Saturday, February 06, 2010
For Christmas this year I made some custom toy blocks with friends and family initials.
The blocks were cut from square wood stock into 1.25in cubes. The stock I used was indented for banisters, and had peg ends, but they were easily cut off.
I made a batch of both Oak and Fir. Oak turned out fine, and is what is pictured here. The Fir blocks came out with a more slightly more desirable finish since the end grain was more smooth after sanding.
Setup
First I taped down a 3mm (1/8th in) board and cut the appropriate number of squares at the same size as the blocks.
Cutting a grid instead of a single square helped to keep each block in the right spot for engraving.
The last task was to choose the fonts that would appear on each side of the block then lay out 6 versions of the same letters but different fonts to engrave on each side.
I chose some initial fonts from dafont.com, choosing the fonts was half of the fun.
Packing
I made a custom version of my original papercraft folded box, check the included zip file for a box that fits 3 1.25in blocks perfectly (33x99mm).
Friday, February 05, 2010
Recently, I posted a article about how much computational power it would take to emulate the human brain, and my calculations were off by a factor of 10. I've corrected my estimates and here are the updated sections:
Emulating the Human Brain
The Blue Brain Project has successfully simulated 1 cordical column on the Magerit super computer (100 TeraFLOPS), and human brain has an estimated 1,000,000 columns.
So with 5.2 ExaFlops, one could emulate 52,000 cordial columns. And that’s 1/20th of enough power to emulate a human brain.
To emulate the entire human brain you would need approximately 100 ExaFLOPs
That's a lot of FLOPS!
I chose the above estimation because many others rely on calculating how many operations per second the brain can processes, not how many computer calculations to emulate the brain. I.E. It takes many more computer computations to emulate a brain computation.
Fore some more notes see: http://www.smartcomputing.com/articles/2002/s1302/39s02/39s02.pdf
Conclusion
Henry Markham in his recent TED talk, thinks that a human brain could be emulated in 10 years.
I agree with his estimate, using Moore's law 10 years seems like an achievable goal.
If you are interested in the subject you may also like
Ray Kurzweil's research and books.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
'Stel' is a song I've been meaning to make a music video for since I released it in 2008, and with a few effects I wanted to experiment with and the short length of Stel made it an ideal test.
I used 2 effects pretty heavily, Adobe Premiere's "Time Warp" effect and PSCombine in video mode.
I used Time Warp to "morph" between stills, and all the video you see here, is actually still images taken with my still camera imported as video. Once the stills are imported as video I used Time Warp to slow them down by 200-500%. The result is an interesting morphing effect with the somewhat disjointed photos, and a buttery smooth motion between photos that are similar enough.
To add some randomness in the titles and some short flashes, I used PSCombine, it works well in short bursts.
For an HD version, go to: http://vimeo.com/9187331
Download the mp3 at: http://4volt.com/music/albums/array/
Monday, January 18, 2010
As a brain exercise I decided to try and estimate the total processing power of all the computers on the entire internet, and see if that is enough processing power to emulate the human brain.
Since this is an estimate, I will try my best to figure it out with public data.
Here was my process:
Total Number of Computers
No one knows exactly how many people (computers) are connected to the internet since a single IP address can be shared with any number of pc’s, but the best estimate I was able to find was here: Internet World Stats
They use population statistics and penetration data to estimate this. This does not include extraneous connected devices like gaming consoles, or other devices.
Total Computers: 1,733,993,741 (1.7 Billion)
Effective Processing Power per Node
Since all the computers are separated by the internet, I chose to use SETI@home as a benchmark for the effective benchmark of how much processing on average a node can handle
According to BOINC stats, Seti has 186,250 active computers (more inactive ones), and the peak processing speed is 704.507 TeraFLOPS (tF). (As of 01/17/2010)
That’s 3.782 GigaFLOPS (gF) per node.
Also, on average computers running SETI are probably faster then the average computer online, especially considering poorer countries. So lets round down the average to 3gF.
