So Ace! Gamers solve scientific puzzle in 10 days After Scientists' 12 year Struggle - Entertainment

By Vinay Menon
Entertainment Reporter
Sep 19, 2011

You don’t usually associate scientific breakthroughs with video games.

But that could soon change after online gamers accurately predicted the structure of a retroviral enzyme that has baffled scientists for more than a decade.

The discovery, detailed this month in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, could have significant implications for AIDS research. It could also spark groundbreaking new projects between scientists and gamers across the planet.

“We know that humans have great pattern recognition and problem solving skills,” says Firas Khatib, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Washington and one of the authors of the paper.

“To our knowledge, this is the first case of a previously unsolved scientific problem that has been cracked by the online gaming community.”

Using Foldit — an online game developed in 2008 at the University of Washington Center for Game Science — gamers needed only 10 days to decipher the molecular structure of “a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus.”

To put this in perspective: scientists have spent about 12 years attempting, and failing, to solve the structure.

“This result really shows that it’s possible for video games and gamers to get to the point where they are able to make scientific contributions,” says Seth Cooper, creative director of the Center for Game Science, who co-created Foldit.

“Games are an effective tool for combining what computers and people are good at, respectively, and using that combined power to solve really hard problems. Gamers can be effectively integrated into laboratory science and we’re working on using games to design new proteins and even nanodevices.”

“The game is essentially about manipulating the structure of a protein using the tools provided within the game to obtain the lowest energy state possible, which should be that of the native structure,” explains “mimi,” a member of the Foldit Contenders Team, which is credited as one of the authors.

“This doesn’t need any biological knowledge, just an understanding of some simple rules. Many good folders are not scientists.”

More than 100,000 people have played Foldit. The solution for this problem, says Cooper, came from three players, including mimi. The gamers created a 3-D model of the enzyme. Researchers can now use the solved structure to develop antiviral drugs. And a key reason for the breakthrough, adds Khatib, is that gamers were able to approach the problem with fresh eyes.

“That is one of the advantages of the online gaming community and citizen science,” says Khatib. “They don’t have all these restrictions. They are led entirely by the score in the game. They are free and unshackled whereas all the people in the lab who work on structure prediction, we are horrible Foldit players. We have all these preconceptions, ‘Oh, protein can’t do this, it has to fold like this.’”

Foldit has also been used for cancer research and DNA manipulation. Khatib says he hopes a scientist somewhere out there who is now struggling with a protein-related problem reads the paper and is inspired to come forward with a new challenge for the global army of gamers.

Like Like Like: Papercut aims to reinvent storytelling for the iPad - Telegraph

Media_httpitelegraphc_weixj

By Shane Richmond, Head of Technology (Editorial)7:30AM BST 18 Sep 2011

Excerpt:

"There have been many attempts to experiment with storytelling on the iPad, from enhanced ebooks to book apps and stories reimagined as games. Last week, London-based developer Ustwo launched Papercut which combines sound, video and text to tell its stories.

In partnership with publisher Shortfire Press, Ustwo has interpreted stories by Richard Beard, Nadifa Mohamed and Laura Dockrill. Further stories are planned as in-app purchases. The app, which costs £3.99, quickly climbed to number one in the charts for the Books section of the App Store.

Matt Mills, co-founder of Ustwo, said: “We initially came up with the Papercut concept in early 2011. The idea was to create a subtle, simple and easy to use reading experience that took full advantage of the iPad's capabilities. Simplicity was key to whole project as we didn't want anything too interactive to detract from the primary purpose of the product, which was to enjoy the selection of stories.”
Beard’s story, ‘James Joyce, EFL Teacher’, is partly read by the author and partly told with snippets of text. It scrolls in a quarter of the screen while a video unfolds across the rest. Swiping through the story with a finger slowly reveals the video, while street noise plays in the background.

“Papercut transforms simple prose into an interactive, multi-sensory reading experience. Written content is presented in short passages and relevant video, animation, image sequences and sound are triggered in relation to the narrative,” Mills says. “It moves away from the text heavy, standard page turn functionality, the reader can simply and elegantly scroll through a truly interactive experience with seamless swipes.”

Very Cool Looking Kickstarter Project: Bhaloidam: An Indie Tabletop Storytelling Game by Corvus Elrod

About this project

(closed-caption version of the video: )

This Kickstarter project will fund our first production run for Bhaloidam, including 

  • 72-page, full-color, comic-format handbook
  • Gameboard-style Lifewheels
  • Sets of 3 custom dice
  • Source and Potency tokens (90 tokens per set)
  • Possibly more...

Every pledge of $9 or more not only helps us pay for the first production run, it also gets you early access to a PDF of the handbook (we will be emailing it to you within days of submitting it to our printer). Pledges starting at $18 serve as pre-orders for physical copies of the handbook, Lifewheel, and full game packs (postage for orders shipped within the continental US is free and you will get your copies before anyone else has an opportunity to buy them). And the largest pledges give you an opportunity to participate in the process by appearing in the handbook, or working with us to include comic book gameplay examples based on your own fictional worlds.

