Not that long ago, I posted about a really cool free web conference software called openmeetings.  It was a little harsh in terms of install, setup, and configuration.  The hardest part was scaling the product in terms of networking and QOS.  I planned on coming back to that product for more testing when someone tipped me off to DimDim.  DimDim is simply a killer free web conference software package.  Also, it’s hosted (if you choose that route), up to 20 attendants – and, did I mention free – forever!  Yes, you can download the open source software and host it yourself, but DimDim blows open the limitations of openmeetings.

DimDim has different hosted solutions that are very cost effective.  20 attendees and under is free.  20-50 attendees is the Pro version and is $19/month.  The enterprise version is up to 1000 attendees and they claim 1/3 the cost of competitors.  As I said before, you can download the open source version and host it yourself.  Did I mention that it includes a VMWare appliance for super easy installation!

Rather than go through the feature set, I’ll let Steve Chazin (formerly of that little know company called Apple ;^)  explain it:

I love this software.  If you have any interest in doing meetings – you really need to take a look at DimDim.

Western Digital adds another addition to the ever crowded TV media player space.  Their little HD player is affordable, plays most file types, and is easy to use.  What else could you ask for?

Here are the features:

Designed for My Passport, works with many other USB storage devices – Play content from most popular USB drives,and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices.

Full HD video playback and navigation – up to 1080p – Experience the spectacular picture quality of HD video and crystal clear sound clarity of digital audio. Use the included remote control to navigate through your entertainment choices using our crisp, animated HD menus.

Collect without limits – There’s no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space.

Advanced navigation

• Thumbnail and list views – Browse your content by filename or by thumbnails of photos, album covers and movie cover art.
• Media Library – This unique feature lets you view all your media by media type in one menu regardless of its location in folders or drives. You can view your content by categories such as genre, album, artist and date.
• Search – Search by genre, title, artist, filename and partial filename.

Photo viewing

• Create custom slide shows with a variety of transitions and background music
• Zoom and pan
• Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date

Movie viewing

• Fast forward, rewind, pause, zoom, and pan
• View subtitles
• Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date

Music playback

• Fast forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat
• Search by filename, partial filename, most recently viewed and date

Access two USB drives simultaneously – Two USB ports on the player let you connect two USB storage devices and access them simultaneously. Our Media Library feature aggregates the content on both drives into one list sorted by media type.

HDMI and composite video connections – The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port lets you connect to the highest quality HDTV or home theater. Additional composite (RCA) outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.

Includes free media conversion software – ArcSoft MediaConverter™ 2.5 — a fast, easy-to-use application that converts photo, video, and music files into formats optimized for use on the WD TV HD Media Player.

People report great playback for video formats including .avi, wmv, VOB, MKV, H.264, DiVX, XViD, MPEG2/4, MOV, and .ISO.  They like the easy to use screens and the quality of audio, video, and photo playback.

]]> http://gopaultech.com/blog/2008/11/western-digital-tv-hd-media-player/feed/ 3 http://gopaultech.com/blog/2008/09/a-better-way-to-find-faces/ http://gopaultech.com/blog/2008/09/a-better-way-to-find-faces/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:01:48 +0000 billy http://gopaultech.com/blog/2008/09/a-better-way-to-find-faces/  

If you’ve ever watched the “Jason Bourne” series of movies, he constantly has the CIA, INTERPOL, and other organizations following his every move. One of the ways they did this was through face-recognition software which took video feed, processed it, and compared faces which appeared in the video feed against an archived database. While, in the movie, the software never failed to recognize a face, this is rarely the case in real life. Even in ideal conditions, the best face recognition software only works well when you can control factors such as resolution or face angle. However, Pablo Hennings-Yeomans’ work over at Carnegie Mellon University may just change all that.

The biggest problem with the technology stems from the proliferation of low-resolution cameras, like those found in cell phones or lower-end security systems. As many of the facial idiosyncrasies are only distinguishable at higher resolutions. This results in choosing to use lower resolution source images, or trying to inject pixels into the video feed stills through use of super-resolution algorithms. However, Hennings-Yeomans’ method uses super-resolution algorithms and intermediate algorithms in a way that makes the distinct features of a face stick out. Hennings-Yeomans and B. Vijaya Kumar of Carnegie Mellon, and Simon Baker of Microsoft Research are presenting a paper at the IEEE International Conference on Biometrics going on later this month, canvassing the improved results when compared to traditional methods.

