Sunday, March 17, 2013

Real “touch” screens and tasteful computers: IBM predicts the future


What if a computer could let us “feel” the texture of a fabric before we buy clothes online? Or gives us a whiff — or even a taste — of a meal we’re thinking of preparing? That’s pretty game-changing stuff. And, it’s also within the realm of possibility in the next 5 years, according to IBM’s list of technologies it thinks are on the cusp of adoption.
Every year IBM polls its R&D braintrust about what technologies that may have “been at the hairy edge before but are now closer to the scalp,” IBM fellow and VP of innovation Bernie Meyerson told me recently. This year those “closer-to-the-scalp” technologies converge around computers’ growing ability to handle richer, more diverse data and churn out more valuable output — such as the feel of cloth, the smell or taste of food. The general premise is that these sensory and cognitive technologies will convert computers from glorified calculators into true thinking machines.
So, without further ado, here’s IBM’s sixth annual 5 in 5 technology picks.
1: Computers with a sense of touch
Even people who love shopping online say that it’s hard to get a good read on the finished product from a digital image alone. Most of us want to feel the fabric before we buy a big-ticket item. So what if you could sample that cashmere coat from your cell phone before adding it to your shopping cart? Texture data fed into a machine’s piezoelectric drivers can re-create vibrations and temperature on a touch screen can simulate that feel, Meyerson said. “Imagine you have very fine pixels and that each can be heated and vibrated to mimic the sensation of the cloth,” he said.
Some of this capability is available now in rudimentary form in computer games where the controller shakes to indicate an on-screen car collision.
2: Seeing the forest, not just the trees
If you have to rasterize an image in order to analyze it, any sort of correlation will take a long time. If the computer can instead really see and understand that image for what it represents — say, a child, as opposed to a bunch of pixels — it can accelerate the whole process of analysis. That in turn will make the parsing of things like medical images and traffic video much faster. The difference here is between the computer viewing an image and understanding that image without having to break it down into myriad components. That’s the way humans deal with the world. Computers could monitor scanned images of a person over time to watch for and detect changes that indicate a health condition before it gets too serious for example.

3: Hearing the whole story
Just as computers need to see images as whole entities, IBM thinks they also need to hear total sounds — ambient noise, words, music, a lot of inputs to get the full story. “It’s not necessarily just hearing words, hearing is also background noise … if a cell phone caller is in a car with an engine running at 2,000 rpm, you might even be able to tell if the driver is stuck in traffic or moving smoothly,” Meyerson said.
By embedding sensors in flood prone areas, this technology could warn users based on what it’s learned from past sounds, as to whether a mud slide is likely. Computers could also likewise learn based on past experience when a baby’s cry is due to a wet diaper, teething, or something more serious.
4: Digitized taste buds
IBM’s brainiacs think that machines will increasingly be able to taste things — like chocolate or eggplant – and figure out why people do or don’t like that taste. As Kevin Fitchard, GigaOM’s resident foodie, recently reported, some of this is happening now.  For example, researcher and app developer Foodpairing 
“has broken down flavor to its molecular components and has compiled databases that can match the flavor of those ingredients against other completely different ingredients. By compiling “foodpairing trees” its technology can identify vegetable or seafood ingredients that reinforce the flavor of different meats, or in some cases, can act as a substitute for a meat entirely.”
This understanding of the chemical elements of food could help people get healthier by subbing in something that tastes like milk chocolate but is better for them.
5: A nose that knows
Breath analysis can do more tan keep drunk drivers off the road. What if your smartphone could tell from your breath that you’re about to get a cold? It’s conceivable that your doctor would be able to diagnose you remotely based on that information and prescribe treatment. This technology could also sniff out minuscule amounts of environmental toxins before they hit critical mass, which could have broad public health ramifications.
And then there’s just the quality of life aspect. “You can paint chemical sensors on a surface and when they detect a pattern, they give off a smell — you could make a rich paint with all sorts of sensors that mimic things that you like,” Meyerson said.
So, how’s IBM doing as a sooth sayer?
Since I’m still waiting for the jet packs we were promised decades ago, I’m skeptical about technology predictions, but IBM’s list provides a good starting point to track tech progress and priorities. It’s also fun to grade its prognostication skills.
Looking at last year’s 5 in 5 predictions, it’s fair to say there are hits and misses. For example, last year it said junk mail will get so targeted it will actually cease to be junk at all. If that’s happening, I’m not seeing it.
Another 2011 prediction was we’d get much better at capturing and using wasted kinetic energy  – from people walking, riding bikes,from  running water etc. There is early traction there. Los Angeles is testing advanced flywheel technology as a way to reap wasted energy from braking trains and re-apply it when trains accelerate.  And Pavegen is building sidewalk tiles designed tocapture energy from walking pedestrians.
As for mind-reading headsets that measure our brain activity and recognize our facial expressions: Um, no, don’t think so. But to be fair, IBM has 4 more years to make good.
Taking the longer view, looking at IBM’s inaugural list in 2006, it does better. It was on the money with its call that people would be able to access healthcare remotely. There are lots of tele-radiology options and doctors can even perform surgery remotely. IBM also predicted real-time speech translation now exemplified by products like Samsung’s Galaxy speech translation. Meyerson admits to some less successful calls — especially one about hydrogen-powered vehicles — but he’s pretty happy overall with IBM’s effort.

