Friday, March 31, 2023

Reasons for the uncanny valley

Fear of our mortality
Fear of disease
Fear of pathogens
Mate selection
Undermining our identity
Violating human norms
Cognitive dissonance perceiving abnormal movement
Threat to identity

Real-Time Facial Model Animation | Unreal 2023


These motion-capture capabilities amaze me - recording facial expressions with a phone camera, and moments later several animated characters reproduce the same expressions with lifelike precision and no uncanny valley

Making suitcases in Japan


So many questions. 
Why so many processes done by hand? 
Why are so many temporary protective layers carefully placed near the beginning, instead of having softer rollers on the conveyor lines? 
Why a protective layer over the foam interior pieces when they're being cut? Why are they removed one by one by hand? 

Sunday, March 19, 2023

Birthday party videos

Some crazy birthday parties - imagine how much work it was to prepare for these! 

Jayne's 10th
Sarah's 16th
Part 2:

Jayne's 14th


Also, silly singing sisters

And, couldn't resist, snowy treetops birdseye

The Reason Tesla Developed The Giga Press


3:59 "casting is a very finely balanced thermodynamic process done under high pressure - molten aluminum is pressed into a die mold at high speed and that liquid metal has to fill the mold perfectly and evenly before cooling into a single strong component. The larger and more complex the mold, the further the metal needs to travel and the greater the chance that something will go wrong." 

Ricardo Ferrario saw the writing on the wall that the transition to electric vehicles would obviate the casting of engine blocks; he literally had a dream:

3:19 - he wanted to make the most powerful, efficient, and sustainable casting machine ever built, but he also wanted it to look beautiful... pops of red... stylized look... 3:43 he wanted to make the Ferrari of casting machines. 

4:53 the molten aluminum is purified by pumping argon gas through, then filtered at 25 micrometers, the die mold is slathered with soybean oil for easy de-molding, 

5:54 the molten metal inside the mold exerts pressure to push the mold halves apart, so immense pressure is needed to push the halves together - much more pressure than was used to inject the metal. 7:08 For instance, in a smaller press, 241 tons of pressure inject the liquid metal, but 4000 tons of force hold the die halves together. 



How a High-End New York Pastry Shop Sells Out of Desserts Each Day


Mmmm

The ingenious micro mechanisms inside your phone


I've always wondered what intricate microscopic moving parts detect motion inside a phone. Hats off to this guy, who actually copied and 3-D printed them hugely magnified to explain how they work! 

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Zipline Drone Will Change Everything


Mark Rober tells a good story. 

1:40 "how clever people are using engineering to change the world" 
1:26 cool asymmetric propeller design is super quiet. 

8:37 the advent of fixed-wing Zipline drones that travel 70 miles in Rwanda has slashed maternal mortality by 88%. Incredible. 

11:46 the cover story - delivery drones that stay afloat at 400' and precision-drop cargo by a tether line. 

Why Retailers Are Spending Billions On Anti-Theft Technology


Makes a good argument that special interest groups are hyping a supposed recent increase in theft, which in fact may actually be decreasing rather than everyone's perception it's increasing. 
This allows special interest groups to promote laws that access more information from customers and sellers. 

Military Drone Cameras


Incredible technology, massive amounts of data, and automated movement detection with the ability to track backwards in time to see when an IED was placed, for example. 

Two amazing border collies herding sheep


Incredible skill, command sophistication, and command recognition. 

Tesla FSD V11 is NEXT LEVEL


This guy produces a lot of (long) videos about how the Tesla (beta) full self-driving performs. This, however, is a significant one. 

The NHTSA made a newsworthy condemnation of Tesla's dangerous performance like rolling stops at red lights, or turning right from a left turning lane, that mandated a massive recall. 

However, the recall is a non-issue since the correction is an over-the-air update. Nonetheless, this negative announcement dropped the stock price sharply 6%. 

However, in the latest update (which I haven't received yet) he has some high praise for the "smoothness" of this latest iteration in software improvement, as follows. 

8:25 the path planner is a lot smoother

9:53 did a really nice job of planning a path through that intersection

11:30 dramatic improvement ... hugging the inside of the turn

13:14 the steering wheel inputs were smooth and the acceleration and braking were smooth - there just seemed to be an extra layer of polish on top

13:45 a focus on the overall smoothness and feel

15:06 actually pretty complex behavior 

16:27 goes to the outside and inside of the turns [much like a human would]

18:06 it's actually starting to get an idea of traffic flow, which in turn makes it more confident

23:18 how smooth the steering is throughout this maneuver, it's almost like it did these 3 lane chances as one single maneuver



Squint method - Once I Learned THIS, It Made My Photos Much Better


I was surprised how effective this technique sounds, for something so simple. Can't wait to try it out. 

Friday, March 17, 2023

Using Bees as Digital Sensors.


Bees can be trained in just a few hours to detect a (bomb) scent, then released back (unharmed) to their hive. And, the process of capturing and mounting them in a special harness can be automated. Amazing.  

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Krazy glue Cyanoacrylate glues for wilderness and remote travel medical care.



"Within this paper we critically examine the published therapeutic risks and benefits of both pharmaceutical and hardware grade cyanoacrylate glues when applied in acute care situations.
“...possibility of a severe exothermic reaction with risk of fire and burns if the glue comes in contact with cotton or wool...Within the laboratory setting, the lower homologs have been shown to cause localized inflammation, release toxic metabolites more quickly, and possess inferior physical properties for tissue adhesion...The avid outdoorsman, whose pack is as light as his wallet, might prefer a tube of Super Glue for commonly encountered field equipment repairs and infrequent therapeutic use.”

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