3 GigaFLOPS is much lower then the peak processing power of a modern computer, a (Intel Core i7 965 XE), can process about 70, while some of the newest GPU cards can process upwards of 1,000 GigaFLOPS.
This leaves me to believe that tele-processing is very inefficient compared to traditional supercomputers, though it is not without advantage.
Total Processing Power
Now, assume all 1.7B computers were all running this hypothetical peer to peer processing application, and bandwidth was not a bottle neck.
1,733,993,741 * 3 = (5,201,981.223 TeraFLOPS, or 5.2 ExaFLOPS)
In case your wondering:
1 Peta = 1,000 Tera
1 Exa = 1,000 Peta
Currently the fastest supercomputer is “Jaguar” with 2,331 TeraFLOPS. (Top 500 November 2009)
Emulating the Human Brain
The Blue Brain Project has successfully simulated 1 cordical column on the Magerit super computer (100 TeraFLOPS), and human brain has an estimated 1,000,000 columns.
So with 5.2 ExaFlops, one could emulate 52,000 cordial columns. And that’s 1/20th of enough to emulate a human brain.
To emulate the entire human brain you would need approximately 100 ExaFLOPs
That's a lot of FLOPS!
I chose the above estimation because many others rely on calculating how many operations per second the brain can processes, not how many computer calculations to emulate the brain. I.E. It takes many more computer computations to emulate a brain computation. Just like any hardware emulator is inefficient, a brain emulator is very inefficient.
Fore some more notes see: http://www.smartcomputing.com/articles/2002/s1302/39s02/39s02.pdf
Wrap-up
After reading more about the Blue Brain Project, they are emulating a cordial column, as well as analyzing and visualizing that data, which is not necessary for a independent AI.That coupled with the inefficiencies in communication with tele-processing, I suspect that there is a lot of improvement that can be made.
Henry Markham in his recent TED talk, thinks that a human brain could be emulated in 10 years.
I agree with his estimate, using moore's law 10 years seems like an achievable goal.
If you are interested in the subject you may also like Ray Kurzweil's research and books.
Alternatives
More likely a successful AI would be a efficient Emergent-type hive AI. Where independent nodes contribute to a beneficial goal with independent actions. This would not look like a traditional AI to us, the patterns would probably to numerous and vague to track accurately.
This was meant as a thought experiment, if you have any comments please leave them. I will revise this article as I see fit.
Friday, January 15, 2010
So one of the random things I did at CES was watch a filming of the show Tekzilla, it’s pretty popular and use to be on “real” tv. Check it out at: http://revision3.com/tekzilla/ces2010
We’re even in a couple shots. Woo!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
This past week I was at CES doing market research, and I'm sure everyone reading any of the tech/gadget blogs have had a overload of CES related coverage. I’m not going to talk about any of the things that got major coverage, but here’s some general thoughts, and a couple things you probably didn’t see anywhere else.
- 3D TV is coming at you like a 900lb gorilla
Pretty much every TV/Monitor manufacturer has a 3D version of a product coming out, and with Blue-ray updating it’s standards to support 3D, I suspect we’ll see some TV’s and monitoring hitting the market very soon. In fact be prepared for a deluge of 3D stuff and marketing this year.
_thumb.jpg "152in Plasma (4k x 2k res, non-3d version)")
- Lego Universe
Lego’s new game “Lego Universe” looks pretty cool, there stand also had big bins of lego minifig parts to build your own lego men. Pretty cool, but mostly I wanted to post pictures of the epic lego battle we had while waiting.
- District 9 Props
Sony had some props from the District 9 movie, which I enjoyed toughly. It was cool to see some of the props up close.
_thumb.jpg "District 9 props (gun)")
_thumb.jpg "District 9 props (hand)")
_thumb.jpg "District 9 props (gun detail 1)")
_thumb.jpg "District 9 props (gun detail 2)")
_thumb.jpg "District 9 props (canister)")
- Tekzilla Filming
We caught the Tekzilla filming at the NBC stand, and we’ll probably be seen somewhere in the background, I'll post up a link when the show is posted. http://revision3.com/tekzilla
- Babes
It’s not CES without booth babes right? Here’s a few.
