Sarah Vickers-Webb – Emoji Foundation 😂

We Need Interracial Couple Emojis Now!

Sarah Vickers-Webb — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 05:00:49 +0000

So, now we have same-sex couple emojis, opposite couples emojis… is it enough? Far from it!

Tinder’s Interracial Emoji Couple Project released a video last February, calling to broaden Emoji representations of couples. The video features a series of scenes of same and opposite sex interracial couples enjoying time together, followed Emojis representing mixed race couples statement:

There’s an emoji for everything. Well almost everything. Isn’t it time emoji represented all love?

Tinder’s emoji proposal is co-authored by Jennifer 8. Lee, creator of the Dumpling Emoji Project, and Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit. Lee and Ohanian worked together to pilot the hijab emoji in 2016, and are continuing their work with the Interracial Emoji Couple Project. Their request? Three emoji skin tone options for each person in the emoji.

From the birth of Emoji, people have called for more representation–emoji with different skin colors, same sex emoji couples, and families with same sex parents, to name a few. This past February, Apple submitted an official proposal to the Unicode Consortium for emojis representing people with disabilities.

Considering interracial marriage has been legal for over fifty years (or even if it wasn’t), um yeah, it’s time. As of 2017, one in six people in the United States will marry a partner of a different race, which doesn’t include unmarried couples.

“It’s like that Cheerios commercial,” said Abigail Gonzales, who married her husband Enrique in 2012 . “It’s the face of the modern developed world. Everybody wants to be represented in visual culture, and Emojis are a new language that people use to express emotion.”

Emoji Foundation founder Niki Selken agrees. “It would mean a lot to have an interracial Emoji personally, as I am one-half of an interracial couple.”

Could interracial family emojis be next? We hope so!

To support the movement, you can sign the petition, share the video, or share the word, using #representlove.

Try Emojiflower VR at OMG Emoji!

Sarah Vickers-Webb — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 20:11:17 +0000

Saturday plans consist of texting your pals bored emoji faces? How about dressing up as a fun emoji instead? Better yet? Play emoji-fueled virtual reality game EmojiFlower VR, dressed in full costume, dancing with hundreds of other emoji fans!

Celebrate emoji culture with like minded folk at Mystopias’s OMG Emoji! event at the Great Northern on Saturday, February 10th at 10 pm. The event features a full lineup of DJ’s, including NYC’s Salinger, and SF favorites DJ Brian, Bradley P, and more. Prizes, including a grand prize of $200 will be awarded for best costume.

And we’ll be there!

Visit Emoji Foundation’s table to sample EmojiFlower VR, the world’s first emoji-themed virtual reality game, currently available on the Apple Store. Created by Emoji Foundation director Niki Selken, EmojiFlower VR features delightful, 90’s inspired visuals and a 3D audio with original music by San Francisco musician Tim Vickers.

Can’t wait? Purchase Emojiflower VR, for use with Google Cardboard or other compatible virtual reality viewer here.

Mystopia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to designing inspired and dazzling experiences for the Burning Man community, and their friends, year round. Never been? OMG Emoji! is open to anyone and everyone who loves to dance and share their love of Emoji.

The Great Northern is located at 119 Utah Street, San Francisco. Tickets for OMG Emoji! are available on Eventbrite.

Can Computers “Get” Emoji? EmojiNet Says YES!

Sarah Vickers-Webb — Fri, 15 Dec 2017 21:12:06 +0000

“Having access to EmojiNet can help computers to interpret the meaning of emoji.” -Sanjaya Wijeratne

Sorry Freud. But when it come to emoji, a cigar isn’t always a cigar (if there was, in fact, a cigar emoji).

In 2016, Wright State University computer science Ph.D student Sanjaya Wijeratne was working to identify at-risk youth using social media posts. While following twitter accounts of the gang-affiliated youth he began to notice unique emoji uses. Tweets expressing anger towards law enforcement, for example. frequently featured gun and police officer emoji.

But the most frequently used emoji? The gas pump. “We were surprised at first, but by looking at tweets using this emoji we discovered they mainly use it when talking about drugs, because “gas” is a slang term for marijuana.”

