Friday, September 16, 2011

Adapting to the iPad, called education's 'equalizer'

From USATODAY.com
Image source: USA Today

Well-designed interfaces can open the world to people.
"The 18-year-old is a quadriplegic with multiple disabilities that make speech and muscle control extremely difficult. He interacts through eye gaze or by tapping his head against a switch on a communication device to spell out words.
But on a recent afternoon at the Lehmann Center, a special-needs school in Lakewood, N.J., Leuck was able to make music. With some effort, he slid his knuckles lightly over the digital image of a guitar on an iPad screen. The touches produced a series of acoustic-style chords from the iPad — and a big grin from Leuck."

Thursday, September 15, 2011

IBM's Doctor Watson?

From USATODAY.com
"IBM's supercomputer system, best known for trouncing the world's best "Jeopardy!" players on TV, is being tapped by one of the largest U.S. health insurers to help diagnose medical problems and authorize treatments.
WellPoint Inc., which has 34.2 million members, will integrate Watson's lightning speed and deep health care database into its existing patient information, helping it choose among treatment options and medicines."
The WellPoint application will combine data from three sources: a patient's chart and electronic records that a doctor or hospital has, the insurance company's history of medicines and treatments, and Watson's huge library of textbooks and medical journals.
IBM says the computer can then sift through it all and answer a question in moments, providing several possible diagnoses or treatments, ranked in order of the computer's confidence, along with the basis for its answer.
Previously IBM developed Deep Blue, "a massively parallel computer, to be applied to the study of biomolecular phenomena such as protein folding."

Robocleaners, tweeting appliances in the home of tomorrow

From USATODAY.com
Image Source: jeffbots.com
"Ever wondered what your home might look like in 10 years' time? Will it be cleaned by robots and run by computers? Will your fridge go online to allow you to discuss dinner plans with your spouse or instruct it to do the shopping?"
"If the technology giants exhibiting their latest wares at the recent IFA trade fair in Berlin are to be believed, this is what life could be like. The technology exists, even if some of the products have so far only been launched in places like Korea, one of the world's leading consumer electronics markets."

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Smart credit cards coming

From USATODAY.com
"The United States is the only developed country still hanging on to credit and debit cards with those black magnetic stripes, the kind you swipe through retail terminals. The rest of the industrialized world has switched —or is in the process of switching— to "smart" chip-based cards.
"The problem with that black magnetic stripe on the back of your credit card is that it's about as secure as writing your account information on a postcard: everything is in the clear and can be copied. Card fraud, and the measures taken to prevent it, costs U.S. merchants, banks and consumers billions each year.
The smart cards can't be copied, which greatly reduces the potential for fraud. Smart cards with built-in chips are the equivalent of a safe: they can hide information so it can only be unlocked with the right key. Because the important information is hidden, the cards can't be replicated."
 This seems to be an example where being technologically advanced stands in the way of technological advancement. Countries that adopt technologies early go on to build infrastructure to support that technology. Then when new technologies come along, there is an inertia to stick with the existing technology. Something similar has happened in many developing countries -- land line telephones have been completely bypassed, with a majority of the population going from no phone to a cell phone in a relatively short time.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

10 years after 9/11, cyberattacks pose national threat

From Computerworld
"...catastrophic cyberattacks against U.S. critical infrastructure targets are not a mere theoretical threat."

"This is not science fiction," the NSPG said in its report. "It is possible to take down cyber systems and trigger cascading disruptions and damage. Defending the U.S. against such attacks must be an urgent priority."

Friday, September 9, 2011

Self-directed microspider could repair blood vessels

Image Source: imdb.com
From New Scientist

I remember watching Fantastic Voyage as a kid and wondering if I would some day have tiny machines navigating through my bloodstream, repairing damage and keeping me healthy. Researchers at Penn State are working on it...
"A new spider-like micromachine could swim through a person's blood vessels, healing damaged areas and delivering drugs as it goes.

