17561876
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Scientists have developed an alternative to logic gates based on the chaos theory which allows the reconfiguration of chips a billion times a second, giving fascinating prospects for processing.
In a paper published by Arizona State University, researchers announced the development of chaotic patterns used to encode and manipulate inputs in order to produce a desired output, demonstrating on silicon the new logic gate systems named ‘chaogates’.
The researchers took patterns from an infinitely random variety offered by a chaotic system, with a subset of these patterns used to map the system inputs. This process provides a method to exploit nonlinear dynamics to design computing devices with a capacity to reconfigure into a range of different logic gates.
17526128
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
A vending machine in Japan which recommends drinks to customers based on facial recognition data has tripled sales.
JR East Water Business has previously installed two vending machines in JR Shinagawa station and it is believed that the recognition technology is responsible for a vast increase in sales in comparison to traditional machines.
The vending machines recommend beverages after physical attributes of customers are picked up by sensors which allow the machines determine age, sex and other attributes, before offering a number of suggestions.
17525146
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Scientists have been working on a theoretical quantum computer that can work even if one in four quantum bits were missing or partying in Vegas with a dead cat and Elvis.
The plan works on paper and could help scientists build devices as large as three qubits and lower the engineering requirements of a functional machine.
University of Queensland physicist Thomas Stace worked with Sean Barrett of the Imperial College London said quantum computers that used photons as qubits risked losing some of these particles as they were scattered or absorbed.
17491006
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
IBM has revealed that technology it is working on could reduce supercomputers to the size of a sugar cube, significantly reducing the costs of running them as well as the risk of losing them in your morning coffee.
The reduction in size will come from improving energy efficiency in supercomputing, according to Dr. Bruno Michel, a researcher at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory.
Size and cost of computers has dramatically decreased, supporting a trend known as Moore's Law, but supercomputers still remain too large and use far too much energy.
17489702
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
While Google may be giving all of its employees a 10 percent raise to keep them on board, it's offering a whopping $3.5 million to one of its engineers to discourage them from jumping ship to Facebook.
17471110
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Scientists at Oxford University discovered that following volunteers viewing a film containing traumatic images of injury, those who were then able to play Tetris for an amount of time subsequently experienced significantly fewer flashbacks.
It appears that this does not necessarily mean all games have such an effect, it is apparently just Tetris that has an effect on PTSD, a condition which has seen some other exotic treatments in the past.
"Our latest findings suggest Tetris is still effective as long as it is played within a four-hour window after viewing a stressful film," said Dr Emily Holmes of Oxford University’s Department of Psychiatry. ‘Whilst playing Tetris can reduce flashback-type memories without wiping out the ability to make sense of the event, we have shown that not all computer games have this beneficial effect – some may even have a detrimental effect on how people deal with traumatic memories.’
17471030
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Hackers have come up with a way of rescuing Apple fanboys who have elderly versions of the iPhone.
For a while now Jobs' Mob has been forcing its long suffering customers to upgrade their 2G and 3G phones to the broken iPhone 4 by saddling them with an upgrade which made their gizmos slower.
Now Redmond Pie has come up with a method of replacing iOS on iPhone 2G and 3G models with Android 2.2 Froyo without using any tools on a host computer.
17426002
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Hydro-fracking involves shooting incredibly high-pressure "fluids" into oil and methane gas deposits to fracture the rock around it and release the gas. The Big Energy folks point out how economically important fracking is for the United States.
What's really important to focus on is that word "fluids". The people doing the fracking don't like to talk about what those fluids contain. They even have the law on their side in keeping it secret. The "Halliburton Loophole" is an artifact of the Bush Administration. It stops the EPA from regulating the chemicals added to water used for fracking.
17364602
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Just as we thought all the good peep shows in Times Square shut down, TSA rolled out its new Advanced Imaging Technology scanners in 65 airports throughout America. Backscatter technology takes body scanning machines to a whole new level with imaging technology that can see through a person's clothes to reveal any metal bombs, shanks, guns, or a dangerous pair of tatas.
