Non-invasive brain control over robotic limbs, computers, and other technology is one step closer, with a new project that allows full navigation of a Parrot AR.Drone simply by thinking about it. The research, the handiwork of a biomedical engineering team at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and published this week in the Journal of
While the rest of the world is clogging up the internet’s lanes sending cat GIFs to one another, there are those that need clear highways to be, you know, productive. To that end, a group of six research and education networks including Internet2 have demonstrated the first 100 Gbps link between North America and Europe reserved specifically for their intellectual agenda. It won’t be much use just yet, as the Advanced North Atlantic 100G Pilot project (ANA-100G) will be subject to a year of testing while “operational requirements” are looked at. The plan, though, is for the link to be used in the future by universities and research organizations for sending huge datasets, like those created by the LHC. One of the demos cut the time for a large transfer from Maastricht (Netherlands) to Chicago down from several hours over normal internet to just a few minutes over the private pipe. Head to the PR for more info on the project, and think of all that bandwidth you’ll never be able to use.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Register
An eight week EC trial of a brain-controlled exoskeleton potentially promising newfound mobility to those with lower-limb paralysis will finish this week, with the project expected to spark a five year development path to a commercial version. The device, dubbed MindWalker, is the handiwork of a team at the Free University of Brussels, which has been working for the past three years on a motorized exoskeleton that can be controlled and navigated via brain impulses. Now, New Scientist reports, the European Commission will assess the results, having funded the project so far.
The MindWalker is made up of two companion projects, as the name implies. Arguably more straightforward is the exoskeleton side, which has been designed to support the weight of an adult, keep them balanced when walking, and adapt to different walking styles. An integrated brain in the walker itself helps spot obstacles that could present an issue for the user.
However, more complex is the mind-reading part, which the team refers to as the Brain/Neural Computer Interface (BNCI). A non-invasive system, using a dry EEG cap that doesn’t require messy gels or intrusive surgery, the technology cap is paired with a portable amplifier to make sure the computer gets the right signals. Previous methods have also included flickering diodes that gage intention to move by where the eye pays most attention.
The training process begins before the user has even strapped into the exoskeleton, however. The MindWalker team has developed a virtual reality training package which allows potential wearers to train their brains to get the most out of the BNCI link. As well as creating virtual obstacle courses to navigate through, the training system also includes a motion-actuated seat so that they become used to the sensation of being moved around by the motorized legs.
The dual development means that, even if mind control isn’t suitable for a particular user, that doesn’t mean the exoskeleton itself is out of reach. A more rudimentary control system – with pressure pads on the sides, triggered by rocking within the harness – to move each leg is also possible.
With brain control, though, there’s a lot more finesse up for grabs. The EEG system can apparently differentiate between the aim to move slowly or at speed, meaning pace could be controlled simply by thinking differently. Down the line, it could mean expanding the system to users with even less mobility, potentially including those who experience full body paralysis.
So far, the EC has pumped €2.75m ($3.6m) into the MindWalker project over the course of around three years. It’s still a long way out from commercialization, however, and the estimate is that it will take another five or so before a production version could be ready. By that point, project member Thomas Hoellinger suggests, the system could be a lot more aesthetically discrete, with less weight, smoother movements, and potentially even a frame that could be disguised under more traditional legwear.
MindWalker brain-controlled exoskeleton puts the paralyzed on their feet is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Windows Phone continues to sweep up featurephone upgraders, cementing its third-place position in the US smartphone market according to new research. Microsoft’s platform rose year-on-year by 1.8-percent by the end of the three month period finishing April 2013, though its overall market share didn’t shift quarter-on-quarter; however, the OS proved particularly popular for those upgrading to their first smartphone.
In fact, 42-percent of new Windows Phone users came to the platform having previously used a featurephone, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech‘s market research. That’s versus 31-percent who jumped from a featurephone to an iPhone in the same period.
