The project,”FaceAccess : A Portable Face Recognition System,” is a portable face recognition system which cost the two students only $28.77 worth of materials to create.

According to Harding and Jubinski:

“We created a standalone face recognition system for access control. Users enroll in the system with the push of a button and can then log in with a different button. Face recognition uses an eigenface method. Initial testing indicates an 88% successful login rate with no false positives.”

“There are currently commercially available systems for face recognition, but they are bulky, expensive, and proprietary. Our goal was to create a portable low-cost system. Our design consists of an Atmel ATmega644 8-bit microcontroller, a C3088 camera module with an OmniVision OV6620 CMOS image sensor, Atmel’s AT45DB321D Serial Dataflash, a Varitronix MDLS16264 LCD module for output, a 9-volt battery, and a small wooden structure for chin support.”

Essentially the system, for those that don’t understand the technical aspects of the above (hand raised), works when FaceAccess is connected to a computer.  The computer learns the pattern-recognition system, after which it can retain the profiles of new users, and delete old users.   As a stand-alone system, FaceAccess can recognize up to 20 enrolled users.

For a more detailed explanation of the system and all that went into developing it, the creators have posted all information on FaceAccess here.

Would you attempt to create your own FaceAccess system or purchase one if made commercially available?  If so, what would you use the device for?

Make

As children, those with children, and star gazers everywhere, a planetarium is a magical place.  The theater-style structure concerning all things astronomy and the night sky, typically takes the form of a large, dome-shaped, building with a projector and screen where stars, planets, and other celestial objects are visible, even moving in a realistic fashion to simulate outer space.

A structure with a similar shape but with a different, sinister, purpose, The Death Star, from Star Wars films is another magical place.

In the Star Wars series, the Death Star is portrayed as a fictional moon-sized space station/superweapon capable of destroying a planet with a single destructive beam.  To the best of my knowledge, no planetarium is capable of making a similar claim.

Moreover, the Death Star is a structure has a crew of 265,675, 52,276 gunners, 607,360 troops, 30,984 stormtroopers, 42,782 ship support staff, and 180,216 pilots and support crew.  Weapons on the Death Star include: assault shuttles, blastboats, strike cruisers, land vehicles, support ships, 7,293 TIE fighters, 10,000 turbolaser batteries, 2,600 ion cannons, and at least 768 tractor beam projectors.  To say the Death Star was a massive item and a formidable weapon of intergalactic war is putting it mildly.

For those that love planetariums and Star Wars, particularly the Death Star, alike, there’s a new item you’ll want to own.  From the Neatoshop comes the “Death Star Planetarium!”

What will your $29.99 get you?  Features include:

• Transforms darkened room into a planetarium
• Table top unit projects the star map of the Star Wars galaxy and Earth’s own night sky
• Learning guide / instructions included

While not as large as a traditional planetarium or the Death Star, look at the joy on the young man’s face above.  Don’t you want the same for you and/or your children?

If so, will you pick up a Death Star Planetarium and explore the wonderful world of Star Wars in the privacy of your own home?

If there’s one thing about Star Wars any fan would love to master, it’s the way of the Jedi.  Certainly lightsaber techniques would be an amazing skill to acquire, but Jedi mind tricks?  No comparison.

To that end, Quilpue’, a city in Chile, has opened a Star Wars school for small children.

In doing so, small Chileans can attend an actual Jedi Temple, learning martial arts and Jedi values such as wisdom and nobility.

Children ages 6-12 can master yoga, Taekwondo and the ways of the Jedi, much like Anakin and Luke Skywalker.  Even more exciting?  Those attending the school also get their very own lightsaber!

William Berrueta, the creator of the school, favors giving kids a lightsaber in addition to providing them with the aforementioned martial arts and Jedi training in order to create a fully immersive environment which is both educational and entertaining.

The inspiration behind the school came to Berrueta following a visit to ‘Star Wars: The Exhibition’ in 2009, marking the first time those in Chile were able to view items from the Star Wars films in person.  The exhibit featured more than 200 items from the Lucasfilm archives, including life-size starships and Darth Vader’s costume.

Not sure about others, but if/when I have a child, I hope a Star Wars school exists in the U.S. for my child to attend.  If not, hope my child’s mother is open to a move to Chile.

What about you?  If available, would you enroll your child(ren) in classes at a Star Wars academy?

