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Turing Award winners include AI giants from Facebook and Google
The Turing Award has recognized some of the biggest names in AI and computing over the years, and the latest winners are particularly heavy hitters. The three prize recipients for 2018 are Google VP Geoffrey Hinton, Facebook's Yann LeCun (above) and Yoshua Bengio, the Scientific Director of the giant AI research center Mila. All three helped "develop conceptual foundations" for deep neural networks, according to the Association for Computing Machinery, and created breakthroughs that showed he "practical advantages" of the technology.
Disney’s first VR short ‘Cycles’ debuts next month
Walt Disney Animation Studios is set to share its first VR short, a film called Cycles that took four months to create. The short will make its debut at the Association for Computing Machinery's annual SIGGRAPH conference in August and the team behind it hopes VR will help viewers form a stronger emotional connection with the film. "VR is an amazing technology and a lot of times the technology is what is really celebrated," Director Jeff Gipson said in a statement. "We hope more and more people begin to see the emotional weight of VR films, and with Cycles in particular, we hope they will feel the emotions we aimed to convey with our story."
Google makes the 'Nobel Prize of computing' worth $1 million
The Association for Computing Machinery's A.M. Turing Award is often called the "Nobel Prize of computing." Every year since 1966 it's been awarded to an accomplished computer scientist or engineer like Douglas Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse. But chances are you've never heard of the award at all, despite it being named after legendary Allied Forces code-breaker Alan Turing. That's because it's never really been that big -- no huge sponsors meant it didn't get a lot of promotion, and the annual prize was limited to a relatively modest $250,000. That's about to change with the 2014 award thanks to the largess of Google. The company's been a co-sponsor of the award since 2007 alongside Intel, but now they're taking full control of the prize money, upping the package fourfold to a rather hefty $1 million.
Autodesk researchers develop 'magic finger' that reads gestures from any surface (video)
By combining a camera that detects surfaces with one that perceives motion, Canadian university researchers and Autodesk have made a sensor that reads finger gestures based on which part of your body you swipe. The first camera can detect pre-programmed materials like clothing, which would allow finger movements made across your pants or or shirt to activate commands that call specific people or compose an email, for instance. Autodesk sees this type of input as a possible compliment to smartphones or Google Glasses (which lack a useful input device), though it says the motion detection camera isn't accurate enough yet to replace a mouse. Anyway, if you wanted that kind of device for your digits, it already exists -- in spades.
Thanks to Atlanta for the great reader meetup
We were really happy to see how many people showed up to our meetup in Atlanta during CEDIA -- especially when everyone didn't leave immediately after they enjoyed the free food. The local Georgia Tech chapter of the Association of Computer Machinery were awesome hosts and did an impressive job at organizing the event -- something we doubt we could've pulled off when we were in college. We also wanted to really extend our appreciate to everyone who participated including ZAGG who crashed the event with free headphones and gift cards -- and to think when we crash parties we usually don't bring anything. The pictures we took at the event are in the gallery below, but if you have some to add please post 'em on flickr with the tag EngadgetHD so everyone can find them, thanks. We were also happy to learn that a few of the participates were bloggers themselves, so to show our appreciation we wanted to share those sites with the rest of our readers. Thanks again, and we can't wait for the next one! CSinCS Makario Lewis Hillary Lipko: Frustrated Bunny Software development, brewing, and zombies WTFReview
Richard Garriott talks MMOs at GWU lecture
Yesterday, the Washington DC chapter for the Association of Computer Machinery welcomed game design guru Richard Garriott to speak at its last meeting for the 2007 calendar year. Garriott, who has been writing and designing games professionally since the age of 19, is currently the executive producer on Tabula Rasa, though he's perhaps better known as the man behind Ultima Online, likely the MMO for which he will be most remembered. It helped pioneer the massively multiplayer game as we know it, and ushered in many gaming conventions that we're still familiar with today.While we were expecting something of a more technical speech from Garriott given the venue, the lecture was more autobiographical, with the esteemed Lord British explaining how, as one of the industry's oldest members, he's had to ride the wave of expectations in PC gaming over time. He also reflected on many aspects of Tabula Rasa's recent release, making it a relevant discussion for gamers who are more familiar with his more recent offerings in the genre.
TR PvP to incorporate clan-captured CPs
Richard Garriott, founder of the legendary Ultima series and Executive Producer for Tabula Rasa, gave a lecture this evening to the Washington D.C. chapter for the Association of Computer Machinery. Of course, being your personal guide into the complex world of MMOs, we were on-hand to cover the event. While you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the full write-up, we couldn't resist posting this juicy bit of information that fell from the lips of one Lord British.Addressing the issue of the near-constant feedback cycle that MMOs enjoy by virtue of being in a persistent state of development and refinement, Garriott cited Tabula Rasa's PvP as an element of the game that was being moved up the ladder of development priorities. PvP in the game's current state essentially amounts to guilds camping teleporters and hospitals, waiting for members of warring clans to appear, where they can be taken by surprise and slaughtered. Garriott's vision for the future of the PvP system is set to feature TR's popular Capture Point gameplay mechanic. Clans will be to capture CPs for themselves, generating money based on the activities of the NPCs within the CP. This will have the dual effect of giving warring clans something to do besides spawn-camping as well as give a context for PvP that makes slightly more sense within the lore. It's always been a bit of a rough sell having fellow members of the Allied Free Sentients slaughtering each other, but the idea of clans trying to control commerce is somehow more palatable. Again, we'll have a full write-up tomorrow.
Richard Garriott to speak at GWU on December 10th
Just a heads up to any massively multiplayer nuts living in the DC Metro area, Destination Games head honcho and MMO luminary Richard Garriott will be speaking to the DC Chapter of the Association for Computer Machinery on December 10th at George Washington University from 7 to 9 p.m. EST. Garriott will be talking about some of the more technical aspects of modern game development, getting into the nitty gritty of design documentation, programming techniques, and UI creation. The lecture is free, so even if you just want to come to sit and swoon at the infamous Lord British, you're welcomed to do so.Of course, if you're from the other side of the country or just can't make it, you can check back here to Massively where we'll have a write-up of the lecture for your viewing pleasure.
