Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Awesome New Technology That You'll See on the Web This Year

Source: http://lifehacker.com/the-awesome-new-technology-that-youll-see-on-the-web-t-509062071

The web becomes more and more capable each day, finding ways to replace what you do on your desktop. In the very near future you'll talk to your web apps, enjoy complex animation without the drain of Flash, and maybe even plug in your guitar. These features and more already exist, and they're coming to the broad internet this year.

Thanks to the quick iteration of browsers like Chrome and Firefox, what developers can easily accomplish with their sites grows by the day. At Google I/O last week, I had the pleasure of sitting in on Google engineer Eric Bidelman's session The More Awesome Web (you can view the presentation here) and learned about what we can expect from web developers—and what we as web developers can do ourselves—with the latest features of HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. Even if you're not a developer, what's up next for the web is pretty exciting. Here's a look at some of the coolest features you'll see in web apps this year.

Note: Not all browsers currently support the technologies discussed in this post, so you may need Chromium to try out any linked examples.

Plug Your Guitar into a Web Site

Yes, you will plug your guitar into a web site. Chrome already offers a web audio API that allows developers to access a user's audio input (with permission) by writing very little code. While not terribly exciting in itself, the amazing stuff happens after grabbing that signal.

Audio processing on the web is kind of mind-blowing. Developers can now detect pitch—which could lead to web-based pitch correction/auto-tuning—and add effects to live or recorded audio (e.g. vocoders). You can even plug your guitar into a web site and add effects. The web audio API can also do simple things like record audio notes. What once took an app now takes a tiny amount of code written for the web.

Automatically Translate Your Speech into Another Language

We've been able to talk to the web for a little while now, but with a number of limitations. For the most part, voice search was as good as it gets. With the latest speech recognition abilities in Chrome, developers can make use of this technology to do much more.

For example, what if you could say something in English and see it translated into Spanish, French, Italian, or a variety of other languages on the fly? You can. With access to the speech recognition API, developers can take what you say and use that text for a variety of purposes. Running that text through a translation service is just one of them.

Easily Share Your Screen

Plenty of web apps allow screen sharing, but they require quite a bit of work to make it happen. Some ask you to download software, others try to make it work with plug-ins like Flash or Java. Soon you'll see screen sharing offered directly by your browser using HTML5, bypassing a lot of the heavy lifting required by other technologies. If you're running Chromium, you can try it now. Other browsers will have to wait a little while before simple screen sharing is widely supported.

Enjoy Live-Rendered Animations with Complex Imagery

Although not the most outright exciting feature for the end user, we'll all come to appreciate the complex animation possible in the browser as developers implement new possibilities. By now you might be familiar with the SVG format, which offers a way of drawing scalable vector graphics using XML code. This format not only makes it possible to create images without files that load quickly, but also scale those images to pretty much any resolution without pixelation. In its own right, SVG is amazing. When you add animated masks using clipping paths, you get some pretty cool effects. The code is easy to write and will allow developers to add compelling and interesting motion elements to their sites.

The Future

These are just the highlights. Smaller, less flashy improvements are on the way as well and new technologies will likely surface in the latter half of 2013. The web is growing in awesome, incredible ways this year. As the years progress, we'll be doing even more than we expected in our browsers.

Title image remixed from an original by Ralph Bijker.

CustoMac May Buyer's Guide Saves Money on Hackintosh-Compatible Builds

Source: http://lifehacker.com/customac-may-buyers-guide-saves-money-on-hackintosh-co-508892302

We love hackintoshes—the OS X-compatible computers you build yourself—but finding a compatible build requires some effort. Hackintosh master tonymacx86 offers up the latest working builds so you know the machine you'll build will work.

Tonymacx86's CustoMac buyers guide gets regular updates nowadays, but if you've been thinking about a hackintosh you'll get a good deal on parts this May. Why? Tonymacx86 explains:

It is currently a transitional period between Intel's 3rd generation "Ivy Bridge" and 4th generation "Haswell" Core i CPUs and their corresponding new chipset. Because of this, retailers are beginning to clear old inventory to make way for the new stuff. For those interested in super deals, it is now a very good time to build systems based on our well-established recommendations.

