Looks like the interweb deities are smiling on us. As far as I can tell, I can post these without fear of losing my sweet, sweet grad student paycheck to the copyright cops.
I uploaded a new archive, though, which includes a text file that gives attribution to the authors and journal just in case the url gets passed around and people don't get it from here. No password needed.
Here it is:
http://rapidshare.com/files/128403736/Brain_map_desktop_pics_5120x1200.zip.html
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label multimedia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label multimedia. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Multimedia mumbo jumbo
An excellent catch by Mike over at Brain Stimulant - a BBC documentary called Human 2.0 can be found online. (Very nice blog, very regularly updated and more on-topic than mine!) Go give him some traffic lovin'. Linky linky...
Also, Mind Hacks has a link to a PBS documentary torrent (OMG! Police! Police! j/k) on the ever popular frontal lobotomy. More info at Neurophilosophy.
And my little contributions:
- The popular song "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, Than have to have a frontal lobotomy" was written by Dr. Randy Hanzlick (Dr. Rock), and can be found on the Dr. Demento 30th Anniversary Collection: Dementia 2000. While I can't find it on 'the usual suspects', it can be found, if you're a little lucky, on SoulSeek. A similarly themed song can be found by Faster Pussycat.
- Another PBS documentary, part of the PBS Curious series, can be found in torrent form as well. This is more on AI and robots, but still delves into some basic neuro and worth a watch.
Also, Mind Hacks has a link to a PBS documentary torrent (OMG! Police! Police! j/k) on the ever popular frontal lobotomy. More info at Neurophilosophy.
And my little contributions:
- The popular song "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, Than have to have a frontal lobotomy" was written by Dr. Randy Hanzlick (Dr. Rock), and can be found on the Dr. Demento 30th Anniversary Collection: Dementia 2000. While I can't find it on 'the usual suspects', it can be found, if you're a little lucky, on SoulSeek. A similarly themed song can be found by Faster Pussycat.
- Another PBS documentary, part of the PBS Curious series, can be found in torrent form as well. This is more on AI and robots, but still delves into some basic neuro and worth a watch.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Random Sunday Randomness
Remy Wahnoun sent in an article on a UCLA project of significant BCI implications. Self healing, power generating muscles. Cool on every level. As always, you can go to that ENgadget article and get the, "OMG that's so kewl I will be robo-1337 and pwn at video games" comments on Engadget, or get some more interesting feedback from the world at Slashdot. (Have I mentioned how I'm not a fan of Engadget?)
There was a nice rundown of how computers and brains differ - a topic taht the engineers tend to underestimate on oh so many levels. Oldy, but a goody.
Eye controlled surgery robot that maps the surface the surgeon is looking at in 3D and uses this map to stabilize the image and arms. Wicked awesome stuff.
And a robot riff-raff-chaser-away thingy that has been on the news and mentioned a few times by various net news outlets.
Aaaaand random fun brain stuff at Of Two Minds.
There was a nice rundown of how computers and brains differ - a topic taht the engineers tend to underestimate on oh so many levels. Oldy, but a goody.
Eye controlled surgery robot that maps the surface the surgeon is looking at in 3D and uses this map to stabilize the image and arms. Wicked awesome stuff.
And a robot riff-raff-chaser-away thingy that has been on the news and mentioned a few times by various net news outlets.
Aaaaand random fun brain stuff at Of Two Minds.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Media software follow up
Greg posted a link in the comments to a similar article he wrote a year ago. Great minds think alike!
Also, I noticed that I didn't list any 3D software. The reason for that is that I haven't kept up much on that realm lately. I used to LOOOVE Infini-D and Strata Studio Pro back in the day, but many of the current packages are far more complicated than I've had time to really learn.
One that I will point out, since I've just started using it again, is Poser. Poser allows you to manipulate figures (mostly human, but there are add-on packs) into lifelike configurations, complete with fabrics, skins, and realistic joint limits.
Another old favorite that has been apparently left to die is Bryce. Bryce used to be the best landscape generator, and was the source of many arguments with my friends on how digital imaging was art, even though you could use something like Bryce to generate a landscape better than almost any artist is capable. The original driving force behind Bryce was Kai Krause, a legendary Photoshop guru, who wanted to make tools that were more 'experiential' than technical. Bryce is fun to play with. Actually, lots of fun to play with. It has been somewhat marred by the transitions after version 4 or 5 which tried to make it more technical. It still retains some of that fun aspect, though not as much.
3DSMax is the gold standard for 3D on all levels (don't tell the people on the Maya team (also now owned by the same company) Shhhh) This is basically the Photoshop of the 3D world, but I have yet to really work much with it.
