Drawing and Playing with Pixel Press
Pixel Press is an early stage video design platform that supports the creation of DIY video games, without requiring coding skills. The project was recently approved by Kickstarter, with an initial funding goal of $100,000.00. The first version targets the iPad.
Robin Rath, the creator of Pixel Press, was inspired by his memories of creating his own drawings for games when he was a kid in the 1980's, and it shows. Pixel Press might appeal to gamers across generations, and looks suitable for use in school settings.
According to the Pixel Press website, there are just a few things to learn in order to create a basic video game within the Pixel Press environment, making it an ideal activity for kids and others aspiring game designers:
"You are designing five floors of a video game level. Your hero will start at the bottom and attempt to overcome the obstacles you create to reach the elevator at the end of each floor to advance up to the next floor. Your objective is to create a five floor level that is progressively more challenging from top to bottom."
Pixel Press: Draw your own video game
Pixel Press: Draw Your Own Video Game from Robin Rath on Vimeo.
The video below provides an overview/tutorial of how it works:
Pixel Press Walkthrough (For Website) from Robin Rath on Vimeo.
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
Fun with Early Math: App by Chris O'Shea - Cowly Owl
Chris O'Shea is an artist and designer who uses technology in creative, playful ways. Over the past year or so, he's devoted some of his attention to designing engaging iPad apps and digital toys. Below is a video of his Little Digits app in action:
Little Digits from Cowly Owl on Vimeo.
Here is the information from the Vimeo site:
"Little Digits is a fun educational app that teaches children about numbers by putting a new spin on finger counting. Using the iPad multi-touch screen, Little Digits displays number characters by detecting how many fingers you put down. Children can learn to associate the number on the screen with the number of fingers they place down, whilst enjoying the unique characters and animations of the Little Digits world...They are also games that introduce small addition and subtraction calculations, where you can work out the answer using the same multi-touch finger detection."
RELATED
Cowly Owl
Chris O'Shea's Website
My iPad Pinterest Board
Creative Tech Videos I Almost Missed
I admit that sometimes I just don't have the time to hang out and watch interesting or quirky tech/future tech videos on the web. Here are a few that passed me by the first time around.
Enjoy!
The first video for this post is of an interactive game installed permanently for children at the Royal London Hospital. Woodland Wiggle is a work commissioned by Vital Arts, in collaboration with Nexus Interactive Arts, Chris O'Shea, Felix Massie, and Brains & Hunch. The game was created in C++ using openFrameworks, and relies on an Xbox Kinect camera. The installation is part of play and garden spaces designed as healing environments for young patients. (See links in the "Related" section for more information.)
The next video is the creation of Igor Labutov, Jason Yosinski, and Hod Lipson, of the Cornell Creative Machines Lab.
AI vs. AI: Two chatbots talking to each other
I liked this video because I once created a chatbox video game for an AI for Games class I took several years ago, and have fond memories of the hours I spent reading the textbook supporting the display on the right- Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach)
Tom Jenkins and Simon Sharp, of thetheory, created the following two video shorts. Address Is Approximate is a stop-motion video about a lonely desk toy who makes a journey across the US via Google Maps Street View. Speed of Light uses a pocket projector, a video feed, and creativity to create an augmented reality-like police-chase short. According to information from the Vimeo website, Speed of Light was filmed using a Cannon 5d Mkll + HD MiniCam, with MicroVision projectors.
Address Is Approximate, from The Theory
Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.
Speed of Light / aka / The World's Tiniest Police Chase from The Theory on Vimeo.
RELATED
Woodland Wiggle: Interactive games on a giant television at the Royal London Hospital
Interactive Woodland at Royal London Hospital (Nexus Productions Website)
Giant tigers and rooftop teepees: the Royal London Hospital play space
Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian, 2/21/13
Note: I especially liked that in his article about the Royal London Hospital's play space, Oliver Wainwright shared this quote from Florence Nightingale's 1859 Notes on Nursing: "variety of form and brilliancy of colour in objects presented to patients are an actual means of recovery".
Cornell Creative Machines Lab
Robot-To-Robot Chat Yields Curious Conversation
Robert Siegel, Host, All Things Considered, 9/1/11
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (Udacity Course)
Meet the Creators: Tom Jenkins and Simon Sharp Trade Viral Shorts for A Studio Film
Joe Berkowitz, Co.Create
Listen
Up with Activision in the Uncanny Valley
I first heard the term 'uncanny valley' about eight or nine years ago when I was taking a 3D-modeling class. At that time, the technology available was not close to reaching this valley - where robots or computer-generated characters are so real that they are almost repulsive.
A lot has changed over the years.
The following video, recently featured by Activision Blizzard during the 2013 Game Developer Conference, has attracted much attention in just a few days, partly because it is so real.
Although I noticed that a little more work needs to be done with the teeth, I was impressed. I liked the quality of the eye shaders that were used in the creation of this demo. Examples of faces created with this feature turned on and off can be found on Jorge Jimenez' blog. Jorge's slides from a 2012 course offered during SIGGRAPH provide additional information.
Computer processers have become powerful enough to handle quite a lot of processing, and the tech world has been spreading the word. Below is a presentation by Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia, about the company's work simulate the human face, touching on the 'uncanny valley':
Although the use of this technology to create characters, realistic on many levels, seems to be a bit creepy, it might be OK after some refinement. There are a few questions that remain unanswered. What would be the impact on children or teens who might spend many hours each week playing games with such realistic characters? I'd hate to have a nightmare featuring one of these guys!
I think that this technology might have some potential for use in serious games and simulations, such as preparing emergency workers to handle a variety of realistic scenarios. Games with realistic digital characters, capable of generating a range of facial expressions, might be useful to support the learning of social interaction skills among young people with autism spectrum disorders.
RELATED/SOMEWHAT RELATED
Is It Real? With New Technology Has Activision Crossed the 'Uncanny Valley'?
Eyder Peralta, the two-way, NPR, 3/28/13
Activision Reveals Animated Human That Looks So Real, It's Uncanny
Charlie White, Mashable, 3/28/13
Karl F. MacDorman's Writings (some focus on the uncanny valley)
Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games Course (SIGGRAPH2012)
Separable Subsurface Scattering and Photorealistic Eyes Rendering (pptx)
Jorge Jimenez, Presenter, SIGGRAPH 2012)
Next Generation of Character Rendering Teaser (pptx)
Jimenez and Team
Crossing the 'uncanny valley': Nvidia's Faceworks renders realistic human faces
Dean Takahashi, VB/Gamesbeat, 3/18/13
Real-Time Realistic Skin Translucency
Jimenez, J., Whealan, D., Sundstedt, V., Gutierrez, D IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2010
Exploring the Uncanny Valley Research Website (Indiana University School of Informatics)
Gaze-based Interaction for Virtual Environments pdf
Jimenez, J., Gutierrez, D., Latorre, P. Journal of Universal Computer Science
Mori, Masahiro (1970). Bukimi no tani [the uncanny valley] (K. F. MacDorman & T. Minato, Trans.). Energy, 7(4), 33-35.
2013 GPU Technology Conference Keynote Presentations
