Pushpak Bhattacharyya (3 July 1962 – 5 October 2025) was an Indian computer scientist and professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the IIT Bombay. He served as the Director of the IIT Patna from 2015 to 2021. He was a past President of the Association for Computational Linguistics (2016–17), and held the Vijay and Sita Vashee Chair Professorship at IIT Bombay. Bhattacharyya led the Natural Language Processing (NLP) research group at the Centre for Indian Language Technology (CFILT) at IIT Bombay until his death. At the inauguration of the Nilekani Centre at AI4Bharat, IIT Madras, Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder and Non-Executive Chairman of Infosys, referred to Bhattacharyya as the "Godfather of Indian NLP". == Early life and education == Bhattacharyya was born in Shillong in 1962. He completed his schooling at Jail Road Boys' High School, Shillong. He obtained a B.Tech. in Computer Science from the IIT Kharagpur, followed by an M.Tech. from the IIT Kanpur, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from IIT Bombay in 1994. == Research == Bhattacharyya’s research areas includes Natural language processing, Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Psycholinguistics, Eye tracking, and Information retrieval. He made contributions to the development of multilingual lexical databases such as IndoWordNet and other projects related to machine translation and computational linguistics. He authored and co-authored multiple academic works, including Investigations in Computational Sarcasm (with Aditya Joshi), Cognitively Inspired Natural Language Processing: An Investigation Based on Eye Tracking (with Abhijit Mishra), and Machine Translation and Transliteration of Low Resource Related Languages (with Anoop Kunchukuttan). Over his career, Bhattacharyya published more than 350 research papers in journals and conference proceedings and supervised over 300 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students. His projects often addressed computational challenges for Indian languages, such as developing wordnets, building translation systems for low-resource languages, and studying cognitive aspects of language processing. He also led government- and industry-funded research initiatives supported by organizations including IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, and the United Nations. == Death == Bhattacharyya died on 5 October 2025, at the age of 63. == Awards == Patwardhan Award, IIT Bombay, for Technology Development VNMM Award, IIT Roorkee, for Technology Development Fellow, Indian National Academy of Engineering Eminent Engineer Award, Institution of Engineers (India)
Just This Once
Just This Once is a 1993 romance novel written in the style of Jacqueline Susann by a Macintosh IIcx computer named "Hal" in collaboration with its programmer, Scott French. French reportedly spent $40,000 and 8 years developing an artificial intelligence program to analyze Susann's works and attempt to create a novel that Susann might have written. A legal dispute between the estate of Jacqueline Susann and the publisher resulted in a settlement to split the profits, and the book was referenced in several legal journal articles about copyright laws. The book had two small print runs totaling 35,000 copies, receiving mixed reviews. == Creation == The novel's creation spanned the fields of artificial intelligence, expert systems, and natural language processing. Scott French first scanned and analyzed portions of two books by Jacqueline Susann, Valley of the Dolls and Once Is Not Enough, to determine constituents of Susann's writing style, which French stated was the most difficult task. This analysis extracted several hundred components including frequency and type of sexual acts and sentence structure. "Once you're there, the writer's style emerges, part of her actual personality comes out, and the computer can be programmed to make a story." French also created several thousand rules to govern tone, plotting, scenes, and characters. The text generated by Hal, the computer, was intended to mimic what Susann might have written, although the output required significant editing. French credits Hal's work with "almost 100% of the plot, 100% of the theme and style." French estimates that he wrote 10% of the prose, the computer Hal wrote about 25% of the prose, and the remaining two-thirds was more of a collaboration between the two. A typical scenario to write a scene would involve Hal asking questions that French would answer (for example, Hal might ask about the "cattiness factor" involved in a meeting between two key female characters, and French would reply with a range of 1 to 10), and the computer would then generate a few sentences to which French would make minor edits. The process would repeat for the next few sentences until the scene was written. == Legal issues == Jacqueline Susann's publisher was skeptical of the legality of Just This Once, although French doubted that an author's thought processes could be copyrighted. Susann's estate reportedly threatened to sue Scott French but the parties settled out of court; the settlement involved splitting profits between the parties but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The publication of Just This Once raised questions in the legal profession concerning how copyright law