2009-04-30

World's Fastest Camera

Clipped from: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Debut for world's fastest camera

Debut for world's fastest camera

The fastest imaging system ever devised has been demonstrated by researchers reporting in the journal Nature.
Their camera's "shutter speed" is just a half a billionth of a second, and it can capture over six million images in a second continuously.
Its "flashbulb" is a fast laser pulse dispersed in space and then stretched in time and detected electronically.

The technique hinges on an ordered spreading of the colours in laser light

Clipped from: Fastest Camera Ever Built Uses Lasers | Wired Science

Fastest Camera Ever Built Uses Lasers

Scientists have made the fastest camera ever. It can take 6.1 million pictures in a single second, at a shutter speed of 440 trillionths of a second. Light itself moves just a fraction of a centimeter in that time.
The camera works by illuminating objects with a laser that emits a different infrared frequency for every single pixel, allowing them to custom-amplify a signal that would otherwise be too dim to see.

Clipped from: YouTube - World's Fastest Camera

Clipped from: World's fastest camera : Nature News

Speedy snapshots captured using laser light.

The new camera can take snaps every 163 nanoseconds.

The team captured pictures of tiny beads moving through microfluidic channels.

Clipped from: Keisuke Goda @ UCLA

Welcome to Keisuke Goda @ UCLA

Keisuke Goda is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Optoelectronic Circuits and Systems Laboratory led by Prof. Bahram Jalali in the Department of Electrical Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests lie in the fields of optoelectronics, biomedical optics, and silicon photonics for biomedical and defense applications. For more information about his ongoing research projects, go to the Research page.

STEAM - the world's fastest camera demonstrated

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-29

Brain Music Therapy

Clipped from: Feds Turn to ‘Brain Music’ to Boost Emergency Worker Performance | Danger Room

Feds Turn to ‘Brain Music’ to Boost Emergency Worker Performance

The program is supposed to study how “brain music” — a customized soundtrack designed to either boost alertness or reduce stress — can improve the performance of police, firefighters and other first responders. As described by DHS, researchers will test how an “instrumental alert track” [...] can boost focus and energy, or act to reduce stress. A group of firefighters will take part in the experiment.

Clipped from: Employment Opportunities

Brain Music Therapy (BMT)

BMT is an effective, scientifically proven treatment for stress, insomnia, anxiety, and depression. It has also been found to increase productivity and concentration, and help reduce headaches. BMT records an individual's brain waves and converts them into unique musical sounds. These musical sounds correlate to brain waves that promote relaxation and trigger activation in your body. The musical sounds are presented to you in the form of two musical files - one relaxing, and one activating. Playing those files promotes relaxation and activation in your body. BMT does not involve taking pills, and has had no side effects to date. It is customized to an individual's unique brain waves and backed by solid scientific evidence, including double blind studies.

Brain Music Therapy finds, records, and reinforces brain waves that are associated with various physiological parameters, such as heart rate and muscle tension.

Changes in brain activity correlate with physiological parameters and reflect on emotions and behavior. The rhythmic patterns of brain waves promote distinct meditative and activating states. Unfortunately, a person's desire to fall asleep does not always correspond to his/her brain wave state.

Brain Music Therapy records brain waves using EEG (electroencephalogram) equipment, and translates them into unique musical compositions. These musical sounds are presented in the form of two music files: relaxing and activating. Listening those files reflects on individual brain wave patterns and promotes the desired state of mind.

Clipped from: HUMAN BIONICS

HUMAN BIONICS has been awarded a Phase III SBIR contract by The Department of Homeland Security to study a proprietary Wellness Program that provides Nutrition Education and Music-Based Neurotraining to reduce stress and improve sleep and cognitive on-the-job performance. Please Read: Cerebral Melodies.

Clipped from: DHS | Science and Technology (S&T) Snapshots

Cerebral Melodies

Improving emergency response through music

Human brains are powerful instruments. The Department of Homeland Security wants to help emergency responders manage their demanding jobs better using the music created by them.

The concept of Brain Music is to use the frequency, amplitude, and duration of musical sounds to move the brain from an anxious state to a more relaxed state. In British philosopher John Locke’s terms, Brain Music brings new meaning to his famous phrase: “A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World.”

Sources:

2009-04-28

Super-Strong Metallic Spider Silk

Clipped from: Scientists make super-strong metallic spider silk | Reuters

Scientists make super-strong metallic spider silk

LONDON (Reuters) - Spider silk is already tougher and lighter than steel, and now scientists have made it three times stronger by adding small amounts of metal.
The technique may be useful for manufacturing super-tough textiles and high-tech medical materials, including artificial bones and tendons.
"It could make very strong thread for surgical operations," researcher Seung-Mo Lee of the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany, said in a telephone interview.

Clipped from: German Scientists Spin Stretchier and Stronger Spider Silk

Many insects and other creatures incorporate small amounts of metals such as zinc, manganese, calcium or copper into body parts like jaws, claws and stingers to make them stiffer and harder. The scientists drew on a technique called 'atomic layer deposition' (ALD) to get zinc, titanium and aluminium ions into the spider silk.

Normally ALD just leaves a layer of metal oxides on the surface of the treated fibre; treating spider silk in this way therefore had little impact on its strength. However, by adapting the technique slightly, the researchers were able to get the metal ions to infiltrate the spider silk and become part of the thread.

Clipped from: Max Planck Society - Press Release

Power thrust for spider silk

A team of scientists from Halle has succeeded in making spider silk significantly more break-resistant and ductile through the addition of metals

Fig.: Endurance test for spider silk: in many ways, spider silk - here the picture of a garden cross spider in its web- is stronger than a metal wire of the same thickness. After researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics infiltrated spider silk with metal ions, a double-strand of silk can support the weight of a cube of 27.5 grams, three times more than an untreated strand.

Despite its dramatically improved properties, metal-infiltrated spider silk is unlikely to be used to reinforce either fenders or aircraft wings in the future. "It would probably be more or less impossible to obtain large volumes of natural spider silk," says Knez. The insects are very difficult to keep and are not particularly productive when it comes to spinning their silk. Nonetheless, Knez is convinced of the practical use of this power thrust for materials: "We are pretty certain that we will also be able to improve the properties of synthetic materials that imitate natural ones using our process."

Clipped from: Greatly Increased Toughness of Infiltrated Spider Silk -- Lee et al. 324 (5926): 488 -- Science

Reports

Greatly Increased Toughness of Infiltrated Spider Silk

Seung-Mo Lee,¹^,* Eckhard Pippel,¹ Ulrich Gösele,¹ Christian Dresbach,² Yong Qin,¹ C. Vinod Chandran,³ Thomas Bräuniger,³ Gerd Hause,⁴ Mato Knez¹^,*

Sources:

Related:

Animal-Like Leg Extensions

Clipped from: Kim Graham Studios

Digigrade Leg Extensions

These are Digigrade leg extensions. They are made of steel and add 14 inches of height to the wearer. But these are not ordinary stilts; they give a person the uncanny and graceful appearance of an animal. It is really cool! The movement of the legs is genuinely graceful and naturalistic. It is a great deal of fun being so much taller.

