Sapphire disks could communicate with future generations 10 million years from now. A sapphire disk etched in platinum could preserve information for future generations to decipher 10 million years from now (Photo: Kluka) Storing data for longer than a few years is tricky enough with rapidly advancing technology, so what are you supposed to do if you need to store data for thousands or even millions of years? That's just the problem facing nuclear waste management companies, who need a way to warn future civilizations of hazardous sites that will withstand the test of time. Luckily a recent proposal may have the solution with a sapphire disk etched in platinum that could survive longer than humanity itself. Communicating with future generations is tricky for any number of reasons. Aside from finding a medium that will remain intact over the years, there's no way to accurately predict how people of the future will read data, what language they'll use, what technology they'll have at their disposal, or if they'll even be human by then.
Source: Science About the Author. Hotmail - puhnner. Yesterday’s Latest Things - Slide Show. The tongue is the future for disabled people. This video shows how the iTongue works and in which situations the product could help people with spinal cord injuries. Most of us can open a door, send a text message or zap between TV channels without much bother. But for those who are wheelchair-bound with paralysis after a spinal cord injury, even the simplest everyday tasks are a challenge. Many of them are paralysed from the neck down and as a result are totally dependent on others to help them. But a new product, called iTongue, aims to help these people regain control of their lives. Palatal plate with sensor The product is based on a so-called ‘wireless tongue control system’ in which a dental palate with sensors can help paralysed people control their wheelchair, mobile phone or their computer by using a small metal plate which is fastened to the tongue.
“In the long run, the appliances you can control with your tongue will only be limited by the imagination.” The tongue is as mobile as a finger More discrete than other products. Telephone design: A brief history. [PHOTOS] App would allow humans to communicate with bonobos. The seven bonobos living at the Bonobo Hope Great Ape Trust Sanctuary in Des Moines, Iowa, are a pretty smart bunch of apes. Among other things, they have a vocabulary of about 400 words – they don’t speak those words, but instead associate the meanings of them with symbols known as lexigrams. Using large wall-mounted touchscreen displays, they are able to communicate with humans by touching the appropriate lexigrams on those displays.
Now, the sanctuary wants to develop an app that could be used on mobile versions of the wall screens, so tablet-wielding bonobos could communicate from wherever they happen to be. One of the Bonobo Chat app’s more interesting features would be its ability to act as a sort of human-ape translator. People could simply speak into their device in English, at which point the app would select lexigrams corresponding to their words, and display those on the screen of the selected bonobo’s device. A prototype of the tablet which would run the Bonobo Chat app. In the Battles of SOPA and PIPA, Who Should Control the Internet? Bluetooth-enabled magnet orders pizza at the push of a button. A Dubai-based pizza shop is offering refrigerator magnets to customers that automatically orders their favorite pizza over the Internet when the button on it is pressed With most major pizza chains equipped with online ordering and smartphone apps, having a pizza delivered is faster and easier than ever before.
But that still may not be quick enough if you get a craving for your favorite pizza from your favorite pizzeria. That may be why one Dubai-based pizza shop is making things even easier on its customers by offering Bluetooth-enabled refrigerator magnets that can place an order for delivery at the push of a button. Red Tomato Pizza is distributing the magnets to their VIP (Very Important Pizza) customers who request one through the shop's website, where they can also select (and change) their default order. The magnet uses Bluetooth to sync to a customer's smartphone, which issues the order over the Internet once the button is pressed. Source: Red Tomato Pizza via Mashable. SpikerBox lets you listen to bugs' neurons. The SpikerBox is a scientific educational device, that lets you listen to the neural activity of bugs Image Gallery (4 images) Neurons, the nerve cells that send and receive electrical signals within the body, are one of those things that most of us probably don’t give a lot of thought to.
Educational entrepreneurs Timothy Marzullo and Gregory Gage, however, think about them a lot. They think about them so much, in fact, that they’ve designed a gadget that lets anyone listen to the neural electrical activity of bugs, and conduct a series of interesting experiments. It’s called the SpikerBox, and oh yeah – in order to use it, you have to take the leg off of a cockroach.
The SpikerBox essentially consists of a microprocessor, a speaker, and two neural probes (also known as metal needles). Users start by grabbing a handy invertebrate, such as a cockroach or cricket, and briefly dunking it in ice water to anesthetize it. The SpikerBox can be seen in use in the video below. About the Author. Our compulsive consumption of information - The Browser.
