Archive | 2011 | November | 22

New Windows app allows users to distinguish different colors with the phone’s camera.

If you were asked to differentiate between hues of camel, mustard or beige you would probably have a hard time doing so – most people would. But for the color blind, telling the difference between blue and yellow can be impossible.

Colorful, a new Windows phone application, says it can act as eyes for the color blind. The app enables users to distinguish colors with the use their phone’s camera – by using filters to change the color schemes and to fit the users color vision deficiency.

If you pointed your camera towards a bunch of apples, the app can tell you whether they are red, yellow or green apples. The app can also help distinguish colors in pictures on social networks like Facebook. Another feature is saving color “tags” for future use, for example, taking a picture of the user’s favorite shirt and saving its color as a tag so that next time the same color will appear in the camera or pictures the app will notify the user.

The app offers several options for color analysis: Standard – which shows the color names (blue, red or green); Extended – which analyzes the hue (maroon, navy and emerald); Artistic – which tries to relate colors to objects (chocolate, asparagus, strawberries.) The app can also analyze colors in printing terms, for example pink is #C76868.

The app was created by three Israeli students in computer science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – Edan Bloch, Maayan Negbi and Achia Shaag.

Bloch decided to work on the app when he found out that color blindness is more prevalent than he imagined; between four to 10 percent of the population, mostly men, are affected.

The Colorful prototype won Microsoft’s WPAppItUp international student competition. The app is available for Windows Phone 7.5 users for $1.99.

Full story via No Camels

This October Mumbai Skate Intl traveled to Israel to bring you some great skate footage as well as explore Israeli culture. Enjoy this video and feel free to leave any comments. For the full experience watch in HD on fullscreen.

Israel Nature and Parks Authority decides not to renew regulation allowing commercial ostrich, crocodile farming; Amendments comes into force in 2012.

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority decided on Monday not to renew the regulation that allows crocodile and ostrich farming for commercial purposes.

According to the decision, the regulation will expire next year. After that, it will no longer be possible to commercially farm ostriches, although crocodile farming will still be allowed temporarily, as will their transfer to countries where it will be possible to use their skin for leather products such as bags and shoes.

Slaughtering them in Israel, however, will no longer be allowed.

It is expected that additional limits will be placed on commercial use of crocodiles, and that eventually crocodile farming in Israel will be completely outlawed.

These decisions do not affect zoos or other sites holding crocodiles for non-commercial purposes, such as Hamat Gader Crocodile Farm in the Galilee in northern Israel.

Any decisions regarding crocodile farming in Israel are subject to the approval of Environment Minister Gilad Erdan. He is expected to approve this latest decision.

Source: Haaretz

Renowned Israeli writer surprised to find one of his biggest fans in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Israeli writer Amos Oz is very popular around the globe, but he too was surprised to discover that one of his biggest fans lives on the other end of the world – in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The fan, who owns a bookstore and an Internet café, decided to rename his business “Oz” after the Israeli author.

On a sign at the front of the store he placed a large picture of the novelist, and inside the shop one can find additional pictures alongside quotes from his books, as well as Oz novels translated into Portuguese.

Last week, the fan traveled seven hours to Sao Paolo to meet his favorite writer, who arrived in the Brazilian city to attend an event held in his honor by the Israeli Consulate.

Consul-General Ilan Sztulman introduced the two, and the guest showed the excited Oz pictures of his shop.

Source: Ynetnews

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