applies to computer-generated works derived from an analysis of other copyrighted works, and whether the generation of such works infringes on copyright. The publications on this topic suggested that the copyright laws of the time were ill-equipped to deal with computer-generated creative works. == Reception == The book's publisher Steven Shragis of Carol Group said of the novel, "I'm not going to say this is a great literary work, but it's every bit as good as anything out in this field, and better than an awful lot." The novel received some positive early reviews. In USA Today, novelist Thomas Gifford compared Just This Once to another novel in the same genre, American Star by Jackie Collins. Gifford concluded: "If you do like this stuff, you'd be much, much better off with the one written by the computer." The Dead Jackie Susann Quarterly declared that Susann "would be proud. Lots of money, sleaze, disease, death, oral sex, tragedy and the good girl gone bad." Other reviews were mixed. Publishers Weekly wrote, "If the books of Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins seem formulaic, this debut novel of sin and success in Las Vegas outdoes them all. And that, in a way, is the point.... All novelty rests in the conceit of computer authorship, not in the story itself." Library Journal stated "French invested eight years and $50,000 in a scheme to use artificial intelligence to fulfill his authentic, if dubious, desire to generate a trashy novel a la Jacqueline Susann. Shallow, beautiful-people characters are flatly conceived and randomly accessed in a formulaic plot ... a sexy, boring morality tale. Of possible interest to computer buffs for its use of Expert Systems and the virtual promise of more worthy possibilities; others should read Susann." Kirkus Reviews wrote: "The deal here is that author French is not the author, he's just the midwife, having allegedly programmed his computer to write about our times just the way Susann would... almost perfectly capturing glamorous Jackie's turgid but E-Z reading prose style and ultrareliable mix of sex, glitz, dope 'n' despair.... One wonders, though, if French's tale spinning PC will do as well on the talkshows as Jackie did. The computer weenies have been trying to tell us for years, garbage in-garbage out."
Boris FX
Boris FX is a visual effects, video editing, photography, and audio software plug-in developer based in Miami, Florida, USA. The developer is known for its flagship products, Continuum (formerly Boris Continuum Complete/BCC), Sapphire, Mocha, and Silhouette. Boris FX creates plug-in tools for feature film, broadcast television, and multimedia post-production workflows. The plug-ins are compatible with various NLEs, including Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro, and OFX hosts such as Autodesk Flame, Foundry Nuke, Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve and Fusion, and VEGAS Pro. Boris FX has incorporated artificial intelligence into its software, introducing features for noise reduction, rotoscoping, upscaling, and masking. The company has acquired technologies via mergers and acquisitions from Imagineer Systems, GenArts, Silhouette FX, Digital Film Tools, CrumplePop and Andersson Technologies to expand its visual effects, editing, photography, and audio tools. == History == Boris FX was founded in 1995 by Boris Yamnitsky. The former Media 100 engineer (a member of the original Media 100 launch team in 1993) released “Boris FX,” the first plug-in-based digital video effects (DVE) for Adobe Premiere and Media 100, in 1995. The plug-in won Best of Show at Apple Macworld in Boston, MA that same year. The Boris FX Suite includes a range of visual effects and post-production tools, such as Sapphire, Continuum, Mocha Pro, Silhouette, SynthEyes, CrumplePop, Optics, and Particle Illusion. == Media 100 == In October 2005, Yamnitsky acquired Media 100 the company that launched his plug-in career. Boris FX had a long relationship with Media 100 which bundled Boris RED software as its main titling and compositing solution. Media 100's video editing software is available as freeware for macOS. == Continuum == Continuum is a visual effect and compositing plugin suite that includes a library of over 300 effects and more than 40 transitions, including tools for image restoration, compositing, titling, particle generation, and stylized effects, along with features such as lens flares, lighting effects, and cinematic color grading presets. A key component of Continuum is its integration with the Mocha planar tracking and masking system, enabling advanced tracking and rotoscoping within the effects. The suite also includes Particle Illusion, a real-time particle generator used for creating visual effects such as explosions, smoke, and abstract motion graphics, as well as Primatte Studio, a chroma keying and compositing toolset for green screen and blue screen workflows. Continuum supports GPU acceleration and offers compatibility with HDR and 360/VR content. Regular updates introduce new effects, presets, and performance enhancements to expand its capabilities. In October 2018, Continuum relaunched Particle Illusion, a Mocha Essentials workflow with magnetic edge-snapping, and updates to Title Studio. In October 2019, Continuum introduced Corner Pin Studio with built-in Mocha tracking for quick screen replacement