may the force be with you

The Mona Lisa became world famous after it was stolen in 1911

A computer has been used to decipher the enigmatic smile of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, concluding that she was mainly happy.

The painting was analysed by a University of Amsterdam computer using "emotion recognition" software.

It concluded that the subject was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry, New Scientist magazine was told.

The computer rated features such as the curvature of the lips and crinkles around the eyes.

The program, developed with researchers at the University of Illinois, US, draws on a database of young female faces to derive an average "neutral" expression.

The software uses this average expression as the standard for comparisons.

The New Scientist says that software capable of recognising emotions just by looking at photographs could lead to PCs that adjust their response depending on the user's mood.

Popular painting

Possibly the most famous portrait of all time, Mona Lisa's cryptic expression has intrigued art lovers for five centuries.

In 2003, a scientist from Harvard University said the way the human eye processes visual information meant the smile was only apparent when the viewer looked at other parts of the painting.

The painting, which is on public display in the Louvre in Paris, was painted between 1503-1506.

It was thought to be named after the sitter, most likely the Florentine wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

The Mona Lisa features in the opening of Dan Brown's hit novel The da Vinci Code when a Louvre curator is found dead near the painting.

source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4530650.stm

A report released Wednesday by the Harvard Medical School may turn some common assumptions about computer usage on their head. According to the report, titled "Hands: Strategies for Strong, Pain-Free Hands," heavy keyboarding may not be responsible for incidences of carpal tunnel syndrome after all.

Carpal tunnel is caused when nerves in the wrist are pinched, however it's not caused by frequent use of a keyboard, claims the report. Instead, it is caused by heredity, body weight, fracture, or even pregnancy.

Now, don't go out typing to your heart's content. Researchers still warned that improper computer use could cause different types of repetitive stress injuries, of which carpal tunnel is incorrectly described as one.

Thus, it's probably a good idea to still keep that gel wrist rest close by.

The report says that about two to three percent of the population is affected by the disorder. Surgery to relieve the pain associated with the problem is one of the most common surgeries performed in the United States, with over 200,000 procedures completed each year.

Research indicates that those susceptible to carpal tunnel do not increase their chances of the disorder by heavy computer use of up to seven hours per day.

The Harvard Medical School report also warned that problems due to improper computer use or workplace habits could contribute to injuries of the neck and shoulders, as well as other parts of the body.

"Ars Technica has a fantastic article that looks back at the most popular personal computers from the last 30 years. It covers everything from the Altair to the 8- and 16-bit eras to where we are today. A bit of a downer that they barely mentioned Linux and gave no mention to other significant OSes such as OpenBSD, but still a great read nonetheless."

source:http://slashdot.org/articles/05/12/16/0133235.shtml?tid=190&tid=126