Kite Surfer Cherie Down Beach November 27, 2011

I took this quick video of a kite surfer while enjoying the beach on November 27, 2011. The Thanksgiving weekend was winding down and it was a relaxing way to end a long weekend and recharge before going back to the grind.

Trying To Keep Track Of Meds

I noticed on the last post that I said that I started taking Effexor on November 20th, which is what I thought too. Last night, I couldn't remember if I had taken my pill so I went through and did the math by counting pills. Here is what I had in my notes:

That I took 1 pill per day of Pristiq at 50 mg through November 17, 2011 when I had my appointment with Dr. K. I agree that I started taking 2 pills per day of the Pristiq at 50 mg for a total of 100 mg per day on November 18th.
I had 22 tablets left in the bottle. The packages that he gave me had 7 in it so it had to be 21, or 28. Since 28 makes since with 22 tabs left, that would mean that I took 2 pills on the 18th, 19th and 20th.

Which means that I started the Effexor on November 21, 2011 and not on November 20th. This also worked out with my pills in the Effexor bottle. I had 23 pills left in the bottle which meant that I took 7 pills. So, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 makes 7 days and I was pretty sure that I hadn't taken my pill when I got home so I took one last night. I didn't feel any different so I'm pretty sure that this math is right.

Pristiq 50 mg thru 11/7
Pristiq 100 mg 11/18 thru 11/20
Effexor 75 mg starting 11/21

Happiness Is A Choice

From The Secret Daily Teachings

Happiness is a state of being, and comes from the inside of you. By the law of attraction you must become on the inside what you want on the outside.

You are either choosing to be happy now, or you are making up excuses for not choosing to be happy. But there are no excuses for the law!

Mostly Medical Update November 23, 2011

I went back to the doctor on November 18, 2011 for a follow up. I was on Pristiq and it was working well. I was planning to go back and ask for a generic type of the drug because I couldn't afford to pay for the Pristiq at $50 a month. But the last three days before the appointment, I was feeling extra anxious and keyed up.

I had been having some other symptoms as well such as decreased urine output, constipation and for the two days prior to my appointment very dry mouth.

Dr. Kinsella said that I likely was feeling anxious because I needed a higher dose. He did write me a prescription for Venlafaxine which is generic Effexor. He gave me a trial of two weeks of the Pristiq at 100 mg instead of the 50 that he wanted me to try first. I told him that I'd try it but that I just couldn't afford $50 a month.

I went ahead and got my prescription filled that day...$7 bucks. Now that I can afford.

I took the Pristiq at 100 mg for two days...Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th. I did notice an improvement in my anxiety, but I had really back chest pains (that might have been from intestinal distress), terrible gas and even worse constipation. At night when I went to bed I had a really bad headache as well. I was like screw this. Before I get too used to a high dose lets switch over to the Effexor (I'm going to call it that because I can remember it and it is easier to spell.)

I took Effexor for the first time on Sunday, November 20. I noticed some negative thinking or suspicions creeping back in. Especially on Monday, November 21 when I heard Divya call her friend and greeted her with what sounded like a flirtatious tone to me.

But what I've realized is that I have a lot of stuff that I need to get through and layers to peal back. If this goes all the way back to an event that happened when I was four then I have to make myself the priority. I don't have time to be worried about what Divya is or isn't going to do with her "friend." So I had to fight through those suspicions with my other tools such as relaxation techniques (which right now consists pretty much of deep breathing) and changing the focus of my thoughts.

I think that I am going to have to ask for a stronger dose when I go back on December 8th because of the reasons listed above as well as that I have this burning sensation that I get in the back of my neck when I feel like I've done something wrong or something bad is about to happen. I hate that feeling.

I'm reading my book and have some other techniques that I will try too so that it is not all relying on drugs.

The good news is that I don't have the anxious feelings at night, like jittery, I don't have headaches or chest pains, I am not constipated like I was and I have less gas. At first I was not hungry either but I think that may be going away.

I am sleepy in the afternoons so I may need to turn it around and take it at night instead.

I go back to the doctor on December 8th and to the counselor today, November 23rd.

Understanding The Drugs That Fight Depression and Anxiety

How Does Prozac Work?

