Communications
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 )
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.
The tongue is the future for disabled people
Telephone design: A brief history. [PHOTOS]
Long before The Clock —Christian Marclay’s enveloping “real-time” digital panorama of clocks depicted in films—became an art-world smash last year, the artist produced a similar, if less ambitious piece. Telephones (1995) stitched together nearly eight minutes of Hollywood stars, present and past, engaging with the phone—being startled awake by its shrill clamor, gazing anxiously for an anticipated ring, fingers fumbling through the now seemingly endless rotary dialing sequence, playing a small pantomime as they wait for the person on the other end of the line to pick up.
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.
App would allow humans to communicate with bonobos
Two years earlier, Thackeray had helped the U.S. Secret Service run Operation Sun Devil, one of the first crackdowns on illegal computer hacking. A lot of hackers hated Thackeray, and Dead Addict was not surprised when she responded to his invitation with the words “No. I wouldn’t go to a convention of car thieves, either.” Hackers are nothing if not persistent, and Thackeray was eventually persuaded to spend a few days in the kiln that is Vegas in July.
In the Battles of SOPA and PIPA, Who Should Control the Internet?
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.
Bluetooth-enabled magnet orders pizza at the push of a button
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.
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.
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.
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. 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?
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")
Analogue text still the best learning tool
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)
Blind-friendly vending machine
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. "We envision a constellation of small satellites ... that would allow deployed warfighters overseas to hit 'see me' on existing handheld devices and in less than 90 minutes receive a satellite image of their precise location," said Dave Barnhart, DARPA program manager.
DARPA wants swarms of "disposable" satellites to provide almost-live images on demand
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.
Google to Announce Venture With Belgian Museum
The left half of this photo has been placed through an Instagram filter. The right half has not. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. If its critics are to be believed, Instagram is one of the best deals in the world.