and inserts, 6 stylized transitions, and 4 creative effects. In October 2020, Continuum released an update that included over 80 GPU-accelerated effects such as film stocks, color grades, optical filter simulations, and a digital gobo library. The update also introduced a custom FX Editor interface, real-time particles, and more than 1,000 drag-and-drop presets. In November 2021, it added multi-frame rendering for After Effects, native Apple M1 support, fluid dynamics in Particle Illusion, and 60 color-grade presets. In October 2022, the software introduced 10 additional transitions, a revised Particle Illusion workflow, an atmospheric glow effect, and more than 250 curated presets. Continuum plugins have been used in television, streaming, and film projects, including A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO/HBO Max), Star Trek: Discovery (CBS), Andor (Disney+), The Curse of Oak Island (History Channel), Keeping up with the Kardashians (E!), This Old House (PBS), Ms. Marvel (Disney+), MasterChef (Fox), WipeOut (TBS), The Boys (Prime Video), and The Today Show (NBC). == Mocha Pro == In December 2014, Boris FX merged with Imagineer Systems, the UK-based developer of the Academy Award-winning planar motion tracking software, Mocha Pro. Mocha Pro's features include planar tracking (motion tracking), rotoscoping, image stabilization, 3D camera tracking, and object removal. In June 2016, Mocha released (v5) which introduced Mocha Pro's tools as plug-ins for Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, and OFX hosts Foundry's NUKE, Blackmagic Design Fusion, VEGAS Pro, and HitFilm. A simplified version, Mocha AE, is included with Adobe After Effects Creative Cloud and has been bundled with the software since CS4. A similar version is also available with HitFilm Pro from FXhome and VEGAS Pro. Mocha's tracking SDK is integrated into other visual effects tools, including SAM Quantel Pablo Rio, Silhouette FX, CoreMelt, and Motion VFX. Mocha Pro has been used in various film and television productions, including Birdman, Black Swan, the Harry Potter series, The Hobbit, Star Wars, The Mandalorian, Star Trek: Discovery, and The Umbrella Academy. It has also been employed in projects such as Gone Girl, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Game of Thrones, and House of Cards. == Sapphire == GenArts, founded by Karl Sims in 1996, developed visual effects plug-ins that were used by studios and post-production facilities. In September 2016, Boris FX merged with former competitor, GenArts, Inc., developer of Sapphire high-end visual effects plug-ins, to expand its suite of motion graphics and VFX tools. The merger brought Sapphire alongside Boris Continuum Complete (BCC) and Mocha Pro, integrating these tools for film and television post-production. The Sapphire suite includes a library of over 270 effects and transitions, organized into categories such as lighting, stylization, distortions, textures, and transitions. Commonly used effects include glows, lens flares, film looks, and blurs. The plug-ins are designed to be GPU-accelerated, allowing for improved rendering performance and real-time previews in supported host applications. A central feature of Sapphire is the Builder tool, a node-based workspace that allows users to create custom effects and transitions by combining multiple Sapphire plug-ins. This enables a high level of creative flexibility and reusability, making it a popular tool for both editors and VFX artists. Sapphire also integrates with Mocha, Boris FX's planar tracking and masking system, allowing for advanced control of visual elements within an effect. In October 2017, Boris FX released its first new version of Sapphire since the GenArts acquisition. Sapphire (v11) now includes integrated Mocha tracking and masking tools. Sapphire is available for Adobe, Avid, the Autodesk Flame family, and OFX hosts including Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve and Fusion, and Foundry's NUKE. As part of the merger, Boris FX acquired the rights to Particle Illusion. In 2018, Boris FX reintroduced the product to the larger NLE/Compositing market. Sapphire's plug-ins transitioned from C to C++ to improve performance and support higher-resolution visual effects. This update enhanced floating-point calculations, compatibility with film editing APIs, and integration with NVIDIA's CUDA for faster rendering. The plug-ins have been used in various films, including Avatar, the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Iron Man, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix trilogy, Titanic, and X-Men. == Particle Illusion == As part of the merger with GenArts in 2016, Boris FX acquired the rights to the Particle Illusion (formerly particleIllusion) product, a storied particle system from the original developer Alan Lorence, the founder of Wondertouch. In 2018, Boris FX released a redesigned version of the product to a larger NLE/compositing market as part of Continuum (2019). The new Particle Illusion plug-in supports Adobe, Avid, and many OFX hosts. == Silhouette == In September 2019, Boris FX merged with SilhouetteFX, Academy Award-winning developer of Silhouette, a high-end digital paint, advanced rotoscoping, motion tracking, and node-based compositing application for visual effects in film post-production. The acquisition integrated Silhouette's advanced rotoscoping and paint technology, recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures, into Boris FX's suite of products, alongside Sapphire, Continuum, and Mocha Pro. In May 2021, Boris FX released Silhouette 2021, the first version of Silhouette released by Boris FX to function both as a standalone application and as a plug-in for Adobe, Autodesk, Nuke, and other OFX hosts. Silhouette has been used in the visual effects of films such as Avatar, Avengers: Infinity War, Blade Runner 2049, Ex Machina, and Interstellar. == Optics == In June 2020, Boris FX launched Optics, its first plugin deve
