Stunning Storm Waves Photography — from fubiz.net by Steve Garrington
The Best Flickr Pictures 2015 — from fubiz.net
Addendum on 12/22/15:
The 100 best photographs ever taken without photoshop — from brightside.me; with a special thanks to George Kroner for his tweet on this
Lytro Shocks the World and Builds the Most Ambitious Virtual Reality Camera — from fstoppers.com by Douglas Sonders
Excerpt:
Most of us know Lytro for their light field cameras that capture scenes in a way that allows you to refocus an image anywhere you want with the click of a button without having to take a new image. I’ll admit, I thought it was a neat trick, but as a commercial photographer, I never saw how it would apply to someone like myself. Well, Lytro has blown me away today with the announcement of their new virtual reality camera system that works much like their light field cameras and allows the user to move within a video environment (not a computer-rendered space) while wearing a virtual reality headset. They have officially changed the game.
Also see Lytro’s website:
Addendum on 11/89/15:
Apple puts out call for Apple TV apps — from bizjournals.com by Gina Hall
Excerpt:
The company put out the call for app submissions on Wednesday for tvOS. The Apple TV App Store will debut as Apple TV units are shipped out next week.
…
The main attraction of Apple TV is a remote with a glass touch surface and a Siri button that allows users to search by voice. Apple tvOS is capable of running apps ranging from Airbnb to Zillow and games like Crossy Road. Another major perk of Apple TV will be universal search, which allows users to scan for movies and television shows and see results from multiple sources, instead of having to conduct the same search within multiple apps.
Apple CEO Tim Cook hopes the device will simplify how viewers consume content.
From DSC:
The days of developing for a “TV”-based OS are now upon us: tvOS is here. I put “TV” in quotes because what we know of the television in the year 2015 may look entirely different 5-10 years from now.
Once developed, things like lifelong learning, web-based learner profiles, badges and/or certifications, communities of practice, learning hubs, smart classrooms, virtual tutoring, virtual field trips, AI-based digital learning playlists, and more will never be the same again.
![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
Also see:
Addendum on 10/26/15:
The article below discusses one piece of the bundle of technologies that I’m trying to get at via my Learning from the Living [Class] Room Vision:
Watch Adobe’s Monument Mode erase tourists from photos in real time — from theverge.com by Rich McCormick
Excerpt:
Adobe’s MAX conference took place last night, showing off technology, software, and features the company is currently working on. One of the stars of this year’s show was “Monument Mode,” a new feature that promises to work with smartphone cameras to crop out tourists, cars, and other moving objects that might be blocking your shot of famous landmarks.
Photography Startup Light Launches Multilens Camera — from by Tekla Perry
Excerpt:
Last year, stealthy Palo Alto startup Light picked up $9.7 million in venture funding to “reimagine the art and science of photography.” Job postings indicated they were looking for people with experience in combining multiple recorded images to reduce noise and improve image quality.
This week, Light demonstrated a prototype of its first product, what it calls a “multi-aperture computational camera,” the L16, at the Code/Mobile conference in Half Moon Bay. This flat camera, which looks like a fat smartphone, includes 16 camera lenses with a variety of focal lengths, 10 of which fire at any one time. Behind each lens is a camera module that records an image in 13-megapixel resolution; exposure is set individually for each lens. Then the camera’s software selectively combines those images.
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From DSC:
Imagine what learning could look like w/ the same concepts found in the Skreens kickstarter campaign? Where you can use your mobile device to direct what you are seeing and interacting with on the larger screen? Hmmm… very interesting indeed! With applications not only in the home (and on the road), but also in the active classroom, the boardroom, and the training room.
See
Skreens.com
&
Learning from the Living [Class] Room
From DSC:
Some of the phrases and concepts that come to my mind:
Addendum:
Check out this picture from Meet the winners of #RobotLaunch2015
Packed house at WilmerHale for the Robot Launch 2015 judging – although 2/3rds of the participants were attending and pitching remotely via video and web conferencing.