• By Jonah Lehrer  
• November 17, 2011  |  
• 11:01 am 

• What’s the point of neuroscience? Why do we spend billions of dollars investigating those three pounds of flesh inside the head? Sure, human nature is interesting, and self-knowledge is a virtuous pursuit, but let’s be honest: we study the brain because we don’t want to die. Because we want cures for awful afflictions. Because we’re desperate to avoid depression and addiction and dementia. The only way to justify the terrific expense of biomedical research is medicine.
  Here’s the bad news: I think neuroscience has yet to deliver on its therapeutical potential. We’ve learned an astonishing amount about the brain in recent years – a ten year old textbook is totally obsolete – but all this shiny new knowledge has yet to heal us. As a result, we’re still stuck with pills and treatments that are frustratingly ineffective.
  Consider depression. Every year, approximately 7 percent of us will be afflicted to some degree by the awful mental state that William Styron described as a “gray drizzle of horror . . . a storm of murk.” This is a big societal problem, which is why 24.4 million prescriptions were filled for fluoxetine (the generic version of Prozac) in 2010 in America.
  The first thing to say about fluoxetine is that it’s an old drug, having been introduced in the early 1970s. (Like many medical treatments, it was discovered largely by accident, when researchers realized that a common anti-histamine had anti-depressant properties.) Until recently, scientists assumed they knew how fluoxetine/Prozac worked. The story was simple: depression results from a neurotransmitter imbalance in the brain, in which patients suffer from a shortage of chemical happiness. The little blue pills cheer us up because they give the brain what it has been missing – a dose of serotonin.
  There’s only one problem with this theory of anti-depressants: it’s almost certainly wrong, or at the very least woefully incomplete. Experiments have since shown that lowering people’s serotonin levels does not make them depressed, nor does it worsen their symptoms if they are already depressed. And then there’s the “Prozac lag”: although anti-depressants increase the amount of serotonin in the brain within hours, their beneficial effects are not usually felt for weeks.
  Despite our causal ignorance, anti-depressants remain an essential balm for millions of people, allowing them to escape from that recursive loop of woe. And yet, it’s also clear that anti-depressants are
  often disturbingly ineffective and, in many clinical trials, appear little better than a placebo. (See Irving Kirsch for a partiuclarly critical take.)
  Furthermore, even when the drugs prove effective, their efficacy remains mysterious. Although there are some exciting new hypotheses about the power of Prozac – I’m particularly interested in theneurogenesis story – we still don’t understand why this category of drugs is the best we’ve got, even after forty years of well funded R&D. (Of course, this mystery hasn’t interfered with the popularity of the pills: As Schopenhauer once noted, people tend to treat causes “like a hired cab that one dismisses when one reaches the destination.” All we really care about is the health benefit – the causal story is just a sales ploy, a way to reassure patients that our success isn’t dumb luck, even when it is.)
  And this returns us to the current state of neuroscientific research into depression. Last week, the field recieved a jolt of bad news: a hyped new compound from Glaxo (GSK372475) proved utterly useless. In two well done clinical trials, the drug failed to make people feel better.
  Why is this news? Drugs fail all the time. (According to one recent analysis, more than 40 percent of drugs fail Phase III clinical trials. The odds are even worse for brain pills.) What makes the dismissal of GSK372475 noteworthy is that it looked so good on paper. The molecule is a potent triple reuptake inhibitor (TRI), blocking the breakdown of serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine. While Prozac only alters serotonin, other successful anti-depressants, such as venlafaxine, block the reuptake of serotonin and noradrenaline. So it seemed like a good idea to also interfere with the reuptake of dopamine, especially since decades of research have suggested that more dopamine in the synapse is reliably associated with feelings of pleasure and reward. (Why do you think cocaine feels nice?) Although we still don’t understand how blocking the reuptake of various neurotransmitters cheers us up, we have yet to improve on that mechanism of action, which is why drug companies are still investing in expensive clinical trials for reuptake inhibitors.
  But that logic didn’t pan out. Not only did depressed patients on GSK372475 get better more slowly than those on placebo, they were also hit with a bevy of side-effects, including insomnia and nausea.
  Pharmaceutical failures like this are a sobering reminder that the brain and its afflictions remain deeply mysterious. Despite the billions of dollars poured into depression research, we still don’t understand the causal mechanisms of the illness, which means we don’t even know which drug actions to screen for. We can’t even imitate our past successes.
  Given such struggles, it’s not surprising that drug companies are dramatically scaling back research into the brain. (Most recently, four leading drug firms, including Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, announced that they were cutting neuroscience R&D. They cited the disconnect between scientific funding and pharmaceutical sucess.) The organ is simply too complicated, too full of networks and pathways we don’t comprehend.
  I don’t want to overdo the pessimism – betting against science is a losing game. But I think we need to be honest about the payoff of basic research, at least so far. We’ve learned so much, but we have yet to learn what really matters, whether it’s the neural underpinnings of depression or the triggers of Alzheimer’s or the genetic snippets behind, well, everything. The brain isn’t just complicated – it seems to be more complicated than we can imagine.
  So how does Prozac work? The sad answer is that we’re still not sure. And that means we don’t know how to come up with something better.
  PS. The Neuroskeptic has a typically great post on the failed trial.

