Light-in-Flight Imaging page on that system tells that transient imaging is a recent imaging modality in which short pulses of light are observed “in flight” as they propagate through a scene. Transient images are useful to help understand light propagation in complex environments and to analyze light transport.

This system uses modulated light from a managed source, an uses somewhat similar tricks as used on Time-of-flight camera systems. Check the video on those pages to get idea that can be done with this kind of imaging.

The innovation around New camera technologies does not seem to stop.

Check out this brilliant Web Economy Bullshit Generator page. It generates random bullshit text based on the often used words in business language. And most of the material it generates look something you would expect from IT executives and their speechwriters (those are randomly generated with Web Economy Bullshit Generator):

“scale viral web services”
“integrate holistic mindshare”
“transform back-end solutions”
“incentivize revolutionary portals”
“synergize out-of-the-box platforms”
“enhance world-class schemas”
“aggregate revolutionary paradigms”
“enable cross-media relationships”

How to talk like a CIO article tries to tell how do CIOs talk, and what do they talk about, and why they do it like they do it. It sometimes makes sense to analyze the speaking and comportment styles of the people who’ve already climbed the corporate ladder if you want to do the same.

The Most Annoying, Pretentious And Useless Business Jargon article tells that the stupid business talk is longer solely the province of consultants, investors and business-school types, this annoying gobbledygook has mesmerized the rank and file around the globe. The next time you feel the need to reach out, touch base, shift a paradigm, leverage a best practice or join a tiger team, by all means do it. Just don’t say you’re doing it. If you have to ask why, chances are you’ve fallen under the poisonous spell of business jargon. Jargon masks real meaning. The Most Annoying, Pretentious And Useless Business Jargon article has a cache of expressions to assiduously avoid (if you look out you will see those used way too many times in business documents and press releases).

Is Innovation the Most Abused Word In Business? article tells that most of what is called innovation today is mere distraction, according to a paper by economist Robert Gordon. Innovation is the most abused word in tech. The iPad is about as innovative as the toaster. You can still read books without an iPad, and you can still toast bread without a toaster. True innovation radically alters the way we interact with the world. But in tech, every little thing is called “innovative.” If you were to believe business grads then “innovation” includes their “ideas” along the lines of “a website like *only better*” or “that thing which everyone is already doing but which I think is my neat new idea” Whether or not the word “innovation” has become the most abused word in the business context, that remains to be seen. “Innovation” itself has already been abused by the patent trolls.

Using stories to catch ‘smart-talk’ article tells that smart-talk is information without understanding, theory without practice – ‘all mouth and no trousers’, as the old aphorism puts it. It’s all too common amongst would-be ‘experts’ – and likewise amongst ‘rising stars’ in management and elsewhere. He looks the part; he knows all the right buzzwords; he can quote chapter-and-verse from all the best-known pundits and practitioners. But is it all just empty ’smart-talk’? Even if unintentional on their part, people who indulge in smart-talk can be genuinely dangerous. They’ll seem plausible enough at first, but in reality they’ll often know just enough to get everyone into real trouble, but not enough to get out of it again. Smart-talk is the bane of most business – and probably of most communities too. So what can we do to catch it?

When I did a search I found a good web page on camera microphone interfacing: Microphone Adapters for consumer camcorders (I know would be able to trust the information on that page because I had earlier good experience on ComClone2 project from same designer). Microphone Adapters for consumer camcorders has this nice plan for interfacing XLR microphones to video camera:

The capacitor should have capacitance something between 1 to 5 microfarads. This looked like a good plan. The question mark was if the dynamic mics had enough output signal to be useable with the camera mic input that was designed for electret capsules (which have typically considerably higher output level than dynamic microphones). It was impossible to test because at the moment I did not have access to that camera. There seems to be commercial adapters for adapting microphones to video cameras that include also amplifiers like ones shown in this video:

I ended up planning an approach which could be easily adjusted on the field when all equipment are there. The approach is quite traditional audio application where the microphones are connected to a small mixer, and the output from audio mixer is connected to video camera input. I made the connection from the mixer main output to camera mic input using a pair of DI unit boxes: those convert line level audio signal from 6.3 mm plug output on mixer to mic level output on XLR connector plus provide transformer isolation for the signal (very often needed to avoid ground loop humming).

I wired the mic signal from XLR outputs directly to 3.5 mm plug (I had such cable already made). In this specific application I could live without the capacitors, because the specific DIY DI unit could handle few mA of DC on it’s output without a problem to sound quality (not all DIs can do this, but my my old trusty DI box with heavy transformer can do that). I tested this approach without video camera by connecting the output to PC mic input (close enough to video came mic input characteristics on many cases). I expect the things go smoothly with the real camera.

Data Sensing Lab at Google I/O 2013: Google Cloud Platform meets the Internet of Things page has some details on the plans. According to pictures the devices on the field use XBee wireless communications modules. Google App Engine Datastore, along with Google Cloud Endpoints, provides a scalable front end API for collecting data from devices. Google Compute Engine is used to process and analyse data with software tools such as R and Hadoop.

Google has history on using Arduino platform for different applications, good earlier example of that is Android Open Accessory Development Kit.

50 years since project “Red Line” page tells how this distance record (119 miles) for laser-beam communications was done.

Google has already logged an impressive amount of miles in its Toyota Prius fleet equipped with $70,000 radar systems.

Google’s Self Driving Car Gathers Nearly 1 GB/Sec blog posting by Bill Gross tells that Google’s self-driving car gathers 750 megabytes of sensor data per SECOND! It is capturing every single thing that it sees moving – cars, trucks, birds, rolling balls, dropped cigarette butts, and fusing all that together to make its decisions while driving.

What the brain of Google’s self-driving car sees: The ‘Terminator’s-eye-view’ that shows just what it takes to navigate a city article has an images of what Google’s self-driving cars see when it makes a left turn. It bears a striking resemblance to the view the Terminator sees in the classic sci-fi films. This Is What A Google Self-Driving Car ‘Sees’ At A Stoplight article has also image of the sensor data.

Google: Self-driving cars in 3-5 years. Feds: Not so fast article says that self-driving car could be available to consumers in 3-5 years, the head of Google’s autonomous driving project says. The plan is that Google creates software technology. Ford, Toyota and Audi build cars. Other projections have been for 2020 and beyond.

Tesla Interested in Google Self-Driving Car Technology article tells that Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently sat down for an interview with Bloomberg, conveying the automaker’s interest in bringing autopilot capabilities to its vehicles. Musk and company have apparently already spoken to Google about its still-in-testing tech, but there’s some chance Tesla may strike out on its own system.

The real challenge could be getting the self-driving car approved for use of public highways everywhere, not just the handful of states that allow self-driving cars for test purposes. In the meantime, look for assisted-driving cars that self-drive (loosely defined) under certain limited conditions.

Incandescent bulb: 10 lm/W
Halogen bulb: 15 lm/W
Energy saving lamp: 40 lm/W
LED: 60 lm/W

Source: Helen magazine Helmikuu 2013

Untangling the web book from NSA

The most interesting is the chapter titled “Google Hacking.” It has few tips like this:

• Search for confidential Excel spreadsheets the company inadvertently posted online by typing “filetype:xls site:za confidential” into Google.
• Want to find spreadsheets full of passwords in Russia? Type “filetype:xls site:ru login.”

Be careful what you publish on the web and how you do it.