Windows Phone has always had strengths in the first-time-upgraders segment, not least because of the straightforward Metro-style interface Microsoft developed. However, while between 2011 and 2012 Microsoft’s biggest gains were in customers 50-64, in the past year that’s also shifted to those aged 25-34.
Nonetheless, for all Microsoft’s incremental gains, it still lags far behind Android and iOS. Google’s platform has the biggest share, with 51.7-percent giving it control over more than half of the US smartphone market according to Kantar’s numbers. iOS is in second place with 41.4-percent; both are growing, but iOS is growing slightly faster, up 2.3-percent versus Android’s 1.4-percent rise.
The loser is predominantly BlackBerry, which has seen its market share in the US slip from 5.6-percent to 3.8-percent. Other platforms have halved in prevalence, from 0.6-percent to 0.3-percent.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Nokia’s Lumia range that gets the credit for predominantly driving Windows Phone demand. The company announced rising sales of handsets in its April quarterly results, though that wasn’t enough to avoid a $196m loss.
Windows Phone a hit among featurephone upgraders for 5.6% US share is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Motorola dropped some jaws this week, when Advanced Technology and Projects Group chief Regina Dugan revealed the company’s tinkering on digital tattoos, week-long implanted electronics that could free you from the tyranny of remembering passwords. Dugan – a former DARPA head – described the tattoo as perfect for a wearables market targeting users that don’t actually bother wearing watches any more, instead turning the body into a walking authentication token. She also namechecked mc10, a company not unfamiliar to SlashGear, as the brains behind the flexible tattoo-tech, but just what’s inside?
Cambridge, MA, based mc10 calls the tattoo “epidermal electronics”, and has in fact been working on the concept for some years now. The idea is relatively straightforward: rather than rely on the user carrying a device, or remembering to strap one on each morning, the technology is temporarily bonded to their skin.
That bond has another advantage, since the responses of the wearer’s skin can also be used to collect health data. The tattoo is made up of various sensors and gages, such as for tracking strain in multiple directions (how the user is flexing), EEG and EMG (electrical impulses in the skeletal structure or nerves), ECG (heart activity), and temperature, as well as light and other factors. In total, it’s a mini-lab for your arm, the side of your head, or anywhere else on the body.
Like NFC chips, the mc10 epidermal electronics get powered up from an external electricity source, using the embedded wireless power coil. It’s a similar system to the wireless phone charging Nokia and others have implemented in recent handsets, and it powers the tattoo’s transmitter. That’s all layered onto a sheet of water-soluble plastic that gets laminated to the skin; in fact, it can even be disguised with a regular temporary tattoo pattern, opening the door to potential branding and such.
Once they’re in place, they’re incredibly resilient. The tightly coiled structure of the electronics means that, even if the tattoo is stretched or twisted, the connections won’t break. It’s also waterproof, which means that even if you’re swimming or in the shower, the tattoo won’t be affected.
However, epidermal electronics don’t just have to stop at being biometric keys for your laptop and your Netflix account. Studies using the technology have found that they can also track muscle movements around speech, when applied to the throat, potentially turning the tattoos into half of a wireless hands-free kit. Since you don’t actually have to speak out loud, it could pick up sub-vocal commands, too. Alternatively, they can even track brain signals with enough accuracy to control a computer, which might mean simply thinking about making a call and having your nearby smartphone place it. Similar sensors have been used to fly remote-control planes and drones, something mc10 is working on replicating with its more compact tattoos.
They were some of the possibilities mc10 co-founder Ben Schlatka spoke to us about last year, when we talked to him about the advantages of persistent sensing. The company is also working with the US army on embedded electronics in battlefield clothing, which could collect energy and convert it into electricity to power the gadgets soldiers carry.
“Imagine a kids’ fake tattoo that can sense how our bodies work: data from the heart, the brain, muscles, body temperature – even hydration levels,” Schlatka told us. “When a sensing technology conforms to the consumer and not the other way around, it can capture more insights for longer periods of time without discomfort or distraction.”