Another Story Linking Behavior and Genes

Male Impulsivity & Addiction Linked to One Gene

Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer

Date: 18 November 2011 Time: 07:37 AM ET

Addiction and impulsivity have a genetic link in men, according to a new study.

The gene, a snippet of DNA called NRXN3, has previously been linked to nicotine dependence, as well as alcohol dependence, opiate addiction and obesity. The new research suggests a common denominator of impulsivity underlies all of these troubles.

"The other studies basically showed the NRXN3 seems to be associated with some addictions and with obesity," said study researcher Scott Stoltenberg, a psychologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. But our study is really the first to flesh out the mechanism by looking at behavioral control, looking at impulsivity."

Behavior and DNA

he connection between single genes and behavior is complex, to say the least, and NRXN3's connection to impulsive and addictive behaviors is not a "straightforward, simple story," Stoltenberg told LiveScience.
Nor is NRXN3 the only gene linked to impulsivity. A 2010 study found a different gene mutation associated with impulsive, violent behavior in Finnish men. Yet another gene variant found in 2006 was linked to impulsive aggression. And a single "thrill-seeking" gene has been linked to everything from a tendency toward promiscuity to a love of horror films.
In no case, however, do these genes doom one to a violent life full of sex and horror films (though some might wish they did). Environment and multiple genes act together to build personality, and there's no straight lines to be drawn from single genes to certain behaviors, Stoltenberg said.
"You almost can't paint a complicated enough picture of how genes are associated with behaviors," he said. "There are a lot of factors out there that influence our behaviors, and genes are just one of them."
Nonetheless, genes can raise the risk of falling into certain traps like addiction and obesity. In some cases, Stoltenberg said, genes directly make people more susceptible to addiction to a certain substance. In other cases, genes play on maladaptive behaviors, such as impulsivity, that make addiction more likely.
Impulsivity, genes and addiction
To figure out why NRXN3 kept popping up in relation to addiction and obesity, Stoltenberg and his colleagues recruited 439 white, college-age volunteers to offer up a genetic sample in the form of an inner-cheek swab. The researchers used only Caucasian volunteers to prevent race-based genetic differences from skewing the results.
The volunteers filled out questionnaires about their personality as well as their use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. They also completed a task in which they estimated the progress of time, a test that measures patience versus impulsivity.
The results revealed two intriguing and somewhat mysterious links between NRXN3 and behavior. In men, but not women, having a certain variant of NRXN3 increased the risk of problems with alcohol by 2.5 times. (The researchers didn't formally diagnose alcoholism, but relied on red flag answers in the questionnaires to determine who struggled with alcohol abuse.)
Likewise, in men but not women, a different variant of NRXN3 was associated withimpulsive behavior. As in other studies, impulsive behavior was closely linked with alcohol and drug troubles.
NRXN3 is a gene associated with maintaining the connections between brain cells, Stoltenberg said. The gene variant associated with impulsivity represents a change on a promoter region of the gene, meaning it's a part of the gene that controls how a certain protein gets made, not the structure of the protein itself. The amount of the protein that gets made could end up influencing the brain, and thus behavior, Stoltenberg said.
"It doesn't change the structure of the protein, but it might change whether you get a lot of it or a little bit of it," he said.
Unanswered questions
Stoltenberg and his colleagues, who will report their results in an upcoming issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, aren't sure why the gene is associated with impulsivity and addiction in men but not women.
"I don't have a ready explanation for that, other than there are differences in rates of alcohol problems in men and women, and also men and women differ in biology," Stoltenberg said. The gender-based finding highlights the complexity of behavioral genetics research, he said.
While the study cements NRXN3's role in addiction and impulsivity, Stoltenberg said much more research is needed to understand, for example, why one variant influences impulsivity and another is linked to alcoholism.
"It seems that genetic variation in NRXN3 plays a role in these behavioral problems," Stoltenberg said. "But I think we're pretty far from having a complete understanding of it."

