Tweenbots and HRI

Monday, April 20, 2009

Above, tweenbots by Kacie Kinzer
Tweenbots appears to be a sort of Human-Robot-Interaction project, something that Carnegie Mellon has a large focus on. (Have I told you about Snackbot? It's going to bring me snacks in the office someday, someday).

More specifically, tweenbots reminds me of a project I saw at AAAI 2005: Finding the Person with the Pink Hat. Artificial Intelligence researchers at a conference are much more likely to treat a robot openly than the general public...which is why it's nice to see the tweenbots being generally well received.

The Greek Islands, June 14-??

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Santorini in Greece
I'm going to be in Rhodes sometime shortly before June 14th this summer, for CSCL09 and if I don't go to Santorini, I might explode.

[Edit 6/25/09: Done!!]

Oia (in Santorini, Greece) at sunset, 6/09.

Success: Corn Meal Dumplings + Turnip Greens

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Collard Greens with Cornmeal Dumplings Recipe from Anson Mills. I substituted turnip greens for collard greens, since my local grocery store regularly runs out of different forms of leafy produce. Pretty tasty, with a slightly spicy kick. Although, I'm pretty sure I was supposed to have more broth than I had...

Macaron Trial #1: Semi-fail

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

You probably can't tell, but that's a half-eaten, improperly prepared, sloppily shaped, hollow French macaron. Tasty, but wrong. I'm not really sure what happened, but it didn't work. Macarons are supposed to be tricky, so I'm not discouraged, just puzzled.

At least they were tasty.

French macarons, with some See's truffles from my trip to San Francisco two weekends ago.

Large "Love" Painting

Sunday, April 5, 2009

This weekend I took my 36" square canvas, discussed previously, and painted a piece that reminds me of my hometown (although there's a handful of these Robert Indiana "Love" sculptures spread around the nation). Original inspiration came from a mural in Marinekko's studio on apartmenttherapy, but I wanted something a little less IN YOUR FACE. If I ever get bored of the painting, I can always cover it in fabric and paint a chandelier silhouette over it :)

With this new large artwork, I had to rearrange my existing art wall. That was complicated.

The previous sofa-art arrangement	Rearranging art on the floor for the dining-table-wall.

The completed look on the dinette wall:

Large Art Piece

Friday, April 3, 2009

Photo from: ApartmentTherapy on Alissa Hunsaker Photography

I kinda want a large art piece to go above my sofa, like the one above. I think you could hack together a piece inspired by the Duffy London chandelier print, by somehow combining the three ideas below. It could save you $400 (and that's not including shipping), and for thoseof us with a 36" art canvas lying around...

Painted Fabric Silhouettes by Anna Maria Horner	Grand Chandelier Print by Duffy London	Chandelier I by Lisa Ven Vertloh

Or maybe it's too much like chandelier decals?