Clipped from: YouTube - Digilegs Demo

Clipped from: Silk Mermaid

Constructing large sculptures, step by step

Professional sculptor Kim Graham works at many scales. She especially likes creating large-scale (12-15-foot, 4-5m) sculptures. On this website, SilkMermaid.com, Kim describes in exact detail each step in constructing these large projects, from initial maquette (model) to eventual completion.

...

From time to time, Kim has paused work on the large projects to execute other commissions. She chronicles some of these on this blog, such as her recent commission “Satyr Legs.” The Satyr Legs project prompted Kim to design her new digigrade leg extensions, [...]

Clipped from: Digitigrade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Digitigrade

A digitigrade is an animal that stands or walks on its digits, or toes. Digitigrades include walking birds (what many assume to be bird knees are actually ankles), cats, dogs, and most other mammals, but not humans, bears, and a few others (cf. plantigrade, unguligrade). They are generally quicker and move more quietly than other mammals.

While humans usually walk with the soles of their feet on the ground, i.e. plantigrade locomotion, digitigrade animals walk on their distal and intermediate phalanges. Digitigrade locomotion is responsible for the distinctive hooked shape of dog legs.

Sources:

Kim Graham Studios
Kim Graham's Gallery
YouTube - Digilegs Demo
Digitigrade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Silk Mermaid

Related:

2009-04-27

Watson -- IBM's Question and Answering System

Clipped from: Computer Program to Take On ‘Jeopardy!’ - NYTimes.com

Computer Program to Take On ‘Jeopardy!’

I.B.M. plans to announce Monday that it is in the final stages of completing a computer program to compete against human “Jeopardy!” contestants. If the program beats the humans, the field of artificial intelligence will have made a leap forward.

Clipped from: Artificial intelligence's next frontier: Jeopardy | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Artificial intelligence's next frontier: Jeopardy

Watson will be competing against humans on Jeopardy, the popular quiz show. IBM is hoping that Watson will be able to understand complex questions—presumably from Alex Trebek—and answer them fast enough to compete with humans.
The knowledge part of Jeopardy—history, culture, science and other topics—can be packed into Watson. What’s unclear is whether the system can get all the nuances of the clues.

Dave Ferrucci, IBM scientist and Watson project director, with his baby.

Clipped from: YouTube - IBM "Watson" System to Challenge Humans at Jeopardy!

Clipped from: IBM - Research: Jeopardy!

“Question Answering” is technology's next grand challenge

IBM's computing system — called a Question Answering (QA) system among computer scientists — has been under development for nearly two years. With the April 27 announcement, IBM's researchers plan to put it to the test in a machine versus human contest on the gold-standard quiz show. And, officials from Jeopardy! announced plans to produce a human vs. machine contest on the renowned show.
Code-named "Watson," the IBM computing system is being designed to rival the human mind's ability to determine precise answers to natural language questions and to compute accurate confidences in the answers. According to Dr. David Ferrucci, leader of the project team, "The confidence processing ability is key to winning at Jeopardy! and is critical to implementing useful business applications of Question Answering."
Watson will also incorporate massively parallel analytical capabilities and, just like human competitors, Watson will not be connected to the Internet or have any other outside assistance.

Clipped from: IBM - The DeepQA Project - United States

Competing at Jeopardy! is just the first step

As difficult as it will be for the Watson computing system to compete on the leading quiz show for brainy humans, the ultimate test will be to move beyond the Jeopardy! Challenge. The goal is to have computers start to interact in natural human terms across a range of applications and processes, understanding the questions that humans ask and providing answers that humans can understand and justify.

[...]

Moving beyond the Jeopardy! competition, automatic Question Answering will help drive the future of business intelligence, analytics and information management, so that business and government decision makers will have the most cutting-edge capabilities for finding the precise information they need from the mountains of data they produce.

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-26

Andasol 1 Solar Power -- Molten Salt Technology

Clipped from: How to Use Solar Energy at Night: Scientific American

How to Use Solar Energy at Night

Molten salts can store the sun's heat during the day and provide power at night

Near Granada, Spain, more than 28,000 metric tons of salt is now coursing through pipes at the Andasol 1 power plant. That salt will be used to solve a pressing if obvious problem for solar power: What do you do when the sun is not shining and at night?

The answer: store sunlight as heat energy for such a rainy day.

Clipped from: Solar Millennium AG - We re Developing the Future. - Home

Andasol 1, the first parabolic trough power plant in Europe, has initiated its test run. This solar-thermal power plant is an important reference for Solar Millennium's expertise in project development and technology. Andasol 1 will supply up to 200.000 people with climate-friendly electricity and save about 149,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year compared with a modern coal power plant.

Clipped from: Andasol Projects

	nTechnology: „Solar-only“ Parabolic Trough Power Plant
	nInstalled Capacity: 3 x 49,9 MWel
	nStorage: Two-tank molten salt storage for 7 full load hours
	nProject Site: Plateau of Guadix, Province Granada, Spain
	nNet electricity production: 3 x 157 Mio. kWh/a
	nInvestmentbudget: approx. 260 Mio. € per plant

Clipped from: How to use solar energy at night or during rainy days | Solar Power | The Green Optimistic

The molted salt technology is very simple in theory. The molted salt has 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium-nitrate. The salt melts at 430 Fahrenheit and is kept liquid at 550 Fahrenheit in an insulated cold storage tank. The molted salt is pumped to the top of the tower, where sunlight heats it in a receiver to 1050 degrees Fahrenheit. The 1050 F heated salt flows back down to a second insulated hot storage tank. Hot salt goes into a steam generator which produces very hot steam for a turbine.

Molted salt technology is almost 93% efficient compared to directly harvesting the sun energy. The other 7% lost during the heat transfer to water is not so significant if we compare to other technologies of storing the energy that comes from the sun.

Andasol 1 is the first solar-thermal power plant ever built, and the investments costs go up to $380 million (300 million euros).

Clipped from: YouTube - Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

Andasol Power Plant Salt Storage Solar Millenium - solar thermal parabolic trough plant

Sources:

Related:

The AlloSphere A 3D Immersive Theater and Research Facility

Clipped from: The AlloSphere at the California NanoSystems Institute, UC Santa Barbara

The AlloSphere is a unique, one-of-a-kind scientific instrument that is a culmination of 24 years of Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin's creativity and research efforts in media systems and studio design. She approached the design of the AlloSphere in much the same way that she composes a piece of music.

[...]

The AlloSphere Research Facility is differentiated from conventional virtual reality environments by its seamless surround-view capabilities and its focus on multiple sensory modalities and interaction. Building the AlloSphere was not an off-the-shelf enterprise. Designing a large-scale multimedia environment to deliver rich, coherent, interactive, high-resolution 3D video and audio streams from voluminous amounts of scientific data, all in real-time, was a non-trivial computational and systems engineering task that involved a significant number of faculty from diverse disciplines. Creating subsequent next generations of the instrument will again require genuine creativity to solve significant research and design challenges.

Clipped from: Demo: Stunning data visualization in the AlloSphere | Video on TED.com

Talks JoAnn Kuchera-Morin: Tour the AlloSphere, a stunning new way to see scientific data

JoAnn Kuchera-Morin demos the AlloSphere, a new way to see, hear and interpret scientific data. Dive into the brain, feel electron spin, hear the music of the elements ... and detect previously unseen patterns that could lead to new discoveries.