Mother's Mental State Affects Baby

Mom-to-be's mental state may affect child's development

A fetus is sensitive to, and can be affected by, the expectant mother's mental state, a new study suggests.

November 18, 2011 9:30 AM

University of California, Irvine, researchers recruited pregnant women and tested them for depression before and after they gave birth. The women's babies were tested after birth to assess how well they were developing.

Consistency in the mother's mental state appeared to be important to a baby's well-being. Development was best in babies with mothers who were either depression-free or had depression before and after giving birth.

Development was slower in babies born to mothers who went from depressed before birth to non-depressed after birth or from non-depressed before birth to depressed after birth, the investigators found.

The researchers said they were surprised by the strength of the finding, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science.

Some might incorrectly interpret the results to mean that a mother who is depressed before birth should be left that way after birth for the well-being of her baby, the study authors noted in a journal news release.

"A more reasonable approach would be to treat women who present with prenatal depression," researcher Curt A. Sandman said in the news release. "We know how to deal with depression."

In another study, Sandman and colleagues found differences in the brain structures of older children whose mothers were anxious during pregnancy. Anxiety often occurs together with depression.

"We believe that the human fetus is an active participant in its own development and is collecting information for life after birth," Sandman said. "It's preparing for life based on messages the mom is providing."

Desire everything. Need nothing.

From The Secret Daily Teachings

To desire something is in proper accordance with the law. You attract what you desire. To need something is misuse of the law. You cannot attract what you need if you feel you need it urgently or desperately, because that emotion contains fear. That kind of "needing" keeps things away.

Desire everything. Need nothing.

Reasons for Anxiety Disorders: Medical

From the Workbook:
Long Term Predisposing Causes
Hereditary
Recent research in the field of behavior genetics has begun to hone in on specific genes associated with anxiety disorders. For example, the seventeenth chromosome (we all have 23) contains a gene known as SERT (serotonin transfer gene), which functions in the manufacturer of the brain neurotransmitter serotonin. People with the "short" form of the gene tend to be more predisposed to develop anxiety disorders (as well as mood disorders such as depression), while people with the "long" form of the gene have a degree of protection in spite of childhood and adult stress, from developing problems with anxiety.

Then I saw this article today:

Chromosome glitch tied to separation anxiety

Finding joins other links between extra or missing genes and mental conditions by  Tina Hesman Saey November 17, 2011

WASHINGTON — Separation anxiety in some children may be due to extra doses of a particular gene.

The gene, GTF2I, is located on human chromosome 7. People missing part of the chromosome that contains GTF2I have a condition called Williams syndrome and are generally extra social. On the other hand, people who have extra copies of that part of chromosome 7 may have social and other types of anxiety: About 26 percent of children with an extra copy the region containingGTF2I have been diagnosed by a doctor as having separation anxiety, human geneticist Lucy Osborne of the University of Toronto said November 15 at a press conference at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting.

Osborne and colleagues genetically engineered mice to have a duplicate copy or two of GTF2I, or to be missing one copy of the gene, then tested the effect of the gene dosage on separation anxiety with a squeak test. Week-old baby mice separated from their mothers send out ultrasonic distress calls. “It’s a ‘come get me’ signal,” Osborne said.

Baby mice with a normal two copies of GTF2I squeaked an average of 192 times over four minutes when removed briefly from their nests. Mice with three or four copies squeaked nearly twice as much, indicating greater anxiety at being separated from their mothers. Mice missing one copy of the gene were a little bit less vocal.