Tiny crystal may hold key to future of computers

ion crystal quantum computing NIST.jpg



A tiny crystal could hold the secret to computers of the future, unimaginably more powerful than today's most advanced supercomputers.
Preliminary tests indicate that the new processor can eclipse the capacity of current computers by an extraordinary 80 orders of magnitude -- a one with 80 zeros after it -- potentially taking computing into a new dimension.
Trumping even the super-advanced computer from the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" -- a custom-made planet Earth -- tests suggest the new device's potential can be matched only by a conventional computer as big as the known universe.
'No classical computer could do what this simulator has the potential to do.'
- University of Sydney experimental physicist Michael Biercuk
"No classical computer could do what this simulator has the potential to do," said University of Sydney experimental physicist Michael Biercuk, who developed the crystal with scientists from the US and South Africa.
Biercuk said applications of the system, or systems like it, could include analyzing photosynthesis at an atomic level and developing materials for power distribution that allow electricity to flow without resistance.
The system, a tiny crystal of beryllium ions, uses quantum mechanics rather than conventional computing technology. While it is not the first processor to do so, it is the first to break through a threshold of the number of atoms needed to exceed the capacity of classical computers for certain problems.
Biercuk said it would take 10 to 20 years for the processor to be incorporated in commercially viable machines, and that it would never be used for general-purpose computing. But scientists may be able to use the technology long before then for analysis.
"Our particular system is useful for quantum magnetism. It sounds like a very esoteric field, but it is important for broad disciplines including chemistry, biology and materials engineering," he said.
So far the new crystal has been subjected only to preliminary "benchmarking" tests of its basic performance, with the results reported Thursday in the journal "Nature."
The system itself is a tiny "pancake" of 300 atoms suspended in a vacuum within a six-inch (15cm) metal "trap," operated by using lasers to manipulate individual atoms.

ROAD RADAR AND DOPPLER EFFECT



Bi-Dlopper radar and loops

Radar technology (RAdio Detection And Ranging) was developed in the 1930s. It is one of Morpho’s historical fields of know-how.

While conventional radars measure the position of objects using the waves that they return, continuous wave radars use the Doppler effect to measure the instantaneous speed of moving objects.
Doppler effect radars are used to measure the speed of vehicles. They are also less costly, less sensitive to weather conditions and more difficult to detect by speed radar detectors than radars that use laser technology.

