Posted by Jeremy Scott | 5 Comments
Monkeys Control Robots With Their Minds
I tried to come up with my own headline… something sensational and strange… but then I realized that CNN’s headline for this story was really as good as it gets.
And you might think that with a headline like “Monkeys Control Robots With Their Minds,” that I’m about to write some goofy or sarcastic article that is barely related to technology.
But you’d be wrong. There’s actually real science at work here, and it has some pretty awesome implications for the future of medicine.
Some scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have implanted electrodes inside the brains of some monkeys. And those electrodes have allowed the monkeys to control a robotic arm with their thoughts. Yes… their thoughts. (Man, is there anything monkeys can’t do?)
The arm is controlled by a network of tiny electrodes called a brain-machine interface, implanted into the motor cortex of the monkeys’ brains — the region that controls movement.
It picks up the signals of brain cells as they generate commands to move and converts those into directional signals for the robotic arm, which the monkeys eventually used as a surrogate for their own.
The scientists are talking about some incredible applications for this, chiefly the ability for disabled people to control robotic or prosthetic limbs… with their minds.
Think about that for a second. Let it sink in. In the not-too-distant future, a paralyzed person might be able to still have complete mobility and autonomy using this technology.
Of course, the non-scientists among us are thinking about evil schemes and world domination, where some psycho controls an army of robot soldiers in a bid to take over the Earth. I mean… Terminator anyone? What’s that? You weren’t thinking that? Hmmm, maybe it’s just me. I do watch a few too many sci-fi movies.
But seriously, this is kind of a big deal, though they have yet to test their electrodes in humans. There will, of course, be several more years of testing before anything can be known for sure or be made available to the public. And even longer before able-bodied people like me can buy it at Wal-Mart… but I’m going to start saving my money now, because I’d sure love to have a robotic arm laying around that I can order to change my TV channels or bring me a glass of water by simply thinking it.
(photo credit to Andrew Schwarz & CNN)
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Posted by Jeremy Scott | 1 Comment
Robot Conducts Symphony, World Domination Nearly C...
(photos by AP)
A robot built by Honda has conducted the Detroit Symphony.
I know. Hard to believe, right? Who knew that Detroit even had a symphony?
It’s also hard to believe that a robot conducted that symphony. Does this mean that conducting isn’t all that hard after all… or that the robot is just super-duper advanced?
The Honda-bot, named ASIMO, is a multi-talented guy. At 4′ 3″–hey, just like Tom Cruise–he can walk, run, and respond to simple voice commands–hey, just like Tom Cruise!
But seriously, this is the first time ASIMO or any other robot has ever conducted a symphony, so I guess it’s a pretty big deal. However, the story is a bit deceiving. Seems that ASIMO isn’t quite as advanced as you might think. He was only mimicking what he had seen a human conductor do. From the article:
As it conducted, it perfectly mimicked the actions of a conductor, nodding its head at various sections and gesturing with one or both hands. ASIMO took a final bow to enthusiastic shouts from the audience.
ASIMO has its limits. ASIMO’s engineers programmed the robot to mimic Charles Burke, the Detroit Symphony’s education director, as he conducted the piece in front of a pianist about six months ago. But it can’t respond to the musicians.
So it’s not as though ASIMO is thinking for himself. Rather, he’s just regurgitating behaviors that have been modeled for him. (Tempted to go for a third time on the “Hey, just like Tom Cruise” joke… but I’m worried that would be one time too many). 
ASIMO stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility. Boy, that just rolls off the tongue. Maybe we should add that as a possible name in our Name Our Robot poll. Or not.
Look, if robots are conducting symphonies, and that’s national news, I think we can all breathe one big sigh of relief about the whole “robots taking over the Earth” concerns. Of course, if ASIMO is so good at mimicking, I guess all that needs to happen is for some idiot to show him The Terminator or The Matrix and we’d all be in serious trouble.
Read MorePosted by Jeremy Scott | 1 Comment
Doritos Mouse Jumping Through The Wall Commercial:...
The Doritos commercial during the second quarter of the Super Bowl last night, where the mouse is jumping through the wall, was the perfect metaphor for the game itself. The guy with the Doritos, the one setting the mouse trap with a tiny corner of one chip, then sitting back and stuffing his face… that guy is the Patriots. Confident, favored, the “clear winner” before the contest begins (and he knows it). He even sets up a chair so he can sit and watch and revel in his opponent’s defeat.
But he didn’t count on his prey, the mouse, being tougher and more prepared for this challenge than could have been expected. Here, take a look:
See, that’s what you get when you underestimate your opponent. The NY Giants were the bullies last night, physically dominating the Super Bowl for pretty much the entire game. Their defensive front pushed around the Patriots offensive line from the second quarter of the game on. I will admit that I was rooting for the Giants, but calling them the winners of the physical battle in last night’s game is not a biased statement… it’s just a fact. They were tougher. That was one of the greatest upsets in NFL history.