Clipped from: YouTube - JoAnn Kuchera-Morin: Tour the AlloSphere, a stunning new way to see scientific data

Clipped from: The Santa Barbara Independent Enter the Allosphere

Enter the Allosphere

TAKE A LITTLE TRIP: A researcher begins a flight into the Allosphere, a $10-million magical mystery machine at UCSB. Colorful and scientific, the machine gives glimpses into brain activity and atomic relationships, with much more promised for the future.

To see the ’Sphere’s 3-d imagery, users must don a pair of glasses (center) that cost upward of $400 per pair.

UP IN THE AIR: JoAnn Kuchera-Morin and her MAT students stand proudly inside their creation, an expansive mechanical beast whose true future is unknown. Will it further scientific discoveries? Will it become groundbreaking computer theater? Will Hollywood come knocking? Or will it just be some trippy way to spend an afternoon? No one knows, and Kuchera-Morin seems to like it that way.

Clipped from: YouTube - Allosphere - Professor JoeAnn - Part 1 of 2 - University of CA Santa Barbara 21Jan08 Kodak Z1012 IS

Allosphere - Professor JoeAnn - Part 1 of 2

Professor JoeAnn, creator of the Allosphere, tells about her world-altering, three story high machine. It's a laser show in 3D effect.

Clipped from: YouTube - Allosphere Professor JoeAnn Part 2 of 2 University of CA Santa Barbara 21Jan08 Kodak Z1012 IS

Allosphere Professor JoeAnn Part 2 of 2

Sources:

Related:

AlloSphere three story virtual environment not available for birthday parties, Bat Mitzvahs

2009-04-24

Penn and Teller Explain Magic Tricks

Clipped from: Penn & Teller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Penn & Teller

Sometimes, the pair will claim to reveal a secret of how a magic trick is done, but those tricks are usually invented by the duo for the sole purpose of exposing them, and therefore designed with more spectacular and weird methods than would have been necessary had it just been a "proper" magic trick.

Clipped from: YouTube - Penn and Teller Explain Sleight of Hand

Penn and Teller Explain Sleight of Hand

Clipped from: YouTube - Penn and Teller - cups and ball trick

Penn and Teller - cups and ball trick

Clipped from: Penn & Teller: How to Do the Saw Trick Video – 5min.com

Penn & Teller: How to Do the Saw Trick

Clipped from: Penn and Teller Explain Flag Burning Trick Video – 5min.com

Penn and Teller Explain Flag Burning Trick

Magic and the Brain: Teller Reveals the Neuroscience of Illusion

For Teller (that's his full legal name), magic is more than entertainment. He wants his tricks to reveal the everyday fraud of perception so that people become aware of the tension between what is and what seems to be. Our brains don't see everything—the world is too big, too full of stimuli. So the brain takes shortcuts, constructing a picture of reality with relatively simple algorithms for what things are supposed to look like. Magicians capitalize on those rules. "Every time you perform a magic trick, you're engaging in experimental psychology," Teller says. "If the audience asks, 'How the hell did he do that?' then the experiment was successful. I've exploited the efficiencies of your mind."

Sources:

Related:

Ant Reproduces Without Sex

Clipped from: PHOTO IN THE NEWS: All-Female Ant Species Found

PHOTO IN THE NEWS: All-Female Ant Species Found

April 17, 2009—Save the males? Too late for Mycocepurus smithii (pictured). This leaf-cutter ant species is all female and thrives without sex of any kind—ever—according to a new study. The ants have evolved to reproduce only when queens clone themselves.

Clipped from: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Ants inhabit 'world without sex'

Ants inhabit 'world without sex'

An Amazonian ant has dispensed with sex and developed into an all-female species, researchers have found.
The ants reproduce via cloning - the queen ants copy themselves to produce genetically identical daughters.
[...]
Anna Himler, the biologist from the University of Arizona who led the research, told BBC News that the team used a battery of tests to verify their findings.
[...]
There are advantages to life without sex, Dr Himler explained.

"It avoids the energetic cost of producing males, and doubles the number of reproductive females produced each generation from 50% to 100% of the offspring."

Clipped from: Mycocepurus smithii - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mycocepurus smithii

Mycocepurus smithii is an attini fungus-growing ant from Latin America whose species consists exclusively of females which reproduce asexually. The queen reproduces by parthenogenesis and all ants in a colony are female clones of the queen.^[1] The ants cultivate a garden of fungus inside their colony grown with pieces of dead vegetables and other insects. It is this capacity for farming which initially prompted research into the species as a basal genus member would provide insight into the natural history of the fungal-cultivating ant tribe, Attini.^[2]

Himler research
The research team was led by a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin in the United States, Anna Himler.^[1]^[5] The researchers initially were interested in the ants' capability for cultivating fungus.^[5] The researchers used DNA profiling to confirm that each member of the colony was genetically identical to the queen.^[5] They also discovered through a process of dissection that the mussel organ, a female docking apparatus within the vagina used to hook the mate's genitalia,^[6] had degenerated in members of this species.^[7] A total of six separate tests were carried out, with the researchers unable to locate any male members of the species.^[1] The team's findings were then published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.^[7]

Clipped from: Mycocepurus smithii (Forel, 1893) - Encyclopedia of Life

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-22

Ultrasound Imaging with a Smartphone

Clipped from: Ultrasound imaging now possible with a smartphone

Ultrasound imaging now possible with a smartphone
Imaging device fits in the palm of a hand

William D. Richard (left) takes an ultrasound probe of colleague David Zar's carotid artery with a low-power imaging device he designed.

Computer engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are bringing the minimalist approach to medical care and computing by coupling USB-based ultrasound probe technology with a smartphone, enabling a compact, mobile computational platform and a medical imaging device that fits in the palm of a hand.

The image of Zar's carotid artery appears on this small, portable smartphone connected to the probe by a USB driver.

"You can carry around a probe and cell phone and image on the fly now," said Richard. "Imagine having these smartphones in ambulances and emergency rooms. On a larger scale, this kind of cell phone is a complete computer that runs Windows. It could become the essential computer of the Developing World, where trained medical personnel are scarce, but most of the population, as much as 90 percent, have access to a cell phone tower."

The electronics for the ultraprobe have shrunk over 25 years from cabinet-sized to a tiny circuit board one inch by three inches (left). WUSTL's William D. Richard and Dave Zar have wedded a small, portable ultra sound imaging device with a smartphone (right).

Clipped from: YouTube - CellPhoneUltrasound Demo

CellPhoneUltrasound Demo

Clipped from: Cell Phone SDK - Ultrasound

Cell Phone SDK

The World's First Ultrasound Machine Based on a Cell Phone

Working under a Microsoft Research grant, Cell Phone as a Platform for Healthcare, we modified commercially available USB ultrasound probes to work with a smart phone and developed the SDK presented, here.

Sources:

Related:

William D. Richard, Ph.D.

David M Zar - Department of Computer Science & Engineering - Washington University

2009-04-21

What’s Up -- A CAPTCHA Based On Image Orientation

Clipped from: Google Research testing image CAPTCHA's | Googling Google | ZDNet.com

Preventing bots from filling out forms automatically is a hard task. Researchers at Google have been thinking about more effective ways of achieving this goal. You have no doubt seen those jumbled up words that you have to decipher before you can submit a form — well, that’s still to easy for bots to figure out.