Previous studies have linked missing or duplicated genes to schizophrenia (SN: 4/25/09, p. 16), autism (SN: 7/3/10, p. 12) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (SN: 9/10/11, p. 12), but this is the first study to show that some forms of anxiety may be linked to added or subtracted genes. The researchers don’t yet know how the gene leads to anxiety, but GTF2I regulates the activity of other genes and helps control levels of calcium, which brain cells use to communicate with each other.

The mouse experiments make the observation of greater separation anxiety of children with extra copies of GTF2I much more believable than a mere association of a genetic change with a certain human disease, says Klaus Miczek of Tufts University in Boston, who was not involved in the work.

Even though the researchers have shown that duplications of the gene may be involved in some cases of separation anxiety, the gene is probably not involved in all types of anxiety, Osborne said. And not every child with separation anxiety will have extra copies of GTF2I.

Reasons for Anxiety Disorders: Childhood

As I read the Workbook, I'm in the section about what causes anxiety disorders. I wrote about physical causes somewhere else. I'm reading the part about environment now.

Childhood Circumstances

The first reason that resonated with me was "Your parents are Overly Critical and set excessively high standards"
..."There is always some doubt about whether you are "good enough," or sufficiently worthy.
As an adult, you may be overly eager to please, "look good" and "be nice" at the expense of your true feelings and capacity for assertiveness. Having grown up always feeling insecure, you become very dependent on a safe person..."
"...becoming exceptionally perfectionist and self-critical (as well as critical of others)."

I don't really remember my parents being overly critical...although there are extreme memories like my mom holding down on the bed and squeezing my pimples. But I think that my parents or at least my mom never felt adequate, so I never felt good enough. She didn't feel good enough for her own mom. She was adopted and her was Grandma's favorite because she was the "real" daughter. Mom never felt good enough in our church or neighborhood. I'm sure that bled through.

The second on was "Emotional Insecurity and Dependence"
"Up to the age of four or five, children are utterly dependent on their parents, especially their mother. Any conditions that create insecurity during this time can lead to excessive dependence and clinging later on.
...experiences of....physical or sexual abuse can also produce the kind of basic insecurity (as well as emotional dependency  that forms a background for anxiety disorders...
A common denominator in the background of adult children of alcoholic, adult survivors of other forms of abuse, and most people who develop anxiety disorders is a deep-seated sense of insecurity...When children respond to insecurity with excessive dependency, the stage is set for over reliance on a safe person..."

The reason that I sought out help in the first place is that I was too clinging with Divya and was so insecure that she was going to leave me. But as I read this I had a memory today, of how when I was five years old, I didn't want to go to kindergarten. (Actually, I started kindergarten when I was four.) Mom used to have to ride the bus with me. Finally, she gave me this owl pin to wear that had her perfume in it. The little wings opened and it had cream perfume so that I could smell her and feel safe.

I know that I was sexually molested by my grandpa. He died when I was four.

Have I been looking for a safe person since I was four?

Fear nothing - just think about what you want. It feels so much better!

From The Secret Daily Teachings

The tighter you try and hold on to something that you are afraid of losing, the more you are pushing it away. Those thoughts are filled with fear, and if you continue to persist, what you fear the most will come upon you.

Fear nothing - just think about what you want. It feels so much better!

Fear nothing - just think about what you want

From The Secret Daily Teachings

The tighter you try and hold on to something that you are afraid of losing, the more you are pushing it away. Those thoughts are filled with fear, and if you continue to persist, what you fear the most will come upon you.

Fear nothing - just think about what you want. It feels so much better!

The Start and the Diagnosis

God...that retched book...Get A Grip... with all of the "homework" was awful. It actually gave me stress and made me feel guilty.

I started therapy on October 28, 2011.
My second session was on Friday, November 4, 2011 and my third session was on Wednesday, November 9, 2011. I've been making enough progress that I requested that I go again in two weeks which would be November 23, 2011.

The therapist gave me some tools my first week which included some information for dealing with stress. I didn't like the articles and didn't find them very helpful. It directed me toward some other articles that did have some good basic ideas for handling stress. She also gave me a relaxation CD for breathing and guided imagery.

She said that I shouldn't put all of my eggs in on basket. That I should start having more friends.

I went in to the office because I was having issues with my relationship. The reality was that I was tired of being afraid.
After some talk and questions, she mentioned that I likely had generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

After my first session, the stuff was working but I just wasn't getting relief and I didn't think that I could live like that anymore. So I went to see the doctor to try to get some medicine. After asking me some questions, he said that the thought that I probably had generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) but also some depression.

