the termainal. So, each directory that you are in is a location, files in the directory are the different things that you can interact with, and /usr/bin will contain the actions that you can perform. Since there are symbolic links, it is totally possible to create a map that is arbitarily complex. Say you're in /start/room1/ there will be two files: LOOK and useSwitch. When you first ssh'd into the terminal, it will display a quick tutorial like, "to look around a location use: cat LOOK; and to perform an action use ./useSwitch". The file "LOOK" will contain a quick description of the room: "You are currently in a room that has a switch, use it by typing ./useSwitch", and when you type ./useSwitch, it will echo the text: " you flipped the switch, and a door appears" and add a symbolic link to the current directory to the next room.
There are two goals for this game: it's coooooooooolllllllllll, and it'll be a fun way to learn how to use the terminal. Right now, I'm making up the list of commands that should be in it, and how to make it a fun game... if you have suggestions, please leave it in the comment section!
directory - location
ls - find what's at a location
cd - change location
LOOK - text file of the description of the room
./executable - do something, may add files to the directory, or display text
john.person - binary file of information
/bin/talk john.person - start the program to have a conversation with john
/bin/attack john.person - start the program to attack this person -- after you beat him, something may happen
processes - this can be your party
ps - list your current party
kill signal pid - signal your party to perform an action.. or dismiss them
~/ contains your inventory, stat information? use "cd -" to return to the adventure
/bin/save - creates a symbolic link from your home directory to the current level.
cp/rm/mkdir - these commands might mess things up.....
pipe/direct to file/grep/wc/sudo/aptitude/
ideally this will actually be done in the filesystem, but... it may have to be done outside.
Even though they look the same, text-based adventure games are really fun. Way back before graphics were 3d, heck even 2d, there were the text-based games. Just type in what you want to do, and your virtual avatar will try to do it in the virtual world. It is one step up from those choose-your-own-adventure books, ya know, the one where there's a choice at the bottom of each page, and you flip to the page that corresponds to the option that you chose. Good writing and some imagination makes them better than a lot of million-dollar games that are just boring.
Anyways, so I was doing some work on the terminal and I was also thinking about making a text-based game for a friend of mine and I made the connection: a text-based game in the termainal. So, each directory that you are in is a location, files in the directory are the different things that you can interact with, and /usr/bin will contain the actions that you can perform. Since there are symbolic links, it is totally possible to create a map that is arbitarily complex. Say you're in /start/room1/ there will be two files: LOOK and useSwitch. When you first ssh'd into the terminal, it will display a quick tutorial like, "to look around a location use: cat LOOK; and to perform an action use ./useSwitch". The file "LOOK" will contain a quick description of the room: "You are currently in a room that has a switch, use it by typing ./useSwitch", and when you type ./useSwitch, it will echo the text: " you flipped the switch, and a door appears" and add a symbolic link to the current directory to the next room.
There are two goals for this game: it's coooooooooolllllllllll, and it'll be a fun way to learn how to use the terminal. Right now, I'm making up the list of commands that should be in it, and how to make it a fun game... if you have suggestions, please leave it in the comment section!
directory - location
ls - find what's at a location
cd - change location
LOOK - text file of the description of the room
./executable - do something, may add files to the directory, or display text
john.person - binary file of information
/bin/talk john.person - start the program to have a conversation with john
/bin/attack john.person - start the program to attack this person -- after you beat him, something may happen
processes - this can be your party
ps - list your current party
kill signal pid - signal your party to perform an action.. or dismiss them
~/ contains your inventory, stat information? use "cd -" to return to the adventure
/bin/save - creates a symbolic link from your home directory to the current level.
cp/rm/mkdir - these commands might mess things up.....
pipe/direct to file/grep/wc/sudo/aptitude/
ideally this will actually be done in the filesystem, but... it may have to be done outside.
Monday, December 29, 2008
The Future of Computing
Imagine this: you're on the public transportation coming home from school, and since you got nothing better to do, you put on some fancy goggles, and using your cell phone's touch screen as the controller, you start playing Crysis 2 with your buddies on a virtual 50" screen. Then, when you get bored of that, you were reminded that the newest Batman sequel came out, so you go online, buy the movie, and watch it right away.
You'd prolly miss your stop and end up getting kicked off by the bus driver after you beg him to take you home, but you get the idea. It is the future of computing, and believe it or not, it is possible in a few short years. It might even be possible before the next crysis game or batman movie comes out.