Clipped from: CAPTCHA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CAPTCHA

A CAPTCHA or Captcha (IPA: /ˈkæptʃə/) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer.

Early CAPTCHAs such as these, generated by the EZ-Gimpy program, were used on Yahoo!. However, technology was developed to read this type of CAPTCHA^[1]

A modern CAPTCHA, rather than attempting to create a distorted background and high levels of warping on the text, might focus on making segmentation difficult by adding an angled line

Another way to make segmentation difficult is to crowd symbols together. However, this might be difficult for some people to read

Clipped from: Top 10 Worst Captchas | IT Management and Cloud Blog

Clipped from: Google Research testing image CAPTCHA's | Googling Google | ZDNet.com

Google Research testing image CAPTCHA's

Google Research is experimenting with socially adjusted CAPTCHA’s which require users to orient pictures vertically.

Clipped from: Google Researchers Experimenting Witn New Image “CAPTCHA” Method

The researchers from Google explained that they performed extensive experiments to measure the viability of this technique... Our Captcha technique has achieved high success rates for humans and low success rates for bots, does not require text entry, and is more enjoyable for the user than text-based Captcha.

Below is an example interface, where one needs to slide 3 images into their “natural, upright positions”:

Clipped from: Google tries to beat CAPTCHA crackers with rotated images - Ars Technica

The authors note that the approach leaves plenty of room for further improvement, as the images could be obtained specifically from sources that computers are known to handle poorly, like cartoon content. They also suggest that, should computerized cracking programs ever catch up here, it should be possible to extend the technique into the third dimension using 3D models.

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-20

National Geographic's Infinite Photograph

Clipped from: National Geographic's Infinite Photograph will mesmerize you | Webware - CNET

National Geographic's Infinite Photograph will mesmerize you

National Geographic has a fun new feature called the Infinite Photograph that takes over 300,000 photos collected from its archives and submitted by users, and turns them into a giant photo mosaic. It lets you zoom in infinitely, making your way deeper into each photo as it breaks down into smaller photos of various colors.
The service is the latest effort to promote the company's MyShot program, which showcases user-uploaded photographs that appear both online and in the monthly publication.

Clipped from: YouTube - National Geographic's New Infinite Photograph

Clipped from: Infinite Photograph -- As Seen On Earth -- The Green Guide

National Geographic Society

The Green Guide

Infinite Photograph—As Seen on Earth

What makes up our world? Dive into this photo-mosaic portrait of the Earth to see it through the eyes of users like you. [...]

Clipped from: My Shot - National Geographic Magazine

My Shot

My Shot is your chance to have your own National Geographic web
page. Here you can create and share albums, puzzles, and games based on
photos you upload.

Sources:

Related:

As Seen On Earth: The Infinite Photograph | Brain Pickings

2009-04-19

SONY's OLED TVs

Clipped from: Sony OLED TV Showcased | Sony Insider

Sony OLED TV Showcased

Sony was one of the exhibitors at Display Expo held in Japan just last week and of course they showcased their OLED TVs. One of them was a prototype 21 inch OLED panel with 1366 by 768 resolution. The contrast ratio is the same as my XEL-1 which is 1000000 to 1. The design has dramatically changed and looks futuristic in a way with the stand fully integrated.

Clipped from: YouTube - Sony Unveils 21-inch OELD Prototype : DigInfo [HD]

Sony Unveils 21-inch OELD Prototype : DigInfo [HD]

Clipped from: Sony XEL-2 OLED TV

The XEL-1 OLED TV
In October 2007,Sony introduced the world's first OLED TV - the XEL-1. This first model is a highly priced (~2,500$), small sized (11") Television - more of a commercial-prototype than anything else, Sony only makes around a thousand units a month.

Sony's 27" OLED - the XEL-2?
Sony announced in May 2008 that they are working on a new TV. This one will be a 27" model - which is large enough to be called a television indeed. Sony even showed us a prototype of that screen (picture on the left).

Sony's 21" OLED prototypes
In April 2009, Sony displayed a new 21" OLED TV prototype. These TVs have a 1366x768 resolution, 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and they are only 1.4mm thick. Will this be the XEL-2 TV?

Clipped from: Organic light-emitting diode - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Organic light-emitting diode
An organic light emitting diode (OLED), also light emitting polymer (LEP) and organic electro luminescence (OEL), is any light emitting diode (LED) whose emissive electroluminescent layer is composed of a film of organic compounds. The layer usually contains a polymer substance that allows suitable organic compounds to be deposited. They are deposited in rows and columns onto a flat carrier by a simple "printing" process. The resulting matrix of pixels can emit light of different colors.
Such systems can be used in television screens, computer displays, small, portable system screens such as cell phones and PDAs, advertising, information and indication. OLEDs can also be used in light sources for general space illumination, and large-area light-emitting elements. OLEDs typically emit less light per area than inorganic solid-state based LEDs which are usually designed for use as point-light sources.
A significant benefit of OLED displays over traditional liquid crystal displays (LCDs) is that OLEDs do not require a backlight to function. Thus they draw far less power and, when powered from a battery, can operate longer on the same charge. Because there is no need for a backlight, an OLED display can be much thinner than an LCD panel. Degradation of OLED materials has limited their use so far.^[1]

Clipped from: YouTube - Sony OELD DEMO at CES2007

2009-04-18

EON's ICUBE

Clipped from: eon icube offers incredibly immersive 3d vr experience on [technabob]

eon icube offers incredibly immersive 3d vr experience

This VR technology provides for a completely immersive 3-dimensional experience by surrounding users in a cube of digital imagery, combined with stereoscopic glasses and motion-tracking hardware to provide for a dizzying ride through virtual environments.

EON Reality’s ICube system uses an array of high-definition video projectors to bounce real-time CGI images into a cubic room covered with white screen surfaces. Each visitor dons a special pair of lightweight 3D glasses which can be outfitted with IR markers to detect head movements.

Clipped from: YouTube - EON's I CUBE Demo

EON's I CUBE Demo

Clipped from: EON Reality, Inc. - The world's leading interactive 3D visual content management and Virtual Reality software provider

By integrating EON software and applications with various display systems, EON provides state-of-the-art products and solutions for immersive and stereoscopic viewing, from portable Tablet PCs and Glass free Stereo display systems to curved-screen and Immersive Rooms consisting of multi-channel projection walls. The EON software tools are seamlessly integrated with a wide range of display systems providing customers with a unique flexibility to publish content.

Clipped from: EON Reality, Inc. - The world's leading interactive 3D visual content management and Virtual Reality software provider

EON ICUBE

The EON ICUBE™, is a revolutionary PC based multi-sided immersive environment in which participants are completely surrounded by virtual imagery and 3D sound. The EON ICUBE represents a significant innovative milestone in high-end visualization systems development. Typically, high-end immersive systems have until today been complex, difficult to use and expensive to maintain. Unlike the older generation CAVE®, the EON ICUBE is easy to use even for non programmers, provides an unsurpassed speed of immersive content creation and deployment, utilizes a new light enhancing rigid wall material, and has built-in collaborative capabilities.