I went to the doctor on November 3, 2011. He gave me Pristiq and Xanax. I was actually able to feel clear headed. I tried doing some exercise, reaching out to friends, not calling Divya, etc. I started taking the medicine on November 3.

At first my therapist was like...I don't believe in drugs, but after seeing me for the third week and seeing that I am making progress. She said that if it helps then it is another tool for me to use and that I may have been fighting this for so long that I made need some help.

Now, I have found an amazing book called The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook 5th Edition. I found the exercises appealing and now as I read through the diagnosis, reasons and causes, it has already helped me.

The last three days, I've been having severe bouts of anxiety and have been having to take the Xanax. Now for the last two days, I've been having severe dry mouth as well. I was going to go to the doctor for another prescription because Pristiq isn't generic so I couldn't afford to take it but now, it seem that the medicine isn't working for me anyway. I go back to the doctor today.

Secret Scrolls Quote

From The Secret Daily Teachings

Remember to remember means remember to be aware. Remember to be aware in this moment right now. Being aware is seeing everything around you, hearing everything around you, feeling everything around you, and being completely focused on what you are doing right now.

Most people bring what they do not want because they are not aware that they are listening to the thoughts in their heads about the past and the future. They are not even aware that they are being hypnotized by those thoughts, and are therefore living their life unconsciously.

When you remember to be aware, you are aware immediately. You just have to remember to remember!

Angel of November is Awakening

Inspirational Message 

Let the sun illuminate parts of you that are dormant, numb, or forgotten. Rub the sleep from your eyes and welcome the new dawn.

 

When one awakens and realizes the true state of affairs there is no interruption of experience. It is not that something that was not there is now manifest. It is more like becoming cognizant of the presence of something that has always been there and known to be there, but forgotten.

 

A large part of our identities have been sculpted by our parents, teachers, friends, and how we want others to see us. We have carried this as our reference point of who we are; the person we normally take ourselves to be - preoccupied with its goals, fears, desires, and issues.

 

Beneath the surface is a deep and vast authentic Self, but its presence is usually veiled by the noise of the smaller 'I' with its needs and demands. This confusion between the small self and larger Self is the core illusion of the human condition, and penetrating this mirage is what awakening is all about.

 

Before recognizing greater realities that are more extensive and multidimensional, it is a good idea to first learn to handle our energy and be accountable for the concrete results of our thoughts and emotions. Because, as we awaken, they automatically and immediately are translated into action.

 

For us to successfully create a new paradigm world in the midst of the current planetary chaos, we must discover a more light filled and inclusive approach to everyday life. By deep listening and acting on what feels like intuition, we can correct and refine our alignment to the instinctual impulses of our soul.

 

Invoke your Divine presence with the intention to allow dormant memories deep within to stir and heal key obstacles to your wakefulness. Ask for an energetic opening to remember your true Self - with such certainty that you will never forget again.

May the emanations of the Angel of Awakening fill your month ahead. May you remember your origin and welcome the new dawn.

Face Recognition May Become Intrusive

I am a big Disney fan. I live near Walt Disney World and am always excited when Disney introduces something new. This past summer at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California the Disney Imagineers introduced some new technology called The Great Destini. It used face recognition technology to measure your reaction and respond appropriately. My excitement is now tempered as I see how the face recognition is also being used to sell us stuff. I thought it was interesting to view the two articles next to each other.

Disney Imagineers use ‘Amazing Destini’ to further Audio-Animatronics research at 2011 D23 Expo

by 

Ricky Brigante

Posted on September 6, 2011

Audio-Animatronics technology has come a long way from its early days in The Enchanted Tiki Room. While that attraction is still enjoyed daily in Disney’s theme parks, newer advancements not only offer more lifelike “robotic” figures performing preprogrammed shows, but the promise of fully automated and interactive characters in the years to come.

And it’s just that interactivity that the creative engineers at Walt Disney Imagineering were “play testing” on an audience of fans at the recent 2011 D23 Expo in Anaheim, Calif. Within the convention’s Walt Disney Parks and Resorts pavilion, “The Amazing Destini” not only offered attendees a chance to have their fortunes told by an Audio-Animatronics figure, but they also took part in ongoing research, helping Imagineers improve Destini’s ability to naturally and autonomously converse, without the aid of humans behind the scenes.