One quote, taken from MIT’s Write-Up on the new technology, describes Hennings-Yeomans’ work best:

“The approach shows promise, says Pawan Sinha, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. The problem of low-resolution images and video “is undoubtedly important and has not been adequately tackled by any of the commercial face-recognition systems that I know of,” he says. “Overall, I like the work.”

Ultimately, says Hennings-Yeomans, super-resolution algorithms still need to be improved, but he doesn’t think it would take too much work to apply his group’s approach to, say, a Web tool that searches YouTube videos. “You’re going to see face-recognition systems for image retrieval,” he says. “You’ll Google not by using text queries, but by giving an image.”

Pictures courtesy of: MIT’s Technology Review;

Apparently they realized, with the help of the adamant NetFlix community, that this would be a friggin’ stupid move.

The setup in place right now strikes me as extremely convenient for families, social Netflix browsing, and each person’s individual movie reviews and recommendations. So, when they announced that the service would be cancelled on August 30th, 2008, I heard about it nearly everywhere. Now, with Netflix in possession of over 6.8 million users at the end of 2007 and 8.6 million users at the end of this month (see Netflix Snapshot numbers), alienating even a tenth of that would result in a lot of disappointed people. In contrast, Blockbuster‘s competing video rental service had only 2.8 million paying customers (3.0 million total subscribers), so Netflix is clearly the top dog right now.

However, in response to the customer outcry (it’s impossible to get a direct number, but the Netflix Community Blog post announcing the profile terminations had well over 1000 comments…) Netflix announced yesterday that it was keeping user profiles with this post on the Netflix Community Blog. Two things: It’s refreshing that a company listened to the overwhelming consumer voice and rescinded what would have been an overall fiscally-bad decision, and I’m left wondering how this idea ever made it out of the development labs!

To make a long story short, if you have a Netflix subscription:

1) If you haven’t heard of Profiles, check them out. After this fiasco, they will be around for a while;
2) Stop consolidating your information, if you have utilized Profiles and wished to keep your data around;
and 3) Let Netflix know this is the right decision (at least from what I’ve seen).

Pictures courtesty of: Netflix;

I’ve been busy, nestled away in my testing area. Next up to bat is the excellent software OpenMeetings. Openmeetings is free video conferencing software that allows you to chat via video, to do whiteboarding, to convert documents on the fly, etc. It even allows you to share your desktop.

So, what can OpenMeetings do? Let’s start there. OpenMeetings can allow you to do video conferencing for free. It is cross platform and browser independent. That’s because it renders in flash. It’s pretty good at what it does. In those meetings, you can upload office files (word, excel, powerpoint) and it will convert it on the fly using the Openoffice converter plugin. It will then serve those files in the original format, pdf, and flash. It uses flash to present the document to the whiteboard area. You can also upload and share images. You cannot share video. You can, however, share your desktop. When sharing your desktop there is something you need to know. If you keep the OpenMeetings meeting open in the browser, it will mirror your desktop view infinitely. What you need to do is minimize the openmeetings window. No, you can’t see what others see while you’re doing it, but they will. Just ask them.

Let me share some experiences with you in my testing thus far. At first, I ran OpenMeetings on a Windows box with 768 megs of ram. I was just wanting to demo the product and see if it had any viability for a non profit thing I’m doing. This is what I learned on that experience:

• Set up was easy
• Document conversion setup had some issues (this could have been me!)
• Hardware wasn’t nearly sufficient

Two attendees to a conference were okay in terms of delay and processing. Doing document conversion killed the meeting. The machine spontaneously rebooted. End of meeting! Lol.

For my second test, I moved to a ubuntu linux install on a much better machine with 4 gigs of ram. Now, on Ubuntu there are just a few gotchas. First, make sure you install the openoffice-headless package. This will allow you to run openoffice in headless mode to do the document conversions. You can see this option by running the Synaptic package manager. Just type “sudo synaptic” in the terminal. That will prompt for root password and your off. Then search for openoffice-headless and install it. Easy Enough. Follow the directions on the wiki and you should be fine. I had it up and running in less than 20 minutes once ubuntu was installed. Also, if you are going to be accessing the server remotely, you need to forward at least port 5080. This is what I learned from this test:

• Hardware was just fine for document conversion and running the app
• Added 5 participants with issues on client hardware (like webcams!)
• Bandwidth was a real issue and needs QOS

What you are going to find is that hardware and bandwidth are going to be your limiting factors (as always!). The router we were testing on did not have QOS. As a result, time lags were horrendous – up to a minute with 5 participants. That made the app unusable. Oh, another note while I’m at it – make sure you use headphones while using OpenMeetings! Using speakers will cause a feedback loop on the audio.

