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Vivek Kwatra
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Auto Awesome Yearbook Movies
#AutoAwesome storytelling

This time of year we reconnect with loved ones, and we reflect on the moments that really matter. Photos and videos help preserve these moments, and when you save them to Google+, #AutoAwesome can bring your story to life in meaningful, magical ways. #AutoAwesome can, for example:

- Transform a game of dress-up into a delightful animation (http://goo.gl/aJzYUj), or
- Create a highlight reel for a recent family wedding (http://goo.gl/Th3wE0), or
- Display an entire cliff diving sequence in a single image (http://goo.gl/b6weQ6), or
- Add falling snow to your favorite winter photograph (http://goo.gl/9gdPrC)

In all cases these gifted items appear in your account automatically, so as long as you’re backing things up to Google+, you’ll get notified whenever an awesome (and private) version is ready to share.

Of course: many people have been saving and sharing their photos and videos on Google+ all year long. And for those select users we’ve got one more holiday gift: an #AutoAwesome year in review (I've attached mine as an example). You’ll get notified in the next week or so if you have one of these movies waiting for you.

Most importantly we want to say thank you. It’s your support and enthusiasm that make Google+ so special. And we’ll keep working to help you tell your story. #googleplusupdate #year2013

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2013 GOOGLE PhD Fellowships:
5 Years of Supporting the Future of Computer Science

Developing and maintaining strong relations with the academic community is a top priority at Google. In 2009, we launched our PhD Fellowship Program (http://goo.gl/yTPtS), created to recognize and support outstanding graduate students pursuing work in computer science, related disciplines or promising research areas. 

In its inaugural year, 13 United States PhD students were awarded fellowships, drawn from an extremely competitive pool of applicants. The global program now covers Europe, China, India and Australia and continues to draw some of the best young researchers, reflecting Google’s commitment to building strong relations with the academic community.

Today we announce the 2013 Global Google PhD Fellows (http://goo.gl/z3KU9). From all around the globe, these 39 PhD students represent the fifth class in the program’s history, a select group recognized by Google researchers and their institutions as some of the most promising young academics in the world.  

Head over to the Google Research Blog (linked below) to learn about the program’s roots, as well as its impact on the careers of two past recipients. 

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Our Google I/O talk describing the technology behind video stabilization on YouTube. Also has a sneak preview of how its used for #autoawesome  photos on Google+. With +Matthias Grundmann and John Gregg.

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My team and I are pretty excited to be launching the 360 product photos today on Google Shopping. Taking still photos can be tough enough but getting great shots of rotating products at Google scale is even more challenging. Thankfully Google Research has some incredibly sharp computer vision and distributed processing folks to help pull it off and bring you these beautiful images of fun toys for your holiday shopping :)

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Excellent Papers for 2012
Posted by +Corinna Cortes and +Alfred Spector, Google Research

Googlers across the company actively engage with the scientific community by publishing technical papers, contributing open-source packages, working on standards, introducing new APIs and tools, giving talks and presentations, participating in ongoing technical debates, and much more. Our publications offer technical and algorithmic advances, feature aspects we learn as we develop novel products and services, and shed light on some of the technical challenges we face at Google.

In an effort to highlight some of our work, we periodically select a number of publications to be featured. We honor the influential papers authored or co-authored by Googlers covering all of 2012 -- covering roughly 6% of our total publications.  It’s tough choosing, so we may have left out some important papers. So, do see the publications list to review the complete group (http://goo.gl/i1x2).

In the coming weeks we will be offering a more in-depth look at some of the 2012 publications listed on the Google Research Blog, linked below.