A second reason I didn't mention 3D is that there are two main camps, or maybe it's better described as a narrow line in the sand, between 'real time' and rendered content. Thanks to all the pwnage of modern 3D games, the attention has been split between what can be done quickly and what can be done accurately. Many useful solutions involve taking a game engine, like the Quake, Unreal, CryENGINE, etc engines (which deal with how things are rendered, antialiased, filtered and categorizing objects like terrain vs player, plus physics and many other aspects of the visual and audio experience) and then using a 3D package to generate the content that goes into the 3D world using modelers, like the 3DStudio Max Character Studio or more 'simple' programs like Rhinoceros. Then, Photoshop is used to create the textures and bump maps that are skinned on those objects.
(Side note - if you are one of those people that thinks, "Blegh! Video games!" Read the Wikipedia entry on the CryENGINE. The thing is a feat of engineering and imagination, and just pondering how you might go from something like a simple wall to a fully destructible object is interesting in itself. Also, reading through the evolution of the Quake Engine is incredibly interesting. The Quake and Doom engines are GPLed, meaning you can download the source code and mess with them all you want. Do a quick Google for "Quake engine tutorials" or "Quake mod develop" and you'll find 100's of sites dedicated to teaching you how to go from a blank 3D space to a playable game. Like I said before, video games will contribute more to BCIs than most people expect. They are an example of extreme computing optimization, environment interaction, and controlled environment generation (not to mention extensible and modular development), and the ways that these issues were resolved in games will work their way into the base of next generation BCIs.)
Confused? Nah. It isn't that bad, but exhausting enough that unless you really have a great idea and a ton of patience (plus $$$), 'playing' with 3D software is just masochistic.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Useful (Windows) software: Media edition!
An email exchange with a colleague gave me the idea to post this. So here goes: anything and everything you (reasonably) need related to multimedia (images, movies, audio).
Images
This is probably the simplest, and most expensive recommendation. Photoshop ($999 retail, $299 academic). I don't care what you put Adobe Photoshop against, it is hands down the creme-de-la-creme of image editors. I know, pricey, but you can always get it standalone, without all the other Adobe products. If you're in academia, it is surprisingly 'affordable'. Not only is it good at what it does, but everyone knows what it is, and having mad sk1llZ at PS looks good to everyone. Plus, the number of PS-specific resources online is staggering and if you ever need help or are looking for a particular processing technique, there is probably an online tutorial or plug-in that will make your life easier.
If you refuse to get Photoshop, the most reasonable Open Source alternative is The GIMP (free) or Paint.NET (free). Both are decent and will do 95% or what you probably want. Another less pricey, though not free, option is Photoshop Elements ($199 retail, $69 academic) if you're dealing mostly with photographs. BUT, if you are dealing with nothing but photographs, or take photography semi-seriously, Adobe Lightroom ($299 retail, $99 academic) is an excellent option for organizing and tweaking every setting in regular old JPEGs and RAW images.
For hosting or sharing, either Flickr or Picasa will do the trick. Both have decent free plans, but only Flickr has pro accounts (unlimited storage vs 250MB for Picasa). Avoid Kodak. Avoid it like the F#*&$^#ing plague. Actually, avoid any service that, like Kodak, requires other people to register an account just to view your images.
If you are using XP, I cannot count how many times Image Resizer has come in handy. Right-click an image and select the new size. Bam. Done. XP only, though. For Vista, there's no equivalent. You can try VSO Image Resizer (free), but it isn't as nice. Also, there are some reports of bugs with large batch jobs. There is also this beta app (free), which I have not tried.
Video
First, the basics. Long ago, I got sick of getting video files that wouldn't render because of missing codecs. That's when I found K-Lite Codec Pack and K-Lite Mega Codec Pack (both free). I've been using it for 6 or so years and it has never let me down. It basically bundles all the most current versions of codecs into a single installer. Every 6 months I uninstall it and install the latest version. it also installs Media Player Classic, which is just the old version of Windows Media Player with support for all those codecs. It launches fast, plays smoothly, and just works.
Along the same lines, two video related pieces of software suck on Windows: Quicktime and RealPlayer. Enter Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative (both free). Bam. No need to install RealPlayer or Quicktime (except when iTunes forces you to).
Okay, now you can see your videos. Yay! Want to convert them to other formats? This is dicey all around. I have tried tens of software solutions and settled on Xilisoft Video Converter ($35). It isn't perfect, but it works 90%+ of the time. You can also try MediaCoder (free), though I haven't had as much luck as with Xilisoft. These are intended for simple/consumer level conversions, not high quality jobs. They're simple, with a minimal learning curve.
