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Posts Tagged ‘Smarter’

Work Smarter: 12 Modern Desks Reinvent the Standard Office Surface

24 Oct

[ By SA Rogers in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

The typical desk design has remained the same for centuries, but we need these surfaces to do more – like incorporate our gadgets, offer privacy in loud offices, fit into our homes, fold up to take on the go or offer proper space for our cat overlords. Maybe even all of these things at once.  These designs are more than just a flat slab on legs, adapting to 21st century standards in all sorts of different ways.

Turia Table by Maxime Mellot Incorporates Nature

“Can we admire nature and put it in a cage?” says Maxime Mellot of his own design, this curious desk inspired by a park in the city of Valencia, Spain. “Turia participates in the debate, and forces the user to divert his attention, from his own person to live animals, requiring care and benevolence. In a society focused on performance and permanent connection to the internet, pure moments of privacy become rare and precious. But how can furniture invite us to take a break, drink a tea or have a snack and help us to enjoy this specific disconnected moment? My project tends to merge the universe of nature and relaxation, by combining iconic items such as bird cage and fish tank in an interactive way.”

Koloro-Desk by Torafu Architects

The interior of the Koloro-desk by Torafu Architects is like a cheerful miniature house with its very own operable windows, so you can lean inside to read, work, sketch or nap and feel a sense of disconnection from the world just outside its little walls. The two flip-out windows on either side offer shelves for drinks and other objects, and there’s even a skylight.

Oxymoron Desk by Anna Lotova

Shove stationery, pens and other item between the two little cushions under the surface of Anna Lotova’s Oxymoron Desk. The name comes from the unlikely pairing of materials. The cushion sandwich even lets you slide a piece of plywood inside to create a side table.

“We have to change our behavior, plan and think of work with a different mindset: no matter where an office is situated, it has to have a space it can call its own, identifiable, alterable, on a human scale, with its own history and objects, an enjoyable environment,” says Lotova.

CATable by Hao Ruan

Do you have a persistent feline companion who gets a little jealous of your computer or books when you’re working? This clever table by Hao Ruan of LYCS Architecture doubles as cat furniture, with the underside full of comfy curving hollows and tunnels for your cat friend to hide in.

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Work Smarter 12 Modern Desks Reinvent The Standard Surface

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[ By SA Rogers in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Posted in Creativity

 

Google RAISR uses machine learning for smarter upsampling

16 Nov
 Top: Original, Bottom: RAISR super-resolved 2x, Image: Google

Upsampling techniques to create larger versions of low-resolution images have been around for a long time – at least as long as TV detectives have been asking computers to ‘enhance’ images. Common linear methods fill in new pixels using simple and fixed combinations of nearby existing pixel values, but fail to increase image detail. The engineers at Google’s research lab have now created a new way of upsampling images that achieves noticeably better results than the previously existing methods.

RAISR (Rapid and Accurate Image Super-Resolution) uses machine learning to train an algorithm using pairs of images, one low-resolution, the other with a high pixel count. RAISR creates filters that can recreate image detail that is comparable to the original, when applied to each pixel of a low-resolution image. Filters are trained according to edge features that are found in specific small areas of images, including edge direction, edge strength and how directional the egde is. The training process with a database of 10000 image pairs takes approximately an hour. 

Once RAISR has been trained it is capable of selecting the most appropriate filter for each pixel in a given low-resolution image to fill in new pixels in order to create a higher-resolution version. RAISR can also remove aliasing artifacts, such as moiré patterns or jagged lines in the low-resolution images when creating the larger version, something that linear methods are not capable of doing.

Eventually, Google may be able to use the technology to upsample images that are sent at mobile bandwidth-friendly resolutions. More information on RAISR is available on the Google Research Blog.

 Left: Original, Right: RAISR super-resolved 3x, Image. Google

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Apple Photos gets smarter in iOS 10, macOS ‘Sierra’

14 Jun

On the first day of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has announced new features for its Photos app on both iOS 10 and macOS ‘Sierra,’ scheduled for release this fall.

The updated Apple Photos apps will use ‘advanced computer vision technology’ to identify people, objects and scenes in order to allow for intelligent searching and automatic sorting based on content. Most notably, a new Memories feature will use this information to automatically create movies and shareable collections of photos based on data such as people, places and events such as a trip or holiday.

Additional features leveraging the new technology include a People album, which automatically groups photos based on who is in the shot, a Places album, which plots your photos on an interactive world map, and Intelligent Search, which allows searches based on the content of photos.

Although Google has provided similar features through its Google Photos service for some time, Apple’s offering includes one feature that may appeal to many users: instead of sending photos to the cloud for analysis, Apple will use on-device intelligence to analyze and categorize photos in order to protect user privacy.

For more information about the new Photos apps head on over to Apple’s website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Tools That Rule: 13 Ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder

04 Aug

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

tools vector scissors 1

Most of the tools we use have looked the same for decades, if not centuries, but that doesn’t mean they’re optimized to be as useful, convenient and durable as they can be. These clever tweaks on conventional tool designs can be incredibly simple, like adding a ledge to scissor handles for cutting straight lines, or unexpectedly innovative, like an illuminated glove that makes it easy to light whatever you’re working on while freeing up your hand.

Locking Aperture Wrench

tools aperture wrech

The aperture wrench eliminates the storage issues and guesswork associated with having an entire set of wrenches, with an aperture based on that of a camera lens. The metal blades of the aperture close around any given nut and automatically lock into place for perfect custom sizing and a secure fit.