Clipped from: YouTube - Consumer Experience

Consumer Experience

The EON ICUBE consists of 3, 4 or 6 walls according to the users requirements, and that can be setup in any configuration. Thanks to the rear-projection of the images and the flawless image continuity in the corners, the illusion of a complete sense of presence in the virtual environment is created.

Clipped from: YouTube - Product ICube

Product ICube

EON ICUBE has the ability to rapidly deploy 3D interactive virtual simulations using a series of built-in classes of objects, drivers and a large library of 3D models, textures, and easy to use built-in functionalities.

Sources:

Related:

iCube - Amazing 3D Immersion Technology
EON ICUBE

2009-04-17

Descent into a Black Hole

Clipped from: Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: A black hole with a view

A black hole with a view

Physicists have calculated what the universe would look like from inside a black hole, and not just for fun

Ever wondered what it's like to fall into a black hole? Wonder no more! Andrew Hamilton at JILA at the University of Colorado and a pal, Gavin Polhemus, have created a video showing what it might look like

Clipped from: YouTube - Descent into a Black Hole

Descent into a Black Hole

Clipped from: Inside Black Holes

Inside Black Holes

What really happens inside black holes? Are there wormholes inside black holes? Do black holes give birth to baby universes? These questions lie at the frontier of research into relativity. The aim of this website is to take you to the frontier, and maybe even a bit beyond it.

This is a general relativistic visualization of a supercomputed magneto-hydrodynamic simulation of a disk and jet around a black hole. The disk and jet were supercomputed by John Hawley at the University of Virginia. The general relativistic rendering was done with the Black Hole Flight Simulator.

Clipped from: YouTube - Black Holes

Black Holes

Clipped from: Black hole - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In general relativity, a black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including light, can escape its pull. The black hole has a one-way surface, called the event horizon, into which objects can fall, but never emerge from. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits it, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect blackbody in thermodynamics. Quantum analysis of black holes shows them to possess a temperature and radiate like black bodies.
Despite its invisible interior, a black hole can reveal its presence through interaction with other matter. A black hole can be inferred by tracking the movement of a group of stars that orbit a region in space which looks empty. Alternatively, one can see gas falling into a relatively small black hole, from a companion star. This gas spirals inward, heating up to very high temperature and emitting large amounts of radiation that can be detected from earthbound and earth-orbiting telescopes. Such observations have resulted in the general scientific consensus that, barring a breakdown in our understanding of nature, black holes do exist in our universe.^[2]

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-15

Space Based Solar Power

Clipped from: YouTube - Space Based Solar Power - Alternative Energy Solution

Clipped from: Space-based solar power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Space-based solar power (SBSP) (or historically space solar power (SSP)) is a theoretical design for the collection of solar power space, for use on Earth. SBSP differs from the usual method of solar power collection in that the solar panels used to collect the energy would reside on a satellite in orbit, often referred to as a solar power satellite (SPS), rather than on Earth's surface. In space, collection of the Sun's energy is unaffected by the day/night cycle, weather, seasons, or the filtering effect of Earth's atmospheric gases. Average solar energy per unit area outside Earth's atmosphere is on the order of ten times that available on Earth's surface.

Clipped from: YouTube - Space Based Solar Power

Clipped from: Major Utility Company Makes Agreement for Space Based Solar Power | Universe Today

April 15th, 2009

Major Utility Company Makes Agreement for Space Based Solar Power

One of the largest utility companies in the US has decided to look towards space to find more power. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in California announced a proposed agreement with startup company Solaren Corporation to provide 200 mega watts of space based solar power (SBSP) starting in 2016.

Solaren Corporation is a small, 8-year-old company based in California whose executives have experience working for Boeing and Lockheed Martin. According to PG&E’s website, Solaren says it plans to generate the power using solar panels in earth orbit, then convert it to radio frequency energy for transmission to a receiving station in California. From there, the energy will be converted to electricity and fed into PG&E’s power grid

Clipped from: FOXNews.com - California Utility to Capture Solar Power in Space - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News

California Utility to Capture Solar Power in Space

Solaren would use solar panels on satellites in orbit to capture the sun's power, and then convert it into radio frequency energy that could beam down to a receiving station. The energy would then undergo a conversion to electricity and feed into PG&E's power grid.

Having solar panels in orbit could provide a clean, reliable source of solar power that avoids the interruptions of cloudy days and bad weather on Earth. That tempting prospect has led NASA and the U.S. Defense Department to investigate possibilities for space solar power, despite the hefty cost of launching solar panels into orbit.

Clipped from: Space Solar Power

Space Solar Power

Limitless clean energy from space

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-14

A Robot with a Biological Brain

Clipped from: The Living Robot § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM

Researchers have developed a robot capable of learning and interacting with the world using a biological brain.

Kevin Warwick’s new robot behaves like a child. “Sometimes it does what you want it to, and sometimes it doesn’t,” he says. And while it may seem strange for a professor of cybernetics to be concerning himself with such an unreliable machine, Warwick’s creation has something that even today’s most sophisticated robots lack: a living brain.

A relay of signals between the sensor, motors, and brain dictate the robot’s behavior. When it approaches an object, the number of electrical pulses sent from the sonar device to the brain increases. This heightened electrical stimulation causes certain neurons in the robot’s brain to fire. When the electrodes on which the firing neurons rest detect this activity, they signal the robot’s wheels to change direction. The end result is a robot that can avoid obstacles in its path.

Clipped from: Exclusive: A robot with a biological brain | Emerging Technology Trends | ZDNet.com

Exclusive: A robot with a biological brain

This new project is the first one to examine ‘how memories manifest themselves in the brain, and how a brain stores specific pieces of data.’ As life expectancy is increasing in most countries, this new research could provide insights into how the brain works and help aging people. In fact, the main goal of this project is to understand better the development of diseases and disorders which affect the brain such as Alzheimer or Parkinson diseases.

[...]

These robots are developed at the Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group, part of the School of Systems Engineering at the University of Reading. The team has been led by Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics (please also check his personal home page.

Clipped from: Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group - University of Reading

Welcome to the Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group, part of the School of Systems Engineering at the University of Reading. Cybernetic intelligence is the study of intelligence and its application. It is an approach characterised by its emphasis on sub-symbolic knowledge representation and bottom-up (ie. data driven) problem solving. Cybernetic intelligence describes theoretical, mathematical and philosophical aspects of consciousness and intelligence and their application to the design of intelligent machines and the control of complex systems.

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-13

Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) Producing Methane From CO2

Clipped from: Microbes turn electricity directly to methane

Microbes turn electricity directly to methane

Shaoan Cheng and Defeng Xing (l to r) work with cell that produces methane directly from electricity by way of tiny microbes while Bruce E. Logan looks on.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A tiny microbe can take electricity and directly convert carbon dioxide and water to methane, producing a portable energy source with a potentially neutral carbon footprint, according to a team of Penn State engineers.

Clipped from: Bruce E. Logan

Bruce E. Logan

Research in the Logan lab is focused on bioenergy production for the development of an energy-sustainable water infrastructure for both industrialized and developing countries. Using new technologies, it is possible to directly generate electricity using microbial fuel cells, or hydrogen gas using microbial electrolysis cells, from wastewaters and biomass. These systems have the potential not only to power the water infrastructure, but to produce net excess power for communities and industries.

