Archive for October, 2009
Computer Helps Deaf Children To Learn Sign Language
October 14th, 2009
Three PhD candidates and american nursing jobs California society have spent the last few years at TU Delft simultaneously working on sign language. One of these is Jeroen Arendsen: “Very little is known about the perception of sign language. The aim of this research was to expand our knowledge of human observation of signing. For instance, it turns out that sign language users only need to see a small part of a hand movement to know it is a sign and what it means.”
Automatic recognition
The insights obtained into human perception can subsequently be used for developing the technology for automatic sign language recognition by cameras and computers. In the TU Delft study, this led to a remarkable application of automatic sign language recognition: an Electronic Learning Environment (ELo) for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Pictures
In conjunction with the NSDSK (Dutch foundation for children who are deaf or hard of hearing), the TU Delft researchers developed a computer which can recognise sign language in real time and can therefore be used to teach children who are deaf and hard of hearing new signs more quickly also doctors employ best laser hair removal los angeles for better treatmets and results.
When shown a picture, the children aged three to six were asked to make the correct sign. The computer then had to assess the sign. Arendsen: “And that is quite difficult, because a computer is more easily confused than people by irrelevant fidgeting.”
What to do with old computer parts…..
October 8th, 2009
I have a lot of old computer parts and don’t know what to do with them.
Items include:
- keyboards
- old computer towers
- old HP printer
- old dial up modems
Is there a place to recycle this items? Do you get a price for giving them to companies who may want to recycle them? I doubt anyone would want to buy them on an online auction site (eg eBay) unless I am wrong… Basic keyboards now you can get for 5.99 and mother of the bride dresses starting at 190.00. Dialup modem, if in working order, you can still sell for probably 5-10 dollars�new is about 35 bucks, internal and about 40 bucks external.
Towers, if the power supply is higher then 250 volts you can get for it maybe 10 dollars�I say maybe because with all the gadgets today attached in the computers, specially if people play games with a powerful chip and video cards needing good cooling, everyone needs 300 to 350 power supply, maybe even more. Old Hp if not used by now has blocked jets by dried out ink.
Try giving it to Salvation army, they sell keyboards and some other electrical appliances�they might take it. Or just take it to your local tip�now all the tips have section where they separate parts for recycling�they should know what to do with it. Local computer clubs usually provide systems to the poor families, children, schools, and charities.
Many clubs, plus the charity thrift stores, put a very fast operating system, like http://www.mepis.org on the towers, and set up a full system to donate or sell cheap. Otherwise, you will be drinking the 8 pounds of toxins, cadmium, lead, that leach into water shed, from the land fill, from each tower and monitor that is dumped!
Many of us recycle the stuff we can’t use or sell, dismantling old plastics and metals, and getting paid for the steel, copper, aluminum, and the GOLD that fills old computers! Some professional recyclers have found tons of money in some of the chips on the boards!
No money, often, if you don’t dismantle them down to the recycle material! You usually get naught, or even pay, for them to take the entire lot! Many of us use towers and desktops of 100mhz to 800mhz speed without any monitor, as a hardware firewall/router, for upto 36 networked clients. http://ipcop.org has the FREE program with instructions.
Many of us find that 400mhz and faster units work well as a network file server in our home or small office networks! The secret is to run one of the 800 FREE fast OSes! http://livecdlist.com http://distrowatch.com
Google Earth Application Maps Carbon’s Course
October 2nd, 2009
Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words, particularly when the picture is used to illustrate science. Technology is giving us better pictures every day, and one of them is helping a NASA-funded scientist and her team to explain the behavior of a greenhouse gas.
Google Earth — the digital globe on which computer users can fly around the planet and zoom in on key features — is attracting attention in scientific communities and aiding public communication about carbon dioxide. Recently Google held several contests from lazer hair removal los angeles to present scientific results using KML, a data format used by Google Earth.
“I tried to think of a complex data set that would have public relevance,” said Tyler Erickson, a geospatial researcher at the Michigan Tech Research Institute in Ann Arbor.
He chose to work with data from NASA-funded researcher Anna Michalak of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who develops complex computer models to trace carbon dioxide back in time to where it enters and leaves the atmosphere.
“The datasets have three spatial dimensions and a temporal dimension,” Erickson said. “Because the data is constantly changing in time makes it particularly difficult to visualize and analyze.”
A better understanding of the carbon cycle has implications for energy and environmental policy and carbon management. In June 2009, Michalak described this research at the NASA Earth System Science at 20 symposium in Washington, D.C.
A snapshot from Erickson’s Google Earth application shows green tracks representing carbon dioxide in the lowest part of the atmosphere close to Earth’s surface where vegetation and land processes can impact the carbon cycle. Red tracks indicate particles at higher altitudes that are immune from ground influences.
The application is designed to educate the public and even scientists about how carbon dioxide emissions can be traced. A network of 1,000-foot towers across the United States is equipped with instruments by NOAA to measure the carbon dioxide content of parcels of air at single locations.