At the D23 Expo, Walt Disney Imagineering researcher Josh Gorin explained the technological details that power The Amazing Destini as well the reasons why Disney has developed the project:

What seems to be a relatively simple interaction for guests chatting with Destini (who likely assume there’s a person “behind the curtain” controlling the character) is actually a complex computer system analyzing in real time facial expressions, speech content, and other telling features that help guide a conversation. Moreover, each guest at the D23 Expo who talked with Destini provided a rich data set for Imagineers to learn more. As Gorin put it, “Everyone who comes to talk to Destini is helping Imagineering to make this technology better.”

The Amazing Destini is part of Imagineering’s Living Character Initiative, which has in the past few years included Lucky the Dinosaur (a free-roaming, interactive, life-sized Audio-Animatronics dinosaur) and the Muppet Mobile Lab, which featured Muppets characters Beaker and Bunsen Honeydew in an interactive street show. But these characters required someone from Disney present at all times to control their movements as well as what they said. The knowledge gained from Destini is paving the way for future characters to be placed within Disney’s theme parks that can interact with guests in a meaningful, in-depth way, without requiring anyone to be digitally puppeteering or voicing them. Gorin describes the system behind Destini as a combination of “computers, sensors, and artificial intelligence,” but ultimately the goal is to have all that technology disappear into the background as guests feel like they are simply chatting with a real character.

Those attending the D23 Expo did have a chance to see the technology in action, via a large screen display mounted nearby The Amazing Destini. Imagineers appropriately dubbed the display the “Communicore,” a reference to the old Epcot attraction where guests could learn more about the computer systems that powered the park’s many attractions and Audio-Animatronics figures.

The screen showed the variety of attributes Destini took into account while talking with a guest, including analyzing facial expressions to determine mood, movement, and even knowing whether that person had interacted with Destini before - a short-term memory of sorts. Facial expressions could change the direction of a conversation, depending on if the guest appears to be happy, sad, angry, surprised, or impatient, with Destini able to react accordingly just as real person would.

But The Amazing Destini isn’t specifically going to be installed permanently into any of Disney’s theme parks. Instead, this research project is setting the stage for future characters to come. After seeing this demonstration, it’s easy to imagine being greeted into a restaurant by a familiar Disney character, in Audio-Animatronics form, who will not only be able to chat with guests before they are seated, but also welcome guests back if they are frequent patrons. Queue entertainment could also be taken to the next level with lifelike characters engaging in humorous conversations with guests, entertaining them as they are waiting to board a ride. In fact, if this technology works well enough, characters like Destini could form the next generation of meet-and-greets, becoming attractions on their own.

It will likely be a few years before this technology fully finds its place within Disney’s theme parks but when it does, Disney fans who had a chance to chat with The Amazing Destini at the 2011 D23 Expo can look back and be proud they had an opportunity to help Imagineering in the development of Disney magic.

(Photos by Josh Daws)

Face Recognition Makes the Leap From Sci-Fi

Jen Myronuk

Immersive Labs in Manhattan has developed software for digital billboards that gauges the characteristics of passers-by in order to display ads likely to attract them.

By NATASHA SINGER

Published: November 12, 2011

FACIAL recognition technology is a staple of sci-fi thrillers like “Minority Report.”

Enlarge This Image

Immersive Labs

Smart signs using facial recognition software are scheduled for introduction in three cities this month.

But of bars in Chicago?

SceneTap, a new app for smart phones, uses cameras with facial detection software to scout bar scenes. Without identifying specific bar patrons, it posts information like the average age of a crowd and the ratio of men to women, helping bar-hoppers decide where to go. More than 50 bars in Chicago participate.

As SceneTap suggests, techniques like facial detection, which perceives human faces but does not identify specific individuals, and facial recognition, which does identify individuals, are poised to become the next big thing for personalized marketing and smart phones. That is great news for companies that want to tailor services to customers, and not so great news for people who cherish their privacy. The spread of such technology — essentially, the democratization of surveillance — may herald the end of anonymity.