- Star Trek
With the recent popularity of the new Star Trek movie, there was a few models and props, including a very strange Enterprise/Turntable mashup.
_thumb.jpg "Enterprise turntable (top)")
_thumb.jpg "NCC-1701 mockup model (detail)")
That is all.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Every now and then everyone needs to take a photo of something small, there’s an easy (and cheap!) way to get a great looking photo with a white background.
As soon as you see the technique, it’s hard to forget, it’s a plain white poster board propped up against a wall or whatever you have handy. Fill your camera’s view with the poster board and take the photo.
For lighting you’ll need a reflected flash or some bright lights, but that is not the focus of this article. I’ll soon do an article on my flash bouncer.
Below are a few photos of the setup, it’s easy to understand once you see it in action.
This technique works great for smaller items that are not too shiny. If the item is too big, you’ll have a tough time covering the edges.
If the item is shiny you’ll be able to see in the reflection of the object the rest of your room and camera. For those kinds of things a light tent would be better. (and more costly)
Monday, January 04, 2010
a3o Studios, the company that I do my professional work though will be at CES in Vegas this week, and I’ll have some laser-cut trinkets to give away and a distinct lack of definite plans.
I suspect most of the readers of my blog are of the technical persuasion and out of any group of people I would think that at least some of you are going to be going to CES. A chill meet-up wherever would would be cool, so leave a message, or send me an email.
That is all.
The holidays are a undoubtedly a a big cost every year for me, but this year I decided to try something different, I wanted to make all my gifts, or give things that are new but unused. My quest was a success, I effectively bought no new packaged items. I did buy some raw materials, but no packaged things.
Thingiverse.com was a big help, and I also produced a few things I designed, including:
Earphone Holder by 4volt
Gothic Bookends by 4volt
Little Business Card Stand by oomlout
DIY iPhone stand... by ptorrone
Crosslink ellipse gears by stickoutrock
I used my new envelope design to make a nice package for these small items, I printed on letter sized cardstock, then cut the envelope out of the printed stock. The result was very nice and I think people were impressed. They were great party favors, and for bigger gifts I included 2 or 3 three different items along with the these engraved blocks shown next.
For a more personalized gift I made these personalized wood blocks with ornate letters with monogram initials. I’ll also be posting details on these soon.
So stay tuned for more cool stuff, as usual.
Friday, December 18, 2009
_thumb.jpg "IMG_3554 (edited)")
For Christmas this year I’ll be giving out inexpensive things I’ve cut with my laser, here’s one of the original designs I’ve come up with, a small holder for earbud style earphones.
Other earphone winder designs make you wrap your chord around and around until you’ve wrapped the whole chord. That way is pretty aquard, and I never end up using them. It really is quite a bit faster to “fold” then to “loop”.
This winder/holder is designed for that with a hook on one side, and a strap in the middle. Although, you can still wrap them the other way of you prefer.
How to use:
- Start with both ends of the earphone in one hand
_thumb.jpg "IMG_3548 (edited)")
- Fold the far end into your hand with the ends
_thumb.jpg "IMG_3549 (edited)")
- Keep folding until the length of the fold is about twice the length of the holder. Also, try to keep the loop clear so that there is a good loop to hook in the next step.
_thumb.jpg "IMG_3550 (edited)")
- Hook the loop on the center prong of the 3-prong side
_thumb.jpg "IMG_3551 (edited)")
- Loop the bundle around to the far side of the holder, and strap the bundle down with the Velcro.
_thumb.jpg "IMG_3552 (edited)")
- Finished!
_thumb_1.jpg "IMG_3554 (edited)")
This method of folding should only take about 15 seconds (or less!) once you’ve done it a few times. Once it’s wound, it’s quite compact and fits in a pocket easily.
A note about cable strain: When your are strapping your bundle down, it should be tight enough on the ends that it doesn't slip off the holder, but still a little loose. Use the Velco to keep it all together.
Download the files to make your own: Zip File (2.2mb)
Or send me a donation, and I’ll mail you one to say thanks!