RSA Animate – The Divided Brain

Here in LTU we are big fans of the RSA Animate videos, they are always so educational, entertaining and interesting. The latest offering is no exception! As RSA put it on the YouTube channel:

In this new RSAnimate, renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explains how our ‘divided brain’ has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society. Taken from a lecture given by Iain McGilchrist as part of the RSA’s free public events programme. To view the full lecture, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbUHxC4wiWk

We highly recommend you check this video out.

Edutainment – Making people smarter with games!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O2N-5maKZ9Q%5D
This video showcases how games are making kids better problem-solvers, and how it will make us better at everything else, from multi-tasking to learning. It also gives a possible insight into how technology and gaming can be used to improve teaching.

The Lytro camera

Unlike conventional cameras, the Lytro light field camera captures all the rays of light in a scene, providing new capabilities never before possible, such as the ability to focus a picture after it’s taken.

This is a very clever camera that brings a whole new dimension to the world of photography. For more information and to have a play with photographs, visit http://www.lytro.com/.

Robot Sees and Recognises Itself in the Mirror

Qbo is not the first robot to recognise its reflection – that honour goes to a bot called Nico – but it is possibly the cutest. The open-source robot is equipped with two cameras that give it stereoscopic vision and is programmed with facial and object recognition software.

What’s slightly more unnerving/awesome about this isn’t that Qbo can do this, it’s that they’ve given it such wonderfully humanising syntax. There’s no need for it beyond the aesthetic, and it’s interesting to see – from a psychological point of view – how far a little detail-work in that area can go in helping us relate to what is actually just very nifty programming.