This "swimming apparatus" was patented on Nov. 13, 1900.
What was the inventor's full name, and where (exactly) was he born?
Extra Credit: In what city was his second child born, and what project was he undertaking there in the year before her birth?
Here's an account of Yang Cai's tombstone-reading software in action.
"This is just kind of a fun project ... but I think it's very meaningful to have something where people feel excited," said Cai, director of Carnegie Mellon CyLab's ambient intelligence lab, as research assistants cloaked in black focused a beam of light and a digital camera on Isabelle Seville's weathered gravestone. "We take this as a combination of science, art, technology and culture."
The Rev. Richard Davies couldn't read the worn indentations in Seville's tombstone. Charcoal or crayon rubbings revealed little. But Cai's technology constructed a 3-D image, complete with Seville's name, and her place and date of birth -- London, 1781. [Link]
CMU professor Yang Cai has developed software that can decipher illegible inscriptions on ancient tombstones. He's testing it on stones at Old St. Luke's Church in Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
During the past two weeks, Cai's research team trekked through the church's three-acre cemetery, scanning unreadable gravestones and then storing the images on laptops.
"We are exploring new 3-D reconstruction technology to decipher the gravestone names," said Cai. "Essentially, we reconstruct the tombstone surfaces by applying filtering and detection algorithms for revealing the words on the archaic surfaces," he said.
In addition to discovering who is buried in the church cemetery, Cai is developing a digital cemetery for Old St. Luke's Church. [Link]
George Freeth, whose mother was native Hawaiian, brought the sport of surfing from Hawaii to Southern California 100 years ago this Sunday.
Freeth came to Venice on July 22nd, 1907 at age 24 and by the end of the month, it was reported in the news that a Hawaiian was riding the waves on a board on the north end of Venice.A statue at Redondo Beach Pier also gives Freeth credit for inventing the "torpedo shaped rescue buoy that is now used world wide." If not for George Freeth, a lot more people would have drowned on Baywatch.
As if it weren't enough to bring what later would become the cultural phenomenon of surfing to Southern California's shores, Freeth is also revered as a pioneering lifeguard. [Link]
Ever heard the phrase, "I'm gonna hit you so hard your kids will be born dizzy"? A patent issued in 1965 for an Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force made dizzy infants a real possibility. George and Charlotte Blonsky thought that their spinning invention would be welcomed by "civilized" women who lacked the necessary muscle development to speed childbirth along.
It is the primary purpose of the present invention to provide an apparatus which will assist the under-equipped woman by creating a gentle, evenly distributed, properly directed, precision-controlled force, that acts in unison with and supplements her own efforts.
From webpronews.com:
This Grave Brought To You By...
Jason Lee Miller | Staff Writer | 2005-09-09
Here's a nice formula: Technology + Creativity=I Have No Idea What To Make Of That. A Miami man has invented a video headstone to help extend the commemoration of the dearly departed.
I can see it now.
"Grandpa: Sponsored in part by Jack Daniels and Ben Gay. Thanks for the Memories."
The Vidstone Serenity Panel, the brainchild of Floridian inventor and entrepreneur Sergio Aguirre, is a tombstone equipped with a solar panel powered weather resistant LCD screen designed to play a 10-minute video dedication to the deceased.
With a $1500 price tag, visitors can enjoy the presentation at the rate of $100 a year. It has a shelf life of about 15 years (or until the warranty runs out, sometime between one and ten years).
[snip]
[Read the whole story]
From the The Beaver County (Pa.) Times/Allegheny Times:
Memorable trendsPutting days and months on gravestones? Now, that's nuts.
April Johnston, Times Staff
06/12/2005
The death industry hasn't changed much over the years. Most people get laid out and buried. It's solemn, it's simple, it's predictable.
Until now.
[snip]
[W]ith the growing popularity of genealogy, [monument dealers] Steckman and Dioguardi are recommending their clients not only carve the years of their birth and death into their gravestone, but the day and month, too.
[snip]
Enter Robert Barrows.
Barrows is a sculptor, television commercial producer, songwriter and author from San Mateo, Calif., who could soon add patent-holder to his resume.
He is in the process of patenting the "Video-Enhanced Grave Marker," a hollowed-out headstone that holds a computer chip and flat-screen TV, so people can record video messages before they die for loved ones and even strangers to watch - using remote controls and headsets - after they've passed. He estimates his invention would add $4,000 to the cost of a headstone.
[snip]
[Read the whole story]
From the Los Angeles Times of June 5, 2005:
History Exhumed Via Computer Chip
Embedded electronic devices allow a cemetery's visitors to connect with some of the dead and learn their stories.
By Cecilia Rasmussen, Times Staff Writer
In Altadena, from 6 feet under, the dead speak.
Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum was founded in 1882, the year downtown Los Angeles first glowed with electric lights. Now the graveyard is illuminating Los Angeles' past: A high-tech headstone "library" tells the stories of the dearly departed.
Jae Carmichael, whose family founded the cemetery, hopes that a little technology can help visitors who want to know more about the dead than is told by two dates separated by a dash. The cemetery plans to embed a Memory Medallion, a coin-sized, stainless steel-encased computer chip, in 50 of its tombstones. About a dozen are in place so far.
[snip]
The devices coax stories out of stones, offering text and images about the dead in four- to five-minute silent minimovies. Visitors can take laptop computers among the giant oaks and Himalayan deodar cedar trees or use a hand-held computer with assistance from the cemetery office. The medallions are activated when connected to a "touch wand," allowing visitors to download photos and a narrative. Although the medallions are wired for sound, audible stories are not yet available.
[snip]
Computerized grave markers eventually could be able to simulate the deceased's image in a hologram, allowing visitors to carry on virtual-reality conversations with the dead. But dubious observers worry that such technology could be used to rewrite history.
"While this offers an exciting chance to hear voices from our past, at the same time, it provides descendants a tempting opportunity to beef up Grandpa's resume," said Michele Zack, Altadena historian and author of the recently published book "Altadena: Between Wilderness and City."
[snip]
[Read the whole story]