With more than 40 years of experience in the field of transport safety, Morpho offers high-performance speed control solutions based on bi-Doppler radar technology. This tried and tested technology is well understood, reliable and robust. By associating bi-Doppler technology with other technologies, such as the automatic identification of number plates, the company has developed systems with proven performance. In France, Morpho has deployed the biggest network of automatic speed cameras in the world, with more than 2,600 devices installed in December 2009.
Loops

Morpho has developed a solution to automatically detect motorists running red lights in an effort to improve road safety in towns. Most traffic accidents in urban areas are the result of infringements of the highway code, and running red lights in particular.
Thanks to its strong command of inductive and virtual loops, Morpho is in a position to offer highly accurate red-light running detection systems which are capable of detecting infringements on all lines.
The choice of technology depends on the customer’s needs and expectations, but also on the characteristics of the site where the system is to be installed. Both technologies interface in the same way with the logical unit of the red light running detection system, a fact that promotes the modular nature of our solutions.

'The Witch', the oldest digital computer in the world, comes back to life

'La Bruja', en el almacén donde fue reparado para su nueva puesta en marcha. | Efe

The world's first digital computer, a machine of more than two tons christened 'The Witch' (The Witch), has re-ignited in the UK, where it will be exposed as a museum piece after repair of three years.

In a ceremony at the National Computer Museum in Buckinghamshire (central England) several of the creators of the historical piece, and students who learned to program with it, struck the button 'on'.

In the fifties, during its heyday, "The Witch", whose construction began in 1949, was the centerpiece of the British Atomic Energy Research. Its mission was to facilitate the work of scientists performing mathematical operations electronically until then should be done by simple calculators.

Centerpiece of the British nuclear program

Despite the slowness of his early work, it took ten seconds to multiply two numbers, soon became an indispensable and became used eighty hours a week, a record for the time.

When in 1957 was superseded by faster and smaller computers, now moved to the University of Wolverhampton (East of England), which was used to teach programming to students first computer. From there he went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Birmingham, but at the end of this machine was dismantled and taken to a municipal warehouse in 1997.

Three years ago, Kevin Murrell, a member of the board of the National Computer Museum, taken by an antique computer.

After numerous trips to the store, the restoration team went to work and three years of work have been able to save up to 1390 original pieces.


Saturday, March 16, 2013

3Doodler

3Doodler is the world’s first and only 3D Printing Pen. Using ABS plastic (the material used by many 3D printers), 3Doodler draws in the air or on surfaces. It’s compact and easy to use, and requires no software or computers. You just plug it into a power socket and can start drawing anything within minutes.





MYO - Wearable gesture controlled arm-band

Using new communication technologies, 'MYO', the wearable gesture controlled arm-band by Thalamic Labs is capable of measuring electrical activity in muscle movement instantly. The device provides a seamless way to interact with computers -
giving users an accurate sense of control. With the wave of a hand, 'MYO' transforms interactions by simply using the electrical activity in muscles to wirelessly control video games, phones, and other digital products.
Created with third-party developers in mind, the API lets programmers use it's sophisticated hardware to experiment, build and benefit from the applications found within the uniquely engineered software. The armband uses bluetooth 4.0 to
communicate with the devices it is paired with. featuring on-board, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, and a ARM processor outfitted with muscle activity sensors -  the system integrates a 6-axis inertial measurement unit for fully immersed interactive experiences.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Hi-Call Bluetooth Talking Glove

Gloves with fingers pads for smartphone touch screens have officially been around long enough for this hi-Call glove handset to debut and just annihilate them on the awesome meter. Powered by Bluetooth, the left glove of the pair has a speaker and microphone sewn into its thumb and pinky, allowing users to mime the universal "Call me" gesture, while actually making and receiving calls. The talking gloves also keep digits warm and dial-dial-peck-peck ready with their wool blend fabric and touch screen control technology, plus guarantee strange looks from passersby in public.
hi-Call talking gloves are compatible with all mobile phones equipped with Bluetooth. They have an operation range of 39 feet, and a continuous use battery charge of 20 hours. About the length of my conversations with girls I pretend to listen to when I am still trying to impress them. Both men's and women's sizes are available in black and grey. The gloves can be dry cleaned after one too many times of forgetting to say it don't spray it.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