This device that I am talking about will be ultra-portable, it will run as fast as any desktop, with as much storage as you need, and you can access any software, game, movie, song anytime, anywhere. And guess what? The device could be free with a two year subscription.
How?
Right now, internet connection speeds are getting faster and faster. Both wired and wireless technology is improving at an incredible speed. That along with compression/decompression techniques, such as codecs like divx, there will be a point where the connection between your computer and the internet will be comparable with the connection speed between a monitor and a desktop computer. Then you can connect to your computer from anywhere. Think of being able to bring your monitor (and keyboard and mouse) with you while they are wirelessly connected to your desktop.
You might say... "What? I can do it now!" And you would be right, this technology has been around for a long long time. Right now, you can use remote desktop (which is already included in windows) or VNC (which is free) or one of other various alternatives. One company already have a product to allow you to play Crysis on an eeepc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4cUl9WFv7g (streammygame.com) with this technology.
However what is lacking in all current systems is a reliable desktop replacement service. You might be able to connect to your computer if you have a server running 24/7, but latency will be a problem once you move out of your home wifi. But if there are multiple servers at strategic locations, latency can be overcome with fast connections to local servers. We got electricity to run to every house, it isn't unthinkable to have a reliable broadband there within the decade (but you have to give them the incentive).
This is different from the current trend of online utilities such as Google docs, where everything has to go through the browser and all the output changed into html. Using remote desktop technology, programmers will have more control over input and output, and users will still be able to choose between versions of the program to be installed on their virtual desktop.
Why?
Everything you need with a full desktop computer, you can do with a cellphone and a dataplan, but now you won't be wasting your hardware when you're not using it, which can make it cheaper. Connect any input/output device you want (monitor, keyboard, mouse, projector, speaker) and you have a cellphone-sized (and priced) computer. Even if you don't plan on taking your computer everywhere, you can save money on the computer you leave at home, and use it to get a better monitor and sound system.
Also, now that "your computer" is a virtual one running on servers, you will be able to access any content that is on the servers instantaneously (movies, songs, software) since they are actually on the same system. You will still need to pay for it, of course, but you can have your entire HD movie collection online, and it wouldn't take up any of your personal disc space the server only needs one copy.
Now what the "stupid user" actually have is only a connection device, servicing or replacement wouldn't be too bad. When there is a hardware problem, it will be solved at the server. When you have a software problem, just ask for techsupport to get a professional to fix your virtual computer online.
DRM, piracy, and online distribution
For this system, it makes much more sense to have all the content with the service provider, and have them distribute it to the user. Instead of everyone having a copy of a 700mb movie, it will save space to have just one copy which everyone that bought it can access. Here's where DRM comes into play.
DRM, or digital rights management, is a hated phrase for anyone who knows what it is. Instead of protecting your digital rights, as the acronym implies, it restricts them. You may only install this game on 3 computers, and no more. You can only listen to these songs if you have an internet connection to verify their authenticity. You have to jump through burning hoops if you wanted to make a parody out of the material you bought, as you are entitled to do. But what if DRM's actually protected everyone's rights, not just the content providers?
Instead of bringing some DVD's to a friends home only to find that no one likes them except you, just sign on to your account and you will be able to choose from an entire collection of your bad taste in movies.
Instead of going through the trouble of ripping a CD, then labelling it, then choosing the songs you like, then putting it on your sd card for your mp3 player and cellphone, you will be able to have complete access to everything you own on every device you have.
Instead of being sued for the theme song of the movie you made for a charity, your movie-making software will automatically credit the songwriter in the credits, and notify you how much you will need to pay for every commericial sale of your flick.
This is what will happen when all the content is on the centralized servers. You can buy access to the content, and they will be synchronized with every device you have through DRM. Your digital rights will be managed well. Piracy will be too much work for the general public to cut into the profits of anyone.
But!
So now, this technology will allow for a great cheap consumer product and might even eliminate piracy, but it comes with two huge caveats. In order for this to work well, you almost require a monopoly. If you switch providers, you instantly lose access to all of your digital possessions, so you're locked to a single provider (like ipod with itunes). In order to access your computer without lag, the provider will need to have servers in many local areas. It would be a great waste of money to have too many providers put up that many servers. This is good for the company with the monopoly, and it may also be good for the public because there will be enough profit from all the content being sold on the platform for the service to be free. However the risk of mismanagement is great.