Dailyhunt
Dailyhunt (formerly Newshunt) is an Indian content and news aggregator application based in Bangalore, India that provides local language content in 14 Indian languages from multiple content providers. Viru serves as Founder of Dailyhunt with Co-founder Umang Bedi. == History == Dailyhunt, earlier called Newshunt, was created as a Symbian app in 2009 by two ex-Nokia employees Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni. Later in 2011, Newshunt became available on the Android platform. It was by that time that Virendra Gupta, founder of Verse acquired the application. Virendra Gupta, better known as Viru, had started Verse in 2007 as a value-added service (VAS) company. In 2011, he acquired Newshunt from its owners Umesh and Chandrashekhar. Umesh became the CTO and stayed on to oversee its transition towards the smartphone era. In 2015, Viru renamed Newshunt as Dailyhunt. In early 2018, Viru roped in Umang Bedi, to be the President of Dailyhunt and lead the business with him while focusing on making the benefits of the platform available to a larger audience. Umang was elevated to co-founder in 2020. == Funding == In September 2014, Dailyhunt (then known as Newshunt) closed its Series B funding of INR 1 billion ( or approx $12 million in 2014) from Sequoia Capital India. The Series C funding round was led by Falcon Capital and was closed with $40 million in February 2015. In October 2016, the company received its Series D funding of $25 million from ByteDance and a Series E funding of $6.39 million from Falcon Edge Capital in September 2018. Additionally, Dailyhunt raised $3 Mn (INR 21.75 Cr) in a Series F funding round from Stonebridge Capital in August 2019. Other investors of Dailyhunt include Matrix Partners India, Omidyar Network, Goldman Sachs and Sofina. == Tie-ups and partnerships == In January 2021, Dailyhunt partnered with Twitter to bring ‘Twitter Moments’ to the Indian social app. Dailyhunt app now has a dedicated tab called “Twitter Moments India” to showcase curated tweets pertaining to news and other events. In January 2021, Dailyhunt announced the premiere of Season 2 of the popular show QuoteUnquote with KK (Kapil Khandelwal) on the app. It was the first podcast to have been launched on the Dailyhunt app. In September 2020, Dailyhunt signed up as an Associate Sponsor with Star Sports for Dream 11 IPL 2020. In May 2020, Snapdeal partnered with Dailyhunt to add new content on marketplace. In March 2019, Discovery Communications India, the factual entertainment network, entered into a multi-year partnership with Dailyhunt to showcase short-form content.
Frankenstein complex
The Frankenstein complex is a term coined by Isaac Asimov in his robot series, referring to the fear of mechanical men. == History == Some of Asimov's science fiction short stories and novels predict that this suspicion will become strongest and most widespread in respect of "mechanical men" that most-closely resemble human beings (see android), but it is also present on a lower level against robots that are plainly electromechanical automatons. The "Frankenstein complex" is similar in many respects to Masahiro Mori's uncanny valley hypothesis. The name, "Frankenstein complex", is derived from the name of Victor Frankenstein in the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. In Shelley's story, Frankenstein created an intelligent, somewhat superhuman being, but he finds that his creation is horrifying to behold and abandons it. This ultimately leads to Victor's death at the conclusion of a vendetta between himself and his creation. In much of his fiction, Asimov depicts the general attitude of the public towards robots as negative, with ordinary people fearing that robots will either replace them or dominate them, although dominance would not be allowed under the specifications of the Three Laws of Robotics, the first of which is: "A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." However, Asimov's fictitious earthly public is not fully persuaded by this, and remains largely suspicious and fearful of robots. I, Robot's short story "Little Lost Robot" is about this "fear of robots". In Asimov's robot novels, the Frankenstein complex is a major problem for roboticists and robot manufacturers. They do all they can to reassure the public that robots are harmless, even though this sometimes involves hiding the truth because they think that the public would misunderstand it. The fear by the public and the response of the manufacturers is an example of the theme of paternalism, the dread of paternalism, and the conflicts that arise from it in Asimov's fiction. The same theme occurs in many later works of fiction featuring robots, although it is rarely referred to as such.
