Moore’s law

Moore’s law describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware. The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years.  This trend has continued for more than half a century and is expected to continue until 2015 or 2020 or later.
The capabilities of many digital electronic devices are strongly linked to Moore’s law: processing speed, memory capacity, sensors and even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras.  All of these are improving at (roughly) exponential rates as well (see Other formulations and similar laws). This exponential improvement has dramatically enhanced the impact of digital electronics in nearly every segment of the world economy.  Moore’s law describes a driving force of technological and social change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

via Moore’s law

Large Binocular Telescope

Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) is an optical telescope for astronomy located on Mount Graham (10,700-foot (3,300 m)) in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona, and is a part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. The LBT is currently one of the world’s most advanced optical telescopes; using two 8.4 m (27 ft) wide mirrors can give the same light gathering ability as a 11.8 m (39 ft) wide single circular telescope and detail of 22.8 m (75 ft) wide one, according to the BBC. Either of its mirrors would be the largest optical telescope in continental North America. The strangely named
LUCIFER Telescope has two multi-object infrared spectrographs.

via Large Binocular Telescope

Fibonacci numbers

In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers are the numbers in the following integer sequence:
The Fibonacci sequence is named after Leonardo of Pisa, who was known as Fibonacci. Fibonacci’s 1202 book Liber Abaci introduced the sequence to Western European mathematics, although the sequence had been described earlier in Indian mathematics.
Fibonacci numbers are used in the analysis of financial markets, in strategies such as Fibonacci retracement, and are used in computer algorithms such as the Fibonacci search technique and the Fibonacci heap data structure. The simple recursion of Fibonacci numbers has also inspired a family of recursive graphs called Fibonacci cubes for interconnecting parallel and distributed systems. They also appear in biological settings,such as branching in trees, arrangement of leaves on a stem, the fruit spouts of a pineapple,the flowering of artichoke, an uncurling fern and the arrangement of a pine cone.

via Fibonacci number

Tachistoscope

A tachistoscope is a device that displays (usually by projecting) an image for a specific amount of time. It can be used to increase recognition speed, to show something too fast to be consciously recognized, or to test which elements of an image are memorable. Tachistoscopes use a slide or transparency projector equipped with the mechanical shutter system typical of a camera. Tachistoscopes were used extensively in psychological research to present visual stimuli for controlled durations. Some experiments employed pairs of tachistoscopes so that an experimental participant could be given different stimulation in each visual field. For example, used during World War II in the training of fighter pilots to help them identify aircraft silhouettes as friend or foe. Tachistoscopes continue to be used in market research, where they are typically used to compare the visual impact, or memorability of marketing materials or packaging designs.

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Grey Goo

Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves, a scenario known as ecophagy or eating the environment.

Self-replicating machines of the macroscopic variety were originally described by mathematician John von Neumann, and are sometimes referred to as von Neumann machines. The term grey goo was coined by nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation, stating that “we cannot afford certain types of accidents.”  In 2004 he stated “I wish I had never used the term ‘grey goo’.

via Grey goo – Wikipedia

FrankenCircuit

the layout

 

FrankenCircuit is the result of an enormous collaboration of over 19 artists, musicians, scientists, computer programmers and engineers. At a superficial level, the Frankenstein reference is obvious, such as in the aesthetics of the FrankenSwitch.  But beyond that, there are issues raised by Mary Shelley’s classic tale that are as controversial today as they were 200 years ago.

The Creature

Electricity, controlled from a single knife switch, animates seven distinct kinetic sculptures, compiled from repurposed mechanical parts and electrical circuitry. Their sounds are amplified through a sound system and mixed with precomposed electroacoustic music, to create a unified sonic environment that serves to dislocate the individual sounds from their physical placement. Work ranges from high tech microprocessor controlled circuitry to low tech mechanistic devices that are at the mercy of friction. The pieces, created independent of one another, are united in their collective sound and in the source of their animation.

The Artists

Martin Back
James Brody
Tristan C hambers
Töped Emoh
Walter Gordy
Stephen Guerin
Tory Hughes
Philip Mantione
David Enoch McPherson
Simon Mehalek
Flamingo Pink!
Zevin Polzin
Ismael Retzinski
Frank Joseph
Rolla Alysse
Stepanian Steina
Woody Vasulka
Dr. Woohoo

The Performers

Martin Back
James Brody
Vince Kadlubek
Flamingo Pink!
Ismael Retzinski
Frank Rolla

via FrankenCircuit.

CAPTCHA

A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer. Because other computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human. Thus, it is sometimes described as a reverse Turing test, because it is administered by a machine and targeted to a human. The term “CAPTCHA” based upon the word capture was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas J. Hopper, and John Langford all of Carnegie Mellon University. It is a contrived acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”

via CAPTCHA – Wikipedia

Glitch Art

Glitch art is the aestheticization of digital or analog errors, such as artifacts and other “bugs”, by either corrupting digital code/data or by physically manipulating electronic devices an example of which is  circuit bending.
Circuit bending is the creative short-circuiting of electronic devices such as low voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children’s toys and small digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators.

via Glitch Art & Circuit Bending

The Skoog

Strumming a guitar or playing a flute is not always feasible for kids with physical disabilities.

Until the Skoog came along.

Created by researchers and musicians in Scotland, the instrument enables children, despite their handicaps, to play their favorite tunes. The device is soft and malleable and can be played by touching, tapping, squeezing or twisting.

The Skoog plugs into a computer’s USB port and gives kids the option of playing 12 instruments, such as trombone, violin or clarinet.

via The Skoog: Musical Mastery for Kids With Disabilities

Compression Artifact

A compression artifact (or artefact) is a noticeable distortion of media – an image, audio, or video – due to the application of an overly aggressive or inappropriate lossy data compression algorithm.

These lossy data compression schemes discard some data to simplify the media sufficiently to store it in the desired space (data-rate) – if there is not enough data in the compressed version to reproduce the original with acceptable fidelity, artifacts will result. Alternatively, the compression algorithm may incorrectly determine certain distortions to be of little subjective importance, but they may in fact be objectionable to the viewer.

Compression artifacts occur in many common media such as DVDs, common computer file formats such as JPEG, MP3, or MPEG files, and Sony’s ATRAC compression algorithm. Uncompressed media (such as on Laserdiscs, Audio CDs, and WAV files) or losslessly compressed media (FLAC, PNG, etc.) do not suffer from compression artifacts.

The minimization of artifacts is a key goal in implementation of lossy compression schemes. However, artifacts are occasionally intentionally produced for artistic purposes, a style known as glitch art.

Technically speaking, a compression artifact is a particular class of data error that is usually the consequence of quantization in lossy data compression.

via Compression artifact – Wikipedia