This interview first appeared in the Browser, as part of the FiveBooks series. Previous contributors include Paul Krugman, Woody Allen and Ian McEwan. For a daily selection of new article suggestions and FiveBooks interviews, check out the Browser or follow @TheBrowser on Twitter. Is the Internet dividing our attention? Are we so buried in technology that we ignore one another? Let me begin by asking about this term “the information age,” which is bandied about as the successor, I suppose, to the industrial age. I’m not sure it means anything precisely. And what is this age we’re enabled by? The most important catalyst is technology, just as technology in a different form was the catalyst for the industrial revolution. I think it’s pretty clear that humans have a natural inclination, even compulsion, to seek out information. Why do you think “consumed” is an ugly term? I think it’s an ugly term when applied to information. I’m not sure I agree with him there, in fact.
So… get out more? Researchers send neutrino-message through 260 yards of rock. Neutrinos have been in the news recently, and although it appears that they probably do not travel faster than light, they still hold court as three of the strangest of the known subatomic particles. Undeterred by these arcane particles, Fermilab scientists have succeeded in communicating with neutrino pulses through 240 meters of rock at a rate of 0.1 bits per second. Although only capable of sending one alphanumeric character every minute, this is still an experimental tour de force that demonstrates the feasibility of using neutrino beams to provide a low-rate communications link independent of any electromagnetic radiation. However, given the limited range, low data rate, and extreme technologies required to achieve this demonstration, significant improvements in neutrino beams and detectors will be required for “practical” applications of neutrino communications. Fermilab's Main Injector neutrino beam is one of the most intense high energy neutrino beams in existence.
Space Fence Mark II - Prototype S-band radar tracks space junk smaller than an inch across. A prototype of the new Lockheed Martin Space Fence radar system is currently tracking orbiting space objects smaller than was ever possible - down to about a centimeter in size. In doing so, it met a key contract requirement during a series of demonstration events by proving it could detect and track such small objects. View all Intended to replace the Air Force Space Situational System (AFSSS), a ground-based 217 MHz megawatt-scale radar detector, the prototype for the new Space Fence is capable of tracking more than 200,000 centimeter-sized objects - ten times smaller than can be detected with the previous system. "Our final system design incorporates a scalable, solid-state S-band radar ... capable of detecting much smaller objects than the Air Force’s current system," said Steve Bruce, vice president of Lockheed Martin's Space Fence program.
But is this new Space Fence worth spending a projected US$3.5 billion? Space is full of junk. Source: Lockheed Martin. Analogue text still the best learning tool. The multimedia version that beat plain reading of text was one that combined text and images. Density of text was low and information was repeated. (Photo: Rikssamlingsstriden "Year 800-1270 AD, Norwegian History part 2, University of Bergen, NRK, 1990") Schools have put plenty of emphasis on using ICT and multimedia as educational tools. Despite a lack of documentation it’s been assumed they enhance learning. “But little empirical research has been done, so my study can contribute something here,” says researcher Glenn-Egil Torgersen.
In his work on a doctorate in psychology, he tested three different audiovisual tools in history teaching at BA level and compared these with the learning that students achieved by reading regular texts. It turned out that one of the three multimedia tools proved more effective than the text, while the other two failed to match up to reading regular printed text on paper. Decisive short-term memory Surprising finding Biggest differences with multimedia. Blind-friendly vending machine. Kjersti Maageng Nordås from Jessheim totally understands that NSB’s ticket vending machine is hard to use for visually impaired. She adds that the vending machine is often out of use when it’s cold outside. (Photo: HiOA) Norwegian State Railways (NSB) has been getting a lot of criticism because their ticket vending machines are unsuitable for the visually impaired.
The lack of physical buttons on the touch screen makes it impossible for blind people to navigate, which means they need help to use the vending machine. This also applies to other vending machine solutions like the one the public transport authority uses. Developed a prototype Five of the University College’s former students have now developed a prototype that makes the ticket vending machines available for the strongly visually impaired and the blind. Tek Beng Tan and Anders Johansen received the highest grade for their research-based project assignment about ticket vending machines and universal design.
Anders Johansen. DARPA wants swarms of "disposable" satellites to provide almost-live images on demand. SeeMe would provide eyes in the sky quickly to troops on the ground (Image: DARPA) DARPA, the United States' defense technology research agency that's created such notable projects as the Internet you're using right this moment, is now looking for help in creating a swarm of "disposable" eyes in the sky. It is seeking technical assistance from a wide range of fields - from auto racing to optics - to create the means to provide on-demand satellite imagery for troops on the front lines. The agency's SeeMe program (Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements) aims to achieve what currently available military and commercial satellites cannot - near real-time satellite images of an area that could be used to plan military missions from the field.