Per the usual, the CustoMac buyer's guide offers super cheap builds for only a few hundred dollars and extremely powerful builds that can rival a Mac Pro. When you've chosen all your parts, be sure to check out our always up-to-date guide to building a hackintosh so you can get it up and running.

Building a CustoMac: Buyer's Guide May 2013 | tonymacx86

The Basics of Music Production, Lesson 2: Recording Audio

Source: http://lifehacker.com/the-basics-of-music-production-lesson-2-recording-aud-509103797

You can have a lot of fun making music, but getting a good recording and arrangement of your song requires some work and knowledge. Last week we set up a home recording studio. This week we're going to start recording.

Note: This is primarily a video lesson and you'll get a lot more information from watching the video above. That said, the instructions below will suffice and you should hang on to them for reference.

What You'll Need in This Lesson

If you participated in last week's lesson, you should have all the equipment you need to get started. If not, read last week's lesson first before preceding. We're not going to make equipment recommendations here, but you should know what equipment you're going to need to participate in this lesson:

Your computer with the DAW software of your choice installed (we'll be using Cubase)
A digital audio interface (with 48v phantom power) hooked up to your computer
A microphone connected to your digital audio interface, most likely via XLR cable
An instrument (e.g. a guitar, your voice, etc.)
About 20-30 minutes of your time

Once you've got everything ready, boot up your DAW software and let's get started!

Get to Know Your DAW's Interface.

Interface elements vary between different DAWs, but they embody the same ideas. We'll use Cubase to demonstrate here, but if you're using something else you should find things are pretty similar. Let's take a look at the common parts you'll need to know about.

The main project window is where you'll do a lot of your work. This window lets you interact with your instruments and sounds as well as bring up individual channel settings as needed. You can do a lot more, too, but those are the basics.

The mixer (in Cubase, this is the first of three mixers) looks like a hardware mixing board in a lot of ways. You can adjust the levels of individual tracks, open their channel settings, monitor the master output, and keep a general eye on what's going on with your mix as it plays.

The transporter does what you probably expect: it transports you around your project. This is where you press record, stop, and play, but also where you can toggle the metronome, set time signatures, loop your project, and get information about where you currently are in your project.

The VST instruments panel isn't something you really need to know about until the next lesson, but it's simply where you add virtual instruments to your project.

When you click the little "e" button next to an audio track you get its channel settings. You can add input (track-specific) and send (multi-track) effects here, use the built-in EQ, and adjust gain.

Those are the main elements of the interface you need to know about. Read on to learn how to set up your first project!

Set Up Your First Project

You already know how to record audio if you know how to push a button, but digital audio workstation (DAW) software requires some setup before that big red circle will actually capture an audio signal. Although we'll be using Cubase to set up our project, most DAW software works in similar ways. If you're not using Cubase, you should be able to follow along just fine but will need to look in slightly different locations for menu items and certain buttons. Here's what to do:

To get started, create a new project by selecting New Project in the File menu. Select "Empty" as a project type. Cubase will ask you where to save it, so pick one and wait for everything to load.
Before you can start recording, you need to make sure Cubase (or whatever DAW you're using) can find your interface and the mics (or whatever else) you have hooked up to it. Go to the Device menu and choose VST Connections.
From there, click the Inputs tab and set the first mono input to your first microphone. Repeat this process for any additional microphones or inputs (e.g. electric guitars).
Click the Outputs tab and you should see a pair of stereo outputs. Set the first one to your left speaker and the second one to your right speaker.
Now that your inputs and outputs are properly routed, close VST Connections and go to the Project menu. Choose Add Track -> Audio.
When the new track window appears, create one track and set its configuration to mono. Because we're just recording from a single microphone in this lesson, you don't need a stereo track. In fact, you'll rarely choose stereo even when recording from two microphones because you'll likely prefer to have the channels separated. This provides you with greater control over where they're placed in the recording (i.e. where it sounds like the recorded voice or instrument is) and the character of the sound. When you're done, click Add Track.
By default, the new track should have its record enabling toggle button lit up red. You'll see this beneath the track name. If it isn't lit, click on it to enable recording on this track.
Also by default, your track should be set to your first microphone. If not, take a look at the panel on the left side of the main project window and you'll see input and output settings. The output should be set to Stereo (which is the default name for Cubase's stereo output) and then input should be set to whatever you named your first microphon! e (usual ly Mono In by default, but this can vary). If you see No Bus that means nothing is connected to this audio track, so click on No Bus and change it to the name of your first microphone.
Using the transporter—which is the thin horizontal window strip with lots of tools and buttons on it—press the record button. You'll see the recording start. Talk, sing, or play an instrument into the microphone and the waveform of your audio will appear in real time.
When finished recording, press the stop button on the transporter.