Ayusman Sen of Pennsylvania State University in University Park and his colleagues have created the self-propelling microspiders using spheres less than a micrometre wide. Each sphere is made up of two halves – one hemisphere is gold, the other silica – and looks like a gold-and-silver Christmas bauble."

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Google announces Dart programming language

From ExtremeTech

On the programming languages front.
"A few days after Google was caught registering a bunch of Dart-related domain names, and the inevitable storm of speculation, it has now emerged that Dart is a new programming language for “structured web programming."

"With the “structured web programming” moniker, it’s also likely to be some kind of interpreted, in-the-browser language — so more like JavaScript or Python, and less like Java or other compiled languages. One of the biggest hints, though, is that both Bracha and Bak have worked extensively with Smalltalk in the past — and an interpreted Smalltalkesque language would fit right into the “structured web programming” mold, too."

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Many U.S. schools adding iPads, trimming textbooks

From USATODAY.com

I got to be Santa Claus this week, handing out 11 iPads, a Kindle and a Sony eReader to students participating in pilot projects here at Messiah. We're exploring the utility of these technologies in the learning environment. At Educause last year I heard about several school districts forgoing textbooks in favor of iPads and digital resources; according to the article there are now at least 600 schools districts that have launched programs which provide at least some of their students with iPads for use in school.

Image Source: getliquid.com
I'd love to see this at my kids school, if for no other reason than to save their backs from the enormous backpacks full of textbooks :)
For incoming freshmen at western Connecticut's suburban Brookfield High School, hefting a backpack weighed down with textbooks is about to give way to tapping out notes and flipping electronic pages on a glossy iPad tablet computer.

The iPads generally cost districts between $500 and $600, depending on what accessories and service plans are purchased.

By comparison, Brookfield High in Connecticut estimates it spends at least that much yearly on every student's textbooks, not including graphing calculators, dictionaries and other accessories they can get on the iPads.

IT Hiring Remains Strong Despite Economic Fears

From CIO.com

Good news for CIS folks on the jobs front:
"IT professionals looking for new jobs need not fear that the recent spate of bad economic news will hamper their job searches. IT staffing industry executives agree that IT hiring in the U.S. will remain robust through the end of the year, bucking renewed fears of a double dip recession recently brought on by stock market corrections, the ongoing debt crisis in Europe and the U.S., and Standard & Poor's downgrade of America's credit rating.

"Despite the economic woes we've been hearing about, I haven't on the ground seen any change in demand [for IT workers]," says Shane Bernstein, managing director of IT staffing firm Q. "In fact, demand keeps increasing. Every week I hear [from our clients], 'We have a lot more positions coming down the pipeline that we need to fill.'"

Quantum optical link sets new time records

From physorg.com

Image Source: physorg.com
Advice to young people interested in cutting-edge computing: take lots of physics! So many interesting physics news items... so little time to comprehend.
"Quantum communication could be an option for the absolutely secure transfer of data. The key component in quantum communication over long distances is the special phenomenon called entanglement between two atomic systems. Entanglement between two atomic systems is very fragile and up until now researchers have only been able to maintain the entanglement for a fraction of a second. But in new experiments at the Niels Bohr Institute researchers have succeeded in setting new records and maintaining the entanglement for up to an hour. The results are published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters."

Monday, September 5, 2011

SignalGuru - a high-tech way to avoid red lights

Image Source: gizmag.com
From gizmag.com

Driving is yet another activity being totally transformed by technology. I always check my iPhone before heading across the Susquehanna to figure out if it's worth it to take the Turnpike (and avoid the 83 traffic). This story describes a system to help drivers avoid red lights.

"One of the most effective hypermiling techniques is maintaining a steady speed while driving instead of constantly stopping and starting. Unfortunately, traffic lights all too often conspire to foil attempts at keeping the vehicle rolling. Researchers at MIT and Princeton have now devised a system that gathers visual data from the cameras of a network of dashboard-mounted smartphones and tells drivers the optimal speed to drive at to avoid waiting at the next set of lights."

