Quick Post/Videos: Evolving Soft Robots (Cornell's Creative Machines Lab); Leap Motion + Google Earth Experiment (PO-MO)

Evolution in Action: Soft Robots!

A team from Cornell's Creative Machines Lab have been researching simulations of evolutionary robots, and as a result, have come up with an entertaining video of what they've discovered so far.  According to the project's website, the work was inspired by developmental biology, to use evolutionary algorithms as a tool to develop locomotion.

The following description of the video was quoted from Jeff Clune's YouTube site:

"Here we evolve the bodies of soft robots made of multiple materials (muscle, bone, & support tissue) to move quickly. Evolution produces a diverse array of fun, wacky, interesting, but ultimately functional soft robots. "

Link to the paper.
Unshackling Evolution: Evolving Soft Robots with Multiple Materials and a Powerful Generative Encoding. Cheney, MacCurdy, Clune, & Lipson. Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference. 2013. (pdf)"

LEAP Motion + Google Earth
Meg, from PO-MO, has a LEAP Motion developer kit. Earlier this week, LEAP Motion provided support for Google Earth integration, and asked developers to submit videos of their experiments.  I like the Superwoman theme of this video!

LEAP Motion & Google Earth = Superhero Flight Simulator from PO-MO Inc. on Vimeo.

RELATED
Watch as these adorable robots evolve the ability to walk
George Dvorsky, io9, 4/25/13
Virtual, Squishy Creatures Evolve to Run Using Evolutionary Algorithms
Science Daily, 4/23/13
Cornell Creative Machines Lab Website
PO-MO
LEAP Motion

Math Multimedia: Paul Bourke's Random Space Filling Tiling of the Plane; Lots'o Related Info and Links

Paul Bourke is a research associate professor and director of iVEC at the University of Western Australia.  I've been following Dr.  for several years and never cease to be amazed by his mathematical and scientific visualization experiements. 


Dr. Bourk recently posted a video of one of his recent projects on Google+ that I found fascinating.  If you are a member of Google+,  you can view the video at https://plus.google.com/117410063754013499525/posts  (I wasn't sure how to embed the video in this post.)


Take the time to follow the link below to Paul Bourke's web page about his current work. The pictures and math are worth the effort!
RANDOM SPACE FILLING TILING OF THE PLANE

Paul Bourke, July 2011

Paul Bourke's "tiling of the plane" work was inspired by John Shier, a computer artist who integrates random numbers in his creations.

In my opinion, introducing students to the works of Paul Bourke, John Shire, and others might be a great way to spark curiosity and creativity in the study of mathematics, computer programming, and digital art.

RELATED

Paul Bourke's Amazing Collection of Textures 
Paul Bourke's Amazing Scientific Visualization Lecture Slides (pdf)
(The titles above are my own.)

MRI-style 3D volumetric data set of a liver

"A fulldome (planetarium) visualisation of three microCT volumetric datasets rendered in Drishti.  They include: (i) Liver Lobe, Rabbit liver illustrating venous and arterial (orange) systems; (ii) Interior of a lizard head (common garden skink); (iii) Fossil fish eyeball (Placoderm), 410 million years old, found in Wee Jasper, NSW. "


Credits for Artforms of Nature: A new way of seeing. 
Ajay Limaye, Peter Morse, Paul Bourke. Vizlab, Australian National University. WASP, University of Western Australia. Featuring fisheye volume rendering from Drishti. Datasets Fossil fish eyeball (Placoderm). Gavin Young, ANU Common garden skink. Tim Senden, ANU Rabbit liver lobe. Tim Senden, ANU ©2008 by the artists. "-http://www.youtube.com/user/peteremorse


Drishti: Volume Exploration and Presentation Tool
"Drishti has been developed keeping in mind the end-use : visualizing tomography data, electron-microscopy data, etc. Understanding the data set is important and conveying that understanding to the research community or a lay person is equally important. Drishti is aiming for both. The central idea about Drishti is that the scientists should be able to use it for exploring volumetric datasets as well as use it in presentations."

Paul Burke's Experiments in Interactive Visual Immersion in Second Life

Lynn Marentette, Interactive Multimedia Technology, 5/14/08

Interdisciplinary Workshop - OZVIZ 2011:  November 23-25, Sydney, Australia

"The workshop provides an occasion for participants to present research outcomes, share innovative ideas, publicise work and meet colleagues. It is highly multidisciplinary, with participants from fields such as mathematics, geoscience, architecture, biology, medicine and astronomy presenting alongside computer graphics and visualisation experts."

OZVIZ 2010

How Algorithms shape our world: Kevin Slavin's thought-provoking TEDTalk video- great visuals!

"Kevin Slavin argues that we're living in a world designed for -- and increasingly controlled by -- algorithms. In this riveting talk from TEDGlobal, he shows how these complex computer programs determine: espionage tactics, stock prices, movie scripts, and architecture. And he warns that we are writing code we can't understand, with implications we can't control." -TED



An interesting fact shared during the presentation- 2000 or so physicists work on Wall Street, engaged in  Algo-trading.   Remember the "flash crash"?

Summer Break: Music Apps, Multimedia, Kinect, My New iPad2, Tech-reading, Google+, Dancing...

I'm on summer break, which for me, means that I spend an increased amount playing/creating music and doing all of the other fun stuff I don't have much time for during the school year. I'm still exploring what I can do with my new iPad2 - there are so many music apps!  My favorite at this moment is Garage Band. It keeps me engaged for hours, and I can take it with me anywhere I go.  I'm also exploring iPad apps for education and students with special needs, since many of the young people I work with have autism spectrum disorders.  They all really love music.


Today, I came across turntable.fm, a "social-djing" website, from a link shared by Dimitri Diakopoulos.  I think it would be fun to play with.

Turntable.FM, The Fastest-Growing Music Service You're Not Using
William Fenton, PC Magazine, 6/23/11
Social DJing with Turntable.FM
Andrew Mager, 5/28/11

I'm still plowing through technology journals and zines from previous months - I had to skip over my stack to read the cover article of the most recent Communications of the ACM:

Algorithmic Composition: Computational Thinking in Music

Michael Edwards, University of Edinburgh, 2011

I LOVE the design of this cover. It would make for a nice interactive interface for an iPad music app. Or a larger touch-screen display. Or even a SMARTBoard! (BTW, My first computer-related course was Computer Music Technology, in 2003. My undergraduate honors research (psychology), years ago, focused on constructive cognition and music recognition/memory. This topic is dear to my heart.)

I've spent some quality time with my first grand-baby this summer.  Although his "screen time" is limited, given his age of 7 1/2 months, he enjoys playing with music on my iPad.  He likes the drums found in the iPad GarageBand application.  Here he is playing with NodeBeat, an app created by Seth Sandler and Justin Windle:

Most of his time is spent off-screen:





Over the last few months, there has been a surge of interactive touch-enabled apps for education, including some for young people with special needs.  This will be the topic of a few of my future posts.

How It Works: Microsoft's Project Natal for the Xbox 360 video from Scientific American


Microsoft gathered a wealth of biometric data to recognize the range of human movement in order to develop an algorithm for the next generation of controller-less gaming. "Natal will consist of a depth sensor that uses infrared signals to create a digital 3-D model of a player's body as it moves, a video camera that can pick up fine details such as facial expressions, and a microphone that can identify and locate individual voices."


The technology behind Natal has the potential for a range of uses beyond gaming.

Scientific American article:
Binary Body Double:  Microsoft Reveals the Science Behind Project Natal for Xbox 360