By pledging, you won’t just be helping us manufacture copies of Bhaloidam. You’ll also be joining an international community of storytellers by helping us provide Bhaloidam for free on our website (www.bhaloidam.com) so that everyone can join us in exploring Story, Play, and Community.

What is Bhaloidam?

Bhaloidam is a time, a person, a feeling. Bhaloidam is a language, an idea, a place, and a memory. Bhaloidam is a modern expression of three timeless cultural forces: bha to tell, loid to play, and dam the tribe. In other words, Bhaloidam is where Story, Play, and Community come together.

Bhaloidam is an indie tabletop game from Zakelro! that is an open and accessible storytelling platform. With it you'll spin character-driven stories and weave them together with the stories of your friends. You'll exert your influence upon the storyworlds you create together, shaping its future and controlling your characters' destinies as you perform their successes and their failures.

Story

Bhaloidam can be used to build any type of storyworld you and your friends want to explore. Sail the high seas as vicious pirates, uncover inter-dimensional conspiracies as government agents, solve murder mysteries as retired librarians, or scheme for power as members of the Elizabethan court.

Bhaloidam’s rules free you from context-specific actions, so your stories don’t need to revolve around combat, or even conflict. You can find yourself rolling the dice and using the rules to determine the outcome of a conversation, the impact of a musical performance, the success of a cunning plan, or any other action you wish to perform. This works because Bhaloidam provides you with thematic ways of Influencing the world and characters around you, and these Influences can be interpreted differently depending on the needs of the story and of your character.

This empowers a Skein (group of storytellers) to explore deeply personal stories together. And because each Spinner (storyteller) is in complete control of their character, they are encouraged to interpret their failures in ways that advance the story and provide opportunities for character growth.

Play

The rules of Bhaloidam are powerful and flexible, but they are also intuitive enough that new players can learn them and start spinning stories within 45 minutes. Through the use of iconic visuals we are even able to represent every game rule you need to remember on the Lifewheel itself. Each storyteller uses one of these colorful gameboards to keep track of their characters’ influence upon the storyworld, and the storyworld’s influence upon their character.

Community

Bhaloidam can serve as a Spinner-only platform, meaning everyone has equal influence upon the story. But it can also serve a more traditional approach, wherein one person takes on the responsibility of creating the storyworld, writing the plot, and acting as final authority on the interpretation of the rules. We call this role the Weaver and encourage you to see this role as a support position rather than an authoritative one, helping the Skein spin the best possible story threads they can and weaving them into a compelling tapestry.

Bhaloidam is also a flexible and scalable platform you can build on. The clear and consistent rules serve as a solid base that you can add to as needed for your storyworld. We’re eager to hear what you discover while exploring Bhaloidam and welcome you to join us at www.bhaloidam.com to share the storyworlds you create.

Retail

If funded, Bhaloidam will be available for purchase at www.bhaloidam.com in July 2012. If you are a retailer interested in carrying Bhaloidam, please contact us via email at zonino@zakelro.com.

Licensing

Bhaloidam is a trademark of Zakelro! and all materials related to it are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). If you are interested in using Bhaloidam in a project under other licensing, please contact us via email at zonino@zakelro.com.

Nice Round Up!: Everything You Would Ever Want to Know About Toronto 2011 - indieWIRE

Media_httpi2indiewire_thsgg

A very comprehensive list! links live on original site:

News

Content Film Takes Foreign on Toronto Midnight Madness title “The Day”

TIFF Exclusive: Poster Reveal for Morgan Spurlock’s Comic-Con Doc

Zeitgeist Takes US Rights for Noirish Cannes Winner “Elena” Out of Toronto

Nadine Labaki’s “Where Do We Go Now?” is Lebanon’s Foreign Language Oscar Entry

Toronto Acquisition: Goldwyn Sashays to “Diana Vreeland”

Julianne Moore & Greg Kinnear Pair Up for “The English Teacher”

Fox Searchlight Buys U.S. Rights to Steve McQueen’s “Shame”....

Awesome. Just Awesome: Japanese digital pop-star now dancing on tables in AR « Orig. Post on Augmented Reality Blog

  Hatsune Miky is an adorable, completely digital Japanese celebrity created by Crypton Future Media in 2007 using YAMAHA’s “Vocaloid” Software. The (evidently) 16-year-old, 5’2” songstress’s voice has been samples in thousands and thousands of user-generated videos, audio tracks, animations etc. Her albums have even topped the Japanese charts- not bad for a girl that doesn’t exist!

Hatsune Miku may be a digital construct, but the great thing about Augmented Reality is that we can take digital and 3-D content and breathe life into it by placing it in the physical world. A virtual entity could assume all three dimensions and interact with the real world- and that’s exactly what we did for the beautiful Hatsune Miku in this most recent development for Toyota.