Clipped from: Bruce Logan Research - Microbial Fuel Cells

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs)

How does a microbial fuel cell work? When bacteria are placed in the anode chamber of a specially-designed fuel cell that is free of oxygen, they attach to an electrode. Because they do not have oxygen, they must transfer the electrons that they obtain from consumption (oxidation) of their food somewhere else than to oxygen-- they transfer them to the electrode. In a MFC these electrons therefore go to the anode, while the counter electrode (the cathode) is exposed to oxygen. At the cathode the electrons, oxygen and protons combine to form only water. The two electrodes are at different potentials (about 0.5 V), creating a bio-batter (if the system is not refilled) or a fuel cell (if we constantly put in new food or "fuel" for the bacteria).

Check out the MFC-cam, our on-line demonstration of an MFC!

Clipped from: Penn State Live - Microbes turn carbon dioxide into methane

Microbes turn carbon dioxide into methane

The cells are about 80 percent efficient in converting electricity to methane and because they use carbon dioxide as feed stock, would be carbon neutral if the electricity comes from a non-carbon source such as solar or wind power.

"The process does not sequester carbon, but it does turn carbon dioxide into fuel," said Logan. "If the methane is burned and carbon dioxide captured, then the process can be carbon neutral."

Logan suggests the method for off peak capture of renewable energy in a portable fuel. Methane is preferred over hydrogen because a large portion of the U.S. infrastructure is already set up to easily transport and deliver methane.

The National Science Foundation and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. supported this project.

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-12

Brain on a Chip -- The FACETS Project

Clipped from: Technology Review: Building a Brain on a Silicon Chip

Building a Brain on a Silicon Chip

A chip developed by European scientists simulates the learning capabilities of the human brain.

A smart chip: Scientists in Europe are using conventional chip production techniques to create circuits that mimic the structure and function of the human brain. This early prototype has just 384 neurons and 100,000 synapses, but the latest version contains 200,000 neurons and 50 million synapses.

Clipped from: FACETS The FACETS Project

The FACETS Project

The goal of the FACETS (Fast Analog Computing with Emergent Transient States) project is to create a theoretical and experimental foundation for the realisation of novel computing paradigms which exploit the concepts experimentally observed in biological nervous systems.

Clipped from: FACETS Motivation

Motivation

To understand the basic concepts behind these properties is essential for two reasons: The life-science point of view and the information-technology point of view.

The first point of view has potential medical applications to cure brain and mind related diseases or even the longer-term goals to work towards neural prosthetic devices and artificial sensory organs.
The second point of view could lead to new computing devices radically different from contemporary IT technology. Such devices could provide support for complex decision making processes like the one we are currently used to obtain only from human beings.

Clipped from: FACETS Modelling the Brain

Modelling the Brain

In order to solve the model equations, all digital simulations rely on the repeated execution of simple operations on data stored in some kind of memory. This is fundamentally opposite to the realisation in the human nervous system, where 100 billions of neurons and about 1016 synapses operate in parallel in continuous time. There is an enormous gap between nature and simulation, which reaches a complexity in the order of 103 neurons in real-time with a simple integrate-and-fire model and conductance based synapses on the fastest available microprocessors.

Clipped from: FACETS Neural Hardware

Neural Hardware

[...] the only possibility to get a significant gain in simulation speed within the current decade is parallelization of dedicated analog circuits, which implement directly the processes in nerve cells. Dedicated hardware like analog ASICs can be optimized for parallelization. In FACETS' very large scale neural network systems, the cell based calculations will be done using analog models and the communication across medium or long distances using digital (spike-time) coding. With this approach, the final system size is only limited by the available resources and not by physical (signal degradation) or timing limitations.

Clipped from: robots.net - New Neural Hardware from the FACETS Project

New Neural Hardware from the FACETS Project

A new generation of neural network hardware is being developed by the Fast Analog Computing with Emergent Transient States (FACETS) Project. The FACETS hardware will have 200,000 neurons with 50 million synapses built on a single silicon wafer. Current prototypes are running 100,000 times faster than their biological couterparts, allowing a full day of neural activity to be simulated in less than a second. Physicist Karlheinz Meier, who coordinates the project, said,

We may then be able to make computing devices which are radically different and have amazing performance which, at some point, may approach the performance of the human brain – or even go beyond it!”

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-11

The Kyoto Box -- A Solar-Powered Cardboard Cooker

Clipped from: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Prize for 'Sun in the box' cooker

Prize for 'Sun in the box' cooker

A cheap solar cooker has won first prize in a contest for green ideas.

The Kyoto Box is made from cardboard and can be used for sterilising water or boiling or baking food.

At the heart of the idea is a simple black painted box.

Clipped from: FT.com / Climate Change Challenge - Solar cooker wins climate contest

Solar cooker wins climate contest

A solar-powered cardboard cooker will on Thursday be announced the winner of a $75,000 competition to tackle climate change.

The Kyoto Box uses the sun’s rays to cook food and boil water. It is targeted at the 3bn people who currently use firewood. The box costs just $5 (£3.40) to make and will be given away free.

Clipped from: YouTube - Kyoto Box Solar Cooker

Kyoto Box Solar Cooker

Using energy from the sun, the KYOTO BOX is a $5 solution to the mounting problems faced by 3 billion people who rely solely on wood for cooking fuel.

With the KYOTO BOX we can:

1. Help stop deforestation
2. Help remove indoor smoke pollution. 1.6 million deaths every year
3. Cleans water. Water-borne diseases kill 10 million people every year
4. Lowers cost of energy since the sun provides free fuel
5. Reduce spinal cord injuries from carrying firewood
6. Reduce rape and landmine injuries from young girls fetching firewood
7. Reduce time waste from fetching firewood and allows kids to attend school
8. Cook food slowly, retaining important vitamins
9. Reduce fire hazard
10. Reduce CO2 emissions

Clipped from: $5 Solar Powered Kyoto Box Wins HP Climate Change Challenge | Sustainability | Fast Company

The Norwegian-born inventor's box, named after the international treaty designed to stop global warming, has already gone into production in a Nairobi, Kenya factory with the capacity to produce 2.5 million boxes each month. Bohmer envisions the eventual mass production of an equally cheap version of the Kyoto Box made from recycled plastic.

Bohmer is hoping that the cooker will be eligible for carbon credits. The yearly profit from each stove would be passed on to the user, allowing the box to pay for itself.

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-10

How Touch Affects Vision

Clipped from: How You Feel The World Impacts How You See It

How You Feel The World Impacts How You See It

ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2009) — In the classic waterfall illusion, if you stare at the downward motion of a waterfall for some period of time, stationary objects — such as rocks — appear to drift upward. MIT neuroscientists have found that this phenomenon, called motion aftereffect, occurs not only in our visual perception but also in our tactile perception, and that these senses actually influence one another. Put another way, how you feel the world can actually change how you see it — and vice versa.

This stimulator was used in a study to show that how humans feel the world can actually change how they see it -- and vice versa.

