Build own video game story with this ‘tool’

WASHINGTON: Scientists, including one of Indian-origin, are developing a new tool that can allow people to easily build their own digital story worlds for video games consisting of 'smart' characters and objects.

The graphical interface guides users through the process of creating a story world, helping them populate the domain with 'smart' characters and objects, determine how they interact with each other and define events that can drive compelling narratives.

"We experience a shift from simple, linear stories into complex, participatory story worlds that are told across different media types," said Markus Gross, vice-president of research at Disney Research.

To enable a computer programme to reason, infer and ultimately generate stories, people must first provide the computer with a wealth of domain knowledge — information on places, characters and objects and how they relate to one another, as well as how they interact.

However, the languages and interfaces used for specifying this domain knowledge are highly specialised making them difficult to use by anyone who lacks equally specialised knowledge, said Steven Poulakos, a post-doctoral researcher at Disney Research.

"Our long-term mission is to empower anyone to create their own digital stories by providing easy-to-use, intuitive visual authoring interfaces," said Mubbasir Kapadia, a computer science professor at Rutgers University. PTI

Source | Times of India | 1 December 2015

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Pralhad Jadhav

Khaitan & Co

Researchers develop stretchable square of rubber that can double up as a keyboard

Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand have developed a soft, flexible, stretchable keyboard using a type of rubber known as a dielectric elastomer. “A key benefit of our keyboard is that essentially, it’s just a thin sheet of rubber. It can be wrapped around any object which turns it into a keyboard,” said Daniel Xu, an author on the study.

The keyboard was made from a single laminated structure with two sensing layers oriented at 90 degrees apart. This took advantage of their mechanical coupling while at the same time still provided an electrical separation. A total of nine different positions were distinguished within the sensor keyboard.

“It can also be made into a sensing skin for motion capture, which is useful for athletes, clinicians, and for new interactive gesture controllers,” Xu added.

The researchers often used video games to test the functionality of the keyboard, and as part of a separate project have made a sensing glove to interface with shooting games. Work is now taking place with a spin-off company, StretchSense, to develop wearable and other technologies designed to sense stretch.The findings were reported in the journal Smart Materials and Structures.

Source | http://www.bgr.in

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Pralhad Jadhav

Khaitan & Co

Govt of Maharashtra serious on the implementation of yoga & education

Issues GR to encourage all state teachers to attend international conference on Yoga & Education organised by the Kaivalyadhama 

Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra has issued GR to incentivise teachers to attend ‘International yoga conference – Yoga & Education’ organised by the Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute to be held between December, 27 to 30, 2015 in Lonavala. The conference will be inaugurated by Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister of India, Guest of Honour will be Minister of Ayush, Shripad Naik. The International Yoga Conference is an ideal platform to discuss the Government of India’s initiative to make the practice of yoga popular among school children and to train the teachers in yoga. 

Speaking on the same, Subodh Tiwari Joint Director-Administration, Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute said, “At Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute our ultimate goal is to see yoga as an inherent part of every curriculum all over the world. We are very happy with the support of both the Government of India and the Government of Maharashtra in our endeavor.”

Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute’s ‘International Yoga Conference – Yoga & Education’ will see prominent names from the various fields of yoga come together to discuss and explore practical and realistic means to incorporate yoga as an integral agendas of educators. Some of the speakers at the Conference are Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, PhD, Asst Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Göran Boll, Swedish yoga teacher/therapist and Founder of MediYoga, Jyoti Bajaj Director of The Yoga Kids, Canada, Dr Latha Satish, Managing Trustee, KYM, Chennai, amongst others.

Some the issues to be discussed at the three day conference will be; Yoga in Schools – process, efforts and implementation, experiential paradigm of yoga in education, difficulties in implementing yoga in school education, making traditional yoga relevant today amongst others.

Source | http://www.financialexpress.com

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Pralhad Jadhav

Khaitan & Co

Eight Indian institutions among top 500 world universities, IISC leads the pack

Eight higher educational institutions from India have been listed in the top 500 universities in the world by the QS rankings in 2015.

This was disclosed by Union Minister for Human Resource development Smriti Irani in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Two of these institutions' the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi are ranked 147 and 179 respectively in the QS World University Rankings for 2015-16. The other six were IITs in Bombay (ranked 202);T Kanpur (271); Kharagpur (286); Madras (254); Roorkee (391) and Guwahati (460)

Irani said Indian higher education institutions would need to work on improving their perception index if they have to better their global rankings.

QS World University Rankings® 2015/16

Link | http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2015#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=

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Pralhad Jadhav

Khaitan & Co

Easily get back to the images you’ve found on Google

Easily get back to the images you’ve found on Google

November 30, 2015

The perfect image of your next big adventure, knitting project or style-changing haircut is bound to exist somewhere out there. But what happens once you find the image? Take a screenshot? Maybe try to save the webpage? Starting today there is an easier option: you can now star and bookmark images directly from Google’s image search in your mobile browser.