“That’s when it first struck me that emojis could take different meanings. I saw people using the same emoji in different contexts with different meanings, and I wanted to find a resource that lists all the meanings for a particular emoji.”

Flash forward to EmojiNet, the first machine-readable sense inventory for emoji, developed by Sanjaya and his group at Kno.e.sis, a project of Wright State University. Since Sanjaya’s gas pump epiphany, he and his team composed of fellow graduate student Lakshika Balasuriya, and advisors Prof. Amit Seth and Dr. Derek Doran, published three papers on their work, and are currently developing applications to help computers automatically infer emoji meaning.

Semantic Search

Sanjaya’s research on emoji is closely related to the concept of semantic search, a growing area of study and application related to database and web searching. Rather than searching by keyword, semantic search considers the searcher’s intent and the context in which search terms are used to improve accuracy, and generate better results.

Semantic search has huge implications for search engine optimization, as users have begun to lengthen search queries to gain more precise results. Google recently reorganized its search algorithm to consider context and intent, prioritizing the “understanding” phase of search over “achieving”, “filtering and clustering” and “ranking”.

So how do we figure know what a word means in a given context? For us, it’s mostly subconscious. For computers? Not so much. One of the cornerstones of semantic search is word-sense disambiguation. Word-sense disambiguation is a long-term with a simple meaning: determining the meaning of a word used in a particular sense, when the word has multiple possible meanings.

So… back to emoji.

Making an Emoji Sense Inventory

Sanjaya and his team are developing programs to help computers detect and understand multiple meanings of emoji. In other words, they study emoji sense disambiguation . An easy way to understand emoji sense disambiguation is to compare the results of two open source emoji databases.

Emoji Dictionary and Emojipedia are both unicode-based emoji databases, with starkly different purposes. Emojipedia results contain static definitions of each emoji, followed each rendering of the emoji, statistics, and links to related emoji. In other words, Emojipedia is the emoji equivalent of a dictionary. An Emojipedia search for “folded hands”, for example, displays the following result:

Portion of Emojipedia result for “folded hands” emoji

Emoji Dictionary, on the other hand, presents fluid and contextual search results, based on crowd-sourced definitions, nouns, verbs, adjective, and adverbs. Like Urban Dictionary, Emoji Dictionary explores multiple meaning of emoji based on content and intent. Compare the previous “folded” definition to Emoji Dictionary’s results:

Portion of Emoji Dictionary result for “folded hands” emoji

Whereas Emojipedia gives a short, concise definition of the “folded hands” emoji, Emoji Dictionary, on the other hand, provides a flexible list nouns, verbs, adjective, adverbs and examples, indicative of user intent and context.

Sanjaya and his team’s goal was to create a machine readable “sense inventory” of emoji, so computers could understand the semantic meaning of an emoji in a particular sentence. Upon discovery of several open source emoji databases online, including Unicode Consortium, Emoji Dictionary, iEmoji and Emojipedia. the team extracted contextual and part of speech meaning (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) of each emoji from Emoji Dictionary, then integrated the information with Babelnet, a multilingual semantic dictionary and database dedicated to word-sense disambiguation.

Thus was born EmojiNet.

EmojiNet

EmojiNet is the first machine-readable sense inventory for emoji, linking emoji represented as Unicode with English language meanings from the Web. By integrating online emoji databases with Babelnet, EmojiNet allows users to infer sense definitions from communication using emoji. For a better picture, check out EmojiNet results for “folded hands“.

“Emoji plays a huge role in deciding the sentiment or emotion of a particular text. But in certain platforms, and certain carriers, emoji are shown differently. If you look at how people use face with tears of joy emoji, they mostly use it to express happiness, but sometimes it is associated with sadness too. But if we build an application that can disambiguate emoji meanings, we’d be able to tell the meanings of an emoji in a text context, that would have a direct impact on applications such as sentiment and emotion analysis.”