That's all there is to it! You've just recorded your first bit of audio. It probably sounds bad, but that's likely due to a need for EQ, higher gain (increase in the amplitude of the frequency so it sounds louder), or some other problem. We're not going to worry about that just yet because you're still getting used to how your DAW works. We'll tackle mixing individual audio tracks and the entire mix in a later lesson, though you can get a preview if you watch the video above.

Want to learn more? Join us next Tuesday at 5:00 PM PT for our next lesson: playing and recording virtual instruments. Don't forget to bring your MIDI keyboard!

The Artificial Insect Eye That Will Give Sight To Tiny Drones

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-artificial-insect-eye-that-will-give-sight-to-tiny-509069158

Humans see the world through a pair of high resolution, single lens eyes that allow us to adjust focus and pinpoint fine details. But simpler creatures, like insects, instead rely on compound eyes that have lower resolution but offer a much wider distortion-free field-of-view that's actually better suited for lightning fast motion perception. And as researchers work towards designing autonomous drones that will behave like futuristic artificial bugs, it's only fitting that they also work to replicate how an insect sees.

Of course understanding and recreating Mother Nature has always been one of our biggest challenges, but a research project known as the Curvace believes it's created a prototype artificial compound eye that comes pretty damn close to the real thing. Composed of three separate layers including an array of microlenses sitting atop an array of photodetectors, the Curvace promises to provide drones with an incredibly wide field of vision that will allow the craft to navigate obstacles even in the dark of night.

The compound eye won't be used for capturing surveillance footage or images, that will still require a camera with higher resolutions so the images can be analyzed. But will instead serve as a robust, low-power way for a drone to autonomously navigate its surroundings, and more importantly, be immediately alerted to incoming threats.

[Curvace via IEEE Spectrum]

Hands-on with LG's 5-inch flexible plastic OLED display at SID (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/lg-5-inch-oled-display-hands-on/

You can't blame us for rushing to see LG's flexible OLED HD panel here at SID. First announced earlier this week, the 5-inch display sports a plastic construction, which allows it to be both bendable and unbreakable. Most alluring of all, though, is LG's intimation that the screen tech will debut in a smartphone by the end of this year. Before we get lost in thoughts about a tricked-out Optimus G, let's take a look at this early prototype.

The panel is made of plastic substrates, which are both more flexible and cheaper to manufacture than their glass counterparts. In fact, cost-effectiveness seems to be the chief objective overall. Clumsy consumers will benefit as well -- in a smartphone, the glass above the screen could break, but the OLED panel would stay in tact, resulting in lower repair costs. At the company's booth, a demo area let attendees take a hammer to the standalone display and twist it every which way -- sure enough, it withstood these torture tests. In our hands, the 5-inch screen was lightweight and responsive to twists and bends; it felt like a thick film strip.

An LG rep told us the panel could sport a bigger or smaller size when it debuts in a smartphone later this year. And though the prototype on display here today was labeled merely as "HD," we're sure that resolution could be adjusted as well. For now, get an early look in our video after the break.

Gallery: LG 5-inch flexible plastic OLED display hands-on