But the real Super Bowl water cooler discussion this morning in most offices won’t have anything to do with the game itself. Instead, office workers across the country are right now debating the greatest and the worst of the Super Bowl commercials. What’s your favorite? If you missed any, you can go here to check them all out.
I clearly enjoyed the Doritos mouse jumping through the wall. It was as funny as it was unexpected. Many seem to think the Etrade baby spitting up was great–though a little gross.
Or how about the trailer for Pixar’s summer 2008 movie, Wall-E? That was pretty hilarious. And the Macy’s parade balloons chasing after the coke bottle balloon was very clever as well. And I was also a fan of the Pepsi/Justin Timberlake commercial.
Seems like every year, though, the sum total of commercials is underwhelming. Why does it always feel like previous years had a better crop?
Hmmm, now my only challenge is to find a way to relate this post to technology, since this is a technology blog and all. Hmmm. Well, I did watch part of the game online. And I watched the rest of it on a flat-panel HD TV. That’s techy, right?
I suppose we could talk about the tasteless GoDaddy/Danica Patrick commercial, since it relates to domain purchases. But that’s just what GoDaddy wants us to do, now isn’t it? Each year they get racier and racier, all for the sake of the free publicity that’s generated by having a super racy ad–and look at me, contributing to it. Sorry.
Well, how about the Etrade commercials? They’re about a web-based business. That’s techy.
Oh, who am I kidding? I just wanted to talk a little football and share my favorite commercials from the big game. Time will tell which is the best, as everyone goes online over the next weeks to watch the ones they liked best over and over. This year’s winner, for me, is the Doritos mouse jumping through the wall. Great commercial, great analogy for the way little brother Eil and the Giants won the Super Bowl.
Read MorePosted by Jeremy Scott | 4 Comments
Lost Clues: Who Are The Oceanic 6?
Lost is back, and I’m pretty happy about it. There are several of us in the office who watch, and each week we come into the office stammering and yammering about the latest developments. Even if you don’t watch Lost, there’s no denying it’s a powerful mystery that has millions wondering every week where the next twist or turn will occur.
It’s as good an excuse as any to talk about viral marketing. Viral marketing is any marketing attempt where the fans themselves are the marketers–where the message spreads like a virus. Usually it’s a video or a website that people are just compelled to forward to each other through email. You may have heard about some of the viral marketing efforts for The Dark Knight (which claimed that the Joker had his own website at WhySoSerious.com–a site that has now added a black ribbon memorial for actor Heath Ledger) or Cloverfield (which featured a number of puzzle-related sites such as the Ethan Haas Was Right game).
But no one does it better than Lost. There have been countless online games, books, side mysteries, and other online content that feeds the underlying mystery of the show. Back in the show’s first season, the fictional airline (Oceanic Air) had its own website, where you could click around and fiddle with the book-a-flight interface to unlock other secrets of the story. That site currently has an alert message that All Flights Are Cancelled–in keeping with the mythology of the show.
If you follow Lost, you now know that some of the survivors of flight 815 make it off the island. And there appear to have been six of them total–hence the question “Who are the Oceanic 6?” We don’t know how or why they get off the island, as we’re only getting flash-forward vignettes that give us hints.
We do know that Jack, Kate, and Hurley are three of the six. So the question becomes…”Who are the other 3 of the Oceanic 6?”
We’re competing here in the office with a small pool, where each of us has guesses at which survivors will make it off the island. My money? It’s on Sayid, Sun, and Claire. I think Sayid will make it off the island, simply because he doesn’t trust Locke. The other two I’m picking because one is pregnant, and the other just had a baby. Seems like a new child is as good a reason as any to get off that island.
Just a guess, obviously. And yeah, if you don’t watch the show, you’ve either stopped reading already or I’m beginning to seriously bore you.
The point is this: Lost is the viral marketing champ, and that’s evidenced by fans everywhere (including us here in the office) obsessively drawing up scenarios, discussing mysteries, and following the online clues. The show’s mythology even has its own Wikipedia page, separate from the main Lost entry! Every season of the show sees the produers upping the ante in terms of hype and mystery. And the big viral push this year is “Who are the Oceanic 6?” The billboard pictured above was photographed in Florida the week before this year’s premiere. Think about that… part of Lost’s viral marketing campaign involves real-world, old-school-advertising in the form of a bill board. Because they knew some obsessive fan would take a picture of it and put it online and the furor would begin. Lost has come to point in its life where the episodes themselves are viral marketing efforts, as the producers put so many tiny clues and hints and references in the background that fan-sites have cropped up all over the place to post screenshots and pour over the details looking for clues.