For DVD playback, I use WinDVD ($35). It is simple to use, but packed with a billion high quality features if you dig around. It can be a little wonky to set up in Vista, but once you got it, you never have to touch it. The main competitor is PowerDVD ($100), which is more actively supported and has most of the features of WinDVD, but buggier in the past. WinDVD has just bee bought out by Corel, and they are planning an update to v9 'soon' (as of Nov '07). The next time I have to reinstall a system, I will probably switch back to PowerDVD. PowerDVD Ultra will playback Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD) if you have a drive, while WinDVD Platinum's support is shakey.
For all purpose media players, I just stick with Windows Media Player 11. It just seems to work 95% of the time, and isn't an eyesore. But, for those pesky files. there's VLC player (free). There's also a nice portable version for running it off a thumb drive.
Audio
Converting between audio formats is much easier. Essentially, there is no reason to use anything other than mp3. It is so widely supported that if a program deals with sound, it will support mp3. While WMP does not support directly converting to mp3, iTunes does (just right click the track). If you want to get more control (MUCH more control) over audio converting, Easy CD-DA Extractor ($32) is by far the best solution I've found. It is the last audio transcoding and ripping program you will ever need. I've been using it for 8+ years. For tagging those files with meta-information, I've been using TagScanner (free). There is a slight learning curve but once you get used to it, again, you'll never use another program. Especially good at batch jobs
For audio authoring, having hosted a podcast, I have found that Adobe Audition ($399 retail, ~$150 academic) is the best, simple program out there. Again, you pay the Adobe premium, but of all the programs I tried (Cakewalk, Vegas, Sound Forge, and a few others) it was the most intuitive and offered the best quality output with the least amount of work. My main concern was noise reduction and cleaning up audio, along with filtering, and Audition delivers in spades.
If you want to go the free route, the gold standard is Audacity. Simple and quick, with a wide user base, Audacity is very good for an OS project, but lacks the fine control and intelligent automation of Audition. When converting to Vista, Adobe was slow to add Vista support, and I ended up using Audacity for several months. I was generally pleased, but had a few instances where the program just quit for no reason after hitting the stop button (which I was oh so happy about after recording a 45 minute show). Also, the 1.3.x version has been in beta forever (at least a couple years).
Images
This is probably the simplest, and most expensive recommendation. Photoshop ($999 retail, $299 academic). I don't care what you put Adobe Photoshop against, it is hands down the creme-de-la-creme of image editors. I know, pricey, but you can always get it standalone, without all the other Adobe products. If you're in academia, it is surprisingly 'affordable'. Not only is it good at what it does, but everyone knows what it is, and having mad sk1llZ at PS looks good to everyone. Plus, the number of PS-specific resources online is staggering and if you ever need help or are looking for a particular processing technique, there is probably an online tutorial or plug-in that will make your life easier.
If you refuse to get Photoshop, the most reasonable Open Source alternative is The GIMP (free) or Paint.NET (free). Both are decent and will do 95% or what you probably want. Another less pricey, though not free, option is Photoshop Elements ($199 retail, $69 academic) if you're dealing mostly with photographs. BUT, if you are dealing with nothing but photographs, or take photography semi-seriously, Adobe Lightroom ($299 retail, $99 academic) is an excellent option for organizing and tweaking every setting in regular old JPEGs and RAW images.
For hosting or sharing, either Flickr or Picasa will do the trick. Both have decent free plans, but only Flickr has pro accounts (unlimited storage vs 250MB for Picasa). Avoid Kodak. Avoid it like the F#*&$^#ing plague. Actually, avoid any service that, like Kodak, requires other people to register an account just to view your images.
If you are using XP, I cannot count how many times Image Resizer has come in handy. Right-click an image and select the new size. Bam. Done. XP only, though. For Vista, there's no equivalent. You can try VSO Image Resizer (free), but it isn't as nice. Also, there are some reports of bugs with large batch jobs. There is also this beta app (free), which I have not tried.
Video
First, the basics. Long ago, I got sick of getting video files that wouldn't render because of missing codecs. That's when I found K-Lite Codec Pack and K-Lite Mega Codec Pack (both free). I've been using it for 6 or so years and it has never let me down. It basically bundles all the most current versions of codecs into a single installer. Every 6 months I uninstall it and install the latest version. it also installs Media Player Classic, which is just the old version of Windows Media Player with support for all those codecs. It launches fast, plays smoothly, and just works.
