01-06-2009
GigaPan: #1 Tech Story in 2008
The Times of London’s “Times Online” reports that its story on Carnegie Mellon University’s GigaPan Camera System was the most widely read among the top 50 technology stories it covered in 2008.
The GigaPan story beat out articles on the large hadron collider, invisibility devices, and the Indian Space Agency’s newly developed rival to Google Earth.
The GigaPan Camera System is a low-cost robotic device that enables any digital camera to shoot breathtaking, multi-billion pixel panoramas that can be navigated in depth through the Internet. It was developed by Associate Robotics Professor Illah Nourbakhsh and Randy Sargent, a project scientist at Carnegie Mellon’s Silicon Valley campus, in collaboration with scientists at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The system is currently in beta tests for commercial release.
Anne Watzman
01-02-2009
"60 Minutes" Men
The Jan. 4 episode of CBS News’ “60 Minutes" featured a report by Lesley Stahl on research by Tom Mitchell, chair of the Machine Learning Department, and Marcel Just, professor of psychology, on how the mind encodes the meaning of words.
The report explored how machine learning and language technologies may someday make it possible to use brain scans to identify thoughts.
For a video of the report, see: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4697682n
The report already has stirred discussion at the Huffington Post. The comments range from the critical — "This is sick!" — to the hopeful — "We could ... pinpoint certain thoughts and how they lead to various neuroses or depression, maybe even develop a better treatment for schizophrenia." Some are just comical — "We can finally get the truth out of O.J."
The work also was the subject of a front-page story in the Jan. 4 issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Post-Gazette posted a video of reporter Mark Roth undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan and having his thoughts identified by the computer algorithm.
Pictured at right are (l-r) Tom Mitchell, Lesley Stahl and Marcel Just.
Byron Spice
12-18-2008
Randy Pausch is Pittsburgher of the Year
The January issue of Pittsburgh magazine names Randy Pausch as the Pittsburgher of the Year. “He lived an extraordinary life, and in dying he inspired others on how to live,” the magazine said in explaining its choice. The issue features a long profile of Randy, written by Geoffrey W. Melada, that highlights his academic career, including the creation of the Alice software environment and the co-founding of the Entertainment Technology Center.
The magazine’s previous Pittsburghers of the Year have included Bill Strickland, Henry and Elsie Hillman, and August Wilson.
Byron Spice
12-15-2008
Panda3D, Alice Honored
Carnegie Mellon University has received a $50,000 Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration (MATC) for its role in developing Panda3D and Alice, two open-source software tools that provide significant benefits to higher education and, in particular, to the arts and humanities.
Mike Christel, senior systems scientist in the Computer Science Department, accepted the award from Vint Cert, vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google Inc., at a Washington, D.C., ceremony Dec. 8. Ten institutions, including MIT, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Washington received the awards, which are presented by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Panda3D is a game engine originally developed by the Disney VR Studio to create virtual reality rides, such as Aladdin’s Magic Carpet, at Disney theme parks. It eventually was used to build Disney’s online game, Toontown. It was released as open source software in 2002, but was not in a form that could be easily used by most game developers. Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center worked with Disney to create documentation, add features and generally make Panda3D more suitable for use by the public.
Alice is a software environment that enables computer novices to create 3-D animations using a drag-and-drop interface and, in the process, provides an introduction to computer programming principles. The software, which Carnegie Mellon makes available as a free download, is used in about 15 percent of U.S. colleges and universities. Originally spearheaded by the late Randy Pausch, the Alice Project is now directed by Wanda Dann, associate teaching professor. Alice 3.0, a new version featuring animation characters created by Electronic Arts for its best-selling “The Sims,” is now undergoing alpha testing.
(Above, Carnegie Mellon's Mike Christel (right) accepts the award from Vint Cert of Google, Inc.)
Byron Spice
