I went home for the weekend to spend Easter and my birthday with my family. Check out the wicked iPad birthday cake I had! Woot! Pretty cool eh? Is this the first iPad cake on the internet?

What a great project for me to work on! Back in 2006 when I was at the MIT Media Lab I began work on a project called I/O Earphones; a pair of headphones that would be an (implicit) input device rather than just an output channel. Although that project went on the back-burner when I started working on the Pepsi Machine project, I was able to work with a production model of something that closely embodies what I wanted to create (Neurosky BCI Headset).

The best pert however was being able to control the CN Tower. Upon my arrival to Toronto I first noticed the amazing lighting system on the tower. Immediately thoughts of how I could gain control of these light coursed through my brain. Well, about a year later guess what I was doing?

Yep.

From InteraXon website:

10 sec 1 bayt: a competition for the best 10 sec poem

+992-98-537-89-54

In US: details TBA

In Tajikistan: Mon Oct 12, noon - Wed Oct 14, noon

http://www.10sec1bayt.com

by Marisa Jahn and Connor Dickie

with Sogdiana Cultural Center, CEC Artslink, and Bactria

Открытый конкурс в Таджикистане:

Начало конкурса 12-е октября (полдень), конец среда 14-го октября 2009 года.
Мариса Джан – Нью-Йорк + Koннop Диkи, Культурный Центр «Бактрия», Ма ркази фар[ангу маърифатии «Сугд», CEC Artslink

***
Many Tajiks are aware that for those cell phone users who have a plan with the Central Asian telecommunications company named Babilon, the first ten seconds of any phone call are free. To take advantage of this freebee, strategic users have developed a new art form – the ten second conversation.

Inspired by this contemporary cultural form and the Tajik tradition of 2-verse poetry (or ‘Bayt’), REV-, a New York-based art organization (www.rev-it.org) is initiating a competition for the best ten second poems. You are invited to participate; newcomers to Tajik poetry are invited to try their hand.

The project’s title, ‘Bayt’ (pronounced ‘bite’ in English), refers to both the Tajik word for the short 2-verse poem popularized to Western audiences by the Rubayat, written in the 12th century by poet Omar Khayyam. ‘Bayt’ also resembles in sound the English noun that means, ‘a small piece’ (as in, “Just a bite”), and the ‘byte’, an internationally recognized unit used to measure quantities of digital data.

COMPETITION DETAILS

In US: details TBA

In Tajikistan:

• The competition begins noon on Monday October 12 and ends at noon on Wednesday October 14. Only those residing in Tajikistan are eligible to apply. To participate, please call the following number: +992-537-89-54.

• Leave your 10 second poem but do NOT leave any other information. Your poem will be published to the web at http://www.10sec1bayt.com

• If you are selected as a winner, you will be called from the number that you dialed – so on October 31, between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm, be sure to leave your phone turned on.

• Submitted 10 second poems will be selected by their creativity and originality — and of course the poems must be only ten seconds long!

• Winning entries composed in Tajik and Russian will be selected by a group of prominent Central Asian poets, journalists, and cultural organizers. To ensure fairness, the names of the jurors will remain anonymous until the time that winners are announced.

• First place winner in Tajikistan will receive a cell phone. Second and third place winners in Tajikistan will receive a surprise. Additionally, their poem will be published over the radio airwaves, in the printed newspaper, and on the television.

О конкурсе
Многие таджикистанцы знают, что у абонентов мобильного оператора Бабилон, первые 10 секунд бесплатны. Пользуясь этим преимуществом, находчивые абоненты создали новую форму искусства – телефонный разговор за 10 секунд.

Вдохновленная этой формой современного искусства и традиционной таджикской поэтической формой 2строчного стиха (или бейта), REV- творческое объединение из Нью-Йорка (www.rev-it.org) инициировала конкурс на лучший 10секундный стих. Вас приглашают участвовать, новикам в таджикской поэзии предлагается попробовать свои силы.

Название проекта Бейт (английское произношение байт) относится к таджикскому слову означающему короткий двух строчный стих, ставших популярными на западе благодаря рубои, написанными в 12-м веке поэтом Омаром Хаямом. Бейт также похоже на английское слово означающее маленький кусочек (например “Just a bite”), а также на международный признанный термин байт как единица измерения цифровой информации.

Условия конкурса
В Таджикистане:

• Начало конкурса 12-е октября (полдень), конец среда 14-го октября. В конкурсе могут принимать участие только жители Таджикистана. Для участия нужно звонить по номеру +992-98-537-89-54.

• Оставьте стих за 10 секунд. Не оставляйте никакой другой информации. Ваш стих автоматически будет опубликован на сайте http://www.10sec1bayt.com

• В случае если ваш стих будет выбран победителем с вами свяжутся по номеру, с которого вы звонили, чтобы оставить свой стих. Поэтому 31 октября, ваш телефон должен быть включен с 9:00 до 17:00.

• Ваши десятисекундные стихи будут оцениваться по креативности и оригинальности и конечно же должны быть не дольше 10 секунд!

• Стихи-финалисты, на русском и таджикском языке, будут оцениваться известными таджикскими поэтами, журналистами и творческими людьми. Для гарантии объективности конкурса их имена будут объявлены позже.

• Победитель, занявший первое место получит приз – мобильный телефон. Участники, занявшие второе и третье место получат сюрприз. В качестве дополнения, стихи победители будут опубликованы на радио, в газетах, и телевидении.