Second, privacy will be another problem. Suppose this system was introduced in China or Australia, what will prevent the government from issuing a subpoena for all of your emails and documents? Even a single malicious hacker would be able to cause significant damage to your privacy.
Conclusion
Way back before computers weren't personal, universities used to have only a few computers that many researchers had to share together because they were so expensive. Now computers might come full circle, and return to big rooms with only a single wire connecting it to the world. Except now we can finally play Crysis on it.
You'd prolly miss your stop and end up getting kicked off by the bus driver after you beg him to take you home, but you get the idea. It is the future of computing, and believe it or not, it is possible in a few short years. It might even be possible before the next crysis game or batman movie comes out.
This device that I am talking about will be ultra-portable, it will run as fast as any desktop, with as much storage as you need, and you can access any software, game, movie, song anytime, anywhere. And guess what? The device could be free with a two year subscription.
How?
Right now, internet connection speeds are getting faster and faster. Both wired and wireless technology is improving at an incredible speed. That along with compression/decompression techniques, such as codecs like divx, there will be a point where the connection between your computer and the internet will be comparable with the connection speed between a monitor and a desktop computer. Then you can connect to your computer from anywhere. Think of being able to bring your monitor (and keyboard and mouse) with you while they are wirelessly connected to your desktop.
You might say... "What? I can do it now!" And you would be right, this technology has been around for a long long time. Right now, you can use remote desktop (which is already included in windows) or VNC (which is free) or one of other various alternatives. One company already have a product to allow you to play Crysis on an eeepc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4cUl9WFv7g (streammygame.com) with this technology.
However what is lacking in all current systems is a reliable desktop replacement service. You might be able to connect to your computer if you have a server running 24/7, but latency will be a problem once you move out of your home wifi. But if there are multiple servers at strategic locations, latency can be overcome with fast connections to local servers. We got electricity to run to every house, it isn't unthinkable to have a reliable broadband there within the decade (but you have to give them the incentive).
This is different from the current trend of online utilities such as Google docs, where everything has to go through the browser and all the output changed into html. Using remote desktop technology, programmers will have more control over input and output, and users will still be able to choose between versions of the program to be installed on their virtual desktop.
Why?
Everything you need with a full desktop computer, you can do with a cellphone and a dataplan, but now you won't be wasting your hardware when you're not using it, which can make it cheaper. Connect any input/output device you want (monitor, keyboard, mouse, projector, speaker) and you have a cellphone-sized (and priced) computer. Even if you don't plan on taking your computer everywhere, you can save money on the computer you leave at home, and use it to get a better monitor and sound system.
Also, now that "your computer" is a virtual one running on servers, you will be able to access any content that is on the servers instantaneously (movies, songs, software) since they are actually on the same system. You will still need to pay for it, of course, but you can have your entire HD movie collection online, and it wouldn't take up any of your personal disc space the server only needs one copy.
Now what the "stupid user" actually have is only a connection device, servicing or replacement wouldn't be too bad. When there is a hardware problem, it will be solved at the server. When you have a software problem, just ask for techsupport to get a professional to fix your virtual computer online.
DRM, piracy, and online distribution
For this system, it makes much more sense to have all the content with the service provider, and have them distribute it to the user. Instead of everyone having a copy of a 700mb movie, it will save space to have just one copy which everyone that bought it can access. Here's where DRM comes into play.
DRM, or digital rights management, is a hated phrase for anyone who knows what it is. Instead of protecting your digital rights, as the acronym implies, it restricts them. You may only install this game on 3 computers, and no more. You can only listen to these songs if you have an internet connection to verify their authenticity. You have to jump through burning hoops if you wanted to make a parody out of the material you bought, as you are entitled to do. But what if DRM's actually protected everyone's rights, not just the content providers?
Instead of bringing some DVD's to a friends home only to find that no one likes them except you, just sign on to your account and you will be able to choose from an entire collection of your bad taste in movies.
Instead of going through the trouble of ripping a CD, then labelling it, then choosing the songs you like, then putting it on your sd card for your mp3 player and cellphone, you will be able to have complete access to everything you own on every device you have.