Listen, viral marketing is not just for the big guys anymore. Sure, they own the market…they may have perfected it. But viral marketing is a phrase that sort of first got its name back in the days of the Blair Witch Project, where producers counted on folks who thought the footage of the film was real passing the word of the film to their friends via email. The little guys are the ones who started this whole thing. And “viral marketing” can be as simple as a fun post on your company blog or website that you try and get folks to link to. If you’ve heard of social bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, or Mixx, then you should know that these sites are full of content that is essentially linkbait.
”Linkbait” is a form of viral marketing where content with mass appeal is created and then submitted to social networking sites like the ones mentioned above. Stories that make the home page on Digg have been known to receive tens of thousands of site visitors in a day’s time–often crashing the server of the target site. And stories that make the home page also generally lead to a bunch of new links to that site across the web–and links are terribly valuable in terms of search engine placement. Here’s a quote from this excellent summary article on the benefits of linkbait:
While there are many factors that search engines use to determine how they will rank a web page – one of the most powerful elements is how many links point to it. Search Engines treat incoming links to your site like votes – (I’m over simplifying here) the more votes you get the more they’ll see others as valuing your page.
So let me give you an example: You run a football blog. Let’s say you just love football and the NFL and you write about it on your personal website. And maybe your regular, every day content is a summary of the week’s games and predictions for the next week’s match-ups. A good viral campaign for you would maybe be to create a list of some football-related thing….say “The Top 10 Most Amazing Super Bowl Comebacks Ever” (which would be a timely list, no?) and you write a little synopsis for each game. Then, with a little luck, it gets picked up by Digg on the home page and your little football blog gets thousands of hits and a hundred links. Within days you’re ranking #1 on Google for a ton of football-related queries and your once-little blog now has hundreds of subscribers. That’s how linkbait works.
That’s the hope, anyway. Viral marketing is definitely a hit or miss endeavor. There’s no way to know what content will set the web on fire. But that hasn’t stopped companies far and wide from trying.
We have a few clients trying some very clever viral marketing ideas, some smaller than others, some more successful than others. Developing and implementing viral marketing and linkbait campaigns is a bit of a new service for us–heck, it’s new for everybody–but we’re having a blast helping out sites that want to reach a huge audience quickly, or develop a strong group of devoted followers. If you think we might be able to infuse your online marketing efforts with a little extra zing, give us a shout and let’s talk about it.
Or we can just talk about Lost and who you think the other 3 members of the Oceanic 6 might be. Perhaps an even better question to ask would be “Who aren’t the Oceanic 6?” Either way, it’s fun to talk about, isn’t it?
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Britney Spears is Good for the Economy…Reall...
Here’s a brand new reason to care about the welfare of Britney Spears: She’s good for the economy. Really good. Like… $120 Million-a-year good.
Yeah, you read that right. According to this article, it is estimated that Britney Spears adds between $110-$120 Million to the U.S. economy per year….and that’s when she’s not out on a concert tour.
Clearly Britney is popular–she’s the most-searched phrase on the Internet for 2007 (and 5 of the 6 previous years as well). And everyone groans when I mention that… as though they feel someone or something else deserves our national attention. And I’m sure there’s some truth in that. But you can’t say she’s not pulling her weight in terms of the economy.
Here’s a longer article that goes into detail on why she’s worth so much to us in terms of dollars. See, Britney’s mere existence creates jobs and puts food on the tables of many.
There are the papparazi photographers who take her picture (and follow her around all day). Then you consider the magazines that print those photos, and the subscriptions and sales dollars they bring in. Don’t forget that she’s also a singer, whose albums have made a ton of money for her label, her PR people, and her managers. She’s been in movies and music videos, has her own perfume, and even starred in her own reality show. When you break it all down, you can easily see how they arrived at the $120 Million figure. And if she were on a concert tour, then that number would climb even further, with tour employees, merchandise sales, venue revenue, and so on.
But the lion’s share of the money she adds to the economy is related to the magazine/tabloid industry. From the article:
Spears is just one of many stars driving the growing multibillion dollar celebrity news industry. But the Spears story in particular, with a new twist nearly every week, has become a very profitable sub-sector unto itself.
“Britney is the most bankable celebrity out there right now, and she has been for the past year,” said Francois Navarre, founder of the paparazzi agency X17.
And the people who buy those magazines and read them online are the same people who search for her enough online each year to make her the most-searched phrase. As depressing as it may be, there’s no denying the demand for Britney-related information.
So now I come to the issue of having a vested interest in her well-being. If anything bad were to happen to her that would cause her popularity to wane…it would be bad for the economy. And the economy can’t take too many more hits right now, if you know what I mean.
So maybe instead of groaning when we see her on the cover of another magazine or wishing she would go away…perhaps we should count our blessings. She may be a train wreck… but she’s a profitable one, at least as far as the U.S. economy is concerned. I don’t know how much you add to the national bottom line, but I bet it’s not as much as Britney.
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