Facebook (8-16)

A good friend of mine recently showed me the power of facebook and I wanted to see her friends and in that process I was introduced to my family and friends from school so here you go.

Facebook me!

Best to all, -John Ott

Keep up the great adventure of college. Best to you . John

Test... (3-4)

Emulation Testing (3-4)

Here's what I've been waiting for... designing computer code, toying with it, and making people happy. In the next few days the beloved Sega Saturn (R.I.P.) will be tested on the computer. My intent is to dive into translation and see if I can't play some of my favorite series in English. Also I want to figure out how to get rid of annoying performance glitches.

Data will be available tomorrow, pending files can be uploaded to blogs.

P.S. Thanks for al the help guys!

Best to all, -John Ott

"The World Is Flat" (8-31)

I have joined the student life committee at the Highland Lakes Campus at OCC. An interesting topic of note (which I will give the exact date when it comes in) includes the month of November when I will conduct a speech/presentation in front of the panel. The topic will cover Thomas Friedman's book, The World Is Flat.

The key ideas that will be covered will be based on the agenda that is agreed upon before the panel. Those on the committee are trying to get members with qualifications that will help maintain relevant input on the discussion. The group may consist of a member of Brooks Patterson office, banker or business executive, teacher, and community member.

I have some time to read over the book and prepare so my game plan will be ready before then. If anyone wishes to participate or be a spectator let me know because I would love to see you there!

Best to all, -John Ott

P.S. I'll have some interesting questions for the person who represents Brooks Paterson if Paterson himself doesn't show up!

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*All manifestation of projects that promote outside learning at OCC Highland Lakes had been canned 2 weeks after original post. (Sad isn't it?) Otherwise up until today (3-4) I've been busy with school work, driving, and educational duties.

TGS 2006 "New Theme May Spell Success" (8-29)

So what's the word for the coming of the Q4 2006 of Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft? "New Excitement. New Sensations. A New Generation." With consoles not just for gaming anymore it will be interesting to see what the show has in store for the future of technology.

Sony: Will Blu-Ray be showcased? Will the tilt-sensitive controls still the show along with 20+ games announced?

Nintendo: Will the Wii wow those at the show? What does Nintendo's trademark franchises have in store for the competition.

Microsoft: Will the lower cost of next-gen slide the fight of winning sales in their direction? Will the 360 have a list of Japanese titles to define what the system can do?

Portable
PSP: Will the new sleek design be showcased to replace the 2005 model?

DS: Can Nintendo WI-FI and tuner software be the key to get even more interested in this immensely popular handheld?

With about 2000 available booths it will clearly be the year of excitement.

http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/english/

Best to all, -John Ott

Tribute To Gamers Everywhere (8-1)

Yes my Internet is down once again, I have not been able to post anything at home. Although at my cousin's house, I had found a video that I wanted fellow video gamer players to see.

If any of you have played Resident Evil before then it is understandable that the game is designed to keep the player on the edge of their seat. The game was meant not to "scare" in a permanent sense but rather for the moment.

This may seem as though I am calling out only Resident Evil fans, but be assured this video is also for anyone that has ever been scared of a video game.

This video is in Japanese audio with English subtitles.

The video contains strong language so view at your own discretion!

Enjoy!

Best to all, -John Ott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCTKIqfmiWo&search

Will U.S. Spectators Help Out Their "Buddy?" (7-12)

I know that the following article is based off of Japanese opinions but I think the information is interesting due to the amount of well thought out youth featured in the article.

There are some references to what those in Japan feel the U.S. position is on the matter between Japan, North Korea, and U.S. Maybe the president needs to take a look to see whether or not he is going to help out his "buddy" in Japan.

Can the U.S. avoid war? Will we continue to struggle between Iraq, Afghanistan, and ourselves?
Only time and action (or lack thereof) will tell.

The impact on the world...
http://www.crisscross.com/jp/popvox/672

Best to all, -John Ott

Super Powered Slide Show (7-12)

Having trouble with that photographic memory? Can't pick the criminal out of the lineup? Well new technology is on the rise and it seems to process images faster then a human brain. Those interested in the law enforcement field should check this out.

Best to all, -John Ott

"This Is a Computer on Your Brain" Wired Magazine Jul 12, 2006

A new brain-computer-interface technology could turn our brains into automatic image-identifying machines that operate faster than human consciousness.
Researchers at Columbia University are combining the processing power of the human brain with computer vision to develop a novel device that will allow people to search through images ten times faster than they can on their own.

Darpa, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is funding research into the system with hopes of making federal agents' jobs easier. The technology would allow hours of footage to be very quickly processed, so security officers could identify terrorists or other criminals caught on surveillance video much more efficiently.

The "cortically coupled computer vision system," known as C3 Vision, is the brainchild of professor Paul Sajda, director of the Laboratory for Intelligent Imaging and Neural Computing at Columbia University. He received a one-year, $758,000 grant from Darpa for the project in late 2005.

The system harnesses the brain's well-known ability to recognize an image much faster than the person can identify it.

"Our human visual system is the ultimate visual processor," says Sajda. "We are just trying to couple that with computer vision techniques to make searching through large volumes of imagery more efficient."

The brain emits a signal as soon as it sees something interesting, and that "aha" signal can be detected by an electroencephalogram, or EEG cap. While users sift through streaming images or video footage, the technology tags the images that elicit a signal, and ranks them in order of the strength of the neural signatures. Afterwards, the user can examine only the information that their brains identified as important, instead of wading through thousands of images.

No existing computer vision systems connect with the human brain, and computers on their own don't do well at identifying unusual events or specific targets.

"The major weakness of computer vision systems today is their narrow range of purpose," says Steven Gordon, an information systems and technology professor at Babson College in Massachusetts. "You cannot take a system that is intended to recognize faces and apply it to recognizing handwriting or identifying whether one object in a photo is behind another. Unlike a computer, which can perform a variety of tasks, a computer vision system is highly customized to the task it is intended to perform. They are limited in their ability to recognize suspicious activities or events."

People, on the other hand, excel at spotting them. The new system's advantage lies in combining the strengths of traditional computer vision with human cortical vision.
For example, when a computer searches for vehicles, it will identify and discard parts of the image that contain water. The human user, who is more likely to easily spot oddities, can then look only at the parts of the image that matter. This could allow time-sensitive searches to be performed in real time.

Gordon believes that the technology would be most appropriate for analyzing stored video and for intelligence gathering.

"Conceivably, the proposed solution could be applied in quasi-real-time to allow a single human to monitor ten times as many sites as he or she would otherwise monitor," says Gordon.
The Columbia team is currently working on making the system more robust and reducing instances of false positives. They plan to demonstrate the technology for Darpa in a few months.