Can a Supercomputer Be Moody?

Tonight will conclude the epic three-night Jeopardy battle to prove if the human brain can still out-pace a computer’s.

Last night we were (once again) informed via Alex Trebeck, of the technological nuances of Watson’s programming. We were briefed on how long it took Watson to be built, his components, and programming, I however was more interested in seeing any visual reaction he would display through his avatar.

I applaud the IBM team for being mindful of the potential emotional drama an audience feels when seeing a contestant sweat. Since Watson lacks a face, IBM chose to construct a flat panel display which projects an avatar controller (IBM’s Smarter Planet icon encased with spinning arcs of colors). This a welcome departure from the cold glowing red stare of Hal from the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Digital artist Joshua Davis worked with the IBM team to help give Watson his "face". Programmed with 27 states (ranging from correct answers to Daily Doubles) Watson's avatar reacts visually when one is triggered.

To dramatize this, Davis proposed a computer generated modules of 40 swarming arcs and dots that follow a "leader" along a sphere's surface that switch their position when a positive (up) and negative (down) reaction is made. This concept partners with four colors mapped to four different levels of confidence that sync to the sphere.

Green indicates a high level of confidence showing that Watson will most likely know the answer–with red showing a shake to his confidence. Watson also uses probability bars (also displayed during the game) that are labeled with what choices he is thinking are the correct answer.

Again color is used to differentiate level of confidence via a bar to a computational answer. Green signifies a higher percentage self-assurance to "buzz-in" with a correct answer. Yellow or red would indicate an unsure level of confidence to a specific answer on Watson's part.

Bravo to IBM for hiring Josha Davis to help solve the visual eye-candy challenges to help make Watson more tangible and attractive to his viewers.

I for one can't wait to see the conclusion of this historic technological event tonight.

Go to The Face of Watson to see a video on the what it took to build Watson's avatar.

Another Pinboard to Follow

Having resisted Pinterest for about a year now, I finally dipped my toes into the virtual pool of pinboards. My apprehension was truly misdirected and I've come to find that the concept of organizing visual images/links onto a virtual board has become a great teaching tool. After covering the typical graphic design topics such as typography, and history it was a natural move to include color among the related topics. So here is a link to my All Color Matters pinboard .

Color from the Ordinary Made Into the Extraordinary: Fabian Oefner

From motor oil to evaporated alcohol Fabian Oefner wields these materials as if they were ordinary pigments found on an artist's palette. Known for driving a Ferrari into a wind tunnel to splatter with neon paint, Hefner does't shrink from using unconventional materials to pursue his fixation with color. Hefner's latest series “Photographic Paintings” was an outgrowth of observing the oxidation of b ismuth that he had melted on a hotplate. The cooled compound created amazing iridescent spectrum of color. Oefner quickly realized that a scraped off layer with a spatula would change the colors and that they would on be present for a brief tine. " You get those colors, which are essentially the colors of the rainbow,” he says. The photographs have a minimal amount of digital editing done to them. Hefner's work suspends your fools us by taken advantage of the interplay of poss...

Color

Taking a more fine art approach, Color draws from past, and present art movements for aesthetic examples on basic color theory application. In depth chapters explore topics such as psychological/compositional effects, color relationships, subtractive/additive media, fine art and applied design. Where Color Workbook by Becky Koenig takes a more “hands-on” approach to color theory, Color presents the realities of color uses from a working artist's point-of-view. Other subjects mentioned include computer art, video, architecture, landscape design, sculpture, and clothing. This book does fall short in two areas; cultural influences and the omission of any suggested exercises for students to back-up the text. This normally wouldn't be an issue, however given the high retail price of $93.00, it would be difficult to justify this purchase to the budget minded student unless it can be aquired via used or heavy discount. Color (Sixth Edition) by Paul J. Zelanski, Mary Pat Fishe...

All Color Matters

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