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New Inventions for computers

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2004 Nov. - 2005 Jan.: All Things Technical: The Help Desk (ARCHIVES): New Inventions for computers users admin

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Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 7:13 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I saw this article but didn't know where to post it so I thought I would start a general "invention" thread that might be of interest to others.

Ctl-Alt-Twitch -- and blink twice to execute
NRC develops 'Nouse' to control computers


Margaret Munro
The Ottawa Citizen

Thursday, September 16, 2004

The mighty computer mouse has competition in the Nouse, a Canadian invention that lets users literally lead their computers around by the nose.

The computer control system is called a Nouse because its first application used nose movements to guide the cursor using webcam technology. It has evolved to include blinking and facial recognition.

Dmitry Gorodnichy, who leads the team that developed the Nouse at the National Research Council, says the system is so discerning it is not confused by changes in hairstyles or clothing. The Nouse is currently featured in the journal Image and Vision Computing and the British publication New Scientist, and will be in the spotlight at a public presentation at the NRC today.

The Nouse has already been incorporated in NousePong and NousePaint, games driven by the tip of the nose. BubbleFrenzy adds blinking to the mix.

Computer vision and face recognition systems have been in the works for years, but they have been plagued by technical problems. Mr. Gorodnichy took advantage of the way the nose is easier to track than the mouth or eyebrows, and built on that by adding blinking and face recognition. Along with Mr. Gorodnichy's tracking software, computer users need a webcam to operate the Nouse.

Mr. Gorodnichy says there is keen interest in using the Nouse to make computers more accessible to people who have lost use of their hands.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2004

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 8:07 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
More Nouse information including free downloads to try it yourself. Requires USB or FireWire camera among other system requirements.

Now, looking over this site and reading the descriptions, one thing that comes to mind is a revision of the old theory of playing records backwards to find hidden messages. I can see someone setting this software up on a television feed and selecting a 'face' from the TV show to 'Nouse' messages to the audience.

Jan
Member

08-01-2000

Friday, September 17, 2004 - 6:53 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Browsers

I was just reading that IE is losing market share ( well that is all relative. They are down to 93% from 95%. Mozilla is up to 5% from 3% so I don't think Microsoft is in a panic yet :-):-)). I wondered if anyone had heard of this new FIREFOX Mozilla browser??


quote:

"Programmers at the Mozilla Foundation hope to increase that momentum with the release this fall of their new browser's consumer-ready version, called Firefox 1.0. It's superfast and suffers few of the security problems that have plagued Microsoft's Internet Explorer in recent months. "There's a window of opportunity for Mozilla to gain significant market share," says Stacey Quandt, analyst with tech consultant Robert Frances Group in Stamford, Conn.

NO SIGN OF PANIC. Firefox's latest preview version was released on Sept. 14, and the organization is hoping to achieve 1 million downloads in the next few weeks. Feedback from users will help polish the final version. Mozilla's market share "is limited only by our ability to reach IE users and show them that we've built a better mousetrap," says Brendan Eich, Mozilla's chief technology officer.




Business Week


PS so as not to ruin my reputation as a ditz, I must admit that I do not read business week. I read google news which draws headlines from everywhere like a readers digest! (Google News )

Vee
Member

02-23-2004

Friday, September 17, 2004 - 9:17 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I use Mozilla when IE gets fritzy. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it gets fritzy too.

Ladytex
Member

09-27-2001

Friday, September 17, 2004 - 12:21 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I use Firefox and love it. I'm using 0.9.2 so I don't know about 1. There are a few pages that don't look right using it, but I use it 95%-98% of the time. It's also stopped a whole heck of a lot of pop-ups and spyware. The security controls are great.

Draheid
Moderator

09-09-2001

Friday, September 17, 2004 - 2:53 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
FWIW, Firefox is the 3rd most used browser to access TVCH, after Internet Explorer & Netscape.