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The latest from us at Google X: Loon.

google.com/loon

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Getting started with #AutoEnhance  and #AutoAwesome  

Many of you have been asking, "How do I apply Auto Enhance and Auto Awesome to my photos?" The good news is, all you have to do is upload some new pictures, and we'll do both automatically: 

- To review Google's automatic enhancements, just open a newly-uploaded photo in the desktop lightbox
- Click the new "Enhanced" button to toggle between your original, and Google's enhancements
- If you like the changes, keep them. Otherwise, just uncheck "Auto Enhance" from the More menu
- You can also turn off the feature completely in settings: google.com/settings/plus

It's the same story with Auto Awesome. Just upload some new pics, and we'll get to work:

- Visit your Photos page (plus.google.com/photos), and look for one the five Awesome icons on top of a new photo: Mix, HDR, Pano, Smile, Motion
- Click the Awesome'd photo and enjoy!
- And of course: if you don't want your photos awesome'd, you can turn off this feature too: google.com/settings/plus

In the weeks and months ahead, we'll also be enhancing and awesome'ing the photos you've already uploaded to Google+ -- it just takes a while to process billions and billions of pictures :-)

In the meantime you can either apply Auto Enhance to existing photos one at a time, or upload new pictures to Google+ to have them enhanced automatically. Either way enjoy, and let us know what you think of #AutoEnhance   and #AutoAwesome !
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2013-05-16
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Using Wearable Computers for Passive Haptic Learning and Rehabilitation
Posted by +Thad Starner, Georgia Tech Professor & Technical Lead - Google Project Glass

Ever try to learn a musical instrument only to give up because it took too much time?  What if a wearable computer could teach you the "muscle memory" needed to play a melody without the endless practice at the piano?  At the Georgia Institute of Technology, we developed Mobile Music Touch (MMT), a wireless glove that enables users to learn to play piano melodies while performing everyday tasks.  We call this process Passive Haptic Learning.  

The MMT device looks like a fingerless workout glove with a small box on the back containing a Bluetooth radio and microcontroller.  Vibration motors are embedded in the glove at the base of each finger and the thumb.  The song being learned can be loaded onto a user’s mobile phone and is played as they go about their business.  As each note is played, the glove taps the finger corresponding to the appropriate key on a piano keyboard.  The result: in as little as 30 minutes, the user learns the "muscle memory" of the first phrases of the song, even if their attention has been devoted to another task.

To test just how passive learning can be, we distracted users with various tasks.  Participants engaged in a variety of activities including reading emails, taking a graduate entrance exam, performing a memory test, watching a movie, and even completing a scavenger hunt while the MMT tapped their fingers. Even though they were focused on the distractor tasks, those who used the MMT showed significant learning and rehearsal effects compared to controls.  Surprisingly, only the vibration was needed for the glove to be effective-- on average, participants who only "felt" the music performed as well as those who heard the audio concurrently.

Dr. Debbie Backus of the Shepherd Center in Atlanta saw a demonstration of MMT and suggested it might be used for rehabilitation.  Working with Tanya Markow, a PhD student at the time, we designed a study to test whether the MMT glove might help people with tetraplegia due to partial spinal cord injury.  We recruited ten participants who were over a year past injury, the point at which rehabilitative improvements are thought to taper off.  Five participants used the glove for eight weeks and showed significant improvements on standardized tests of hand sensation and dexterity compared to the control subjects.  One participant stated he could "open doors better, and it’s easier to turn the key to start my car and use a letter opener now."  A pilot subject reported that he could button his own buttons after the experiment.  

While this work is still preliminary, the experiment suggests that Passive Haptic Rehabilitation may be possible with wearable devices.  We’re excited about this prospect and look forward to seeing the possibilities of haptics-based wearable computers unfold. 
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For more information, see:

K. Huang, T. Starner, E. Do, G. Weiberg, D. Kohlsdorf, C. Ahlrichs,
and R. Leibrandt.  "Mobile music touch: mobile tactile stimulation for
passive learning."  ACM CHI, pp. 791-800, 2010.
(http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~thad/starner-chi2010-mobile-music-touch.pdf)

T. Markow.  "Mobile Music Touch: using haptic stimulation for passive
rehabilitation and learning."  PhD Dissertation, Georgia Institute of
Technology, May 2012
(http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/43665)

"Mobile Music Touch: Learning to Play Piano Melodies Without Attention" (http://youtu.be/uEdr6iY6F-w)
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