So, my next test will be conducted on a router with Qos. That will be interesting. Here are some screenshots. Click on them for full view.

I have been watching for the release of UbuntuStudio for a while now. I was pleased to see on my latest check that it is ready for release. UbuntuStudio is a completely free audio, video, and graphics Ubuntu version. Here is a list of the apps you can expect to find in this lovely distro:

Audio

• aconnectgui – graphical ALSA sequencer connection manager
• alsa-tools
• alsa-tools-gui
• audacity – Swiss army audio editor
• ardour – Digital audio workstation (graphical gtk interface)
• beast – music synthesis and composition framework
• bitscope – diagnosis tool for JACK audio software
• creox – real-time guitar effects
• denemo – A gtk+ frontend to GNU Lilypond
• timemachine – JACK audio recorder for spontaneous and conservatory use
• gtick – Metronome application
• hydrogen – Simple drum machine/step sequencer
• jackbeat – audio sequencer
• jackd – JACK Audio Connection Kit (server and example clients)
• jackeq – routes and manipulates audio from/to multiple sources
• jack-rack – LADSPA effects “rack” for JACK
• jack-tools – various JACK tools: plumbing, play, udp, ctl, scope, clock
• jamin – Audio mastering from a mixed down multitrack source with JACK
• jdelay – A small command line JACK app you can use to measure the latency of your sound card.
• lilypond-data – LilyPond music typesetter (data files)
• lilypond – A program for typesetting sheet music
• meterbridge – A collection of Audio meters for the JACK audio server
• muse – Qt-based midi/audio sequencer
• patchage – modular patch bay for Jack audio and Alsa Midi
• qamix – Configurable mixer for ALSA
• vkeybd – Virtual Keyboard program
• qjackctl – User interface for controlling the JACK sound server
• puredata – realtime computer music and graphics system
• rosegarden4 – music editor and MIDI/audio sequencer
• timidity – Software sound renderer (MIDI sequencer, MOD player)
• seq24 – Real time MIDI sequencer
• shaketracker – MIDI sequencer with tracker GUI
• sooperlooper – Looping Sampler LADSPA plugin
• swami – SoundFont editor
• csound – powerful and versatile sound synthesis software
• tapiir – A tool for real time audio delay and feedback effects
• freqtweak – Realtime audio frequency spectral manipulation
• mixxx – A digital DJ interface (for beat-mixing)
• terminatorx – A realtime audio synthesizer
• audatious -
• zynaddsubfx – Realtime software synthesizer for Linux
• fluidsynth – Real-time MIDI software synthesizer
• bristol – vintage synthesizer emulator
• freebirth – Bass synthesizer/sample player/sequencer similar to Rebirth
• qsynth – fluidsynth MIDI sound synthesiser front-end
• tk707 – drum sequencer for a sound card or MIDI device
• linuxsampler – software audio sampler
• linux-image-rt – Low latency kernel

Video

• pitivi – Video editor
• cinepaint – A painting and image retouching program designed to work best with 35mm film and other high resolution high dynamic range images.
• ffmpeg – Multimedia player, server and encoder
• ffmpeg2theora – Theora video encoder using ffmpeg
• kino – A non-linear editor for Digital Video data
• stopmotion – A program for creating stop motion animation.
• dvgrab – Grab digital video data via IEEE1394 links
  • jahshaka – (not in the repos and deferred until next upstream release.)
  • cinelerra – (not in the repos and deferred until license issues are worked out)