"The new system, dubbed SignalGuru, was tested in both Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Singapore. In Cambridge, where traffic signals are on fixed schedules, the researchers say the system was able to predict when lights would change with an average error of only two-thirds of a second and helped drivers cut fuel consumption by an average of 20 percent. "

Researchers identify first flaws in the Advanced Encryption Standard

From Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Image Source: edgetechcorp.com
A flaw in the AES sounds pretty scary, given that most of our online banking and other 'secure' network transactions rely on AES. But note the repercussions (esp. those of you who have been in Data Structures and Algorithms):
"To put this into perspective: on a trillion machines, that each could test a billion keys per second, it would take more than two billion years to recover an AES-128 key."
'via Blog this'

New Computer Chip Modeled on a Living Brain

From Popular Science

Note the reference to the von Neumann bottleneck (esp. students in Organization of Programming Languages). See more about von Neumann architecture.
“This new architecture represents a critical shift away form today’s traditional von Neumann computers, to extremely power-efficient architecture,” Dharmendra Modha, project leader for IBM Research, said in an interview. “It integrates memory with processors, and it is fundamentally massively parallel and distributed as well as event-driven, so it begins to rival the brain’s function, power and space.”

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Computational method predicts new uses for existing medicines

From National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Image Source: nccs.gov

An example of computation as a "fourth leg" of scientific research.
"For the first time ever, scientists are using computers and genomic information to predict new uses for existing medicines.

A National Institutes of Health-funded computational study analyzed genomic and drug data to predict new uses for medicines that are already on the market. A team led by Atul J. Butte, M.D., Ph.D., of Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., reports its results in two articles in the Aug. 17 online issue of Science Translational Medicine.

“Bringing a new drug to market typically takes about $1 billion, and many years of research and development,” said Rochelle M. Long, Ph.D., who directs the NIH Pharmacogenomics Research Network. “If we can find ways to repurpose drugs that are already approved, we could improve treatments and save both time and money.”
'via Blog this'

Saturday, September 3, 2011

C++ upgrade wins unanimous approval

From InfoWorld

News on the Programming Languages front (pay attention, COSC382 students!)
"C++11 is the first major new version of ISO C++, said Herb Sutter, chair of the ISO C++ standards committee. Featured in C++11 are lambda functions, which serve as a key enabler of emerging parallel algorithms and revolutionize the use of the existing Standard Template Library, said Sutter, also a principal architect for native languages at Microsoft. "What's already there in the C++98 standard library will immediately become even easier to use," he said. Move semantics in C++11, meanwhile, lead to higher performance. Concurrency features include types for portable, lock-free programming.

'via Blog this'

Friday, September 2, 2011

Internet Use Affects Memory, Study Finds (Yawn)

Image Source: masternewmedia.org
From NYTimes.com
"The widespread use of search engines and online databases has affected the way people remember information, researchers are reporting."
Some would likely interpret this with alarm -- "Internet use impairs memory!" But is it really cause for concern? Does use of tools make us rely on the use of tools? Almost certainly! (How many of us could live an independent hunter-gatherer lifestyle?) But so what? The march of technological progress moves us away from low level menial tasks to higher level work. If we didn't have calculators, ability to do mental arithmetic would be much more important. But since we do have them, mathematicians can focus on much more interesting problems!

Nearby supernova found within 24 hours, thanks to computing

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
From Wired.com

Where would modern astronomy be without computers to search through the torrent of data?
"The team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, credit the early detection to a specialized survey telescope at the Palomar Observatory in Southern California and advanced computing."

Thursday, September 1, 2011

"Uncanny valley” explained?

