® Andy’s blog of blogs

Just the other night a cold can of Pepsi Max (currently half priced in my local Tesco Extra … other convenience stores are also available) had been sat on the worktop in the kitchen. I’d picked it up and poured it, and then my wife came in and noted that there now appeared to be a face on the worktop. “It’s Jesus” I exclaimed “quick call the Vatican”, though in all honesty it had no beard and was more a smiley in a 80s acid style than a religious figure. As quickly as the face had appeared, it was gone again, because I’m damned if my new work tops are staying wet ;-).

Anyhow, look at this genius bit of design.

So I’ve had a long running struggle regarding my next camera, beyond my current battle scarred Sony DSC-H1 “bridge camera”. I’ve always hankoured after the step change in fundamental image quality brought by a DSLR with its better glass and larger sensor, but have refused to budge on my requirement for a single flexible device capable of both photos and video. Then a few weeks back the Nikon D90 was finally formally announced and the world got its first DSLR with HD video support … and it was time for me to start saving my pennies.

However, Panasonic have just announced their new DMC-G1 and suddenly we’ve got a curve ball. Well actually it’s not that much of a curve ball because it appears to not shoot video (which is especially annoying since it’s ideally suited for pulling the quality video trick), but interestingly it’s a fundamental departure from the traditional DSLR / point-and-shoot divide. A camera with replaceable lenses (admittedly with a new mount format) and large sensor, the DMC-G1 does away with the traditional mechanical mirror/prism arrangement of a DSLR. Hence it has no optical viewfinder and relies instead on a high quality electronic video finder like your typical (video shooting) bridge camera. This is very interesting to me, because I love EVFs! The quality of the one on my Sony is top notch, and one of the other things that’s been putting me off the DSLR route is that fact that unless you get to very expensive bodies, the optical viewfinder coverage isn’t 100% of the scene! You can’t actually see the edges of what you’re shooting … what’s that all about! On my Sony I can see exactly what the sensor is seeing, and once I take the shot I can see exactly what it took, all in glorious strong technicolour and without removing my eye from the view finder. It’s an ideal solution for making sure that you actually frame exactly what you want at the time which is why I take pride in the fact that (unlike many DSLR carrying buddies) I don’t end up cropping my shots to get the framing right … I get it right at the time at the instant I squeeze that shutter button!

Anyhow … I’ll be watching the development path that Panasonic are on with interest, and for now here’s a good pre-production review from dpreview of the DMC-G1.

So it really shouldn’t be that difficult to be a robot that walks naturally. If tiny insects with minuscule brains can crack walking and carrying and flying … why not a robot? Well of course the reality is that for years robots haven’t moved naturally or with the self correcting characteristics of the most basic of creatures.

Hence this video of the BigDog pack robot is frankly disturbing, because it really does move like an animal and responds how you’d expect one to to external factors.

Before anybody points out that my family and I total five … my cars only got two seats mkay and we manage!

Dear Santa for Xmas I want one of these please.

When I explore I taken stack loads of pictures, but also like to take video. The video is taken on my digital camera and so is frankly rather shaky and also relatively low resolution at 640×480. Here’s a remarkable bit of research that looks to combine both to improve the resulting video with remarkable results!  It’s all rather geeky but watch the video to be amazed, and also to grin at the repeated reference to the “spacetime fusion algorithm”. Doc Brown eat your heart out :-).

One of the big reasons I’ve never moved away from using a bridge camera and gone the DSLR path is because I like having a single device I can shoot pictures and video footage on when I’m exploring. DLSRs have historically be far to snooty to do video … until now! I’ve always preferred the colour balance on Nikon’s too since it matches the vivid style that my eyes (and my current Sony) see things in too.

… I’m going medium format baby for my next trusty exploring camera!

One of my technology strands for the year is about how our style of interaction with technology is changing. I regularly talk to customers about things like touch interfaces in the iPhone, motion interfaces with the Wii, and even mind interfaces with the Emotiv headset.

For the DJs amongst you I thought this one was rather fun too.

So recently as part of my job of being an over excited emerging technology evangelist type geeky person, I’ve been talking to customers about how the way that humans interact with computers is changing. Things like the iPhone with a multi-touch interface, the Wii with its physicality and very useful IR tracking camera, or even spookier the eMotiv mind control headset! It’s all about the interfaces “disappearing” as you just do what you’d expect to do to make something happen, rather than using a keyboard/mouse and navigating a complex UI that you have to learn.

Anyhow whilst browsing Gizmodo I happened upon yet another “natural” interaction approach. Since it’s most definitely NSFW I won’t be showing this one in a presentation anytime soon, but it made me chuckle. Here’s the NSFW link to it.

Limited edition and undoubtedly hugely expensive … check! Individual and coolly retro … check! Rather chunky hence likely to make my wrists look even more effeminate that usual … check! Totally mechanical … WTF!!!