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 Computer graphics, image processing and environmental data representation is a standardization subcommittee of the joint subcommittee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which develops and facilitates standards within the field of computer graphics, image processing, and environmental data representation. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 is the British Standards Institute (BSI) located in the United Kingdom. == History == ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 was formed in 1987 from ISO/TC 97 as a result of Resolution 21 at the ISO/IEC JTC 1 plenary. The group's origins began in computer graphics, the standardization of which was originally under ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 21/WG 2. However, when ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 was created, the standardization activity of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 21/WG 2 was carried over to the new subcommittee. The initial five working groups of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 were titled, “Architecture,” “Application programming interfaces,” “Metafiles and interfaces,” “Language bindings,” and “Validation, testing and registration.” The work of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 began with the Graphical Kernel System (GKS), which was adopted from ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 21/WG 2. However, since GKS only addressed 2D functionality, attention turned to the standardization of 3D functionality. This resulted in two standards being published: GKS-3D in 1988 and PHIGS in 1989, both of which addressed 3D functionality. Since 1991, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 has held plenaries in a number of countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, United States, France, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Korea, United Kingdom, Australia, and Czech Republic. == Scope == The scope of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 is the “Standardization of interfaces for information technology based applications relating to”: Computer graphics Image processing Environmental data representation Support for the Mixed and Augmented Reality (MAR) Interaction with, and visual representation of, information Included are the following related areas: Modeling and simulation and related reference models Virtual reality with accompanying augmented reality/augmented virtuality aspects and related reference models Application program interfaces Functional specifications Representation models Interchange formats, encodings and their specifications, including metafiles Device interfaces Testing methods Registration procedures Presentation and support for creation of multimedia, hypermedia, and mixed reality documents Excluded are the following areas: Character and image coding Coding of multimedia, hypermedia, and mixed reality document interchange formats JTC 1 work in user system interfaces and document presentation ISO/TC 207 work on ISO 14000 environment management, ISO/TC 211 work on geographic information and geomatics Software environments as described by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22 == Structure == ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 is made up of four active working groups, each of which carries out specific tasks in standards development within the field of computer graphics, image processing and environmental data representation, together with ITU-T Study Group 16. As a response to changing standardization needs, working groups of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 can be disbanded if their area of work is no longer applicable, or established if new working areas arise. The focus of each working group is described in the group's terms of reference. Active working groups of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 are: == Collaborations == ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 works in close collaboration with a number of other organizations or subcommittees, both internal and external to ISO or IEC, in order to avoid conflicting or duplicative work. Organizations internal to ISO or IEC that collaborate with or are in liaison to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 include: ISO/IEC JTC 1/WG 7, Sensor Networks ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32, Data management and interchange ISO/TAG 14, Imagery and technology ISO/TC 130, Graphic Technology ISO/TC 184/SC 4, Industrial data ISO/TC 211, Geographic information/Geomatics ISO/TC 215, Health informatics IEC TC 100, Audio, video and multimedia system and equipment Some organizations external to ISO or IEC that collaborate with or are in liaison to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 include: Defence Geospatial Information Working Group (DGIWG) Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) The Khronos Group NATO - Joint Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Capability Group (JISRCG) OMG Robotics DTF Open CGM Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) SEDRIS Organization Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) US National Imagery Transmission Format Standard (NITFS) Technical Board (US NTB) Web3D Consortium World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) == Member countries == Countries pay a fee to ISO to be members of subcommittees. The 11 "P" (participating) members of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 are: Australia, China, Egypt, France, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Portugal, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, and United States. The 22 "O" (observer) members of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 are: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Czech Republic, Finland, Ghana, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Thailand. == Published standards == ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24 currently has 80 published standards under their direct responsibility within the field of computer graphics, image processing, and environmental data representation, including:
Fyre (software)
Fyre, formerly de Jong Explorer, is a cross-platform tool for producing artwork based on histograms of iterated chaotic functions. It implements the Peter de Jong map in a fixed function pipeline through either a GTK GUI frontend, or a command line facility for easier rendering of high-resolution, high quality images. The program was renamed from de Jong Explorer to Fyre simply because 'It wasn't taken yet' and so that in the future, it could support more functions than just the standard Peter de Jong map. Fyre features a sidebar on the left to which the user can input the required variables and on the right is displayed the result of the equation. == Extra features == Additional image manipulation tools such as Gaussian blurs and Gamma controls are included in the program. The advantage to using them directly within Fyre is that the image accuracy and quality do not decline. Fyre features animation capabilities so that a user can link together several maps and create uncompressed AVIs from them. However, the uncompressed animation files are very large and so should be compressed with a separate tool, such as mencoder. == Peter de Jong Map == For most values of a,b,c and d the point (x,y) moves chaotically. The resulting image is a map of the probability that the point lies within the area represented by each pixel. Therefore, the longer that the user lets Fyre render for, the larger the probability map becomes and the more accurate the resulting image.