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A definition of SLAM & examples

In Image, Technology, Visualization by Fredy Ore

Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) is the robotics acronym for computationally constructing or updating a map of an unknown environment, while at the same time keeping track of people or objects within the map.

Wikipedia has a more indepth explanation, with links to several known algorithms such as the particle filter and extended Kalman filter.

SLAM algorithms are tailored to the available resources, hence not aimed at perfection, but at operational compliance. Published approaches are employed in self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous underwater vehicles, planetary rovers, newly emerging domestic robots and even inside the human body.Wikipedia

Golan Levin has recently posted an example of an impressive real-time Visual SLAM created inside a car without GPS.

13thLab (recently Acquired by Oculus) have other examples of Densified SLAM Maps from car mounted iPhones.

Image Source: ScreenSlam

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Preserving expression, thinking & longevity within Design

In Digital Experiences, Experience Design, Product & Service Design, Visualization by Fredy Ore

Shane Hudson has written a nice article on 24 Ways which touches on an area I’ve been thinking a lot recently – preserving expression, longevity and thinking within Design. His article titled, Putting Design on the Map touches on the considerations for creating products, books, IOT’s by looking at the connections of the Digital and the Physical world.

A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected.Reif Larsen

His article predominantly focuses on Maps covering the technical considerations, Interface and differences with physical printed maps vs. online Maps, such as those from the Ordinance Survey, MapBox, Leaflet and Google Maps.
It is a good read.

Image Source: Shane Hudson
References:
Reif Larsen’s book The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
Reif Larsen’s Map Quest by Vanity Fair

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Daniel Kahneman at TED on Experience vs. Memory

In Digital Experiences, Experience Design, Experience Strategy by Fredy Ore

Daniel Kahneman, filmed at TED 2010 for his talk, The riddle of Experience vs. Memory.

…we might be thinking of ourselves and of other people in terms of two selves.

There is an experiencing self, who lives in the present and knows the present, [and] is capable of re-living the past, … and then there is a remembering self, … the one that keeps score, and maintains the story of our life,

…Those are two very different entities, … and getting confused between them is part of the mess…Daniel Kahneman

As designers, we often make informed decisions for inclusion (or exclusion of features, UI, content, etc) based on the journeys, emotional triggers and even considerations for how they will remember & recollection the products we design.

Daniel Kahneman’s talk lets us explore wider considerations for Experience Design (beyond business goals) to counter for powerful storytelling, empathy and recollection.

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DesignX: A Future Path for Design

In Disciplines, Disruption, Experience Design, Future by Fredy Ore

The Design Collaborative* have written an Essay on DesignX – a new, evidence-based approach for addressing many of the complex and serious problems facing the world today. It adds to and augments today’s design methods, reformulating the role that design can play.

DesignX aims to enhance the tools required to assist people, organizations, and societies in developing systems and procedures that address major human and societal needs.

[It] is a compilation and expansion of work being done by numerous organizations, private and public, universities and companies. DesignX attacks the larger problems, those that involve complex systems, where people with different skills need to creatively and reliably work together.The Design Collaborative

The essay was first published on the Don Norman, JND.org site

Image Source: A5 Magazine 2008

* A joint statement, written by “The Design Collaborative,” authored by Ken Friedman (Tongji University, College of Design and Innovation and Swinburne University Centre for Design Innovation), Yongqi Lou (Tongji), Don Norman (University of California, San Diego, Design Lab), Pieter Jan Stappers (Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering), Ena Voûte (Delft), and Patrick Whitney (Illinois Institute of Technology, Institute of Design).

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Xmas 2014 checklist

In Love, Rant by Fredy Ore

Xmas-2014-4

  • Tree – Done
  • Decorations – Done
  • Lights – Done
  • Presents – Nearly Done
  • Organise food – Nearly Done
  • Delivery of Presents in time – Epic #Fail

Please deliver our stuff in time ! This is the person you will disappoint!
Xmas-2014-2

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Don Norman on Design Portfolios in BreakingIn excerpt

In Digital Leaders, Disciplines, Product & Service Design by Fredy Ore

An interview excerpt of Don Norman on Design Portfolios has been published today in the BreakingIn book blog.

The book is the compiled interviews by Amina Horozić of 100 Design legends on companies, portfolios and working within Product Design.

Designers are essential to business. … Design is not just making a product, and is certainly not just making the product attractive. Design is trying to solve the problem that people may not even realize that there’s a problem. … The first thing you do when you’re given a problem is say: “What’s the real problem?” This is what the emphasis on design thinking is about.Don Norman

Photo Source: NNG

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Applying Artificial Intelligence to Wearables & IOT

In Artificial Intelligence, Business Design, Disruption, Experience Strategy by Fredy Ore

Scott Amyx has written on Wired of the considerations for applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to wearables and the Internet of Things (IOT).

The article contains a good overview of the history of AI, including sub fields such as machine learning, areas of industry where it’s heavily being used today, some of the practical applications of AI, but more importantly, a Playbook for integrating AI as a Core Business Strategy.

Wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) may give the impression that it’s all about the sensors, hardware, communication middleware, network and data but the real value (and company valuation) is in insights. In this article, we explore artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that are becoming indispensable tools for insights, views on AI, and a practical playbook on how to make AI part of your organization’s core, defensible strategy.Scott Amyx

Photo: Tom Gauld on Flickr

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Google’s new checkbox reCaptcha

In Best Practice, Digital Experiences, Experience Design by Fredy Ore

Google has re-introduced re-captcha, an alternative to the 2000 user dialogue challenge-response test used in computing and on the Web to determine whether or not the user is human.

http://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro

Instead of asking customers/users to re-enter 2 distorted words, which has been known to have accessibility issues, the new system uses IP address detection and cookies to reduce the user input to a simple checkbox.

Brilliant!

Update (3 Dec 2014): Wired has written a lengthy article on the new Google 1 click reCaptcha

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Scientific journal Nature makes all its academic papers free for the Public

In Science, Social Innovation by Fredy Ore

Macmillan Science & Education will allow the public to access its treasure chest of rich scientific research was announced today. Articles on nature.com will be made widely available to read and share to support collaborative research.

Macmillan Science and Education, one of the leading publishing and technology companies in the world, today announces the launch of a groundbreaking publishing initiative that will make it easy for readers to share an unprecedented wealth of scientific knowledge instantly with researchers and scientists across the globe.

Subscribers to 49 journals on nature.com can now legitimately and conveniently share the full-text of articles of interest with colleagues who do not have a subscription via a shareable web link on nature.com. In addition, Macmillan Science and Education will take a lead on opening up public engagement with scientific knowledge to society at large by giving access to the same content to readers of 100 global media outlets and blogs.MacMillan Science and Education

Image Source: Nature Journal April 2014