From Digital Trends

Were you creeped out by the characters in Polar Express? Do you find clowns, human puppets, and overly-realistic robots to be unsettling? How about the too-close-to-human robotic Hiroshi Ishiguro (see image on left)? The term "Uncanny Valley" has been used to describe the unease people feel as inanimate objects become closer and closer to human in appearance. On the one side of the valley, Kermit the Frog and R2D2 are fine. At the opposite side we have the sexy Cylons in the remade Battlestar Galactica. No problem with any of them. But somewhere in the middle we hit the almost-but-not-quite-human animations and robots that seem to make us squirm. Now scientists may have uncovered the mechanism behind this dissonance.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

"Researchers from the university of California, San Diego, have discovered that a mismatch between movement and humanoid traits could be causing the uncanny valley effect, or the uneasiness we feel when we look at humanoid robots or CGI creations."
"Unfortunately, we still don’t entirely know why our brain hates this inconsistency, but if movies and video games are any indication, our brains may be able to get used to the oddness of our human-like creations in time. Games like L.A. Noire have found success by somewhat reducing the uncanny valley effect by drastically improving the facial and body animation of its characters. Faster animation in motion-capture CGI films like the upcoming Spielberg film The Adventures of Tintin are also working around this odd phenomenon. Unfortunately, we don’t quite know if our brains will ever truly accept fake humanoids until they are completely indistinguishable from ourselves."

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Python Cloud IDE



Our incoming students might be interested in this - PythonFiddle.com is a cloud-based IDE that lets you write and run code in your browser. Both apps and data are migrating to the web, but apps have lagged. There are plenty of ways to store almost any data in the cloud, but there are still many kinds of apps that only run locally (and many apps that do have cloud-based versions are still far behind their local equivalent. Working with students on their code over the years, I've been desperate for a GOOD cloud-based IDE, so that wherever we are I can sit down with them and run their code in the same environment in which they've been running it (it gets old really fast to have them email me their code, often missing some files, then download them, import them into Eclipse, compile, run, debug, comment, and then reupload the files for them...

Let me know if you know of other cloud-based IDEs that you like, especially any for C++, Java, Prolog, or any of the Lisp variants.

Stanford offers free CS courses

From DeviceGuru

Last year at Educause, I heard Neil Gershenfeld (of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms) speak on a shift away from a scarcity-based model of education. A significant point was that technology has the potential to radically revolutionize the business of education. In the past, access to ideas was limited by access to physical resources: books, laboratories, faculty members. When resources are digitized, the nominal cost of reproducing them becomes insignificant.

In the latest of a series of similar examples, Stanford University has announced that it will be offering a series of 10 free online computer science courses, including their introduction to computer science, artificial intelligence, and robotics. As of a couple of days ago, more than 120,000 students had signed up for the courses.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Why Were Irene's Intensity Predictions So Off?

From Technology Review

A timely piece on weather prediction - a heavily data-intensive modeling discipline.
"Hurricane path prediction has enormously improved. Forecasters knew days before it made landfall that Irene would hit the Carolinas and move up the East Coast, reaching New York and New England."

"While path prediction has steadily improved over the decades, forecasting the intensity of storms still proves tricky. Irene's expected monster intensity—much to the nation's relief—was far less as she weakened a day or so after reaching land. "What made Irene especially difficult for the forecasting models was that she had three landfalls and followed the coastline," says Heymsfield. "We need a lot more research to understand how to better model this land interaction."

IBM's moves toward quantum computing

From Computerworld

Image Source: zmescience
IBM, one of the most patent-rich companies in the world, continues it's amazing pace of research and innovation. The future, they believe, is in a radically different paradigm of computing hardware (which will also require new thinking in software approaches as well).
"But the computing industry is moving to a new future as disruptive and as radical as the era that began with the introduction of silicon chips, and that future is quantum computing. These are systems that use the behavior of subatomic particles to conduct calculations now performed with transistors on a chip."

"An ordinary computer is a collection of bits that can either be a 0 or a 1. But quantum bits can hold those states, 0 and 1, simultaneously. Instead of doing a calculation one after the other, the processing power in a quantum computer can increase exponentially. Two quantum bits, or qubits, can hold four distinct states, which can be processed simultaneously, three qubits can hold eight and 10 qubits can hold 1,024 states. In time, researchers expect machines with thousands of qubits."

Profile Pics Put Your Privacy At Risk

From Discovery News

Data mining techniques applied to massive amounts of publicly available data make it easier than you would imagine to cyberstalk.
Image source: neonfudge.com
"In one experiment, Acquisti and his team uniquely identified 4,900 out of 5,800 anonymous dating site members."