Motorola isn’t the only company intrigued. Back in April, mc10 announced it had closed a new $8m financing round, taking the company’s total Series C funding to $18m. Exactly which investors have come on-board is yet to be confirmed, though mc10 did say that it now has backers across its consumer, digital health, and medical devices divisions.
Whether Motorola will actually release a wearable using mc10 technology remains to be seen; the Google-owned company still needs to prove it has a solid foot in the smartphone market, though the new Moto X could address that. Still, it’s clear that the digital tattoo is capable of further breaking down the boundary between users and their devices. If Motorola can leverage that, alongside Google’s own ongoing research into wearables like Glass, it could be the differentiator the company needs from the increasingly crowded Android market, not to mention finally silencing the critics who doubted the wisdom of the smartphone company’s acquisition in the first place.
IMAGES: Dr Todd Coleman; mc10
What’s inside Motorola’s digital tattoo? is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Owners of self-driving cars may have to undergo extra testing in order to “upgrade” their license to handle the next-gen vehicles, the NHTSA has suggested. Tentative enthusiasm for self-driving cars by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration comes with the possibility of more stringent drivers license testing, with the new challenges of safely interacting with autopilot systems deemed sufficiently novel that the existing test would be insufficient.
Advocates of self-driving technology, such as is being tested by Google among others, welcomed the NHTSA’s new public stance on automated vehicles, announced this week. The government agency set out five levels of potential autonomy, ranging from fully manually operated cars as are on the road today, dubbed “Level 0″, through to models that can handle the entire trip with no more human interaction than setting the required destination.
Such “Level 4″ vehicles aren’t yet in testing, the NHTSA points out, with cars like Google’s test fleet falling into “Level 3″ where a driver might be called upon to take over should the autopilot deem itself insufficiently capable to handle the current road conditions.
It’s that potential to be summoned back into the driver’s seat that has the NHTSA concerned, however, with suggestions that while the technological aspect of such cars is being heavily researched, the human factors are still poorly understood. That could include how a human driver monitors the performance of the autopilot, so as to ensure any problems are quickly spotted, and the transition between self-driving and regular modes.
The NHTSA has begun the evaluation process to address these questions and more, which is expected to be completed – in its first phase, at least – within the next two years. “One of the main end products of this initial research program would be recommendations for what requirements are needed for the driver-vehicle interface,” the NHTSA says, “to allow safe operation and transition between automated and non-automated vehicle operation.”
However, the agency is already making one recommendation, which is that drivers in the few states where self-driving cars are already permitted for real-world testing should add in an extra endorsement – if not an entirely separate license – to authorize them to get behind the semi-autonomous wheel. That testing process should include a minimum number of hours in a self-driving car, as well as having received instruction from the vehicle’s manufacturer as to how it works and how to safely operate it.
“The training course should be submitted to the state agency that issues driving licenses for approval prior to the taking of that course by any person seeking a driver’s license endorsement certification. The course should include providing an understanding of the basic operation and limits of self-driving vehicles, and knowledge of how to resume control of such a vehicle in the event that it cannot continue to operate automatically” NHTSA
The suggestions in the Agency’s policy document are all voluntary at this stage, and it’s early days for any actual laws – or even proposed laws – to emerge. Nonetheless, it looks likely that as we wait for “Level 4″ cars to arrive, there’ll be some extra requirement on top of current licensing procedures for drivers to undertake, given the new and unusual ways that self-driving cars will interact with those behind the wheel.
VIA: WSJ
Self-driving cars might demand new license tests for drivers is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Motorola‘s big vision for mobile isn’t just the Moto X smartphone: the company also has wearable, tattoo-embedded, and even swallowable gadgets in the pipeline. Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group chief Regina Dugan – former DARPA chief – showed up at D11 sporting an electronic tattoo that could be worn on the skin for a week at a time, and used to cut through the numerous authentication processes we go through every day.