The team is also focused on measuring emoji similarity by determining pairs of emojis frequently used together to enhance semantic search, and develop applications to automatically process and infer meaning from emoji based communication. These applications could improve web and database search, sentiment analysis, and interface design. Grouping similar emoji together on mobile keyboards, for example, could make texting with emoji less time consuming.

What’s Next?

Sanjaya and his team’s attempts to promote his team’s paper were frustrated by the current administration’s immigration policy. When the group’s paper was accepted at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, Sanjaya was unable to attend . A Sri Lankan native, Sanjaya is on a student visa. “We wanted to promote our paper at IABC , but If I left the country, I’d have to return to Sri Lanka to reapply.” With the current administration’s immigration policy, this is not a chance Sanjaya wanted to take.

Despite earlier frustration, EmojiNet is beginning to get attention from tech companies. Recently, data science platform Kaggle inducted EmojiNet as a featured dataset. EmojiNet is also in the process of organizing an emoji prediction challenge with Google, Microsoft, and Kaggle using EmojiNet data.

Sanjaya is excited to unleash EmojiNet’s potential. “I would argue that having access to EmojiNet can help computers to interpret the meaning of emoji. We want to improve tasks such as sentiment and emotion analysis with this information.”

To learn more about EmojiNet, emoji similarity, and emoji sense disambiguation, check out these articles!

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 7 Emoji Recap

Sarah Vickers-Webb — Sat, 18 Nov 2017 01:10:04 +0000

Queen Erika Jayne of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills never fails to deliver– on the show, the stage, or life in general. Friday seemed like a regular morning. I woke up, fed my kid, and was about to run out the door. The I saw this:

We were late to school.

My first reaction? Shame. How did I miss this? Would a maid of honor “forget” to check the date on her wedding invite? Would a midwife scan passed her client’s due date? Would Lisa Rinna miss a duster-related deadline for her QVC fashion line?

These women, particularly those of Beverly Hills, Atlanta, and New York (although this past season of Dallas was a true delight, see Leeann’s monologue ) are the friends I never thought I’d have, will never actually want to have, and who will probably never have me.

Photo Collage Credit: All About the Tea

I watch them when I am happy, I watch them when I am sad, I would have watched them while I was giving birth, except I was, disappointingly, all caught up (seriously, ask my husband). If I were to redo my wedding, each bridesmaid would dress as different housewife, and I would (obviously) wear Erika Jayne’s confessional dress/Lisa Vanderpump reunion dress from season 6.

After losing my father this year, I delved deeper into the Housewives franchises, particularly Beverly Hills, looking for stability and understanding in a world of chaos and grief. Did I find it there?

To be honest? A little. Mostly from Erika Jayne (How Many Fucks is basically my anthem). And a tiny bit from LVP.

More than anything, the Housewives shows are a dependable source of distraction, where we watch wealthy women (usually not actually housewives) hire people to make them look pretty, go pretty places, do pretty things, yet act ugly AF… and it will never change (please, Saint Andy Cohen, never let it change!).

Back to the shame… after a few moments of staring strangely at a wall, I remembered that 1) shame keeps us self centered (thanks therapy!), and 2) I had to get my kid to preschool.

So, just like Dorothy Day, I shifted my focus from shame to being of service to those with less than myself, namely the poor souls WHO SOMEHOW DID NOT WATCH RHOBH SEASON 7 !!!????

For those unable to prioritize catching up, I give you Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 7 in emoji translation. Because, sometimes, there are no words.

RHOBH 7, Episode 1: Stronger Than Ever

…in which we returning to the land of wealthy women arguing about strange things at boring parties, meet Dorit and her awful husband PK, and attend Erika Jayne’s surprisingly boring birthday party.

RHOBH 7, Episode 2: Buddha Bentley Birthday

… in which we attend another boring birthday party at Dorit and Pk’s, discover Erika Jayne will act on The Young and the Restless and watch Dorit ridicule Erika Jayne’s designer t-shirt dress.

RHOBH 7, Episode 3: Going Commando

…in which we witness the beginning of Pantygate–possibly the dumbest plot line ever to grace the RH franchise–and learn PK, a creepy, shiny man who enjoys looking at vaginas while twirling his finger in a circular motions, started it.