Let’s say you’re searching for “bob hairstyles” on Google and an image catches your eye. Simply select it and tap the star. Next time you’re at the stylist, you can easily access the picture without having to dig around or do another search.

Once you’ve starred a few images, you can keep them organized in folders: to add an image to a folder of similar items, tap the pencil shaped edit icon. Create a grouping such as “haircuts for the winter” or “snowman ideas” and your image will be added to a folder with similar ones. 

This feature is currently available in the US when you search for images on mobile, across all major browsers on both Android and iOS. To try it out, make sure you’re logged into your browser with your Google Account; then you can start image searching and planning that next adventure.

Source | http://insidesearch.blogspot.in

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Pralhad Jadhav

Khaitan & Co

Report - The Future of Libraries is Collaborative, Robotic, And Participatory

The Future of Libraries is Collaborative, Robotic, And Participatory

Libraries can survive these times of technological upheaval, but they're going to have to change—and fast.

New Report from Arup, the well-regarded design consultancy. It shows that some libraries, at least, are undergoing a "renaissance," and that the future could be good for others.

Arup organized workshops in four cities, bringing together a range of people interested in libraries. The report collects ideas from existing projects, as well as ideas for future spaces. There are four main themes, as summarized below. 

·         Participation Knowledge

·         Enabling Collaboration

·         Community Hubs

·         Seamless Learning

Despite a lack of funding and the threat of online alternatives, "trends shaping the future of libraries have the potential to reshape and reinvigorate the role they play in public, academic and corporate settings," the report says.

Link for the Report | http://publications.arup.com/~/media/Publications/Files/Publications/F/Future_Libraries_digital.ashx

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Pralhad Jadhav

Khaitan & Co

Government plans interest-free loans before likely fee hike

NEW DELHI: The government is exploring ways to provide interest-free loans to underprivileged students at the IITs and NITs to cushion them for a steep fee hike that’s likely to be implemented soon at the premier engineering colleges. 

Students at the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) will see their annual fee almost double, from

`70,000 to `1.25 lakh,whil ethe Centre has set up a committee to weigh a proposal of the IITs’ top decisionmaking body to nearly triple the fee,from ` 90,000peryearto ` 2.5lakh. 

The argument behind the hike is that the government should only take care of planned expenditure on labs, equipment, library and the running cost of staff salary, housekeeping, water and electricity should be borne by students. 

“Since the hike is going to be steep the government wants to ensure those who require education loans do not face any problems,” said an official. “Setting up of helpdesks at all engineering colleges and doing away with the interest on loans could be a possibility.” 

Providing loans on easier terms, the government believes, will blunt the steep hike and ensure fewer students default on repayments. 

The nearly four dozen IITs and NITs heavily subsidise the education of their students, with the government bearing a major slice of the running expenses. 

A committee headed by scientist Anil Kakodkar had suggested raising the IIT fee to` 2.25 lakh a year to close the gap between what the IITs charge and spend per student. 

The government, officials said, will also have to rework the limit for collateral security a student will have to provide following the hike with the total fee for four-year courses at the NITs and IITs reaching ` 4lakhand ` 10 lakh respectively. 

Even after the proposed fee hike comes into effect, the IITs will remain cheaper than most top engineering colleges around the world. (see graphic) 

An IIT spends ` 3.5 lakh every year on a student who only pays the institute ` 90,000. 

Source | Hindustan Times | 30 November 2015

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Pralhad Jadhav

Khaitan & Co

Rare Indian books in Britain’s major digitisation plan

LONDON: The British Library and several institutions in India and Britain have come together for a major project that involves the digitisation of thousands of books published over two centuries, between 1714 and 1914, and making them freely available online.

The project, called Two Centuries of Indian Print, is to be carried out in partnership with School of Cultural Texts and Records (SCTR) of Jadavpur University, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, the School of Oriental and African Studies, working with the National Library of India, the National Mission on Libraries, and other institutions in India.

Many of the books to be digitised were published in colonial Calcutta, which had emerged as the largest centre of print culture outside Europe and north America by the early nineteenth century. Announcing the pilot project, the British Library said the collection held by the library spans at least 22 South Asian languages and millions of pages. Many of the books are unique and many are also in delicate condition due to their age.

The pilot project will digitise 1,000 books in Bengali, amounting to 200,000 pages, as well as enhancing the catalogue records of more than 2,000 titles to automate searching and aid discovery by researchers.

Also planned are major engagement initiatives to stimulate digital scholarship and collaboration, as well as building skills and digital research capacity with partner institutions in India, the library said.

Roly Keating, the library’s chief executive, said: “By digitising some of the riches held in our South Asian printed collections, we want to enable people all over the world to appreciate India’s great cultural heritage in new and innovative ways”.

“In India itself, the National Virtual library of India is ushering in a new era for digital research – this exciting project will make more than a million pages of historic content available to researchers in the subcontinent,” Keating added.

Source | Hindustan Times | 30 November 2015

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Pralhad Jadhav

Khaitan & Co