I was finally able to make it to Gadgetoff this year in NYC. For those that don’t know, Gadgetoff is a “technology salon” or conference that is similar to TED, but is focused on only the most cutting-edge technologies. Past speakers include such luminaries in the tech world as Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway and other cool devices), Will Wright (developer of Spore and Sim City), Ramesh Raskar (of the MIT Media Lab’s “Camera Culture” group) - and heck, yah, I was invited to give a speech and a demo too! ^_^

I decided to release a technique that I discovered a while ago (but have kept under wraps) that allows you to hide secret messages in any standard web graphic (say a .jpg or a .png). We call it the the “Kameraflage Effect“, and it’s really really cool.

I must say that the whole Gadgetoff event blew my mind into chunks. I can’t wait for the next Gadgetoff - now it’s back to the lab-o-rino to come up with something brand new to show at the next event!

P.S. Thanks to all those who were involved in creating the Gadgetoff event - especially the Dubno brothers who graciously put up with my constant changing of plans. Sometimes when you are working on curtting-edge technologies there is lame legal red-tape which makes it hard to be able to actually show innovations before they hit the market. A lot of people are involved in bringing a new product to market and you have to respect their desires to know exactly how/when/why/who is taking a peek at their “TOP SECRET” projects. Anyways, I totally salute the Gadgetoff crew!

Produced by Steve Mann, Connor Dickie and Chris Aimone, this video showcases our first attempt at making something interesting from the vast library of giga-pixel inverse-holographic video we have taken over the last 5 years of the construction of the new AGO.

Consider this video just a “quick hack” as Steve Mann’s patented “virtual camera” system allows us to do so much more than just linear video. If we can find the funding and time, we plan to put together a project that really exploits the content that we have, like large-scale holograms, interactive VR scene, Omnimax projection…

All these are possible with this awesome camera setup.

See high-resolution versions of this video here:

massivechange.ca

Here’s a frame from the video. You can see me as a Cop, and Nikki Awesome as Nikki Awesome. It was super fun to film this. I hope I get more chances to do things like this while I’m in Toronto!

Check the video out here.  

Each year the FBI has an open encryption challenge:

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec08/code_122908.html

Here is the encrypted FBI cyphertext:



VFWTDLCSWV. YD NSLMIJFWEJFD GSW SL NIJNQBLM FOBV EJFDVF DLNIGTFBSL. KBVBF YYY.AHB.MSK/NSCDC.OFZ FS EDF WV QLSY SA GSWI VWNNDVV.

The decrypted cleartext reads:

STUPENDOUS. WE CONGRADULATE YOU ON CRACKING THIS **TEST ENCRYPTION. VISIT WWW.FBI.GOV/CODED.HTM TO LET US KNOW OF YOUR SUCCESS.

Am I the first to crack this? Google seems to think so. Will I be the recipient of an FBI home-invasion tomorrow morning (they now have my IP address)?

~UPDATE. I think I’m the second to crack this and post it for all to see. The other guy beat me by about 12 minutes.

The World’s Premier Conference for Young People

Changing the World brought together the world’s greatest visionaries to inspire young people to innovate and better our world. The topics covered included: technology, science, design, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and the arts. Among this year’s speakers were:

1 Nobel Peace Prize winner (for stopping nuclear war)

1 Star designer

1 Architect designing Asia’s tallest building

12 Entrepreneurs

1 Giller prize winning author

2 Internet millionaires

1 Engineer who creates $100 laptops for developping nations

1 Girl who was curing Alzheimer’s at age 15

1 Girl who gave British young people the power to vote

1 Scientist who stops human aging

1 Guy who created Mac OS X

9 Technologists

1 Futurist creating blob computers

… and more.

The Format

Each speaker was given 18 minutes to deliver their epic talk. Every attendee had the same experience. One day of rapid fire inspiration.

Innovation for All

As a non-profit organization, we want to provide a world-class conference to all students regardless of their age, financial background, and past leadership experiences. We believe that every student should be given the opportunity to be inspired and to learn from some of the world’s most fascinating people.

Well we did it - the Changing the World conference was a huge success! With over 1300 attendees and 15 amazing speakers we have established ourselves as THE conference for emerging youth leaders in art, science and business. A special thank you goes out to all who helped. Keep an eye out for myself (Connor Dickie), Justin Lee, Sylvia Cheng and Doug Wightman, because we are doing it again next year and it’s going to be even bigger and better!

I collaborated with Jacky Lee while in Taiwan on this interactive TV project as part of our ongoing research into interactive and emotionally-reactive television. It was installed at the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the 2007 Animamix Biennial.

Backoff, Afrobin was created using our HiTV interactive television platform.

The “Community Vending Machine” or simply “Pepsi Machine” was a project that I completed while at the MIT Media Laboratory that was shown at Wired NextFest 2006 in NYC. I don’t have time to go into details now, but just know that it’s an interactive media purveying platform that uses multiple (14) individual spanning screens, computers, microphones and computer-vision to allow people to interact both explicitly and implicitly.

Most interesting for me is the fact that the machine passively generates knowledge about the specific audience that visits it and can then use this data to inform the content creators or even as a commodity to sell to 3rd parties. To this end the Pepsi Machine has expanded possibilities for generating value… I’ll elaborate more later.small, medium or large video demos available.

This technology is currently jointly PATENT PENDING with myself, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and PepsiCo.