Empowering Students Through Multimedia Storytelling — from edutopia.org by Michael Hernandez
Excerpt:
Recent studies have proven that stories can change perceptions and even make people more tolerant. Rather than wait to be defined by others, it’s important that students learn to create understanding by sharing their story, their worldview, their concerns, and their triumphs with others.
Groups like Youth Radio and Cause Beautiful are empowering teens in poor and minority-majority neighborhoods to become multimedia journalists. Kids in these programs learn how to tell and share their own stories with a local or national audience.
No matter your class demographics or grade level, ELA and social studies teachers should integrate similar projects in their own classrooms, because every student will benefit from learning to craft a compelling visual story backed by persuasive facts and ideas.
What Is Multimedia Storytelling?
Students use video, audio, photography, web, and social media to craft documentaries and nonfiction stories about the world around them. These interdisciplinary projects allow students to focus on creating an authentic product that many people outside the classroom and their neighborhoods will see.
From DSC:
I am passionate about multimedia because the components of it — digital audio, digital video, text, graphics, animations, digital photography, and more — can create hugely powerful pieces of communication. Students need to be able to communicate — online. But it’s not just students. Each one of us needs to have an online-based footprint now in order to remain marketable. Multimedia can help relay our stories, our work, our dreams. It unleashes enormous amounts of energy and creativity inside of us.
I wish that more teachers and faculty members would seek to integrate multimedia-based assignments into their courses — or at least encourage the idea that this can be one of the acceptable ways that assignments can be turned in. At the same time, it can be one of the more interesting ways to assess learning and comprehension. Online-based resources like Lynda.com can help get students, teachers, and professors up the learning curves.
27 superb sites with royalty free stock images for commercial use — from verveuk.eu by Dave Lane
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
For my own benefit, I wanted a ‘go to’ list of sites that offered royalty free stock images for commercial use. There did not seem to be much available that wholly offered what I was looking for. There are articles that list ‘free stock image’ sites but I found that 99% of these did not clearly state the licensing rules with regards to commercial use of the images.
All of the photographs featured on the sites on this list are free from copyright restrictions and can be used on your web sites, blogs and for any other commercial use.
The list is split into 2 sections and an overview of the license for each site is included within block quotes along with a link to the full license details (if applicable).
Some resources on this announcement:
Adobe Unveils Milestone 2015 Creative Cloud Release — from adobe.com
Excerpt:
At the heart of Creative Cloud is Adobe CreativeSync, a signature technology that intelligently syncs creative assets: files, photos, fonts, vector graphics, brushes, colors, settings, metadata and more. With CreativeSync, assets are instantly available, in the right format, wherever designers need them – across desktop, web and mobile apps. Available exclusively in Creative Cloud, CreativeSync means work can be kicked off in any connected Creative Cloud mobile app or CC desktop tool; picked up again later in another; and finished in the designer’s favorite CC desktop software..
Adobe updates Creative Cloud in milestone 2015 release — from creativebloq.com
Powerful updates to Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, Premiere Pro CC and InDesign CC; new mobile apps for iOS and Android and more. Here’s everything you need to know.
2015 Guide to Social Media Image Sizes – Infographic — from setupablogtoday.com by Jamie Spencer
Excerpt:
Get your social media platforms optimized with the right image sizes and stand out from the crowd. From Twitter and Pinterest to Instagram and Facebook image sizes, we have the complete guide right here in one clear infographic!
Also see:
We Are Social’s comprehensive new report covers internet, social media and mobile usage statistics from all over the world. It contains more than 350 infographics, including global snapshots, regional overviews, and in-depth profiles of 30 of the world’s largest economies. For a more insightful analysis of these numbers, please visit http://wearesocial.sg/blog/2015/01/digital-social-mobile-2015/.
Photographer Jorge Cervera Hauser captures sea creatures against sun-drenched oceanscapes — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Sierzputowski
A Black and Blue Life: A Coal Miner Becomes a Photographer of Exquisite Waves and Seascapes — from thisiscolossal.com by Ray Collins and Christopher Jobson
National Geographic Photo Contest
GoPro goes 360-degrees with new VR array — from zdnet.com by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Summary: Think that having one GoPro camera attached to your car, helmet or skateboard is cool. How about an array of 16 GoPros that can capture 3D video?
