Submission + - Tech Round-Up for this Week (4/16 -4/20): Cell phones, micro chips, and more. (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "Cell phones that can see through walls, microchips as micro internets, 3D nanostructures, and more."
Submission + - Video: New 3-D nanostructures assemble themselves (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "Building a box seems seems easy, but it is very challenging when the box is only supposed to be a nanometer wide. At that size, 3D structures are too small to be assembled by any machine and they must be guided to assemble on their own. And now, interdisciplinary research from Johns Hopkins University and Brown University has led to a breakthrough showing that higher order polyhedra can indeed fold up and assemble themselves, creating nanostructures that may be used in drug delivery and other applications."
Submission + - Online therapy: Taking mental health services out of the office (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "Web-based psychotherapy is emerging as an alternative to conventional therapy sessions, with Skype and other telecommunication technologies serving as platforms through which patients can communicate with their therapists from miles away. At first, video conferencing was used to provide therapy for patients in supervised facilities such as prisons, rural clinics, and veteran’s healthcare facilities. But the trend is expanding and now many patients are finding it easier to talk to a therapist from the comfort of their living rooms. Online psychotherapy sites dedicated to providing web-based therapy sessions are on the rise. Breakthrough.com is one such site and has enrolled 900 therapists over a two-year time span. There is also the Telemental Health Institute, an online training institution for telepsychiatry and online psychotherapy services."
Submission + - Dummy with functioning artery system allows surgeons to develop skills (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "The Cybram 001 Cybernetic Brain Artery Model simulates the functioning of the cerebral blood vessels, so doctors can practice performing actual operations on the brain. Developed through joint research by Fuyo and the Saitama Medical University International Medical Center, the life size plastic body contains a blood vessel system that runs from the groin to the cerebral artery, as well as a circulation pump and pressure control circuit used to realistically simulate blood flow and pressure in the body."
Submission + - RHex rough-terrain robot from Boston Dynamics (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "RHex is a 30-lb robot designed for mobility on rough terrain. It is operated remotely via an RF link that includes a high-resolution video uplink. RHex can operate right-side-up or up-side down, as shown in the video, and goes for up to four hours on one charge of its batteries. RHex has been around for several years, but we redesigned this version for ruggedness, long battery life, maintainability and improved mobility. This version of RHex was funded by the US Army's Rapid Equipping Force."
Submission + - Microchips as micro Internets (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "Some of the best ideas in technology borrow from other technologies. The idea of the graphical Windows interface, for instance, may have been based on Apple’s Macintosh interface (which may have been based on a graphical Xerox interface, depending on which story you believe). USB technology has become a part of almost every mobile device, providing power and data transfer, even though it started as primarily a method of connecting printers, keyboards and mice to desktop computers."
Submission + - Tupac Lives! Tupac hologram performing alongside Snoop Dogg at Coachella 2012. (patexia.com) 1
techgeek0279 writes: "Tupac Shakur, the rap icon who was murdered in 1996, materialized on the Coachella 2012 stage in a live performance synched with Snoop Dogg. Nick Smith, president of the San Diego company AV Concepts that created the hologram, worked with rapper and producer Dr. Dre to accurately recreate Tupac with hologram technology."
Submission + - Humanoid Robots--Cool, but a bit creepy. (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "This video shows versions of DARPA and Boston Dynamics robots climbing stairs, walking on a treadmill and doing pushups. A modified platform resembling these robots is expected to be used as government-funded equipment (GFE) for performers in Tracks B and C of the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The GFE Platform is expected to have two arms, two legs, a torso and a head, and will be physically capable of performing all of the tasks required for the disaster response scenarios scheduled in the Challenge. However, despite the appearance of the robots in the video, the Challenge is decidedly not exclusive to humanoid robot solutions. Any designs are welcome provided they are compatible with shared human-robot environments, compatible with human tools and compatible with human operators so that a human without expertise in robotics can give commands and confidently anticipate the response. It is DARPA's position that achieving true innovation in robotics, and thus success in the Robotics Challenge, will require contributions from communities beyond traditional robotics developers. Hardware, software, modeling and gaming developers are sought to link with emergency response and various science communities to devise novel solutions that enable robots to respond to disasters according to the tasks laid out in DARPA's announcement for the Challenge."