Instead of being sued for the theme song of the movie you made for a charity, your movie-making software will automatically credit the songwriter in the credits, and notify you how much you will need to pay for every commericial sale of your flick.
This is what will happen when all the content is on the centralized servers. You can buy access to the content, and they will be synchronized with every device you have through DRM. Your digital rights will be managed well. Piracy will be too much work for the general public to cut into the profits of anyone.
But!
So now, this technology will allow for a great cheap consumer product and might even eliminate piracy, but it comes with two huge caveats. In order for this to work well, you almost require a monopoly. If you switch providers, you instantly lose access to all of your digital possessions, so you're locked to a single provider (like ipod with itunes). In order to access your computer without lag, the provider will need to have servers in many local areas. It would be a great waste of money to have too many providers put up that many servers. This is good for the company with the monopoly, and it may also be good for the public because there will be enough profit from all the content being sold on the platform for the service to be free. However the risk of mismanagement is great.
Second, privacy will be another problem. Suppose this system was introduced in China or Australia, what will prevent the government from issuing a subpoena for all of your emails and documents? Even a single malicious hacker would be able to cause significant damage to your privacy.
Conclusion
Way back before computers weren't personal, universities used to have only a few computers that many researchers had to share together because they were so expensive. Now computers might come full circle, and return to big rooms with only a single wire connecting it to the world. Except now we can finally play Crysis on it.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Search Engine That Could
The cool thing about the technology behind search engines like Google is that it is the source to find ANYTHING. Whether you want recipes, telephone numbers, latest news, or pictures of your favorite rock star, you can type it into a search engine and find the stuff you want. The technology is pretty complex, because you're not just looking for a phrase in a large text, sometimes you need to understand the semantics of the language to pick up on the key phrases or determine the relevancy of the sites you index. It's very hard to get it right. But when you do, you got a money maker on your hands.
Even though we use search engines for pretty much anything online, I think that search engines are not doing anywhere near enough what they could be. Here's what I mean. Search engines are natural and essential when you have a database, and you can market a search algorithm for almost anything.
If you have a database of people's information, you need a search engine to find people. If you have a database of clothes, you need a search engine to find the clothes you want. Amazon, iTunes, Netflix are all high profile web companies that would dissolve into chaos if their search algorithm went bad. And I would suggest that all such algorithms are connected in some way.
Suppose someone wrote on their blog analyzing the moral complexities in the relatively unknown comic Dodobirdman and it gets a lot of page links in the next few hours, getting on the front page of Digg the next day, naturally, when you are browsing for books and you type in birdman, it'll suggest Dodobirdman and automatically spit out the newest volume of the comic, as well as Dodobirdman backpacks, and of course the popular Dodoman key chains. While when the reverse happens, and a book gets rave reviews and becomes a bestseller, webpages that refer to the things related to the book online should get more attention.
So the first idea is that a search engine company should be a search engine company. Sure, website search engines are very different than Amazon's recommendation system or the Digg algorithm, but they are all related. Why should a company spend money to go make the hardware with enough computing power to analyze all of its data, including the staff required to maintain it, or write a svm multiple tree and constantly update it with the latest in machine language research, when they have the option of outsourcing it to a reliable company?
There are many ways of providing such a search engine service and it might be pretty tricky to find the right way. The content and all the "signals" (as google puts it) may be confidential information from the client, and the search algorithm would be the business secret of the service, but the algorithm needs the data to work and when you're optimizing something like that, you're bound to access a little bit of both. One way is to make servers with a collection of different search engine tools built-in, that you can put your data on, as well as getting it processed the way you want to. Even if the hardware isn't top-notch, if your software is unique, companies would buy them like hot cakes.
I can probably write more about the subject, but unless you're microsoft, yahoo, or google, you probably won't be interested, so let's move on to IDEA 2!!!
One of the problems with search engines is the trade-off between search engine effectiveness and privacy. You can find out all of the interests of a particular user, and recommend them everything they are interested in with high accuracy, but you would need training data that people don't really want big-name companies to be keeping in their database. If search engines now can already provide relevant results, imagine what they could do with your private data.
So idea 2 would be to create a client-side search engine the keeps track of things you buy, the searches you do, the kinds of website that you like that does not in any way reveal your information to anyone else. It will be your personalized search engine. When you encounter any kind of large collection, say search result from google or recommendations from buy.com, the local search engine would take those results and reorder the priorities depending on past behavior of the user. Of course, to protect the privacy of its user, it will have to non-discriminately download the information about the things it wants to look for, increasing the bandwidth in a world where bandwidth matters less and less to companies.