Clipped from: MIT-led team creates touch-based illusion - MIT News Office

MIT news

MIT-led team creates touch-based illusion

Mind trick yields new insights on perception

In the visual illusion known as the apparent motion quartet, two dots are presented at diagonally opposite corners of an imaginary square. When the pattern alternates between the two diagonals--top left/bottom right followed by top right/bottom left--people perceive the dots as moving back and forth either horizontally or vertically. After a period of time, typically a minute or two, most observers report that the axis of motion appears to flip from vertical to horizontal or vice versa.
An example of the illusion can be seen at web.mit.edu/~tkonkle/www/AmbiguousQuartet.html.
To create a tactile version of this illusion, Olivia Carter, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, and Talia Konkle, a graduate student in Moore's MIT lab, used a new piezoelectric stimulator device developed by Qi Wang and Vincent Hayward at McGill University. This device, originally designed as a computer Braille display, uses a centimeter-square array composed of 60 "tactors" to deliver precisely controlled touch stimuli to the finger tips of volunteer subjects.
When volunteer subjects were given the diagonally alternating stimuli, they perceived them as moving smoothly back and forth--and just as with the visual illusion, the direction of apparent motion flipped back and forth from vertical to horizontal, on average about twice per minute, even though there was no change in the stimulus itself.

Clipped from: Laterotactile.com - Projects - Tactile Graphics

Haptic Memory Game

The video below describes the memory game and provides a good introduction to laterotactile skin stimulation.

Sources:
How You Feel The World Impacts How You See It
MIT-led team creates touch-based illusion - MIT News Office
Laterotactile.com - Projects - Tactile Graphics
A Haptic Memory Game using the STReSS2 Tactile Display on Vimeo

Related:
What You See Is What You Feel -- Telis 2009 (409): 1 -- ScienceNOW
In a Sensory Hack, What You Touch Affects What You See | 80beats | Discover Magazine
Scientists create touch-based illusion
Laterotactile.com - Devices - STReSS
MIT : Brain and Cognitive Sciences : People : Faculty : Christopher Moore
T.Konkle.Demos
The Moore Lab
Current Biology - Motion Aftereffects Transfer between Touch and Vision

2009-04-09

Novel Needle to Reduce Medical Complications

Clipped from: medtechinsider » Blog Archive » New Needle Designed to Reduce Medical Complications

New Needle Designed to Reduce Medical Complications

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people suffer medical complications from hypodermic needles that penetrate too far under their skin. A new device developed by MIT engineers aims to prevent this from happening by keeping needles on target.

Diagram shows how a new needle developed at MIT works (from top to bottom): i. Doctor pushes here. ii. Filament buckles and 'locks' inside tube. iii. Additional force advances entire device. iv. Upon penetration of space, filament relaxes inside tube and deploys into space.

Clipped from: Replacing the Doctor's Standard Needle - Future of Medicine - Popular Mechanics

The Future of Needles: Upgrading Medicine's Most-Used Tool

Needles have existed in a form fairly similar to what we use today for thousands of years. But Jeffrey Karp has a new design—inspired by oil drilling—that, he hopes, will upgrade and automate the ubiquitous medical tool.

Clipped from: Novel needle could cut medical complications - MIT News Office

MIT news

The device, which is purely mechanical, is based on concepts borrowed from the oil industry. It involves a hollow S-shaped needle containing a filament that acts as a guide wire. When a physician pushes the device against a tissue, she is actually applying force only to the filament, not the needle itself, thanks to a special clutch.

When the filament, which moves through the tip of the needle, encounters resistance from a firm tissue, it begins to buckle within the S-shaped tube. Due to the combined buckling and interactions with the walls of the tube, the filament locks into place "and the needle and wire advance as a single unit," said Jeffrey Karp, an affiliate faculty member of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and co-corresponding author of a recent paper on the work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-08

The Nokia E75 (reviews)

Clipped from: Nokia E75 smartphone announced - Mobiletor.com

Nokia E75 smartphone announced

Nokia has announced the availability of the much awaited Nokia E75 phone. The company claims that this new device is the first phone to come integrated with the Nokia Messaging and email services as well as to use a new email user interface.

Clipped from: Nokia - ShowPressRelease

Email the way you want it - Nokia E75 begins shipping
April 06, 2009

Espoo, Finland - The Nokia E75 has arrived in stores, bringing the company's best efficiency and productivity solution to the market. The new arrival is the first device to ship with the new email user interface, offering full desktop email functionality, and complete integration of Nokia's email and messaging services.

Clipped from: YouTube - Nokia E75

Nokia E75

Clipped from: Review: First look at the Nokia E75 messaging device | Smartphones and Cell Phones | ZDNet.com

Review: First look at the Nokia E75 messaging device

Clipped from: Ye Giant Nokia E75 Review | ZOMG its Cj

Ye Giant Nokia E75 Review

The E75 is positioned as the next Eseries Flagship device, with it’s formfactor stated to replace the E90 Communicator Series. The device however, comes fully loaded with features such as the 3.2 MegaPixels Camera, Slide-Out Qwerty Keyboard in addition to the AlphaNumeric Keypad. There’s GPS and Wifi built-in, and the mostly stainless steel finishing gives it a nice classy expensive feel and weight to the device.
Here are a couple of the features that the E75 boasts :
240 x 320 pixels 16M colors TFT Screen at 2.4 inches
Symbian OS 3.2 (S60 V3 Feature Pack 2)
ARM 11 369 MHz processor
3.2 MegaPixel Camera with autofocus and LED flash, VGA Video Recording at 30fps
Quad-band GSM with Dual-band 3G with HSDPA support
Wifi and GPS built in
microSD card expandable, includes 4GB in package
FM and Bluetooth
Micro USB v2.0, suppports USB-Charging
Standard 3.5mm Audio Jack
Slide-out Full Qwerty Keyboard
Accelerometer sensor for automatic UI rotation and motion-based features

Clipped from: YouTube - Nokia E75 Full Review

Nokia E75 Full Review

Full review of Nokia's slider QWERTY for the business set - thanks to the folks at WOMWorld for the loaner. What'd Noah think after a week or two with the E75? Watch and find out!

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-07

The GM / Segway Project P.U.M.A

Clipped from: GM / Segway Project PUMA Concept - Auto Shows | Automotive News Blog at CARandDRIVER.com - Car News Resource

GM / Segway Project PUMA Concept - Auto Shows

A seemingly unlikely pair, General Motors and Segway, have teamed up to create a new type of personal transport vehicle. Dubbed Project PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) and introduced at the New York auto show, the two-wheeled electric vehicle is essentially an upsized and modified Segway scooter with seating for two.

Clipped from: Revealed: The two-wheeled electric car that will 'never crash' | Mail Online

Revealed: The two-wheeled electric car that will 'never crash'

The Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, or PUMA, project also would involve a vast communications network that would allow vehicles to interact with each other, regulate the flow of traffic and prevent crashes from happening.

The prototype runs on a lithium-ion battery and uses Segway's two-wheel balancing technology, along with dual electric motors. It's designed to reach speeds of up to 35mph and can run 35 miles on a single charge.