Graphics

• inkscape – A vector-based drawing program.
• blender – A very fast and versatile 3D suite for modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.
• gimp – A raster-based drawing program.
• gimp-gap – GAP is a collection of plug-ins to extend the GIMP with capabilities to edit and create animations and movies as sequences of single frames.
• gimp-print – Print plugin for the GIMP
• gimp-dcraw – A plug-in to import RAW images.
• f-spot – A personal photo management application.
• scribus – A open source desktop page layout program.
• fontforge – Font Editor for PS, TrueType and OpenType fonts.
• gnome-raw-thumbnailer – a thumbnailer for GNOME that will make thumbnails for camera RAW files.
• xsane – GTK+-based X11 frontend for SANE. (Scanner Access Now Easy)
• wacom-tools – Software for you Wacom drawing pad.
• hugin – An easy to use cross-platform GUI for Panorama Tools.
• synfigstudio – A vector 2D based animation package (GUI)
• agave – Colorscheme generator.
• enblend – A tool for compositing images.
• yafray – A modern, xml-speaking raytracing-based rendering system
• nautilus-image-converter – nautilus extension to mass resize images

You can get it for free and give it a try. Now, let’s move on to the LinuxMCE project. In case you’re wondering, MCE stands for Media Center Edition. Maybe a video will be best here:

And also this one:

As you can see, LinuxMCE is full featured and very nice. Again, go download it and give it a try – it’s free!

The hack uses FairUse4WM and Mirakagi to break the DRM. The basic gist is to grab the URL of the movie link for the format that you want. Then you use Mirakagi to grab the movie stream and start the key grabbing process for the license. Then you move over to FairUse4WM and you’re off and running. So, why would someone want to do this? Good question. It’s about use and ownership of digital data. The belief is that once you pay for something, you should be able to use that in the manner you see fit. You can see Dizzie’s tutorial here. Be forewarned that there is some harsher language in there, if that type of stuff offends you.

This is kind of a follow up from yesterday’s Pinnacle HDTV USB device. I know Pinnacle includes some free PVR software, but those kind of bundled PVR software packages don’t usually measure up. I’ve mentioned the commercial PVR software BeyondTV before – and I am a fan. But I thought I would mention another PVR software project that’s open source. MediaPortal looks like a promising app that I intend to review at some point in the near future. But MediaPortal is much more than just PVR software, it functions as, well, a media portal. It’s intended to allow you to peruse your entire media collection.

Let’s run down on the features:

And it doesn’t stop there. There are various plugins, extensions, skins, etc to add to the MediaPortal. And because it’s open source, you can expect software improvements and additions in the future.

I realize that the comment “look no further” is either terribly suitable or terribly ironic being placed right before the page break, but I couldn’t help the bad joke. Anyways, Magic DVD Ripper (and it’s mate, Magic DVD Copier) is a powerful program by Magic DVD Software that must be downloaded from the Internet; though, if you contact the company, you can acquire a CD. A free trial is available, and will allow you to rip 5 DVDs before prompting you for a registration key. The registration key for one of the two is $34.97, but both can be had for $49.97. I’ve been a happy user for over 6 months now, and it’s a great product.

I haven’t said anything about it before, unfortunately, but with my recent acquisiton of The Office - Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, I’ve been loving every second of it. It’s gone on my external drive, so hilarity won’t be far from anyone with a computer; most importantly, me. I’ve uploaded some pictures of the program in operation; here’s a note about the last picture-it’s quite an obtrusive graphical error, at least I thought so, but so far I haven’t found anything else wrong. I would have reviewed Magic DVD Copier, but I actually don’t own that piece of software right now, so, if you’re interested, you will have to check it out yourself. Either way, both programs look impressive, so you can’t go wrong.

Here’s the complete feature list from Magic’s site:

• Convert DVD to DivX or other AVI formats
• Convert DVD to WMV
• Convert DVD to mp4 (iPod and PSP formats)
• Convert DVD to VCD or SVCD
• Copy DVD movie to hard drive without any loss of quality
• Remove all the restrictions of DVD (CSS, Region, RCE, Sony ARccOS, PuppetLock)
• Copy main movie only or split DVD-9 into 2 DVD-5
• Compress DVD to fit on a 4.7 GB disc
• Very easy to use, just by one click
• High ripping speed and wonderful output quality

————

The link to the main website can be found here.

Pictures Courtesy of: Me

DriveCam usually provides corporate fleets a way to view risky driving habits. This enables those companies to train drivers more effectively and also review wreck incidents. That obviously helps with insurance adjusting and accident reporting. But DriveCam has teamed up with AFI to provide the same service to parents of teen drivers. A camera is installed on the car and feeds are analyzed by DriverCam’s risk analysts. These analysts send reports, with corresponding video, of the risky behaviors. This allows teens and parents to talk through those behaviors. The hope is to decrease fatalities among teen drivers. AFI has set up a special website telling about the service.