Why is machine vision a hard problem? As humans, we look at a dog and we see the dog. That’s all there is to it. Surely making machines that do the same isn’t that hard, right?
It actually turns out to be one of the toughest problems around, because that ‘simple’ seeing we do is in fact managed by our brains more than our eyes – and the brain is, well, the most complex object in the universe.
A lot of what engineers do is hidden away. Few members of the public give much thought to sewer systems, road bridges, power grids and flood barriers, impressive feats though they are. As Councillor Hamann says to Neo in The Matrix Reloaded, “See that machine? It has something to do with recycling our water supply. I have absolutely no idea how it works. But I do understand the reason for it to work.”
The 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea opened with a high-tech display involving 1,218 drones flying in tight formation, making various shapes including the Olympic rings, a snowboarder, and other fabulous coloured shapes in the sky. It totally wowed the crowd at the event and viewers around the world, and was a tour de force of what this article is about: entertainment engineering.
Drones are filling our skies. If companies like Amazon manage to negotiate their way past aviation restrictions, drones will soon be delivering our shopping to our homes and workplaces. No longer just toys and aerial photography tools, drones are here to stay. They are used in search and rescue, disaster relief, bomb disposal, military and civilian reconnaissance, archaeology, infrastructure inspection, anti-poaching, conservation, construction and law enforcement.
A virtual reality simulation of a nuclear facility is one of the new training tools presented at the 61st IAEA General Conference in September. Training specialists will be using it to navigate through realistic scenarios, threats and risks. The 3D tool is focused on preventative and protective measures against insider threats, and there are plans to cover other areas of nuclear security in the future.
It’s official. We now live in the future. Why? Because we have self-driving cars. We even have a few flying cars, that long-fantasised-about sci-fi staple. Pretty soon autonomous vehicles will be mainstream, and the industry will need armies of young boffins to design and engineer them. So it’s about time there were courses that introduced smart young people to the autonomous vehicle industry and prepared them for careers in it.
The thing about meditation is we know it’s good for us, but we convince ourselves we don’t have time for it. Ironically, meditation can help to quieten down the very same stressful thinking that prevents us from doing it: time is in short supply, we have to keep the pedal to the metal all day in order to get anywhere, sitting still for ten minutes a day is a complete waste of time, etc.
How would you respond to the job interview question ‘How many electric kettles are there in New York State?’ It is beneficial to be able to make a procedurally-based, well-informed guess that shows you have the smarts to arrive at a logical approximation. How To Estimate Anything by Management Consultants SAPBRIEF teaches a skill that’s useful in business and life: the art of the informed guess.
Most office workers know a few Excel functions to get them through the day. But that’s like driving a Ferrari at walking pace. Excel is a massively powerful piece of software that can do almost anything that’s asked of it – if only you know how. Excel has arguably saved more hours of work than any other piece of software, but it needs to be programmed to do so. This means there is a substantial market for Excel training.
You are lost and alone in the wilderness. For the first day or two, it isn’t too bad apart from the mosquitos. You’re going to be rescued, right? On day three you’re concerned but still aiming to catch the next episode of The Walking Dead. But around day four, when nobody has shown up yet, the reality sinks in and you must start to plan your survival for however long it takes until civilisation comes looking for you, or until you find it again.