New brand for invisibility clothing

Flexible smart materials that can manipulate light to shield objects from view have been much-theorised but now researchers in Scotland have made a practical breakthrough that brings the possibility of an invisibility cardigan - or any other item of invisibility clothing - one step closer.
Two challenges to the creation of smart flexible materials that can cloak from visible light are making meta-atoms small enough to interact with visible light, and the fabrication of metamaterials that can be detached from the hard surfaces they are developed on to be used in more flexible constructs.
Research published today, Thursday 4 November 2010, in New Journal of Physics (co-owned by the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society), details how Meta-flex, a new material designed by researchers from the University of St Andrews, overcomes both of these challenges.
Although cloaks designed to shield objects from both Terahertz and Near Infrared waves have already been designed, a flexible material designed to cloak objects from visible light poses a greater challenge because of visible light's smaller wavelength and the need to make the metamaterial's constituent part - meta-atoms - small enough to interact with visible light.

These tiny meta-atoms have been designed but they have only traditionally been realised on flat, hard surfaces, making them rigid constructs impractical for use in clothing or other possible applications that would benefit from flexibility, such as super lenses.
The research team, led by EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellow Dr Andrea Di Falco, has developed an elaborate technique which frees the meta-atoms from the hard surface ('substrate') they are constructed on. The researchers predict that stacking them together can create an independent, flexible material, which can be adopted for use in a wide range of applications.
Di Falco says, 'Metamaterials give us the ultimate handle on manipulating the behaviour of light. The impact of our new material Meta-flex is ubiquitous. It could be possible to use Meta-flex for creating smart fabrics and, in the paper, we show how easy it is to place Meta-flex on disposable contact lenses, showing how flexible superlenses could be used for visual prostheses.'

Apple has changed suppliers because Samsung stopped selling them batteries, according to report.

Samsung is a major supplier of iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch parts and components to Apple. From processors to screens to memory to batteries — Apple is heavily dependent on Samsung (the supplier) to keep Apple products flowing. Because of its ongoing legal disputes with Samsung (the smartphone and tablet maker), Apple has been trying to lessen its dependency on Samsung parts by moving to other suppliers. Indeed, Apple has recently shifted a significant portion of its supply chain away from Samsung and to other companies, such as sourcing more screens from LG than from Samsung. In the case of batteries, however, it seems like Samsung has thrown the first punch by simply refusing to supply Apple.
According to China Business News, Apple has decided to purchase batteries for iPads and Macbooks from two Chinese suppliers (Amperex Technology Limited and Tianjin Lishen Battery) after Samsung stopped selling the batteries to Apple.


It isn’t entirely clear why Samsung has stopped supplying Apple (assuming the report turns out to be true) nor do we know if this is an isolated incident or the beginning of a bigger breakaway between the two tech giants. However, we do know one thing: Apple is so dependent on Samsung because Samsung is one of the few companies that can supply Apple with the quality and quantity it desires, and Samsung makes a whole lot of money by supplying Apple. So legal issues between Apple and Samsung (the mobile device maker) spilling over on the relationship of Apple and Samsung (the supplier) is not a good sign for either company.

Paperphone

In Ontario, Canada, a group of researchers from Queen's University have created a prototype smartphone with a flexible display that allows you to select the operating system options bending the screen itself. Paperphone screen, as has been christened 9.5-cm comprises a film that forms a thin flexible display electronic ink.
The flexible form of the display makes it much more portable that any current mobile computer as it adapts to the shape of a pants pocket. Being able to store and interact with documents in this type of "flexible teams" means that in the future the office will not have to use paper or printers.
This prototype heralds a new generation of super lightweight, thin and flexible. In addition, these devices do not consume energy while the user is using. When users are reading, feel like they're holding a sheet of glass or metal.

