Youtube introduces automatic captioning for the deaf- Why should you get excited about it?

Youtube has come out with a brand new feature - Automatic captioning of its video to produce subtitles for the benefit of the deaf. In a nutshell, the service will produce subtitles for videos which have been spoken in fluent English. So for example , a deaf person watching a video of Obama making a speech can read about it in real time as he/she watches the video. That's cool!
But this technology if fully developed has some really deep implications on the way we use our online content. Essentially it is an extension of audio based content retrieval. Some of them I enlist here, others you are free to dream about:

Multiple language captioning: A video which has content in English language can be understood by a French person if the technology allows the bot to translate languages. That means a deaf(or otherwise) French guy can view Obama make his speech and understand it completely, all in real time.
Social Media: We already have been using videos on social networking sites for ages. How about using it for social networking? Videos uploaded online could be therefore processed for references of people within ones social circle. These references could then be used for all the millions of applications now being built on the social media platform. For example , if I'm uploading a video of my friends Ross and Chandler, then a alert could shoot off onto their (and possibly their friends) Facebook pages.
Brand management: Companies can derive useful information from user videos regarding the impact of their product has created. Obviously this application is weak in the sense that users will rather opt for textual medium(at least for a few years more) to put their feelings out in the open.
Marketing: This is one that is accompanied with any innovation in the field of information retrieval. Videos often seem to have content that is different from what their titles state. For eg, a video titles "The best hangout place in Mumbai" could talk about something different , say sea food at one particular place. In such a case it would be better to use the video itself to generate ads.
Clustering based on content: All of the above applications are more of audio based content ones. One use that is based on video content(Obviously this does not relate to this particular innovation) is grouping videos based on the spectral patterns of the content. Something similar to Image Swirl by google(Check it out here) . So outdoor videos can be separated from indoors, etc.

Well I have gone on for more than a googol pages it seems . But I'm sure you see that this technology could have far reaching effects. I'm particularly interested in the social media aspect of it since video based social networking is really not into the picture yet.. Something to watch out for...

A whacky startup idea!!

I just came across this startup while I was wasting time online the other day.
It is called PHOKATCOPY

Although the host website classified it as a web startup, it is much more than that. And I'm not very sure about the level of success of this service(although the company website quotes impressive figures-student base of 60000+ ...Wow!!) but what impresses me the most is the simplicity of the idea. It is only apt that the idea was formulated in the minds of a couple of IITD students.
The idea is basically this- Students, all kinds of them need xerox. So the company strikes a deal with some corporate biggies and puts their advertisements onto the back and front cover of the xerox to earn a profit. And then they 'share' their profit with the students in the form of a rebate(hence the "phokat" tag) plus some goodies which get by using special coupons. In addition to this they also collaborate with the colleges to widen their reach. Simple yet ingenious!
Just amazed to see what others are doing while I'm just whiling away time online. :(

Amazing ad!

This is one of the best ads I've ever seen, not just because of the concept but also the execution. And the music will definitely strike a chord.

Finally back!

Yeah .. its been a long break .. and I have absolutely no explainations for it... But this time round without hope or agenda I shall continue blogging. As far as this post goes I have nothing more to add, I'll just leave you with this thought.

You can't anything on this planet apart from gravity

By the way just registered on twitter. You can follow me if you wish to. At www.twitter.com/deepmp. Its a great service and I don't think I'm worthy enough even to testify.

The MNS thing:'They' have a say

People who know me well know that I love Pune. Also I love travelling to Pune. So I was all set for a pleasant train journey last week after a particularly tiring day. Now, I couldn't get a reserved berth for myself and that meant I needed to stand for the next for the next 3 hours.Suddenly the scenic mountains were gone and in came visions of an aching body. And then out of the blues I decided to do something I had never done because it was 'cheap' but secretly I always wanted to. So here I was sitting at the doorsteps of the coach. To my surprise,nobody bothered to notice me.
An hour and half passed and I was joined by a guy not more than say 23-24, smelled of crude jasmine oil,with a 6600 in one hand and a carry on bag in the other. He looked at me gazing at him. I withdrew and went back to examining a blank tunnel wall, wee-bit embarrassed. Then without warning he pulled one of my legs up!! I saw a fast approaching platform, pulled back and had a narrow escape. Before I could thank him he said " Arre bhhaiya abhi tang chali jaati ". It must be the whole controversy surrounding north Indians or it just might be my narrow mindedness, but the first thing that I noticed was that he was one of 'them'....To be continued soon

My Ecological footprint

Wikipedia defines one's ecological footprint as-
The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It compares human demand with planet Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate it.

To put it in simpler terms... It tells you ki tu dharti pe kitna bada bojh hai.
That's because it gives you the ecological footprints in terms of earths. So if you have, say a footprint of 2.71 earths, we'd require 2.71 times the resources on the planet if everybody started leading a lifestyle same as yours. Which means you need to change certain aspects of your living. So go for the test and post your scores here. Mine was a meagre 0.41 earths :))

The link to the test is : http://www.myfootprint.org/

Top 7 reasons why I HATE North Indians

I hate North Indians. Yeah! The very sight of them sends hate waves down my spine...
But my reasons for such levels of despise are rather... should we say ... umm unconventional. Here's the top 7 in my list :
1)Those guys have Priyanka Chopra,Preity Zinta, Minisha Lamba, Neha Dhupia, Esha Deol and other goddesses ... All we have is Urmila Matondkar!! Wow!! That really excites me! REALLY!!
2) Their leaders find innovative ways to stay in the news like sting operations, chalisas on their names, memorials at parks... All we can manage to find are leaders who have no creativity as far as PR is concerned. Damn!!
3) North Indians get a large chunk of India... I mean, they get an ENTIRE DIRECTION to themselves!! All we get is a pea-sized state and an illusionary title MAHArashtra.
4)North India is to the North i.e. it is closer to the North Pole, this means that taking the annual pattern of the earth solar rotation and revolution into consideration, the cumulative amount of sunlight that North India receives is more than what we do.. And then we go about wondering about the cause of the power crisis... Brains, people, BRAINS!!
5) North India has been ruled in the past by the Mughals, Ashoka etc... It was the battleground for the Mahabharata, Ramayana, The Annual UP parliament Wrestling Championship, etc. Amcha Bollywood makes movies on all this futile issues and people. But I don’t see a film on Shivaji Maharaj or 'VT station at 6' any time in the near future. Let justice befall upon our souls!
6) Ok now here's one that I'm really concerned about: You see North India, as I have already informed you, is to the North. Ok? Good. So it’s closer to Pakistan. Now whenever Pakistan will attack us, they will know that we will assume that they will attack through the north. But that is where they beat us! Instead they shall fool us by starting from our own Maharashtra. Don't you understand the gravity of the situation?
7) You know, North Indians have this ugly habit of hard work. I tell you what it’s a scam. As Phoebe Buffay had hinted in FRIENDS, when the Ant People attack our civilisation, they’ll be looking for good slaves and they'd kill the rest with their acidic anti-people venom. North Indians know about this controversy since they are part-descendants of the LION-people (Singh, you see). All they are doing by driving our taxis, building our houses, selling awesome panipuri is just a preparation for Armageddon.

I told you my reasons were unconventional. Some might even find them impractical. But which seer didn't have critiques? My claims are sound. They are at least much, much saner than a certain Thakerey.