"In arguably the most disturbing experiment, Acquisti used students who had their date of birth and hometown publicly posted on their social network profile to predict their Social Security numbers (SSNs). By using techniques from a previous study showing that SSNs can be somewhat accurately guessed using public information, Acquisti correctly identified the first five digits of SSNs in 16 percent of the students. After four attempts, the accuracy rate jumped to 27 percent."

Sunday, August 28, 2011

How Computational Complexity Will Revolutionize Philosophy

From Technology Review
Image courtesy http://www.core.org.cn/

For those of you who have been in my Data Structures and Algorithms class... or anyone who is interested in what can be accomplished "before the heat death of the universe." :-)

"The theory of computation has had a profound influence on philosophical thinking. But computational complexity theory is about to have an even bigger effect, argues one computer scientist."
"Since the 1930s, the theory of computation has profoundly influenced philosophical thinking about topics such as the theory of the mind, the nature of mathematical knowledge and the prospect of machine intelligence. In fact, it's hard to think of an idea that has had a bigger impact on philosophy."
"And yet there is an even bigger philosophical revolution waiting in the wings. The theory of computing is a philosophical minnow compared to the potential of another theory that is currently dominating thinking about computation."


Data are traveling by light

From Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

My favorite part of the article: the use of the word "ensconced." A visible light WLAN might be kind of impressive, but if the users are also ENSCONCED in a room, well then that's just amazing!

Joking aside, this is an interesting approach to networking that doesn't rely on traditional radio signals.
"Just imagine the following scenario: four people are comfortably ensconced in a room. Each one of them can watch a film from the Internet on his or her laptop, in HD quality. This is made possible thanks to optical WLAN. Light from the LEDs in the overhead lights serves as the transfer medium."

'via Blog this'

Saturday, August 27, 2011

5D glass storage could revolutionize medical imaging, computing

From ExtremeTech
"Researchers from the University of Southampton, England, have successfully recorded, read, and erased data from a piece of nano-structured glass. This technique could revolutionize microscopy in general, and medical imaging in specific — and, perhaps more importantly for computing, it could also be used to store binary data, like an optical disc."
"The end result, and it’s hard to say this with a straight face, is permanent five-dimensional data storage. Not only can the standard three dimensions be used — vertical and horizontal position on the piece of glass, and varying depth depending on the duration of the femtosecond laser pulse — but the wavelength and polarization of the light can also carry data. These nano-structures are absolutely tiny, too — just a few nanometers, much smaller than a DVD or Blu-ray disc — so we could be talking about an incredibly high-density storage medium."

How 5 Recent Social Uprisings Were Wired

From Scientific American


Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, China -- modern day revolutions are relying on wired technologies.
"From the horseback ride of Paul Revere—and for millennia before—people have used the latest technology available to rally others sympathetic to their cause. As ubiquitous as Twitter and Facebook have seemed lately in spreading the word for gatherings, whether benevolent or malevolent, many recent demonstrations and revolts have used a variety of primarily digital platforms to spread their message. Here are five examples in just the past two years:"

Friday, August 26, 2011

Apple's back-to-school promo clobbering Microsoft's efforts

From AppleInsider
Image Source: Forbes

Apple isn't just for artists anymore!
"Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry issued a note to investors earlier this week pointing out that education sales of Apple’s Macs have been significantly outselling Windows PCs. The firm’s research indicated that “80% of incoming students are buying Apple Computers vs. Windows Computers.”"

Chowdrhy also reports that Apple is enjoying substantial success in the Enterprise. New data indicates that “probably about 35% of Fortune 500 companies are giving Apple as a Choice to its employees, and majority are preferring Apple over Windows.”

The report believes that Apple's gains are a result of “the success of iPad is putting pressure on Enterprise IT to not only support iPad, but also Apple iPhones and Apple iMacs and MacBooks,” going as far as to say that high-level executives are “influencing the IT to bring Apple products into the Enterprise.”