RHOBH 7, Episode 4: Pantygate

…in which Pantygate boringly dominates Dorit’s conversations, Kyle works on her tv show about her childhood, and Lisa R sells so many awful dusters on TV that she is told Harry Hamlin will never have to work again???

RHOBH 7, Episode 5: Amnesia Appetizers

…in which PK and Dorit invite Lisa R to an awkward dinner party and ask her if she and Eileen were mad at Lisa VP because their parents died, Erika Jayne voices her irritation at Dorit, and Elliot Mintz is weird.

RHOBH 7, Episode 6: Compromising Positions

…in which Kyle hosts her annual game night (requiring a party planner and an assistant for some reason), Lisa R and Kim clash again, Dorit talks more about Erika not wearing underwear that time, and Eden begins asking about people’s sobriety.

RHOBH 7, Episode 7: It’s Expensive to be Me

…in which Eden and Lisa R go shopping and discuss Kim and Kyle’s relationship and Lisa R informs us that Kim is somehow close to death, we witness the making of Erika Jayne’s “It’s Expensive to Be Me” video shoot, and we see LVP having a rough time facing her son’s search for his biological parents.

RHOBH 7, Episode 8: Boys, Blades, and Bags of Pills

..in which Lisa R shows Eden and Dorit her infamous bag of pills, Dorit and PK have another boring party where Boy George hides behind a curtain before playing an acoustic version of “Karma Chameleon”, and Kyle accompanies Erika Jayne to Greece where her Glam Squad prays for hard cocks before the show and they have sunrise photoshoots while Kyle easts spaghetti.

RHOBH 7, Episode 9: Harry’s Meat and Gatsy’s Fete

…in which Lisa R hosts a BBQ where her dogs poops on the lawn and we learn Harry Hamlin beat Cindy Crawford in a pie making contest, Kyle and Mauricio skip their annual white party to have a dull Gatsby themed party, LVP threatens to kick Eden’s butt if she hurts Kyle, and people don’t recognize Erika Jayne because she is wearing a wig.

RHOBH 7, Episode 10: Hostile Hacienda

…in which the Housewives head to Mexico for Mauricio’s Agency opening, Eileen’s kid attempts a suitcase stowaway, and Eden talks shit about Kim and Kyle to Lisa at Villa Rosa. Again.

RHOBH 7, Episode 11: Backed Into a Corner

…in which we attend a party at the Agency, where Lisa R says SHE DOESN’T REMEMBER WHETHER SHE TOLD EDEN THAT KIM WAS ON THE BRINK OF DEATH???!!!

RHOBH 7, Episode 12: Feeding a Need

…in which Dorit pulls up in a rose gold Bentley to feed the homeless, the ladies throw fish around, we watch Kyle and Erika Jayne’s friendship develop and Lisa VP buys Max an expensive couch for his condo.

RHOBH 7, Episode 13: Cake Therapy

…in which we attend Carnie Wilson’s cheesecake party, Lisa R struggles with the possibility of apologizing to Kim before doing in front of everyone, Kim says Lisa R never deals repercussions of her actions while not apologizing about the Harry Hamlin comments, Kyle demands Lisa VP “pick a lane”, in the conflict, everyone talks WAY too much about Kim’s sobriety, and Carnie Wilson is a island of deliciously flavored sense in the midst of a river of bullshit.

RHOBH 7, Episode 14: Sweet Georgia Jayne

…in which we travel with Erika Jayne and her glam squad to Georgia to see her mother act in a play, witness Kyle get a lapdance from the Fat Jewish while women drink wine out of straws, and cringe while Lisa VP invites some–but not all–the women to China.

RHOBH 7, Episode 15: Hong Kong Fireworks

…in which we travel to Hong Kong on Lisa R’s sleeping pills for Lisa VP’s dog movie, the women wear bizarrely mismatched and inappropriate outfits, Eden unleashes her plan to Fly to New York and lie in a hotel bed naked in wait for a man she’s never met (calming the women’s murder fears with the assertion that she is just as likely to kill him), Lisa R and Eden are annoying on a mountain, and Dorit reopens Pantygate on a barge.