If people find what they want, they'll buy more things. So the development of this software (like a browser plug-in, or browser feature) can be a collaborative effort from major web companies that will give the sponsors an advantage of understanding the inner workings of the local search engine for optimization, while still giving the means for startups to take advantage of the local search with little investment.
If this program REALLY behaves itself, maybe it will also be able to expand to giving adword-like little popups when you aren't online at all. It could respond to the text that it sees you typing into your computer, or programs that you have running. If this idea evolves to this stage though, there are many other things you can do with the personal e-butler. It might become so good that you won't ever miss out on any of the Dodobirdman memorabilia, ever again! WOOT!
Even though we use search engines for pretty much anything online, I think that search engines are not doing anywhere near enough what they could be. Here's what I mean. Search engines are natural and essential when you have a database, and you can market a search algorithm for almost anything.
If you have a database of people's information, you need a search engine to find people. If you have a database of clothes, you need a search engine to find the clothes you want. Amazon, iTunes, Netflix are all high profile web companies that would dissolve into chaos if their search algorithm went bad. And I would suggest that all such algorithms are connected in some way.
Suppose someone wrote on their blog analyzing the moral complexities in the relatively unknown comic Dodobirdman and it gets a lot of page links in the next few hours, getting on the front page of Digg the next day, naturally, when you are browsing for books and you type in birdman, it'll suggest Dodobirdman and automatically spit out the newest volume of the comic, as well as Dodobirdman backpacks, and of course the popular Dodoman key chains. While when the reverse happens, and a book gets rave reviews and becomes a bestseller, webpages that refer to the things related to the book online should get more attention.
So the first idea is that a search engine company should be a search engine company. Sure, website search engines are very different than Amazon's recommendation system or the Digg algorithm, but they are all related. Why should a company spend money to go make the hardware with enough computing power to analyze all of its data, including the staff required to maintain it, or write a svm multiple tree and constantly update it with the latest in machine language research, when they have the option of outsourcing it to a reliable company?
There are many ways of providing such a search engine service and it might be pretty tricky to find the right way. The content and all the "signals" (as google puts it) may be confidential information from the client, and the search algorithm would be the business secret of the service, but the algorithm needs the data to work and when you're optimizing something like that, you're bound to access a little bit of both. One way is to make servers with a collection of different search engine tools built-in, that you can put your data on, as well as getting it processed the way you want to. Even if the hardware isn't top-notch, if your software is unique, companies would buy them like hot cakes.
I can probably write more about the subject, but unless you're microsoft, yahoo, or google, you probably won't be interested, so let's move on to IDEA 2!!!
One of the problems with search engines is the trade-off between search engine effectiveness and privacy. You can find out all of the interests of a particular user, and recommend them everything they are interested in with high accuracy, but you would need training data that people don't really want big-name companies to be keeping in their database. If search engines now can already provide relevant results, imagine what they could do with your private data.
So idea 2 would be to create a client-side search engine the keeps track of things you buy, the searches you do, the kinds of website that you like that does not in any way reveal your information to anyone else. It will be your personalized search engine. When you encounter any kind of large collection, say search result from google or recommendations from buy.com, the local search engine would take those results and reorder the priorities depending on past behavior of the user. Of course, to protect the privacy of its user, it will have to non-discriminately download the information about the things it wants to look for, increasing the bandwidth in a world where bandwidth matters less and less to companies.
If people find what they want, they'll buy more things. So the development of this software (like a browser plug-in, or browser feature) can be a collaborative effort from major web companies that will give the sponsors an advantage of understanding the inner workings of the local search engine for optimization, while still giving the means for startups to take advantage of the local search with little investment.
If this program REALLY behaves itself, maybe it will also be able to expand to giving adword-like little popups when you aren't online at all. It could respond to the text that it sees you typing into your computer, or programs that you have running. If this idea evolves to this stage though, there are many other things you can do with the personal e-butler. It might become so good that you won't ever miss out on any of the Dodobirdman memorabilia, ever again! WOOT!
Monday, July 7, 2008
side view mirrors
Here's a quickee that's kinda related to the previous post.