Cinematical

Dr. Fritz Kahn (1888-1968) was a gynecologist in Berlin and a world-famous popular science writer who illustrated the form and function of the human body with spectacular, modern man-machine analogies. In the 1920s, his magnum opus, “Das Leben des Menschen” (The Life of Man) – a five-volume series – was renowned as a German accomplishment of global repute. In the 1930s, his books were banned and burned by the Nazis, then edited by Kahn’s publisher and reissued as plagiarisms with a superimposed anti-Semitic chapter.

Last year Henning M. Lederer a Master of Arts graduate has created an animation based on Dr. Khan’s poster of “Man as Industrial Palace”. Dr. Khan’s work has become very popular now a days amongst designers and historians.

This animation has awaken a fascination within me with Dr. Khan’s work. There is a book of him currently for sale, Fritz Kahn: Man Machine Maschine Mensch, which I wouldn’t mind having.

I have always had an interest in the World War 2 era in Europe, I excelled at history in high-school thanks to my fascination with that time. And reading about Dr. Khan made me realize I never really thought about the people and their works that where banned by the Nazis.

Henning M. Lederer’s idea of animating Dr. Khan’s work is fascinating and I wonder if there are more works like these that can be animated bringing them to attention again in these modern times. Khan’s and Lederer’s work wouldn’t miss stand in a school class to teach children.

I looked online if the poster is for sale but I can’t find one source that sells the original. The only way to get a poster is by buying the book.

UK charity Computer Aid is looking for people who are willing to donate their old gadgets. They are accepting ANY kind of gadget as long as it is still working. (So yeah, forget about that desktop PC that you’ve chopped into pieces trying to make good use of its parts.)

Computer Aid is an established charity that refurbishes computers and then donates them to those in need – usually in other countries. To date, the charitable organization has given more than 160,000 refurbished computers in 100 countries. You and I may take our computers – and other gadgets – for granted but we have to realize that there are so many other people in various parts of the world who do not have access to technology as we do. School children in many developing countries, for example, are hard pressed to gain access to computers that may be essential to their educational experience.

If you do not feel like just giving away your gadget (SCROOGE!), you may opt to sell it on eBay and give Computer Aid a cut. Does that sound better? Maybe, but your conscience will probably haunt you…

Anyhow, visit Computer Aid’s web site for more details. Come on, you know you want to give.

Games are thought to be big distractions to learning, especially the formal kind. I recall when I was in college, I’d stay up all night playing my favorite adventure and shoot ‘em up games. Of course by the time I attend my classes, I’d be a walking zombie, with rarely anything getting through my sleepy brain. I wonder how I ever finished my degree a semester early.

Now word is that some schools are actually using video games as a tool for learning. Not only are they using video games as alternative means of teaching, they are actually using video games almost exclusively in their teaching curriculum.

Popular science writes how students are, for instance, encouraged to alter a game’s parameters in order to achieve the desired outcome, or to work in a social context in order to achieve some collaborative goals.

The Quest to Learn school opened last September in Manhattan, welcoming the first class of sixth-graders who will learn almost entirely through videogame-inspired activities, an educational strategy geared to keep kids engaged and prepare them for high-tech careers.

The goal, of course, is usually to win the game. But it’s in how the technology is used and manipulated that students learn. The video games might touch on knowledge of history, with the students role-playing as spies working against each other’s governments. Or the games might involve physics by requiring the students to move objects through space, given certain parameters. The possible scenarios go on and on.

With video games, learning becomes fun. Kids nowadays are bombarded with different sorts of media, like email, instant messaging, social networks, and video games. Why not explore these applications in order to foster a love for learning? The disadvantage, though, is that this teaching method might put too much focus on the fun aspect of learning, and not the intrinsic value of learning, itself.

Education through video games might be an appropriate methodology for preparing students for skills like programming, design, coding and the like. One concern here is whether this method also works for other real-world applications and professions. How about literacy? How about fundamentals in math?

Media is fast evolving, and along with this, everyone also follows suit. Education is but one of those important aspects of human life that is adapting well to change. Teachers are favoring online collaboration over traditional submission of paper homeworks. Classrooms usually have computers, audio-visual systems and wireless Internet access. Video games might just be the next big thing when it comes to helping impart the value of learning.

A West London school is trialling the use of iPhones to aid in teaching, and good luck to them I say.