Toyota has been enamored with Hatsune Miku for quite some time now- they’ve produced numerous (and clever) video spots featuring the star interacting with people as though she were a real person, as well as print ads, billboards (they’re everywhere here in San Francisco) and an integrated social media campaign. We were happy to be able to (literally) bring a new dimension to Hatsune Miku’s recent introduction to the states.

iOS users can immediately access the experience by downloading the free Toyota Shopping Tool App in the iTunes App store. An Android update is coming soon, but until then users with Android devices can download metaio’s free mobile AR browser, junaio, and search for the “Hatsune Miku” channel to get the same cool performance. Once the app is launched, just point the camera at the image below (called a “ToyoTag“) to see Hatsune Miku singing “Big Dream” and dancing alongside her favorite vehicle, the 2011 Toyota Corolla.

metaio used the junaio Plugin to develop this app for a Toyota, a feature that combines the technology, audience (1.7 Million Downloads) and accessibility of junaio, the most advanced mobile Augmented Reality browser, with the added value of a custom branded white-label application. We were able to use the same superior image recognition technology and tracking algorithm as we use in junaio to integrate this experience directly into Toyota’s mobile app as if it were a white-label application. Even better, the modular structure of the Plugin allows content to be easily and efficiently modified and changed, making the junaio Plugin a great development and branding solution.

Read the full press release here, and be sure to stay posted on all of Hatsune Miku’s exploits in America with Toyota.

Like this:

Be the first to like this post.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2011 at 7:07 pm and is filed under Mixellaneuos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Excellent New Post from Gary Hayes: How to Nurture Multi Platform or Transmedia Projects | PERSONALIZE MEDIA

Media_httpstorylabsus_vycgw

For multi platform storytelling and transmedia to flourish, it’s ‘creative leaders and trainers’ need to use a vast range of techniques to inspire those unfamiliar with it’s highly complex, development process. This post is relevant to all media creators – advertising campaigns, innovation in companies, story development, technical and business research who require expert help to become confident explorers and producers in this new and exciting arena. I realise as I type that the post could become rather large if I included some of my in-depth, traditional training or consultancy processes so this looks at a higher level, at the types of training, networking & development in the transmedia/multi platform content space. Cue the obligatory personal context…

What's Up With Blast Theory's Location-based App? 'Using Your Phone to Participate in Movies' - Mobiledia

Media_httpwwwmobiledi_hkikg

Props to Adipat Virdi (Transmediology) for pointing this one out - is this app being used? who's using it???

Original post by Kat Asharya, Friday Jan. 21 2011

"...U.K.-based art collective Blast Theory, which designed the location-based app for the movie, "A Machine to See With," said players register online and enter their mobile phone number to receive directions to a designated street corner. When they arrive, their phones will ring, giving them messages that lead them -- as protagonists -- through the city and into a heist, where they must deal with a bank robbery and its aftermath.

Along the way, they must deal with other players, watch out for traps and make ethical decisions that help determine the course of the experience.

"The work mixes thriller cliches with the reality of the urban environment and explores the tyranny of choice and the financial crisis," the company said in a statement. "A Machine to See With" will run throughout the course of the festival, slated for January 20 through 30 and taking place in Park City, Utah...."

Like. Like. Love. I'll Watch: 10 Reasons Why Alphas Is Better Than Heroes | GeekDad

Media_httpwwwwiredcom_bvmjq

Excerpt:

1. David Strathairn

He has been one of the finest character actors since he first received screen credits in 1979 with The Return of the Secaucus Seven and he’s played such roles such as Arthur Spiderwick in the Spiderwick Chronicles, the college president in We Are Marshall and as Noah Vosen in The Bourne Ultimatum.

To see Strathairn finally have a television show basically built around him is nice. His character, Dr. Lee Rosen, is roughly the Professor X of the show. It’s a role he fills well but there’s enough edge to his performance to wonder why a normal doctor is so interested in Alphas and if he’s really such a good guy after all.

2. Powers all make sense

The powers are all extrapolations of ordinary human abilities and they all have built-in weaknesses.

Nina, the resident telepath, has the ability to force people to do what she wants but can only hold it for a few minutes.

Bill Harken, an ex-FBI agent, has super-strength or speed because of increased adrenaline but only for a short time or it will stress his heart.

Hicks, who has an uncanny accuracy, finds his skill deserts him at critical moments.

Gary can sense electromagnetic waves but he’s autistic.

Rachel has enhanced senses but can only use one enhanced sense at a time and can easily get overwhelmed by sounds or smells that are too strong.

No one can fly. Or blow up the city with a thermonuclear blast. Or is effectively immortal.

3. Starts in the middle of the story
There’s no long build-up to getting the team together. Rosen already has everyone but Hicks on his team, ostensibly to help them deal with their abilities. Hicks joins in the pilot episode and he’s the window for the audience into Rosen’s operation. There’s no long drawn out sequence when you wonder if the heroes will ever find each other to work together..."