Chips that repair themselves alone

Researchers at the University of Illinois (USA) have developed a circuit capable of automatically returning the electrical conductivity to parts of it that have lost some breakage. At present, a failure of this nature requires changing the chip, and are becoming more common mistakes due to increased density that manufacture these devices.
The invention involves placing a liquid metal microcapsules, about 10 microns in diameter, above the chip areas that perform electrical conduction. If a break in the conductive material slides the liquid metal in the gap in microseconds. In tests 90 percent of chips of this mechanism is gifted recovering autorrepararon 99 percent of the original conductivity.
The main application could be in vehicles or military or space where the electronics can not be replaced or repaired.
A great advantage of this system is that it is located and autonomous. In other words, the microcapsules are broken only in places where there is a problem and they do not need human supervision.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Something is brewing in the labs... Apple


Something is brewing in the labs of Cupertino. Apple is testing the next version of OS X for already some months, but in January the computers involved in this trial have grown from a few dozen to thousands. The sites that have been identified tests have also multiplied, and that may mean that we could see an official launch of OS X 10.9 soon.
In the absence of official data which we only have rumor: OS X 10.9 would be called Lynx and integrate some iOS platforms as Siri and Apple Maps. If present at some point in the first quarter could see an official release in the summer, just a year after the departure of Mountain Lion OS X market and meeting many maqueros theory had become: Apple wants to move faster with OS X than it has been doing since its beginnings. Currently we can only wait for Apple to confirm something. Mountain Lion came without warning a year ago on the official website of the company without press event or anything, would not surprise me to return to spend something. OS X 10.9 was the tenth formerly known interaction of Mac OS X, and is likely to continue moving closer to iOS with everything learned on the iPhone and iPad. What is sure to be a response to Windows 8, which has radically changed the look and the way the system works rival of Microsoft.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Super WiFi in U.S.A


The FCC proposes to buy back spectrum to broadcasters to cover all U.S. public wireless networks, considering the access to Internet as important as access to education.


The proposal to launch this official body in the country would extend a network able to of providing coverage to large tracts of territory inhabited the style of what happens with the mobile phone networks.

The Washington Post referred to this as a Super WiFi network, and their purpose would be for casual users and those with fewer resources could access the Internet from their mobile devices without resorting to the cost of data plans with telephone operators. These would ensure that at least minimum conditions (is of imagine that the available bandwidth would not be too broad) nobody would be without the Network Connection

So if you would count this Super WiFi is probably with a much stronger signal than those to which we have grown accustomed. This would be a signal that would reach long distances and with great power and can pass through heavy walls without problem.It is also probable that the measure does not have the approval of the current phone industry that has a lucrative business in charging for data packets sent through their networks and in fact some companies like  Cisco and has informed the FCC that conscientious tests will be performed to avoid interference. This has to do with the band of radio spectrum employ is to allow the use of a much stronger signal than currently uses the WiFi.

Moreover, the FCC's proposal has the strong support of Google and Microsoft, for whom an increase in Internet users in this way the Super widespread WiFi access and would be a market for new Internet users and therefore a potential expansion their respectives businesses. In fact Google already provides free internet access using WiFi in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, in Manhattan, as well as in parts of Silicon Valley in San Francisco (California).