Barnhart says they're hoping to be able to create the small satellites quickly and for a cost of around US$500,000 each, which is why the agency is reaching out to other industries for help. Source: DARPA About the Author. Google to Announce Venture With Belgian Museum. Mundaneum Volunteers worked at the Universal Bibliographic Repertory, the project that grew into the Mundaneum. It plans to announce Tuesday that it is forming a partnership with a museum in Mons, Belgium, dedicated to a long-ago venture to compile and index knowledge in a giant, library-style card catalog with millions of entries — an analog-era equivalent of a search engine or Wikipedia. “The partnership with Google gives us a great opportunity to spread knowledge of this remarkable Belgian project throughout the world,” Jean-Paul Deplus, director of the museum, the Mundaneum, said in remarks prepared for a news conference Tuesday.
The partnership is part of a broader campaign by Google to demonstrate that it is a friend of European culture, at a time when its services are being investigated by regulators on a variety of fronts. The European Commission, which is the executive branch of the European Union, is scrutinizing the dominance of Google’s search engine. Oolone.com visual search engine. Open your eyes to the web. In Defense of Instagram: News Photography Goes Well With Vintage Cats. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. If its critics are to be believed, Instagram is one of the best deals in the world. The totally free app, and others like it, turn the work of talentless amateurs into “fine art.” Or so photographer Nick Stern argued last week in a piece on CNN that made the software sound like magical wowie-zowie dust. In his much-discussed article—called “Why Instagram photos cheat the viewer”—Stern objects to using cell phone apps to create news images, decrying the way the software can manipulate photos, adding dramatic color enhancement and faking selective focus.
“The app photographer merely has to click a software button and 10 seconds later is rewarded with a masterpiece,” he writes. AFP/Getty Images. Stern’s article touched off heated debate among the photojournalism world, which has been struggling to define the role of cell phone photography in the changing digital landscape. I understand Stern’s skepticism. AFP/Getty Images. John W. More posts on photography: New Video Shows Japanese Speech-Jamming Gun in Action | Underwire. Two Japanese researchers recently introduced a prototype for a device they call a SpeechJammer that can literally “jam” someone’s voice — effectively stopping them from talking. Now they’ve released a video of the device in action.
“We have to establish and obey rules for proper turn-taking,” write Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada in their article on the SpeechJammer (PDF). “However, some people tend to lengthen their turns or deliberately disrupt other people when it is their turn … rather than achieve more fruitful discussions.” The researchers released the video after their paper went viral Thursday, to the authors’ apparent surprise. The design of the SpeechJammer is deceptively simple. Sonic devices have popped up in pop culture in the past. But instead of sci-fi, the Japanese researchers behind the SpeechJammer looked to medical devices used to help people with speech problems. Vivek Ranadive Profile - Vivek Ranadive TopCom Software. Published in the February 2012 issue A single cloud hangs in the sky over San Francisco Bay, like a rip in a blue curtain.
Vivek Ranadivé, the CEO of a $4 billion software company, Tibco Software Inc. — and also the co-owner of the Golden State Warriors in the NBA — drives his black Mercedes S600 over the low bridge from Palo Alto to Oakland. And because the sky is unmarked except for that one spectacular little cloud and the morning fog is gone until tomorrow, it is as if he's gliding across a huge blue screen. The scene looks choreographed: the Silicon Valley visionary driving to an important meeting on a perfect day, talking about ideas as big as the heavens.
"Everything's real-time," he says in a raspy voice with a thick, singsong accent, emphasizing certain vowels unexpectedly, so he sounds a little like an Indian Christopher Walken. Ranadivé, born fifty-four years ago in Bombay, takes this simple fact as a challenge. It is, Schwab says, a "Facebook for global leaders. " Metaphorical search engine looks for un-thought-of connections. FINIS gets out of the pool with open water GPS tracker. Pivothead glasses record what you see in 1080p. Google adds Esperanto as its 64th machine translatable language. Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year's End. 20 Most Amazing Microscope Shots Pictures !!!! Shit Burqueños (New Mexicans) Say. Phonemes probably can't reveal the ancient origins of language after all. AQUA TEK S – the first waterproof, ruggedized, solar-powered battery case for iPhone.