A Day Made of Glass

From Corning.

This video shows some cool possibilities for near future tech. It's more than five minutes long, but engaging and worth it.



'Software is the Modern Language of Science'

From HPCwire

Computation, according to Nobel physics laureate Ken Wilson, has joined theory and experimentation as a "third leg" of scientific discovery (see Denning 2007, for example).

“We now have very small periods in time that are leading to very large changes in the amount of data, the amount of computation, and the amount of knowledge that is needed in order to carry out this kind of work,”
“...after more than four centuries of science being conducted at a painstakingly slow pace, today’s communications technologies and scientific advances are forcing a dramatic change–and acceleration–in all areas of science. At the heart of this change will be software.”
More recently, some have even been talking of a "fourth paradigm" -- the use of massive databases to discover new knowledge. For more see "The Fourth Paradigm," a series of essays published by Microsoft Research.

BrainGate neural interface system reaches 1,000-day performance milestone

From Brown University News and Events

Image Source: Brown Univ
An interesting milestone in machine/human integration. The system described is being used to replace functionality lost to tetraplegia, but as with any such system, it could someday be used to give unimpaired people extra abilities.
"An investigational implanted system being developed to translate brain signals toward control of assistive devices has allowed a woman with paralysis to accurately control a computer cursor at 2.7 years after implantation, providing a key demonstration that neural activity can be read out and converted into action for an unprecedented length of time."

"Under development since 2002, the investigational BrainGate system is a combination of hardware and software that directly senses electrical signals produced by neurons in the brain that control movement. By decoding those signals and translating them into digital instructions, the system is being evaluated for its ability to give people with paralysis control of external devices such as computers, robotic assistive devices, or wheelchairs. The BrainGate team is also engaged in research toward control of advanced prosthetic limbs and toward direct intracortical control of functional electrical stimulation devices for people with spinal cord injury, in collaboration with researchers at the Cleveland FES Center."

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Good time for CS jobs

From NetworkWorld
"It's a good time to be a computer science major. Job prospects are rosy for today's graduates, who are entering the workforce at a time when tech hiring is on the rise and talent is hard to find.

'We've calculated that there are about two to three open jobs for every computer science grad this year,' says Alice Hill, managing director at job site Dice.com."
For anyone searching, build your online professional presence at LinkedIn; search for positions on Monster.com, and join the CIS-Messiah Facebook group.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Computer science tops list of best major for jobs

See original news item at Computer science tops list of best major for jobs.:

Good news for CS grads; actual results vary by state.
"July 8, 2011 — Computer science graduates now get more offers of employment than any other major. This is the first time since 2008 that computer science has topped the list: previously, accounting majors had the highest offer rate.

In 2011, 56.2% of computer science majors received job offers, compared to only 53.8% of accounting majors. The offer rate for computer science majors increased 13.8% this year from the previous year."

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Integrating humans with machines

As prosthetics become more and more sophisticated, one of the major challenges is the mind-machine interface. In the past we've relied on rather crude signaling methods, but continuing advances bring us closer to true replacements. And once we can replace natural function, it's a short hop to enhancing natural function. Perhaps a boutique at the mall where you can pick out new arms and have them cut off your old ones?

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Supercomputers transform science

See original at NYTimes.com

I often talk in class about how computing is transforming almost every discipline it touches. The article linked discusses how the process of scientific discovery is shifting into a computing-centric approach.
"The physical technology of scientific research is still here — the new electron microscopes, the telescopes, the particle colliders — but they are now inseparable from computing power, and it is the computers that let scientists find order and patterns in the raw information that the physical tools gather.

Computer power not only aids research, it defines the nature of that research: what can be studied, what new questions can be asked, and answered."

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Augmented Reality App For Librarians - I love technology!

