Netizen

Friday, October 03, 2014

Smartphone Lenses That Move Sideways

Deutsch: Prinzip eines Zoom-Objektivs, stark vereinfacht. Die einzelne Linse ganz links stellt das Grundobjektiv dar. Die drei weiteren Linsen bilden gemeinsam ein afokales System. Selbst erstellt mit POVRAY 3.5 unter Verwendung freier Skripte und der frei verfügbaren Version von LINOS Photonics WinLens 4.3, Quellcode beim Uploader wegen eines Festplattenchrashs leider nicht mehr in einer funktionierenden Version vorhanden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I probably use my phone as a camera more than anything else. Therefore I am all ears when something like this shows up in the news. I am not too hungry for more megapixels. But the lack of meaningful optical zoom has been a major problem from day one. It has been in the "God, give me the wisdom to accept things I can not change" category.

Lenses That Move Sideways Could Improve Smartphone Snaps

To pack a camera-quality optical zoom into a smartphone ...... For now, the DyanOptics lens prototypes can magnify objects up to three times larger than they really are. Chan says the company expects to magnify objects up to five or six times ..... Chan is already thinking beyond the smartphone. She believes the technology could find a home in the cameras strapped to drones or robots. ..... there are cameras everywhere

Almost Driverless Cars

Film poster for Speed 2: Cruise Control (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Someone pointed out that driverless cars are actually more complicated than they are made out to be. Therefore I think the goal ought be to put forth almost driverless cars. No major changes in laws and regulations necessary. These almost driverless cars could function in the existing framework.

They would be almost accident free. The cruise control would be much smarter. Cars would talk to each other to make sure they don't crash into each other.

Uber is taken for granted. Uber and uber-like services would take car pooling to a whole new level.

Town Built for Driverless Cars

The urban setting will be used to create situations that automated driving systems have struggled with, such as subtle driver-pedestrian interactions, unusual road surfaces, tunnels, and tree canopies, which can confuse sensors and obscure GPS signals..... Highway driving, which is less complex than city driving, has proved easy enough for self-driving cars, but busy downtown streets—where cars and pedestrians jockey for space and behave in confusing and surprising ways—are more problematic. ..... in some situations, the car’s Super Cruise system will take care of steering, braking, and accelerating.

Second Avenue Subway

Living City

Monday, September 29, 2014

20 Hour Long Movies

Cover of Amitabh Bachchan

They are not movies, but they are not called movies, but I am calling them movies. I did not watch them any differently than I watch movies on my computer. They are movies, as far as I am concerned.

First I watched Kevin Spacey's House Of Cards. I was mesmerized. There is no way you could do justice to the material in a two hour movie. It had to play out. I binge watched. Then I watched Amitabh Bachchan's Yudh. I will watch anything with Amitabh Bachchan in it. And I just finished watching 24, Season 4, all 24 episodes of it. I binge watched. Such superb treatment of the material.

Hollywood is society's imagination wing. It helps process scenarios.

I have become a huge fan of 20 hour long movies. Bring it on.