Submission + - Tech Wrap Up for this Week--What was Most Exciting? (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "This week's high-tech headlines and trends: Reality augmented specs, robo-copter, chips as mini-internets, AOL sell of patents, and Facebook buys Instagram."
Submission + - Engineering the bat plane: Batman would be jealous! (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "Whether people are building a flying machine or nature is evolving one, there is pressure to optimize efficiency. A new analysis by biologists, physicists and engineers at Brown University reveals the subtle but important degree to which that pressure has literally shaped the flapping wings of bats. The findings not only help explain why bats and some birds tuck in their wings on the upstroke, but could also help inform human designers of small flapping vehicles. The team’s research is funded by the US Air Force Office of Sponsored Research. “If you have a vehicle that has heavy wings, it would become energetically beneficial to fold the wings on the upstroke,” said Sharon Swartz, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown. She and Kenneth Breuer, professor of engineering, are senior authors on the paper."
Submission + - Firefighting robot created by Naval Research Laboratory (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "Even in peacetime, fires represent one of the greatest risks to the US Naval Fleet. To this end, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), with support from the Office of Naval Research, is conducting research and developing new technologies to enable shoulder-to-shoulder robotic damage control teammates. The robot in this video is a research platform for testing software for cognitive robotics and human-robot interactions. The knowledge gained from this research will be applied to firefighting robots used on ships. Through a combination of speech and visual recognition, the robot is able to identify trusted individuals, in this case, the human fire-fighting teammate. The human is able to provide situational information to the robot by voice and gestural commands. Here, the human partner is telling Octavia the general location of the fire before she enters the compartment. Using two infrared cameras, Octavia is able to localize the fire, allowing her to target it with the compressed air/water backpack."
Submission + - Analyzing patent by patent of what Facebook is doing to counter sue Yahoo (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "What began as the threat of a Yahoo patent jackal coveting the Facebook lion's share soon flashed fangs as a lawsuit on March 12, 2012, with Yahoo alleging Facebook's infringement of these 10 patents. The blatantly opportunistic timing of the move — given Facebook's IPO — is akin to Yahoo's attack against Google during its own IPO in 2004 and has been much decried by the online community as a villainous and vainglorious ploy to seize funds that would have been better earned by legitimate innovation rather than patent trolling. Facebook's former marketing director, Randi Zuckerberg, summed it up best with her tweet, "This Yahoo stuff feels to me like the business equivalent of when celebs do 'Dancing With The Stars' in a last-ditch effort to save a career." In response to Yahoo's attack, Facebook bolstered its 56 patents with some 'white hat' counter-trolling of Yahoo by purchasing 750 IBM patents that created a potential minefield. Armed to the teeth, Facebook today raised its blade and struck ten powerful blows in a countersuit against Yahoo."
Submission + - Seeing beyond the visual cortex (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "Damage to the primary visual cortex, the main vision center in the back of the brain, can often cause blindness. But, might it be possible to train the brain to ‘see’ again after such an injury? Yes, according to Tony Ro, a neuroscientist at The City College of New York, who is artificially recreating a condition called Blindsight in his lab. "Blindsight is a condition that some patients experience after having damage to the primary visual cortex in the back of their brains. What happens in these patients is they go cortically blind, yet they can still discriminate visual information, albeit without any awareness." explains Ro. This research holds tantalizing clues to mapping alternative visual pathways that may one day help rehabilitate patients with damage to their primary visual cortex."
Submission + - Microsoft and West Coast Customs: Unlikely partnerships create better business a (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "Microsoft, best known for software and the Xbox gaming system, recently worked with West Coast Customs, best known for 'pimping' cars, to create a concept car — based on the automotive architecture of a Ford Mustang — that can not only move with 400 horsepower but also provides immediate access to multiple Microsoft technologies including Windows, Kinect and Bing."
Submission + - Microfluidic chip quickly diagnoses flu (patexia.com)
techgeek0279 writes: "The H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 underscored weaknesses in methods to diagnose the flu, from frequent false negatives to long wait times for results. Now a four-year study has validated a prototype rapid, low-cost, accurate, point-of-care device for diagnosing the flu."