Source: http://www.popsci.com/

Augmented Reality App For Librarians Instantly Shows Which Books Are Misfiled:
"E-books, iPads and Kindles may be the way of the future, but most of the world's knowledge is still stored in millions of good old paper books on library shelves. So researchers at Miami University have created an augmented reality app that makes all those books easier to organize. ShelvAR instantly analyzes an entire shelf, spots any misplaced books, and shows librarians the quickest way to put the books back in order."
How about an app that helps you pick out the books you haven't read yet? Or books you're likely to enjoy? All kinds of possibilities!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Flying robots playing tennis


One thing I love about robotics -- it combines fun with seriously challenging computing.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Navy Wants Doc-Bots, Robo-Ambulances

See original at Navy Wants Doc-Bots, Robo-Ambulances
"Not all of the military’s robot research goes into creating unfeeling killing machines. Some of them are here to heal, like the Navy’s plan to create a medical robot to treat troops carried by drones."
The Office of Naval Research recently announced that it’s looking to build a prototype medical robot it calls the Autonomous Critical Care System. ACCS’ first job would be monitoring critical patients’ vital signs. Eventually, though, the Navy wants its bot to provide fluid, drugs, anaesthesia, suction, oxygen and help regulate a patient’s temperature.

The Navy envisions its medic-bot actually diagnosing and managing a number of “medically complex, life-threatening clinical events” for more than six hours — to be done either autonomously or with the assistance of a human caregiver. To do some of that critical management, ACCS would come equipped with its own drug kit, including “epinephrine, phenylephrine, dopamine, vasopressin, paralytics” among others.


Saturday, April 2, 2011

Carnivorous Robots Trap, Eat Bugs for Fuel

See original at VIDEO: Carnivorous Robots Trap, Eat Bugs for Fuel - CPUs, Boards & Components by ExtremeTech

"To summarize: science has produced a self-sustaining robot that is designed to trap, kill, and consume living creatures for energy. As far as flies are concerned, the robot apocalypse has already begun."

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Robot comedian. Watch out Seinfeld.


Heather Knight: Silicon-based comedy | Video on TED.com: "In this first-of-its-kind demo, Heather Knight introduces Data, a robotic stand-up comedian that does much more than rattle off one-liners -- it gathers audience feedback (using software co-developed with Scott Satkin and Varun Ramakrishna at CMU) and tunes its act as the crowd responds. Is this thing on?"

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Navy Building Humanoid Robot to Fight Fires

Navy Building Humanoid Robot to Fight Fires: "The Navy next week will kick off a new project to build a humanoid robot that could be used for firefighting aboard ships.

The three-year effort, which will be funded by the Office of Naval Research, will be aimed at building a prototype of the robotic firefighter. The eventual goal is a walking, talking robot equipped with sensors and fire suppressant that could move around a ship independently, putting out blazes."

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

See original at Computer crushes human 'Jeopardy!' champs

Source: www.ibm.com
Finally! Definitive proof that humans are destined for obsolescence while computers take over the tedious work of "thinking."
"An IBM computer crushed two human champions Tuesday in the second round of a man vs. machine showdown on the popular US television game show 'Jeopardy!'
Most of the banter and gentle humor that usually pepper the popular quiz show was gone as the supercomputer dominated the game by beating his human opponents to the buzzer again and again."
Gleefully posted by GeneBot 2.0

Friday, January 7, 2011

New Device Will Give Soldiers Eyes in the Back of Their Head - Technology News by ExtremeTech

See original at Technology News by ExtremeTech:

"DARPA is developing a new technology that will give soldiers a super human view of the battlefield—and not just from multiple angles, but from every angle. The new high tech vision works via glasses connected to soldiers' headgear that will give the viewer the power of zoom vision; night vision; and, more spectacularly, 'full sphere awareness' of everything around them. To achieve the 360 vantage point, the glasses will combine images from various cameras connected around the soldier's head gear. And for an added ability, the images can be combined with data from fellow soldiers as well as from aerial drones to give a single soldier a real-time 3D map of their surroundings. A true god's-eye-view of the combat zone."

Software Engineer, Mathematician are best job in the US

See reference at Wall Street Journal Online. Original at www.careercast.com

Based on flexibility, job satisfaction, working environment, income, physical demands, and job outlook.