A group of student volunteers have been lent iPhones and have to pay around £10 ($15) per month for the cost of calls. They are then able to use them in the classroom to aid in group discussion and learning.

Thanks to the range of applications, plus access to the Internet, it’s possible to learn all manner of things via the iPhone. The news report I watched showed students enthusiastically viewing the Periodic Table and the works of Shakespeare on screen.

It’s a far cry from when I was at school (not that long ago, thanks very much).

We were lucky to get one computer between two or three — and that was in the IT Lab. Computers in every classroom? Forget it.

Oh, and mobile phones hadn’t been invented.

Many schools ban mobile phones from the classroom, or even the school, because it can be distracting, but it’s definitely well past time to see the benefit in using mobile technology to aid teaching.

One unnamed critic believes that “learning by computers has not yet been proven”. Funny, that. I’ve been using computers for twenty years and I’d say I’ve learnt a great deal. Much of that time was pre-Internet, too.

It’s very easy to look at the negatives of technology and the Internet, but far more beneficial to spend some time creatively looking into helping kids learn using the gadgets they’re already using every day.

Don’t burn the books, or close the libraries, or stop kids visiting historic sites and going on field trips, or teaching them how to write, or add up without using a calculator — but don’t use poor excuses to stifle innovation.

Kids that want to learn will use the technology well. Those that don’t want to learn are going to use gadgets whether or not it’s sanctioned. At least this way, they might still be educated.

(Photo credit: LizMarie)

Neumont University is one of the best schools for computer science today. To back this statement with figures, the LA Times recently noted that 90% of graduates from the university have jobs within 3 months of graduation. More so, many of them land jobs with big companies like IBM and Microsoft. So what seems to be the problem?

The grads are “addicted” to their computers. Some have a different smell. The Escapist details these complaints:

The smell’s just part of a bigger problem. Companies that have recruited Neumont graduates have been pleased with their computer skills, but have complained that the students lack basic social skills and suffer from computer addiction.

And the fix?

To fix this Neumont’s administration is taking drastic measures by forcing students to shut down laptops in class, start social clubs, and take at least three classes in interpersonal communication before they can graduate.

I just find the whole issue hilarious. Leave them geeks be. If they wanted to socialize, they wouldn’t be who they are. If they wanted to start social clubs while attending college, they would probably have gone to another university.

So what will you be in for if you decide to pursue higher studies? The course is divided into four modules of 12 weeks each. It will cover various topics such as the postwar music industry, subcultures, as well as the significance of authenticity and locality. I suppose The Beatles are all very much part of these topics, and they will certainly be placed under a very powerful microscope, so to speak. Oh, and you have to finish a dissertation at the end of the course.

After getting your MA in The Beatles, how will this benefit you? Uh, duh, you?ll be an expert on The Beatles! Perhaps you can start a blog, or maybe you can even write your own book! And imagine what your status would be among fellow music geeks? Seriously, though, according to Mike Brocken, a senior lecturer in popular music at Liverpool Hope, a Masters degree ?equips people with extra study and research skills. MAs of any description are vital for the workplace. You will find that once you have done a master’s degree it separates you from the pack.?

If you have about 3,445 GBP to spare (this is the general cost of MAs) and some more extra here and there for other expense, and you are a certified music and pop culture geek, you might want to sign up for this course.

This is my kind of news! I just read that primary school pupils in the UK might be learning how to work Twitter and Wikipedia. This is according to UK MSN. The report, published today, says that “former Ofsted chief Sir Jim Rose will present recommendations for revamping the primary curriculum to ministers next month.”

The reason for this? Sir Jim Rose says that children should understand the inner workings of information technology by the time they reach secondary school. Aside from Twitter and Wikipedia, he included blogging and podcasting in his list. More than this, however, he is also proposing that some history need not be required as part of the curriculum. This means that schools may opt not to teach about the Victorian Era or the Second World War, but if they do decide to include these topics, it should be just fine.

My reactions? Of course I am happy that the authorities are seeing the value of information technology.Wouldn’t it be cool to have young kids using Twitter? I am not so sure as to how Twittering would benefit very young kids, however. As for Wikipedia, I can see how this works out easily. I am even pretty sure that it is already being used by a lot of school kids to do research.

I am concerned about overlooking important historical events, however. I don’t believe that these topics should be passed over for information technology. Can’t they be taught at the same time? What do you think?