Still looking for that perfect HDR

I’ve been trying my hand at High Dynamic Range (HDR) images ever since I saw this slightly over the top one at Flickr. After many, many messed up attempts I’ve finally managed to get a few decent ones at Vellore last weekend:

vellore-fort-b.jpg

houses-at-vellore.jpg

If you aren’t familiar with HDR photography, you probably think these images were run through a hundred photoshop filters. Actually, HDRs are a result of combining three separate photographs of the same scene, but with different exposures. When the three images are combined, you get all the highlights and shadows in great detail. Click here to see the three original exposures of the Vellore fort, followed by the final HDR.

The trick with getting decent results is knowing how far to push the final output HDR. If you go too far, it would end up looking like this. I liked this shot on Flickr, think he/she got it just right. This night shot is nice as well. For some tutorials on taking HDRs, go here, here, here and here.

KITT, run over the bastard!

“Self driven” has just acquired a whole new meaning. The DARPA grand challenge is a race for driverless cars organized by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. None of the cars in the 2004 race made it to the finish line, but in 2005 the Stanford Racing Team’s Volkswagen Touareg named “Stanley” completed 212 km in less than 7 hours. (Off road terrain)

250px-vw_touareg.jpg

It was followed minutes later by Carnegie Mellon’s “Sandstorm”.

image-cmu_sandstorm.jpg

The course included three narrow tunnels, more than a hundred sharp turns and a winding mountain pass with drops on either side.

Guess what’s planned for 2007? A race through a city! A good 96 km urban course, with 6 hours to cross the finish line. I’m certain the competitors will make much better drivers than the average driver we encounter on our way to work.

Here are the “basic rules” for the 2007 Challenge:

  • Vehicle must be stock or have a documented safety record.
  • Vehicle must obey the California state driving laws.
  • Vehicle must be entirely autonomous, using only GPS and the information it detects with its sensors.
  • DARPA will provide the route network 24 hours before the race starts.
  • Vehicles will complete the route by driving between specified checkpoints.
  • DARPA will provide a file detailing the order the checkpoints must be driven to 5 minutes before the race start.
  • Vehicles may “stop and stare” for at most 10 seconds.
  • Vehicles must operate in rain and fog, with GPS blocked.
  • Vehicles must avoid collision with vehicles and other objects such as carts, bicycles, traffic barrels, and objects in the environment such as utility poles.
  • Vehicles must be able to operate in parking areas and perform U-turns as required by the situation.

Source: [Wikepedia]

So when do we get to ride around in these babies? GM plans to launch a self-driven Opel Vectra in 2008. The DX version comes with Turbo Boost. I wonder if they’ll hardwire the three laws of robotics in it…

Can you imagine autos without auto drivers? No excuses like “it’s uphill” or “I won’t get a return fare” or “It’s raining”. Just select a location on it’s little GPS map, swipe your card and you’re good to go.

This whole thing reminds me of Stephen King’s short story “Trucks“. By the way, the Knight Rider movie is scheduled for 2008, with “The Hoff” playing only a minor role (thankfully) and Ben Afflek playing Michael Knight. Check out the awesome teaser poster below, and more about the future KITT on Gizmodo.
kitt-2008.jpg

A little nostalgia:

kitt-interior.jpg

kitt.jpg

Check out the full list of KITT’s features!

Best way to download youtube, metacafe & Google videos

I’ve been using the firefox extension Video Downloader for some time now. It stopped working on youtube for a while and so I went looking for a simpler alternative – and found one. Paste the url of any video you’re viewing into the search option on keepvid, and it throws up the direct link to the video file. Or better yet, drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar and hit it whenever you need to download a video. It’s in beta (of course) and currently works with:

angryalien.com
artistdirect.com
blastro.com
blennus.com
blip.tv
bofunk.com
bolt.com
castpost.com
current.tv
dailymotion.com
devilducky.com
findvideos.com
video.freevideoblog.com
grinvi.com
grouper.com
hiphopdeal.com
lulu.tv
metacafe.com
midis.biz
Music.com
MusicVideoCodes.info
myspace.com
myspacevideocode.com
newgrounds.com
pcplanets.com
pixparty.com
revver.com
sharkle.com
streetfire.net
thatvideosite.com
theonenetwork.com
videocodes4u.com
videocodesworld.com
videocodezone.com
vidilife.com
vidnet.com
vimeo.com
vsocial.com
web62.com
zippyvideos.com

Here’s a decent (and free) flv player to watch the videos after you download them. To convert .flv files to other video formats download Super. (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer)

More integration from Google – Orkut and Gtalk

Google has integrated Orkut and Google Talk.

At Google, we like it when people talk with each other. So we figured we should make life a little easier for our friends on orkut, where getting in touch and staying in touch is the name of the game. We noticed that a lot of orkut users have been using a separate instant messaging program to chat, which just seems like unnecessary work — clicking around, keeping separate buddy lists, etc. This is why we’ve built Google Talk into orkut, so you can see your friends’ availability and chat with them more easily. And, as a special Google Talk bonus, if you want to do more than text chat, you can make voice calls, leave voicemail, and transfer files.

We’ve put some orkut features into Google Talk too. In addition to chatting, calling, and sending files to your Google Talk buddies, you can also scrap them, receive instant notice when others scrap you, and quickly jump to any of their orkut profiles.