Rat's Laughter

This video is what first inspired me to look into listening to rats ultrasonic vocalisations.

It has now been proven that rats laugh. We cannot normally hear this though, as it is at a high ultrasonic frequency of around 50 kHz. Younger rats seem to be more susceptible to laughing, and they are generally more playful than older rats. It also seems that some rats are more playful and ticklish than others. The rats who enjoyed tickling would also seek out the human hands which had tickled them in the past. They also laughed less when around the smell of a cat, when too hungry, or around bright lights (rats prefer dim lights). In adults, it also seems that females prefer tickling to males, and that it is difficult for an adult rat who has never been tickled to start enjoying the behaviour. When young rats get to choose between adults, they prefer to spend time with the adult who 'laughs' more.

It seems that rats laughter is distinct from their other ultrasonic vocalisations. They talk to each other, and only sometimes do we hear these vocalisations - for example when play fighting. By using a piece of equipment to listen to their usually unheard noises we can find out more about them.

In the paper called "Tickling-induced 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalization is individually stable " by Mallo et al. they mention that they studied low frequency vocalisations of rats:
and predicts behaviour in tests of anxiety and depression in rats

"We also studied the emission of low-frequency USVs in the

range of 20-kHz, that have long been associated with negative

events and stimuli and 50-kHz USVs and hence the emotional messages they carry

are mutually exclusive or not, the associations between the two

types of USVs were assessed, and no correlations were found."

This shows that rats also have lower frequency vocalisations which are different to their higher frequency ones, and carry different meanings.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/2010/08/03/laughing-rats-and-ticklish-gorillas-joy-and-mirth-in-humans-and-other-animals/

http://www.onesci.com/w/wix/images/0/0a/Tickling_Rats.pdf

Our Game Idea (Group Project)

For this project we are  going to make a game using Canvas and / or SVG.

We will be doing the art ourselves, and giving the game a retro feel with lots of pixel art.

The game will be in the style of an automatic side scrolling platformer, in a similar style (motion wise) to Robot Unicorn Attack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Unicorn_Attack).

The main character will be a cat, and you will be able to collect items such as cupcakes (good) and poison bottles (bad) which will change the appearance of the main character, and also the 'mood' and colour scheme / level design of the game.

The 'good' items that you collect will add 5 points to your score, and the 'bad' items will subtract 5 points.

The aim of the game is to complete the level without falling into a hole or blowing yourself up by colliding with the scenery, and get the highest score you can.

Updated Applications

My sites are now live - the Fluffy Friend Finder can be viewed at: http://christabriggs.co.uk/fff/

And the Music Matcher can be found at: http://christabriggs.co.uk/musicmatcher/MusicMatcher.html

I really wish I could have gotten the application working with geolocation AND the points on the map. But overall I am not unhappy with the site. If I could get real data from animal sanctuaries, and get the geolocation map displaying information, then it could be a viable application.

Contact Page

This is a contact page - a form and a link to an email address and twitter should make it easy for curious people to get in touch.

Customised Search using HTML, XML, and JavaScript.

I used an XML page to get the results from this form. The form used JavaScript to generate the table of results.

Here's a screenshot of my 'Customised Search' page.

You select the options from the drop down menu.

Here's what happens if there are no results:

And if you get some results from the XML database...

A Futuristic 'Killer App'

I have just finished this simulation of an application. It (is meant to) use RDF files of music on your computer to look at artists you like, and find similar artists for you to listen to.

Here are some screenshots of it in action:

Loading...

Fetching RDF files...

Analysing music...

Comparing artists...

Your results!

It would be pretty cool if it was a real application, I'm sure I would use it to find more music.

SVG (Group Project)

SVG stands for Scaleable Vector Graphics. It is a markup language which works with 2D vector and raster images, as well as text. SVG is XML based, and drawings created can be interactive and dynamic. It can be used to create basic shapes such as rectangles and circles, but can also create filters such as a gaussian blur and gradients.

But why would you want to use SVG rather than any other kind of graphic file? Adobe describe SVG's as "compact and provide high-quality graphics on the Web, in print, and on resource-limited handeld devices. In addition, SVG supports scripting and animation, so is ideal for interactive, data-driven, personalized graphics".

SVG's are scaleable, meaning that users can "zoom in" to view the image in more detail. They can also be displayed well at varying resolutions. They are rendered on the viewers side, so will use their processing power.