Archive for July 20th, 2009

Bowlingual Translates Dog Barks Into Words

Bowlingual. Image: AFP

The Bowlingual, a gadget that analyzes a dog’s bark to detect its emotion, is being relaunched.

Japanese toy maker, Takara Tomy produced the Bowlingual. The device is able to analyse the acoustics of a dog’s bark and translate it into words. It focuses on six emotions including sadness joy and frustration and is able to convey these emotions to a human.

The Bowlingual Voice was first put on sale in 2002, however today’s model is much more technologically advanced. It consists of a microphone which is attached to the dog and a hand-held unit device. When the dog barks, the technology is able to translate the sound into words displayed on the hand-held device which attempts to tell the user what the dog is trying to say.

A good idea, but is it really needed? Dogs aren’t the most complicated of creatures. Surely an owner could take an educated guess at why the dog is barking. It doesn’t have too many thoughts or demands does it? Having said that, with 300,000 orders of the first Bowlingual, maybe it’s a must-have gadget.

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Have Knives Gone Out Of Fashion?

Knives, once a regular tool used at meal times, now it seems they have been given the chop.

A growing trend in today’s society seems to be TV dinners, and there is good reason for this. With more women working now than ever and working hours at an all time high, people have less time and so things like meal times are put on the back burner.

With many people eating the majority of their meals on their laps, just using a fork or fingers, knives have lost their place as a common piece of cutlery. Major UK retailer, Debenhams said that four years ago it sold equal numbers of knives and forks, but in the last few months it has sold about two forks for every knife.

Should we be worried about this? Should more emphasis be put on making time for eating meals with the family at the table, or is that just impossible with the busy schedules of today?

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Youtube Videos In 3D

It appears that Youtube has began experimenting with 3D videos. An employee named Pete is playing around with the 3D viewing feature in his 20% free time, reports Seroundtable.

They noticed a thread at the Youtube help forum, where the engineer said that he’s working on the stereoscopic player as a 20% project.

Testing 3D Videos. Image: seroundtable

I’m the developer working on the stereoscopic player as a 20% project. It’s currently very early, hence the silly bugs like swapping the eyes for the anaglyph modes. A fix for this is in the works.

The current tags are provisional and may change or expand. They are:

yt3d:enable=true Enables the view mode. (obviously you’ve already discovered this)
yt3d:aspect=3:4 Sets the aspect of the encoded video.
yt3d:swap=true Swaps the left and right sources. You may need to add this to videos when the player with fixed anaglyph modes ships. Apologies for the inconvineince.

Your feedback and suggestions are welcome, but as this isn’t my primary project I can’t promise a speedy turnaround with improvements.

Here’s a link to an example video if you’d like to see it in use. (Youtube Video)

This sounds like a pretty neat feature for the future…although pointless without anaglyph glasses. What are your thoughts?

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School Shootings iPhone App Approved By Apple

An iPhone application that promotes school shootings has been approved by Apple.

iPhone applications are available to download through the iTunes store or directly off the cellphone itself, however this isn’t the first time Apple has struck controversy over its application acceptance policy.

This Zombie School application lets users turn their classmates or teachers into zombies and then gives them the option of using a machine gun, bow or grenades to kill them. Surely Apple should have noticed that this was not in good taste…

This is not a joking matter and Apple should show some maturity and common sense here. What message does this send out to the millions of children who have access to this application? Sort yourself out Apple.

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Will The Y Chromosome Disappear?

Genetically, the thing that makes a man a man is a single Y chromosome. Scientists have long suspected that this chromosome that only men carry is deteriorating, but until now no one has understood the rate of it’s demise.

Penn State scientists have discovered that the Y chromosome has evolved at a much more rapid pace than it’s fellow X chromosome, which both males and females carry. This rapid evolution has led to a dramatic loss of genes in the Y chromosome, which, if maintained, could lead to the chromosome disappearing.

“It’s certainly possible, but it’s difficult to predict when it will happen,” said Kateryna Makova, an associate professor of biology at Penn State University.

A world with no men. What implications do you think that would have? A world with no war and unified peace perhaps? Who knows?

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Nuns Stopped By Police On Way To Pope’s House

After learning that Pope Benedict XVI had suffered a minor accident, three nuns rushed to his holiday home to make sure he was OK.

Pope Benedict had slipped in the bathroom and fractured his wrist at his summer holiday chalet in Les Combes.

The three nuns, aged 56, 65 and 78 were driving at 120mph in their Ford Fiesta when police pulled them over.

A spokesman for Turin’s police, said: “Hopefully Sister Tavoletta will be making sure she confesses her bad driving the next she goes to confession. But in the meantime, she will have to pay the Euros 375 fine (£325).”

But Sister Tavoletta, who also lost her driving licence for a month, has not meekly accepted this rebuke. Instead, she will appeal against the fine with the aid of Italy’s best known lawyer in driving cases, Anna Orecchioni.

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