IBM animates sign language avatar
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A group of students working for IBM develops technology that automatically converts the spoken word in British Sign Language.
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... It's with much anticipation that I say this. I have a new product that may be familiar to those of you who used Radio 8, and in other ways may be completely new.  The idea is simple.  There's a convergence between big screen high-definition televisions, and photography as an Internet based activity. The purpose of this product is to smooth that convergence, to make it easy to set up a connection between the Internet and your television. To allow photography to come into your living room in new, powerful and easy ways. Think of it as the networked living room and you'll understand the vision. Some of the work I've done is technical, some is user interface, and some is working with media organizations to try to create a comfort level, or at least a spirit of Let's Give This A Try. In the latter case, it's much like working with the NY Times to get their news headlines and summaries to flow through Radio's RSS aggregator in 2002. Only this time we're working with photographs, and we think, the best news photographers in the world. And the pictures are beautifully high-def, they look really great when displayed on LCD and plasma screens. I use it with my 52-inch Samsung and 46-inch Sony. Of course what looks great on a wall, also looks great on a 15-inch Macbook or 24-inch iMac.   And while we connect those pros with your TV, it's equally important that we connect your friends and families too. One of the early testers found the pictures that Doc Searls uploads to Flickr a great revelation. Me too. That's because Doc is not only a great photographer, he's also a great story-teller. I find that I can follow the lives of far more friends visually than I can through text messages (which I love to do too!). Viewing great photos on bigscreen TVs, desktops and laptops -- that's one focus, but not the only one.  I wanted to provide a complete two-way tool for people who love Flickr, as I do.  Why Flickr? Well, they've got this great thing called an API. It makes it possible for people like me to make software that runs on a desktop computer that does things like automatically backing up your new photos every night, and providing a drop-folder on your desktop for quick uploads. (It understands tags too, it's incredibly simple.) We also made it easy to post pictures you like to Twitter. Why Twitter? It's that API thing again. They made it easy for us to love them. I wish more network service developers understood how powerful this outstretched hand is.  But that's not all! Not by a long shot. The reason all this will be so familiar to Radio 8 users is that it builds on the same engine, the one that was released as open source in 2004. So I've been working on other tools to drop into this base platform and once we have a good-sized base of people using it for "really simple photos" on the desktop, there will be other tools. And because it's an open platform, other developers can do the same. Not saying they will, but they can.  Anyway, I'm in the last stages, preparing the download site, and a FAQ, and tweaking the installer. One caveat, the first beta release is Mac only. That's because I'm doing all my work on the Mac, and this is a one-man show. Later we will work it out for Windows too, and with a bit more work and a bit more luck, for Linux.  It should be ready before the sun goes down today.
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Movable parts in a silicone face enable 'emotional' response to key words.
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Subtitles and sign language might not be the first things that come to mind when you think of sex flicks, but Deafbunny's smart use of technology make its movies meaningful to the deaf community. Commentary by Regina Lynn.
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IBM (NYSE: IBM) will contribute  speech recognition software to the  open source community in the hope of promoting standardized and compatible speech-enabled applications.
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New beta software supports video conferencing between Mac and PC users.
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(InfoWorld) - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has turned to IBM Corp. to introduce a new video search system and provide support in other technology areas such as content distribution and rights management. Under a partnership announced Monday, the BBC will introduce IBM's video search system, code-named "Marvel," which is designed to analyze images and video, and categorize the content based on appearance. The U.K. public broadcaster plans to offer the new video search service initially for users of its CBeebies and CBBC children's Web sites. Video search technology is becoming a hot topic as numerous Web sites expand beyond their traditionally text-based content to video, creating the need for users to be able to find videos and movies more easily. On the video front, the BBC is stepping up efforts to distribute its content to a larger, more international audience, agreeing last Friday to create new channels on YouTube Inc.'s popular online video sharing site. Aside from Marvel, BBC aims to work with IBM in areas such as CRM (customer relationship management), content distribution and rights management. In addition, IBM and Siemens AG, which provides systems integration services to the BBC, will collaborate to test a new media hub system to help creative teams. The pilot follows the recent deployment by Siemens of IBM's WebSphere products, which sit at the heart of the U.K. broadcaster's service-oriented architecture, the broadcasting company said. Â
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In the increasingly competitive RFID arena, IBM on Thursday will release the first three products from its recently formed $250 million S&amp;A (Sensor &amp; Actuator) arm.
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IBM has contributed speech technology to the Apache Software Foundation. By releasing its source code IBM hopes to bring a quick end to battles over competing, proprietary standards; solidifying the industry behind VoiceXML.
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Once developers sink their teeth into Core Animation, a powerful developer's toolkit embedded in the new Mac OS, we'll likely enter an advanced era of user interface design. Commentary by Leander Kahney.
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IBM IBM.N, the world's largest  computer company, is putting a human face on the services it  offers in a new U.S. brand campaign illustrating how technology  can help doctors, lawmakers and young schoolgirls alike.
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Deaf people who use sign language could soon be using video phones to make calls.
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Photorealistic 3-D avatars will play in a virtual garage during CEO Paul Otellini's presentation at International CES.
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IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it has made available an advanced software technology that can help predict the transmission of diseases across countries and around the globe to the open source community.
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New voice recognition program, shown at Macworld Expo, borrows technology from Dragon Naturally Speaking.
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Gesturetek, the company whose technology was licensed to make the mildly successful PlayStation EyeToy, as well as the Xbox 360 Live Camera, is expanding its controller vision (no pun intended) beyond console-based games.
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InfoWorld - Hoping to speed acceptance of its service-oriented architecture initiative, IBM at last has rolled out a new service to help corporate users shape their projects to better fit their business goals.