So realistic, these images reveal everything from crack to crevice, and certainly leave nothing to the imagination. Regardless of whether or not this is necessary, meaningless security theatre, or perhaps just a plain old violation of privacy rights, this risque technology got us thinking: what if these pictures leak? Are backscatter images the newest version of the celebrity sex tape or the naughty text
17318708
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Research into the development and formation of babies brains has shown that they are more advanced than previously thought, and that they may spend their time in ‘conscious introspection’.
Researchers used functional MRI scanning to look at ‘resting state’ networks of 70 babies at between 29 and 43 weeks who were receiving treatment at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and found that they are born with a key collection of networks already formed in their brains, as advanced as a fully grown adult.
Resting state networks are connected systems of neurons that are constantly functioning even when a person is not focusing on a particular task. It had previously been thought that such networks were not fully formed in new born children, being developed during early childhood. However scientists have found evidence that one particular resting state, the default mode network, was fully developed at birth, beginning around the third trimester and usually becoming fully formed around 40 weeks.
17316382
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Television makers will abandon the can tuner, which has been standard since the beginning of the small screen, and switch to single chip silicon tuners. Over 60 percent of sets worldwide are expected to feature the single-chip silicon tuner by 2014.
Shipments for the silicon tuners will rise to 175.5 million in 2014, up from 7.1 million in 2009, according to analysts at iSuppli — making the leap to 60.7 percent of all TV sets from 3.4 percent in 2009. iSuppli believes that while legacy technology has been picked off one by one by manufacturers, the traditional can tuner, not canned tuna, has been reluctant to push up the daisies.
The market is now realising silicon tuners sport a series of advantages over their traditional older sibling. Can tuners are made up of multiple discrete components which means they must be assembled and customised for each product, whereas the silicon tuner has a smaller form factor, consumes less power and importantly are "one-size-fits-all" — they don't require customisation.
17301848
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Researchers at Oregon State University say they have solved a puzzle in fundamental material science that has eluded scientists since the 1960s, by creating a high-performance “metal-insulator-metal” diode which will speed up transistors and help power tomorrow's faster technology.
According to the university, conventional electronics made with semiconductors use transistors that help control the flow of electrons. Although they are fast and comparatively inexpensive, this approach is limited by the speed with which electrons can move through these materials. With the invention of faster computers and more sophisticated products such as liquid crystal displays, current technologies are nearing the limit of what they can do.
17295896
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Murata has created two tiny energy-harvesting devices, which it hopes will provide electricity for sensors and wireless components getting rid of the need for an external power supply.
The two devices, one which generates electricity from small vibrations, and the other from faint light sources, follow previous work when it came up with a product that generates electricity from thermal differentials — and another that uses a piezoelectric element to convert pressure into electricity.
The two creations will be put to market from 2011, with Murata hoping they will be used in a broad range of fields, including industrial equipment and cars.
17255722
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
Four driverless electric vans successfully ended a 13,000-kilometre test drive from Italy to China which mirrored the journey from East to West carried out by Marco Polo in the Middle Ages.
The four vans, packed with navigation gear and other computer software drove themselves Across Eastern Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Gobi Desert without getting lost.
The vans arrived at Shanghai Expo. They had been equipped with four solar-powered laser scanners and seven video cameras that work together to detect and avoid obstacles.
It was all part of an experiment aimed at improving road safety and advancing automotive technology.
17255478
submission
bossanovalithium writes:
It's what every mountaineer wants they reach the summit of Mount Everest, 3G high speed communication. "Hi honey, I'm on top of the world".
Those who have trekked it to the top will soon able to call their mates, go on Facebook or Twitter and boast that they've got there thanks to TeliaSonera and its subsidiary in Nepal, Ncell, which have bought 3G to the Mount Everest area.
Climbers who reached Everest's 8,848-metre peak previously depended on expensive and erratic satellite phone coverage and a voice-only network set up by China Mobile in 2007 on the Chinese side of the mountain.