Moreover the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which tries to minimize the digital divide between urban and rural areas, is excited about this project that can make a decisive jump in the development of the connectivity and the development of society.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

ESA will build a moonbase in 3D printing



3D printing is a technology that has affected many areas such as prototyping and manufacturing technique quickly and, above all, flexible. In fact, 3D printing is already present in the field of medicine (to develop prostheses) and even in space exploration where NASA evaluates their use in the International Space Station to fabricate spare parts. However, the European Space Agency (ESA) will use 3D printing as a base on which to build a base on the Moon's surface.
Although the idea may seem strange to us, it is the first project of this type is proposed and, for example, NASA is also considering something similar. In this case, the ESA seeks to follow the path they are following some projects of architecture and civil engineering with the use of 3D printing in the field of construction.
Using 3D printing allow quick deployment since it would eliminate the need to send materials for the construction of moon base that, in fact, the project would use rock moon pieces as material with which to create structures of this base , which means that the raw material would already be on the target. To develop the project, the ESA will be supported by the company D-shape, which specializes in the development of 3D printing based structures. The project is not at all easy because, unlike the Earth, we are talking about 3D printing in vacuum conditions and the use of liquids is a problem.
Furthermore meet the conditions for construction, the project must be able to accommodate at least 4 people and protect them from meteorites, radiation or rapid temperature changes. If we add that, from Earth, it would have to send a structure which would pillars and foundations of the base, the challenge it faces the ESA is quite interesting.

Ice cubes who advise you when you have drunk too much.



This is the new invent created by Dhariya Dand, a bright student from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This man have created a kind of ice cubes to use in alcoholic drinks that, apart of ice our drink, have a device that will advise us when we must stop drinking.
This ice cubes are made with a kind of edible jelly that can be frozen and inside it will be a LED, an accelerometer, an infrared receiver and a batery.
The accelerometer will caulculate how many sips we take and will collate the data with a cronometre, making an estimation of the alcohol we have ingested and changing the colour of the LED. This work like a semaphore; green, yellow and red.
The most incredible is that if we do not stop drinking when the light is red, the ice cube will send a message to a person previously registered for make us stop to drink

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Twitter Hacked: Data for 250,000 Users May Be Stolen

Twitter announced late Friday that it had been hacked and that data for 250,000 Twitter users was vulnerable.

The company said in a blog post that it detected unusual access patterns earlier this week and found that user information — usernames, e-mail addresses and encrypted passwords — for 250,000 users may have been accessed in what it described as a “sophisticated attack.”

“This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident,” Bob Lord, Twitter’s director of information security, said in a blog post. “The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked.”

Jim Prosser, a spokesman for Twitter, said in Twitter’s blog post that hackers had broken in through a well-publicized vulnerability in Oracle’s Java software.

Java, a widely used programming language, is installed on more than three billion devices and has long been dogged by security problems. Last month, after a security researcher exposed a serious vulnerability in the software, the Department of Homeland Security issued a rare alert that warned users to disable Java on their computers. The vulnerability was particularly disconcerting because it let attackers download a malicious program onto its victims’ machines without any prompting. Users did not even have to click on a malicious link for their computers to be infected. The program simply downloaded itself.

Oracle patched the security hole, but Homeland Security said that the fix was not sufficient.

“Unless it is absolutely necessary to run Java in Web browsers, disable it,” the agency said in an updated alert. “This will help mitigate other Java vulnerabilities that may be discovered in the future.”

“We also echo the advisory from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and security experts to encourage users to disable Java on their computers,” Mr. Lord said in the blog post.

Apple no longer ships its machines with Java enabled by default and disabled the software remotely on Macs machines where it had already been installed. Those who do not own Macs can disable the software using detailed instructions on Oracle’s Java Web site.

Mr. Prosser said Twitter was working with government and federal law enforcement to track down the source of the attacks. For now, he said the company had reset passwords for, and notified, every compromised user. The company encouraged users to practice good password hygiene, which typically means coming up with different passwords for different sites, and using long passwords that cannot be found in the dictionary.

Twitter did say it “hashed” passwords — which involves mashing up users’ passwords with a mathematical algorithm — and “salted” them, meaning it appended random digits to the end of each hashed password to make it more difficult, but not impossible, for hackers to crack.

Once cracked, passwords can be valuable on auctionlike black market sites where a single password can fetch $20.