Along the same lines, two video related pieces of software suck on Windows: Quicktime and RealPlayer. Enter Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative (both free). Bam. No need to install RealPlayer or Quicktime (except when iTunes forces you to).
Okay, now you can see your videos. Yay! Want to convert them to other formats? This is dicey all around. I have tried tens of software solutions and settled on Xilisoft Video Converter ($35). It isn't perfect, but it works 90%+ of the time. You can also try MediaCoder (free), though I haven't had as much luck as with Xilisoft. These are intended for simple/consumer level conversions, not high quality jobs. They're simple, with a minimal learning curve.
For DVD playback, I use WinDVD ($35). It is simple to use, but packed with a billion high quality features if you dig around. It can be a little wonky to set up in Vista, but once you got it, you never have to touch it. The main competitor is PowerDVD ($100), which is more actively supported and has most of the features of WinDVD, but buggier in the past. WinDVD has just bee bought out by Corel, and they are planning an update to v9 'soon' (as of Nov '07). The next time I have to reinstall a system, I will probably switch back to PowerDVD. PowerDVD Ultra will playback Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD) if you have a drive, while WinDVD Platinum's support is shakey.
For all purpose media players, I just stick with Windows Media Player 11. It just seems to work 95% of the time, and isn't an eyesore. But, for those pesky files. there's VLC player (free). There's also a nice portable version for running it off a thumb drive.
Audio
Converting between audio formats is much easier. Essentially, there is no reason to use anything other than mp3. It is so widely supported that if a program deals with sound, it will support mp3. While WMP does not support directly converting to mp3, iTunes does (just right click the track). If you want to get more control (MUCH more control) over audio converting, Easy CD-DA Extractor ($32) is by far the best solution I've found. It is the last audio transcoding and ripping program you will ever need. I've been using it for 8+ years. For tagging those files with meta-information, I've been using TagScanner (free). There is a slight learning curve but once you get used to it, again, you'll never use another program. Especially good at batch jobs
For audio authoring, having hosted a podcast, I have found that Adobe Audition ($399 retail, ~$150 academic) is the best, simple program out there. Again, you pay the Adobe premium, but of all the programs I tried (Cakewalk, Vegas, Sound Forge, and a few others) it was the most intuitive and offered the best quality output with the least amount of work. My main concern was noise reduction and cleaning up audio, along with filtering, and Audition delivers in spades.
If you want to go the free route, the gold standard is Audacity. Simple and quick, with a wide user base, Audacity is very good for an OS project, but lacks the fine control and intelligent automation of Audition. When converting to Vista, Adobe was slow to add Vista support, and I ended up using Audacity for several months. I was generally pleased, but had a few instances where the program just quit for no reason after hitting the stop button (which I was oh so happy about after recording a 45 minute show). Also, the 1.3.x version has been in beta forever (at least a couple years).
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Second Life to help those with first life problems
Undoubtedly, Massive Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) may be the best near term social outlet for people with the most dire need for BCIs. In a way, Second Life could become a locked-in patient's "first life", opening the doors to communication in a simulated world where interaction can occur without the need for visible assistive devices. Hell, there are millions of able-bodied folks that do the same.
Story on Mind Hacks and Physorg.
In related news, one big drawback is the variability in interoperability of these virtual worlds is being locked into a single version of a single game. Assistive techs shouldn't worry about whether a game studio goes belly up. While this wasn't the thought process behind this major announcement, a consortium of major tech companies like Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Intel, Google and Sony are working on making virtual worlds more standardized. Wanna use World of Warcraft Gold to buy a costume upgrade in City of Heroes? Sure! Better yet, the immaterial progress and achievements in a game don't simply disappear when the content dries up.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
SciTube
MetaFilter had an interesting question posted on "YouTube for Scientists". SciVee lets you upload a presentation with narration, along with all the excitement that entails.
On an (obvious) note, if you're looking for video clips of landmark experiments, You Tube is actually pretty good. Just make sure you hit that sweet spot between generality and specificity. Something like "brain computer interface" works nicely.
On a YouTube note, I'm sure our international readers will enjoy this clip of American pride...
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Well, there's your problem!
Mind Hacks has a little ditty on the Center for Neuro Skills animation gallery. I've been looking for a good resource for neuroscience animations, and it looks like I need to keep looking (these are about the quality of my high school AP reports over a decade ago). Seriously, these look like someone whipped out MS Paint and went to town while blindfolded. Still, maybe someone could get some use out of them...If you want a REAL animation, take a look at this. Absolutely amazing! Post any good animations you have found in the comments!
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