StereoLabs announces huge hardware breakthrough: Human vision — from zdnet.com by Greg Nichols
Summary: Earlier this month, a Bay Area startup called ?StereoLabs quietly introduced the first affordable high definition stereo camera. This is a big deal, and autonomous machines will never be the same. Here’s why.
Expeditions – Google Offers Immersive Learning — from digitalbodies.net
Excerpt:
Immersive learning is about to get a lot more real this fall with Expeditions – the new Google tool which will allow teachers to take students on virtual trips using the Google Cardboard viewer. Google reported that over 1 million devices are already in the hands of users from all ages. According to the announcement:
From the Expeditions app on their tablet, a teacher is able to send synchronized three-dimensional 360° panoramas to each student’s Cardboard viewer, pointing out areas of interest in real time and instantly pausing the trip when needed.
Expeditions will work to combine three things: a software platform, immersive virtual reality content and Android and iOS devices.
World 1st Holographic Patient-Based Augmented Reality Surgical Navigation — from youtube.com as posted by Maki Sugimoto
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MIT’s Humanoid Robot Goes to Robo Boot Camp — from wired.com
Top Emerging Technologies – The Internet Of DNA Or Human Beings — from wtvox.com
New ‘deep learning’ technique enables robot mastery of skills via trial and error — from newscenter.berkeley.edu by Sarah Yang
Excerpt:
BERKELEY — UC Berkeley researchers have developed algorithms that enable robots to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process that more closely approximates the way humans learn, marking a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence. They demonstrated their technique, a type of reinforcement learning, by having a robot complete various tasks — putting a clothes hanger on a rack, assembling a toy plane, screwing a cap on a water bottle, and more — without pre-programmed details about its surroundings.
And for some upcoming innovations:
Addendum on 6/1/15:
The Big Web Design Trends for 2015 — from sitepoint.com by Joanna Krenz Kurowska; with thanks to Mr. Tim Pixley for this resource
Excerpt:
When thinking about web design, you must consider the full spectrum of possibilities that the internet presents. Done boldly, designers can push the current limits of human interaction and imagination on a global scale – as is often seen with edgier industries, such as creative agency websites.
In this article, we’ll boil down some of the most prominent web design trends emerging in 2015. It is here that we can find true innovation and new opportunities – a few of which may completely change our understanding of a “modern website”.
8 design trends for 2015 — from istockphoto.com by Rebecca Swift
Web design trends that will rule 2015 — from designmodo.com by Tomas Laurinavicius
Excerpt:
Web design is a vibrant and diverse industry that is changing and evolving quickly. Website design is, however, not an end product; it’s an asset in the presentation of a product, connecting people with other people, providing a tool or service.
After reviewing over 500 websites in weekly series of “Inspiring Sites of the Week” on Despreneur I’ve got a sense of where web design is and where it is going for the next year. In this post I will try to review the current status of web design and predict some trends for 2015.
These are my assumptions and guesses based on my research and experience designing in 2014. Some of these may be right some may be not. If you think there should be something more in this article I’d love to have a discussion with you.
The trends in web design for 2015 [infographic] — from techinfographics.com by by Josipa Štrok
Excerpt:
The way we use the web is changing in line with the growth of technology. Smartphones and tablets have become a major factor which influencing the design of the web. What are the trends in web design for 2015?
If content is king, then the design is the crown. Home page should be more comprehensive. Visitors must get a sense of intuitive and dynamic interaction. Responsive design of website remains still imperative. Every owner who cares for his visitors should have designed a website that includes technology to automatically adjust the content to the devices where they are read. In the future responsive design will adapt to smart TVs and smart watches, not only monitors, smart phones or tablets. Moving page should be vertical because it contributes to an interactive style stories. After all this way scrolling through content is much easier to use on smartphones / tablets than clicking on the navigation from page to page. Forget the shadows, patterns and textures. Style with simple lines and white space is recommended for the coming year.
…an interesting picture caught my eye.