In a car, you have a back-view mirror, and a rear-view mirror, and even with the 3 mirrors and windows on everyside, cars still have blindspots. Blindspots are dangerous.
If you have driven on mountain roads before, you should have seen some safety mirrors that show you what is around the corner. They are there so you can notice if there are any cars coming, but not necessarily to identify which kind of car it is. Those mirrors are not flat. They are convex so that you can see the widest range on the other side of the bend. So why are side-view mirrors flat?
When you look in your sideview, you may want to tell what is passing by behind you, so it should be flat for most of its surface area. But if the edges of these mirrors are rounded, even though you can't really see too clearly what is there, you can notice if there is something in your blind spot. That can make a difference between being 10 seconds late to your destination and flattening a scooter.... that has a whole family on it.
In a car, you have a back-view mirror, and a rear-view mirror, and even with the 3 mirrors and windows on everyside, cars still have blindspots. Blindspots are dangerous.
If you have driven on mountain roads before, you should have seen some safety mirrors that show you what is around the corner. They are there so you can notice if there are any cars coming, but not necessarily to identify which kind of car it is. Those mirrors are not flat. They are convex so that you can see the widest range on the other side of the bend. So why are side-view mirrors flat?
When you look in your sideview, you may want to tell what is passing by behind you, so it should be flat for most of its surface area. But if the edges of these mirrors are rounded, even though you can't really see too clearly what is there, you can notice if there is something in your blind spot. That can make a difference between being 10 seconds late to your destination and flattening a scooter.... that has a whole family on it.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Bird's eye view glasses
Skiing goggles are pretty cool. Since they have to block out the UV rays, the goggles have a lot of reflexive paint, so they come in all different kinds of colors. Yet even if the goggles were yellow, your eyes can adjust to the color, and after a few minutes, everything will look normal again. When you take them off, since your eyes had to compensate for the color, everything looks blue.
Despite how cool it is, people wearing glasses for the first time definitely should not go skiing, in fact, they are a bit dangerous even when they walk. That is because glasses not only refocus what they see, the skew their vision. If you're wearing glasses right now, just take a look at the rim of your glasses, and you will see that the refocused vision doesn't match up with your original vision. Yet your eyes can still adjust to them.
Back in the days when quake 2 was popular, some people would change their field of view to a much higher angle than normal. Even though targets become smaller, you get to see more of what is going on. With training, this becomes an advantage when you can frag opponents before they see you, and not vice-versa.
So, chances are likely that our visual system will be able to adjust if we make a helmet that feeds a 360 vision into our eyes. It can be done with cameras and monitors on your helmet. Birds typically have 300~340 field of vision, but they have little overlap in their vision, which reduces clarity and sense of 3D. So, ideally, there would still be a high overlapping region, but the other regions would be at a reduced scale, to increase peripheral vision. It might look weird if a guy walks around with a ball on his head. But for vehicles, such a helmet would increase reaction time.
Anyone could be trained to use the helmet, probably within a week. You might have to spend some time on hands-eye coordination, like playing catch a few other people, adjusting to the change in vision.
Then you won't have an excuse when you crash into a tree when you're skiiing.
Despite how cool it is, people wearing glasses for the first time definitely should not go skiing, in fact, they are a bit dangerous even when they walk. That is because glasses not only refocus what they see, the skew their vision. If you're wearing glasses right now, just take a look at the rim of your glasses, and you will see that the refocused vision doesn't match up with your original vision. Yet your eyes can still adjust to them.
Back in the days when quake 2 was popular, some people would change their field of view to a much higher angle than normal. Even though targets become smaller, you get to see more of what is going on. With training, this becomes an advantage when you can frag opponents before they see you, and not vice-versa.
So, chances are likely that our visual system will be able to adjust if we make a helmet that feeds a 360 vision into our eyes. It can be done with cameras and monitors on your helmet. Birds typically have 300~340 field of vision, but they have little overlap in their vision, which reduces clarity and sense of 3D. So, ideally, there would still be a high overlapping region, but the other regions would be at a reduced scale, to increase peripheral vision. It might look weird if a guy walks around with a ball on his head. But for vehicles, such a helmet would increase reaction time.
Anyone could be trained to use the helmet, probably within a week. You might have to spend some time on hands-eye coordination, like playing catch a few other people, adjusting to the change in vision.
Then you won't have an excuse when you crash into a tree when you're skiiing.
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