Touch no-more..
With so much of excitement I'm beginning to write this post. Reason being I found this amazing piece of software from the Apple website. Its actually the Magic Jungle's Fluid Tunes. It can be operated by just gesturing your hands in the air. (i.e) you don't need a keyboard or a mouse to give your input to the computer. It recognizes your gestures and it takes the input and the controls are activated accordingly. Stunning ! Isn't it.. Its more like a sci-fi movie - say the likes of Minority Report. Though it comes as a separate s/w that works on top of iTunes, it would be highly appreciated if it came as an addon for iTunes itself.
It stumps me to even think how people go about implementing things which were once just on a paper that would most likely end up in trash following a sarcastic laughter. It does work pretty well, given that you need to spend a little time fixing your position and taking care that your other body parts don't interfere with the controls triggering false inputs (highly likely).
But there is no reason to be disheartened. As this is just the beginning, I hope it doesn't stop here and this will definitely be one software that is going to see exponential downloads in the near future. It might not be the s/w you need, but its definitely something that you might want to try your hand at. I guess it works only on Mac (ha !). Requires itunes. Check it out !
It stumps me to even think how people go about implementing things which were once just on a paper that would most likely end up in trash following a sarcastic laughter. It does work pretty well, given that you need to spend a little time fixing your position and taking care that your other body parts don't interfere with the controls triggering false inputs (highly likely).
But there is no reason to be disheartened. As this is just the beginning, I hope it doesn't stop here and this will definitely be one software that is going to see exponential downloads in the near future. It might not be the s/w you need, but its definitely something that you might want to try your hand at. I guess it works only on Mac (ha !). Requires itunes. Check it out !
Itunes 8 Visualisations
When the audio players are concerned, I guess Itunes have revolutionized the entire interface experience, something that WMP has failed to do in its 12 versions so far. A glaring thing that i had noticed about itunes was its visualizations in itunes 7 and previous versions.. It didn't quite match the style and quality of Apple. Whereas these ones have not only catchy to the eyes, they would be best suited in Disco party or dance fests conducted in places where they don't have proper DJs or lightings but yet they can still get that experience.
If only Apple could get itunes to play movies of .avi and .mov formats, it would even more boost the publicity of Apple among movie-mongrels like me :)
These Visualizations were taken from Itunes 8 (Windows version).
And the visualizations below were taken from a Mac..
If only Apple could get itunes to play movies of .avi and .mov formats, it would even more boost the publicity of Apple among movie-mongrels like me :)
And the visualizations below were taken from a Mac..
Job description : Biomedical Engineer
When I first declared that I have chosen my field as "Biomedical Engineering", many were shocked or rather taken back. And quick came the reply - You ? Why ? Why not this and why not that ? And yeah, I was expecting that. Coz, in India, Biomedical is not a popular field, or rather its considered something on the same line as medicine and many (including me) consider it 'not a next step' after doing a UG course in Engineering, until i did a search on the various aspects of it before diving into it. Yeah ! its a bit obfuscating but they were always a part of my reveries. So what is the job of a biomedical engineer ? Here's a video that just gives an overview of it.
A cool simulation tool..
There were times when i was skeptical about going to the US for studies.. I always believed that the education standards in India were on always on par with many institutions there. But time and again, I am being proved wrong by something or the other. Be it their innovation in teaching things and making the students understand it practically or be it coming up with something like the one here..
Synthetic DNA Genome
Getting techie once in a while wouldn't be a grave crime !! With the hope that I am not driving you guys berserk, here's something that I had perceived to see in the near future and now a reality ! U.S. scientists have taken a major step toward creating the first ever artificial life form by synthetically reproducing the DNA of a bacteria, according to a study published Thursday.
The move, which comes after five years of research, is seen as the penultimate stage in the endeavor to create an artificial life form based entirely on a man-made DNA genome -- something which has tantalized scientists and sci-fi writers for years.
"Through dedicated teamwork we have shown that building large genomes is now feasible and scalable so that important applications such as biofuels can be developed," said Hamilton Smith, from the J. Craig Venter Institute, in the study published in Science. The research has been carried out at the laboratories of the controversial celebrity scientist Craig Venter, who has hailed artificial life forms as a potential remedy to illness and global warming. However, the prospect of engineering artificial life forms is highly controversial and is likely to arouse heated debate over the ethics and potential ramifications of such an advance. You can see the rays of light shining through the DNA double helix in the picture above.
It is one of the Holy Grails of science, but also one that stirs deep fears as foreseen in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel "Brave New World" in which natural human reproduction is eschewed in favor of babies grown artificially in laboratories. This extraordinary accomplishment is a technological marvel that was only made possible because of the unique and accomplished team.
The researchers had dedicated the last several years to designing and perfecting new methods and techniques that we believe will become widely used to advance the field of synthetic genomics. The team had completed the second step in a three-step process to create a synthetic organism. In the final stage of their research which they are already working on, the Maryland-based team will attempt to create a bacteria based purely on the synthetic genome sequence of the Mycoplasma genitalium bacteria.
The bacteria, which causes certain sexually transmitted diseases, has one of the least complex DNA structures of any life form, composed of just 580 genes. In contrast, the human genome has some 30,000. The chromosome which the team has created is known as Mycoplasma laboratorium and, in the final step of the process, will be transplanted into a living cell where it should "take control," effectively becoming a new life form. The new bacteria will therefore be largely artificial, though not entirely, because it is composed of building blocks from already existing organisms.
The move, which comes after five years of research, is seen as the penultimate stage in the endeavor to create an artificial life form based entirely on a man-made DNA genome -- something which has tantalized scientists and sci-fi writers for years.
"Through dedicated teamwork we have shown that building large genomes is now feasible and scalable so that important applications such as biofuels can be developed," said Hamilton Smith, from the J. Craig Venter Institute, in the study published in Science. The research has been carried out at the laboratories of the controversial celebrity scientist Craig Venter, who has hailed artificial life forms as a potential remedy to illness and global warming. However, the prospect of engineering artificial life forms is highly controversial and is likely to arouse heated debate over the ethics and potential ramifications of such an advance. You can see the rays of light shining through the DNA double helix in the picture above.
It is one of the Holy Grails of science, but also one that stirs deep fears as foreseen in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel "Brave New World" in which natural human reproduction is eschewed in favor of babies grown artificially in laboratories. This extraordinary accomplishment is a technological marvel that was only made possible because of the unique and accomplished team.
The researchers had dedicated the last several years to designing and perfecting new methods and techniques that we believe will become widely used to advance the field of synthetic genomics. The team had completed the second step in a three-step process to create a synthetic organism. In the final stage of their research which they are already working on, the Maryland-based team will attempt to create a bacteria based purely on the synthetic genome sequence of the Mycoplasma genitalium bacteria.
The bacteria, which causes certain sexually transmitted diseases, has one of the least complex DNA structures of any life form, composed of just 580 genes. In contrast, the human genome has some 30,000. The chromosome which the team has created is known as Mycoplasma laboratorium and, in the final step of the process, will be transplanted into a living cell where it should "take control," effectively becoming a new life form. The new bacteria will therefore be largely artificial, though not entirely, because it is composed of building blocks from already existing organisms.
It's a type of genetic engineering which would allow people to make much bigger genetic changes, which means that in the future you could create organisms with new gene sequences. Now, this is something that we all should watch for..