And this technology is spreading. Immersive Labs, a company in Manhattan, has developed software for digital billboards using cameras to gauge the age range, sex and attention level of a passer-by. The smart signs, scheduled to roll out this month in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, deliver ads based on consumers’ demographics. In other words, the system is smart enough to display, say, a Gillette ad to a male passer-by rather than an ad for Tampax.

Those endeavors pale next to the photo-tagging suggestion tool introduced by Facebookthis year. When a person uploads photos to the site, the “Tag Suggestions” feature uses facial recognition to identify that user’s friends in those photos and automatically suggests name tags for them. It’s a neat trick that frees people from the cumbersome task of repeatedly typing the same friends’ names into their photo albums.

“Millions of people are using it to add hundreds of millions of tags,” says Simon Axten, a Facebook spokesman. Other well-known programs like Picasa, the photo editing software from Google, and third-party apps like PhotoTagger, from face.com, work similarly.

But facial recognition is proliferating so quickly that some regulators in the United States and Europe are playing catch-up. On the one hand, they say, the technology has great business potential. On the other, because facial recognition works by analyzing and storing people’s unique facial measurements, it also entails serious privacy risks.

Using off-the-shelf facial recognition software, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University were recently able to identify about a third of college students who had volunteered to be photographed for a study — just by comparing photos of those anonymous students to images publicly available on Facebook. By using other public information, the researchers also identified the interests and predicted partial Social Security numbers of some students.

“It’s a future where anonymity can no longer be taken for granted — even when we are in a public space surrounded by strangers,” says Alessandro Acquisti, an associate professorof information technology and public policy at Carnegie Mellon who directed the studies. If his team could so easily “infer sensitive personal information,” he says, marketers could someday use more invasive techniques to identify random people on the street along with, say, their credit scores.

Today, facial detection software, which can perceive human faces but not identify specific people, seems benign.

Some video chat sites are using software from face.com, an Israeli company, to make sure that participants are displaying their faces, not other body parts, says Gil Hirsch, the chief executive of face.com. The software also has retail uses, like virtually trying out eyeglasses at eyebuydirect.com, and entertainment applications, like moustachify.me, a site that adds a handle bar mustache to a face in a photo.

But privacy advocates worry about more intrusive situations.

Now, for example, advertising billboards that use facial detection might detect a young adult male and show him an ad for, say, Axe deodorant. Companies that make such software, like Immersive Labs, say their systems store no images or data about passers-by nor do they analyze their emotions.

But what if the next generation of mall billboards could analyze skin quality and then publicly display an ad for acne cream, or detect sadness and serve up an ad for antidepressants?

“You might think it’s cool, or you might think it’s creepy, depending on the context,” says Maneesha Mithal, the associate director of the division of privacy and identity protection for the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission. Whatever consumers think, she says, they should be able to choose whether to be subject to such marketing practices. (The F.T.C. is planning a workshop next month on facial recognition.)

ON Facebook, people who find the photo-tagging suggestion program creepy may turn off the system that proposes their names to friends who are uploading photos. If people opt out, Facebook deletes their facial comparison data, according to the site. Users may also preapprove or reject being listed by name in a friend’s photo before it is posted on their profiles.

Those options may suffice for many.

But in Germany, where German and European privacy regulations require private companies to obtain explicit permission from a person before they store information about that individual, merely being able to opt out does not go far enough, says Johannes Caspar, the commissioner of the Hamburg Data Protection Authority. (Although the United States has federal data protection laws pertaining to specific industries like credit and video rental, no general law requires that all companies obtain explicit consent before storing personal data about an individual.)

Mr. Caspar says many users do not understand that Facebook’s tag suggestion feature involves storing people’s biometric data to re-identify them in later photos. Last summer, he asked Facebook to give current users in Germany the power to delete their biometric data and to give new users in Germany the power to refuse to have their biometric data collected in the first place. In the long term, he says, such popular uses of facial recognition could moot people’s right to remain anonymous.

Mr. Caspar said last week that he was disappointed with the negotiations with Facebook and that his office was now preparing to take legal action over the company’s biometric database.

Facebook told a German broadcaster that its tag suggestion feature complied with European data protection laws.

“There are many risks,” Mr. Caspar says. “People should be able to choose if they want to accept these risks, or not accept them.” He offered a suggestion for Americans, “Users in the United States have good reason to raise their voices to get the same right.”