A design sketch of the Project PUMA prototype, being developed by General Motors and Segway

Clipped from: YouTube - GM and Segway Project PUMA

GM and Segway Project PUMA

Clipped from: YouTube - Project P.U.M.A. (HD)

Project P.U.M.A. (HD)

Clipped from: P.U.M.A. – Segway Advanced Development

Think of it as a digital solution to an analog problem. Segway’s P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility) prototype represents the shift that’s needed for the future of transportation. It values less over more; taking up less space, using less energy, produced more efficiently with fewer parts, creating fewer emissions during production and operation, all while offering more enjoyment, productivity, and connectivity.
Sources:

Japanese Child Robot CB2

Clipped from: Creepy Robot Baby CB2 | Japan Probe

Creepy Robot Baby CB2

A child-sized android with flexible joints and soft skin developed by the Japan Science and Technology Agency was unveiled Friday at Osaka University, where the agency’s research and development team is based.

The 1.3-meter-tall, 33 kilogram humanoid robot has optical, auditory and tactile sensors. Fifty-one actuators inside its body run on compressed air and enable the robot to make complex movements smoothly.

Clipped from: Japan child robot mimicks infant learning

Japan child robot mimicks infant learning

The creators of the Child-robot with Biomimetic Body, or CB2, say it's slowly developing social skills by interacting with humans and watching their facial expressions, mimicking a mother-baby relationship.

Clipped from: Robotic realism? — Tokyo Times

Robotic realism?

The only problem being that unlike the real thing, CB2 is neither comical nor cute – far from it in fact.The not so little fella’s freakishly real – and at the same time not real – features quite possibly putting people off having kids forever.

Although that said, his (or indeed her) loving look up at its ‘father’ is possibly enough to melt even the coldest of hearts.

Clipped from: YouTube - Creepy Child Robot

Clipped from: YouTube - Japon Çocuk Robot CB2

Sources:

Related:

2009-04-05

EyeClick Interactive Displays

clipped from www.luxurylaunches.com

EyeClick – Futuristic interactive displays breathes life into advertising

Israel based EyeClick is a world leader in interactive media display solutions. Comprising of Eye Step, EyeTouch and EyeWall. EyeStep, these kinds of displays transform floors, walls, and window areas into stunning interactive platform that attract and capture more attention from the target audience resulting in effective promotions and greater brand recall.

clipped from eyeclick.com

EyeStep – the unique interactive floor.

By combining interactive surfaces (a combination of our interactive flooring and wall display) with intuitive human body motion, we create full-body interaction – the perfect tool for innovative interactive marketing

clipped from www.youtube.com

Interactive carpet -Dutch Ministry of tourism using Eyeclick

clipped from eyeclick.com

EyeTouch – the unique interactive media platform.

EyeTouch transforms any glass surface into an interactive form of creative expression.
It creates on-the-spot interaction with passers-by at events.
In short, it’s the ideal tool for optimizing interactive point-of-sale

clipped from www.youtube.com

EyeTouch from eyeclick.com

clipped from eyeclick.com

EyeBoard is an interactive tabletop surface.

It is an innovative system that turns any ordinary board into an exciting self-activated experience (interactive board).
Activated by motion detection, each flat surface can be turned into an innovative information system – the ideal sales tool!

clipped from www.youtube.com

EyeBoard - Magical Interactive Table

Related:

EyeClick – Futuristic interactive displays breathes life into advertising
Eyeclick - Interactive floors, surfaces, tables, windows
YouTube - BACARDI
Eyeclick Calvin Klein
YouTube - EyeBoard - Magical Interactive Table
YouTube - Interactive carpet -Dutch Ministry of tourism using Eyeclick

2009-04-03

The Robot Scientist

Clipped from: Robot scientist makes discoveries without human help - tech - 02 April 2009 - New Scientist

Robot scientist makes discoveries without human help

A robot scientist that can generate its own hypotheses and run experiments to test them has made its first real scientific discoveries

Dubbed Adam, the robot is the handiwork of researchers at Aberystwyth University and the University of Cambridge in the UK. All by itself it discovered new functions for a number of genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, aka brewer's yeast.

Clipped from: Robo-scientist makes gene discovery--on its own | Crave - CNET

Robo-scientist makes gene discovery--on its own

Adam (shown in background) may not look like its two colleagues in the white coats, but it's starting to act like them.

Clipped from: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Robo-scientist's first findings

Robo-scientist's first findings

Robotic planning
Adam can carry out up to 1,000 experiments each day, and was designed to investigate the function of genes in yeast cells - it has worked out the role of 12 of these genes.
Biologists use the yeast cells to investigate biological systems because they are simple and easy to study.
"When you sequence the yeast genome - the 6,000 different genes contained in yeast - you know what all the component parts are, but you don't know what they do," explained Professor King.
The robot was able to work out the role of the genes by observing yeast cells as they grew.

Clipped from: Robot Makes Scientific Discovery All by Itself | Wired Science from Wired.com

Robot Makes Scientific Discovery All by Itself

[...] with advances in artificial intelligence, it's conceivable that the role of robots would, in the more distant future, creep deeper into the human realm, progressing from lab technician to lab head. Robots may even be capable of performing supposed acts of genius, such as Einstein's conception of special relativity.
"There isn't any intrinsic reason why that wouldn't happen," says King. "I think there's a continuum between the really basic types of science that you'd get from Adam, and the things I can do, and then Einstein-type science. A computer can make beautiful chess moves, but it's not doing anything special. It's just doing more of the same thing. In my view that's what's going to happen in science."

Clipped from: The Department of Computer Science at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth ::

Computational Biology Group and Wolfson Bioinformatics Unit

Our aim is to do innovative research in both computer science and biological science by developing computing and artificial intelligence techniques for application to important biological problems. An essential component in this multidisciplinary field is our close collaboration with the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, and with other key research groups.

Projects

...
Robot Scientist
...

Clipped from: The Robot Scientist

The Robot Scientists are multidisciplinary research projects involving expertise from Computer Science and Microbiology, and are projects of the Computational Biology research group at the Aberystwyth University. We currently have two Robot Scientists, Adam (investigating yeast functional genomics) and Eve (investigating drug screening).

Related:

Robot scientist makes discoveries without human help - tech - 02 April 2009 - New Scientist

Robot scientist makes discoveries without human help - video 18393346001 - tech - 02 April 2009 - New Scientist

Robo-scientist makes gene discovery--on its own | Crave - CNET

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Robo-scientist's first findings

Robot Makes Scientific Discovery All by Itself | Wired Science from Wired.com

Robot scientist 'Adam' solves genetic problems - Times Online

Robot scientists can think for themselves | Global Industries | Health & Drugs | Reuters

Robot Scientist Becomes First Machine To Discover New Scientific Knowledge

The Department of Computer Science at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth ::

The Robot Scientist

The Automation of Science -- King et al. 324 (5923): 85 -- Science

2009-04-02

Google's Web Servers, Revealed

Clipped from: YouTube - Google's Web Servers, Revealed

Clipped from: Google Reveals Some Data Center Secrets. - BusinessWeek

Google Reveals Some Data Center Secrets.

Clipped from: Google uncloaks once-secret server | Business Tech - CNET News

Google's big surprise: each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power if there's a problem with the main source of electricity. The company also revealed for the first time that since 2005, its data centers have been composed of standard shipping containers--each with 1,160 servers and a power consumption that can reach 250 kilowatts.

The rear side of Google's server.

Shipping containers
Most people buy computers one at a time, but Google thinks on a very different scale. Jimmy Clidaras revealed that the core of the company's data centers are composed of standard 1AAA shipping containers packed with 1,160 servers each, with many containers in each data center.