Hoyo Drill

tools hoyo 2 tools hoyo 1

“You could almost keep your drill on the dinner table,” says the designer about the looks of the Hoyo, a sleek black-and-white power drill. In addition to ‘looking like a race car,’ the Hoyo has an optional stabilizer to ensure that you always enter a surface perfectly straight, dial presets to adjust the power depending on the material you’re drilling, and a built-in level.

Ruler Compass

tools compass 2 tools ruler compass

Conventional compasses typically have to be used in conjunction with rulers when you want to draw a circle of a very specific size. This one features a radius display that tells you the size of your circle as you move the leg of the compass

Portable Lighting Tool

tools lighting tools lighting 2

Ultra-portable and easy to recharge either with an outlet or an included mini solar panel, the H9 Portable Lighting Tool is a silicone sheath that wraps around your hand to provide up-close illumination for whatever job you’re trying to complete. You can direct the light exactly where it needs to be, but don’t have to sacrifice the utility of your hand.

Tool Pen by mininch

tool pen

Carrying a set of screwdrivers becomes as simple as carrying a pen with the Tool Pen, a lightweight, compact and ultra-sleek multitool solution with 18 bits. Six can fit inside the tool without making it heavy, and it comes in a variety of metallic finishes.

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Tools That Rule 13 Ways To Work Smarter Not Harder

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[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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Smarter Sharpening in Photoshop using Adobe Camera Raw

13 Oct

sharpen-in-Photoshop-using-Camera-raw-opener

Sharpening in Photoshop has traditionally involved a compromise between applying it to the places in the image that you want to sharpen and avoiding those that you don’t want affected. Both Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw have always had a much better sharpening tool which not only lets you see what you are doing more clearly, but also includes a very smart mask that lets you limit sharpening to detail areas.

In Photoshop Creative Cloud a Camera Raw filter was added. This opens up a world of possibilities for sharpening images better and more easily and at the completion of your Photoshop editing workflow.

So now, in Photoshop CC as you can do in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw, you can take advantage of this better sharpening tool. So you can sharpen a photo of a building and apply the effect to the building but not to the sky above it. This is important because blue sky is typically an area of flat color which may contain noise that you certainly don’t want to sharpen and make even more obvious!

In the video below I show you how to sharpen an image from inside Photoshop CC using the new Camera Raw filter.

Before you do this, if your image contains layers, you need to create a flattened version of the image to sharpen it. To do this, select all the layers in the image and choose Filter > Convert for Smart Filters so you are operating on the entire image. Alternately, click the topmost layer of the image and press Shift + Control +Alt +E (Shift + Command + Option + E on the Mac) to make a new layer containing a flattened version of the photo. Lastly, convert that to a Smart Filter and you’re ready to go:

Do you have any other sharpening tips?

The post Smarter Sharpening in Photoshop using Adobe Camera Raw by Helen Bradley appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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A smart camera gets smarter? Samsung NX30 first impressions review

03 Jan

NX30-and-18-55mm-1.png

The Samsung NX30 puts the NX300’s 20 megapixel APS-C sensor and Hybrid AF in a DSLR-like body. It also features a tilting electronic viewfinder and a fully articulated 3-inch AMOLED display, along with Samsung’s familiar suite of connectivity features. Built-in Wi-Fi is available, as is NFC to mediate faster connections with compatible smart devices. We spent a little time getting acquainted with a pre-production model, and have put together some quick first impressions.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Smarter cameras may help bring autonomy to space robots

12 Sep

texturecam_thumb.jpg

Space robots, including the Curiosity rover currently roaming Mars, have been great at following orders. Now, scientists are looking for ways to put more decision making power within the grasp of the rover itself. A team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing a camera system called TextureCam to do just that. They’ve developed an algorithm to allow the rover to analyze 3D images and determine whether an object in front of it deserves further investigation. Click through to read more.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How Bird Wings Work (Compared to Airplane Wings) – Smarter Every Day 62

12 Nov

To learn more click here — bit.ly — To take a DEEP DIVE into how wings work! Click here to tweet DeepDive2 bit.ly I hope you never look at a bird in flight the same way again. I know I won’t! Artist Info: Sarah Xu, a student at the Vancouver Film School made the awesome introduction Drawing. captainpillow.blogspot.ca Gordon, the guy in charge of “Scary Parrot Monsters” at the end of the video wrote this song. It’s called “Black Rhino”… and is available for download online: ashellinthepit.bandcamp.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How to get there yourself!: I coordinated the travel with Rainforest Expeditions www.perunature.com Tell them Destin sent you. You can checkout what they do on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Rainforest.Expeditions They ran me up and down the river in a boat, gave me lenses, a clean bed, awesome food etc. It was pretty amazing! See the research project’s website here: macawproject.org The project is led by Dr. Don Brightsmith Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center Department of Veterinary Pathobiology College of Veterinary Medicine Jeff Cremer was my hook-up for all things photography once I got on site. He’s very good at technical photography and is more than capable of handling anything you can throw at him. Check out his chops and tell him Destin sent you: bit.ly ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SMARTER EVERY DAY – DEEP DIVE #2 How Bird Wings Work – Smarter Every Day bit.ly How Wings Work — A reference for creature props bit.ly How do

 
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