RHOBH 7, Episode 16: Big Buddha Brawl

…in which we continue on the barge ride to hell as Dorit continues to be a bitch and makes Erika Jayne cry (eliciting Lisa VP’s statement that “the ice queen is melting), the women climb a mountain in the rain while wearing heels, Erika Jayne explodes after Eileen makes a comment about her son, and Lisa R finds the perfect time to ask Dorit if she was doing coke at a dinner party.

RHOBH 7, Episode 17: From Dogs to Diamonds

…in which Erika Jayne stuns us with sunglasses, Eden buys Erika Jayne a “friendship ring”, the women head back to Beverly Hills, Erika Jayne acts like an adult and apologizes to Eileen, Kyle works on her show, Dorit and PK are terrible people, and all the women get ready for LIsa VP’s party.

RHOBH 7, Episode 18: Diamonds Under Pressure

…in which we view another season finale at a party, where Lisa VP manipulates Kim to engage Lisa R in an argument, Dorit goes on about more Pantygate bullshit, PK oozes into the group to tell Erika Jayne she is “inherently cold”, and Eden screams “I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU BITCH!” at Lisa R. THE END.

Now that you’re officially caught up, it’s time to plan your premiere theme parties, delegate outfits, and pressure your friends who are too busy watching HBO or whatever to join you in watching the best documentary series in history.

Thank you to Brian Moylen at Vulture for his amazing Real Housewives recaps (where I conducted last minute fact-checks), and Danielle Schneider and Casey Wilson of BitchSesh: A Real Housewives Podcast for forever inspiring me and reminding me I am not alone.

What Is Your Meyers-Briggs Emoji?

Sarah Vickers-Webb — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 14:58:44 +0000

Ever stay awake at night wondering which Emoji encapsulates your Meyers-Briggs personality type?

Yeah, me too.

For the unexperienced, the Meyer-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory is a series of questions that, when answered, categorize your personality based on whether you are:

Introverted OR extroverted
Sensing OR intuitive
Thinking OR feeling
Perceiving OR judging

The results are, for many, disturbingly accurate. If you haven’t taken the test, do it here.

But the question remains… what to reply when your friend asks, over text, why you sent her 5000 pics of potential hair colors for her approval, rather than just getting the one you want? Well, here you go!

INTJ = Bar Chart Emoji

Organized
Idealist
Overly analytical
Judgmental

INTP= Light Bulb Emoji

Inventive
Creative
Insensitive
Absentminded

ENTJ= Crown Emoji

Motivating
Charismatic
Stubborn
Arrogant

ENTP= Speaking Head Emoji

Curious
Creative
Argumentative
Insensitive

INFJ= Raised Fist Emoji

Idealist
Sensitive
Private
Cause-driven

INFP= Crying Cat Face Emoji

Idealistic
Passionate
Impractical
Tendency to take things personally

ENFJ= Ear Emoji

Helpful
Eager to please
Overly sensitive
Self doubting

ENFP= Unicorn Face Emoji

Creative
Independent
Unfocused
Easily stressed

ISTJ= Balance Scale Emoji

By the book
Loyal
Insensitive
Judgmental

ISFJ= Octopus Emoji

Supportive
Reliable
Shy
Tendency to take on too much

ESTJ= File Folder Emoji

Dedicated
Organized
Inflexible
Judgemental

ESFJ= Selfie Emoji

Dutiful
Popular
Needy
Overly concerned about social status

ISTP:= Woman Scientist Emoji

Creative
Prioritizing
Risk-taking
Easily bored

ISFP= Person Lifting Weights Emoji

Flexible
Curious
Overly competitive
Easily stressed

ESTP= Shark Emoji

Energetic
Bold
Impatient
Risk prone

ESFP= Woman Dancing Emoji

Spontaneous
Enthusiastic
Easily bored
Poor planners

Now that you know how to explain your neurosis in emoji form, why not check out how your type effects your vacation, or your idea of eternal damnation? Have fun!