My NEXT Camera #2

Ok, so molecular imaging is coming far in news this week.
Prediction: Digital camera's are reaching a point of ultrahigh resolution - the finale would be the ability to image the location and movement of every molecule in a 3D system. The issue is with the scanning time involved


Anyway, this is not a new idea (even I've made mention to it in the past). But it has some attention in the news.
Published by Wired News, there is a new contender for fastest camera. With this new design "Light itself moves just a fraction of a centimeter in that time."

It would appear the road trip to California has a little bit of ammunition: at UCLA, Keisuke Goda focused on this idea of serial time-encoded amplified microscopy (STEAM).

Anyway, interesting stuff.

Future Talk

Ok, here's a question for you in the transhuman movement: how do you think we'll evolve the first example of multiple hearing channels?

The hearing-brain interface is well studied - would it be an augmentation at the brain level - in the perceptual regions? Would it be the augmentation of the cochlear nerves through more mechanical means?

I argue for something stimulating nerves electrically from within the processing center.

For what it's worth, I hope this one happened sooner on the time frame as it would be a superb transhuman trait to carry on multiple, simultaneous conversations at once.

By the time we reach this point though would auditory perception be describable in these terms. Perhaps by default we will gain infinite channels of input at this level.

Talk about the voices in my head.

Note: these combined with optical nerve modification it could be possible to create virtually super high resolution images of people as if they exist in reality. As if we're always with someone invisible (Like our AI counterpart).

What would the implications of a society talking to random people be like? I suppose it might be like cell phones today. Perhaps through you're own implant you would see that there was something there, but perhaps it would be blocked. And your OptiNerv Implants would inform you thusly.

But back to my original question: how will multiple-channel audio processing evolve in humans?

Why Whedon Wrules

Ok, just a very important point to make about Joss Whedon's success with the Firefly series and also with his more recent work with NPH.

Mal's crew and the entire universe took place in a time frame that is only extended from ours. There is no gamble on intelligence in space, there is only the inevitable point to work with that 'Humans will continue to change'

This, has always been, our best feature. We are evolving right in front of our eyes and compared to Star Wars or any other popular franchise it rules out things we have little chance of accomplishing and it really exaggerates what technology we have today.

River is a super hero. We have grown up in a society that would like to see the super hero, and would do many things for it.

Including taking away that super hero's rights and freedoms to accomplish it.

The show just asks these rhetorical questions of the audience. It questions the morallity of the human race by staying focused on just one species. No BORG here to write for. This is why it's good. And this is why the fans are so focused on it.

This point can be further extended to his later work with Dr. Horrible. No super powers. Nothing that we don't make ourselves. No free rides.

This really connects to the modern human experience. Without even really drawing the focus to that fact. It just points out the obvious to the newer generation.

In the background it also really illuminates the fact that the human decisions being made are still human. The technology involved changes the game a bit, but the human decisions are always flawed in some way, Dr. Horrible's inventions are his undoing.

Automated Camermen 2

The machines would be able to self organize via GPS and modify configuration.
Here the system has been adapted as a rail for the camera to follow while recording.

Autonomous Cameramen Continued

If the robot recognizes the position of each camera actuation and compiles that data with the video (which would be aided by currently existing RealD 3D technique) you could produce a much more stable and information-rich model of what you're filming.

This would be an advantage for next-generation holographic display.
Multiple units such as these could act in synchronization in capturing a scene for 3D use.

The green and blue regions (x and y axis actuations) outline where the AI system would receive the position information from. Also note the Segway/PUMA design, for maximum stability.

Robotic Cameramen

A feature that is likely to recur.

But I want to focus on something specific about that idea, if you have a camera system, that could be fully actuated, and fast; would it be possible to scan an area completely in 3D with multiple cameras and a good use of thinking software running on fast computers, thereby replacing green screens completely, because you could just replace the backdrop in a camera generated 3D image?

I think yes, in the holographic age, yes.
(Patented Pending)

Eyes on Evolution

First there were organisms. Sensory input from directly proximal stimuli.
Then eyes, which reflected light coming from a distance.
Then language. We could explain what we saw and convert the information into something that 'accelerates learning'.

Then the photograph. Harnessing computation at the molecular level and creating a read out for others to see.
Digital sensor - a universal mathematical readout of an image in binary. Further unifying the interpretation in both the human and machine world.
Digital cameras outsell performance film cameras in the consumer market. Then the prosumer market. Then the professional market.

This is the perfect example of the Law of Accelerating Returns because each of these paradigms were only possible because of the mindset that the previous paradigm had left behind.
It also illuminates how short those paradigms last for as they continue.

In my head the difference between a D90 and a D70 from Nikon is more than 5 years. It's closer to 50 years of research in a Bell Laboratory in 1890.
But, but, but....
No buts! These are the factors:
-more people using cameras.
-more people talking to each other about cameras.
-more people (this is crucial) buying cameras.
-more camera companies.
-more camera research (sensors, lens, etc)
-the fact that this research comes from more than the camera industry at an accelerating rate (space telescope development, cameras mounted on rovers, image detection technology, etc) because...
-more people from outside the industry are doing experiments and research and combining ideas online.

Am I pointing to a super-duper camera? No, I'm just making an unprepared argument for Accelerating Returns as a fact and not a concept.
Obviously, very briefly.

My NEXT Camera #1

Ok, so I would like to outline a feature that should exist in the camera of tomorrow. I numbered the tag in the title because I plan on discussing this more as time goes on.

Ok, so a tool I use sometimes is a BIC lighter. Aside from it's obvious function, it is also a very perfect scale anemometer with a really good feedback.
So you can measure tiny air currents.

Ideally I can observe that from a single position. With a 200MP plus system, and developed intelligence systems could probably calculate changes in air flow. Dust particles. On that note a camera that could scan the movement patterns of the dust in a projector beam. I think this is a feature that will be available in the not too distant future.

One thing you might be able to do is plane a 3D cubic grid over the image and move a flame around to see how the wind reacts.
As supercomputing abilities shrink to the size of a camera this will be a standard feature.

3D holographic anemometers that work from scanning ONLY photon movement from a single perspective.

A favorite movie scene

Ok, so I'm rewatching Pulp Fiction. This is probably in my Top 5 list of movies.
I want to talk about the scene with Mia and Vincent Vega. When they get to the restaurant. The swoop that follows Vincent as he makes his entrance.


Incidentally catches the entire elaborate set and hundreds of stand ins.
Anyway, the point Mia makes during that bit of dialogue is that human communication through silence is equally as good as language. Especially for the more subtle forms of communication. When we're trying to communicate interest or love - as she was with Vincent.

She also argues that making conversation for the sake of avoiding silence is redundant.
This are things that I believe in.
I'm happy a movie as popular as Pulp Fiction takes the time to point this out.

What you don't know (can hurt you)

You don't know who I am or what my angle is. And you never will. No one will.