The tattoos rely on a new, stretchable electronics system that can keep working even as it flexes on the wearer’s arm. As Dugan says, while criticisms of wearables like smartwatches include suggestions that young people won’t want to wear them – something Tim Cook commented on – it’s much more likely that the demographic would want to use a digital tattoo.
It’s not the only high-tech security system Motorola’s group is looking at. “I take a vitamin every morning: what if I could take an authentication vitamin?” Dugan asked, before whipping out a Proteus smart-pill.
That pill contains a “switch” and an “inside-out potato battery”, Dugan explained, which creates electricity from the chemical processes in the body when swallowed. The result is the switch toggling on and off, and creating an 18-bit ECG-like signal.
“Essentially your entire body becomes an authentication token,” Dugan concluded, before laughing off suggestions by AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg that Google – which owns Motorola – might insist on employees swallowing one of the pills every day. The technology itself still needs work, she admitted, but the pills are safe for human consumption: you could take multiple each day for the rest of your life, she argued.
Unsurprisingly, none of the projects Dugan and her team are working on will necessarily arrive any time soon. First up, in fact, is the new Motorola “Moto X” smartphone, which the company chief Dennis Woodside said is due to hit the market in 2013, and will include various sensors that will trigger automatic responses depending on how the user is treating their phone.
The full Motorola appearance at D11 – including Dugan’s discussion on wearable and implantable tech – is available in the video below.
Motorola developing digital tattoos and “smart pills” for next-gen wearables is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Self-driving cars could be on the roads by 2016, specialist Mobileye Vision claims, though don’t expect the full autonomy of a Google driverless car unless you have a very deep wallet. The company is readying a camera-based system which relies on a few hundred dollars of components, rather than the tens of thousands of dollars Google pays for each of the lidar sensing arrays atop its own test vehicles, though as The NYTimes discovered it doesn’t add up to quite the same relaxing, hands-off ride.
Google’s cars use a laser that measures the distance between them and any other object nearby, many thousands of times a minute. By building up a picture of the environment, the car can make split-second decisions as to when to turn, merge into other lanes, speed up, or slow down.
However, 360-degree lidar scanners are certainly not cheap, and that’s going to impact how quickly self-driving cars can reach the market, Mobileye argues. “You cannot have a car with $70,000 of equipment and imagine it will go into mass production,” company founder Amnon Shashua says.
Instead, far more mainstream cameras are used for Mobileye’s system. In fact, the company is behind camera-based autonomy tech in a number of vehicles; previous versions have been used by Volvo and others to flag up pedestrians walking past A-pillar blind-spots, for instance. Newer versions – set to arrive this year – will help guide the car in stop-start traffic, similar to what Mercedes announced for the new S-Class.
However, those systems require the driver still keep hold of the wheel, whereas Mobileye’s new technology – which is still roughly three years out from the market – can handle hands-off driving. Cars equipped with the system can keep to a single lane, at freeway speed, along with spotting traffic lights and other cars and slow/stop/start again accordingly.
“The car had a tendency to weave a bit when it started to pull away from an intersection — behavior that did not inspire confidence. Once, as we were passing a parked car, the Audi pulled in the direction of the other vehicle. Not wanting to learn the car’s intentions, I lifted my hands out of my lap and nudged it back to the center of the lane. The Mobileye engineers sat perfectly calm” John Markoff, NYTimes
Next up, Mobileye says, is a big increase in how many cameras the car is equipped with. By the end of the month the test car should have six in total – including a wide-range lens, and extra side and rear views – which, the engineers claim, is the next step toward full Google-style autonomous driving.
VIA: BGR
Mobileye wants self-driving cars by 2016 at a fraction of Google’s costs is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Can you identify Beethoven’s Sonata No. 9 after hearing a mere three notes? Probably not, but a group of computer scientists and music scholars have built a machine that can do just that. The team — composed of Pablo Rodriguez Zivic, Favio Shifres and Guillermo Cecchi — has developed an algorithm capable of identifying patterns across distinct periods of Western music based on semi-tones and notes. Beyond its musical application, the machine represents tantalizing possibilities for research into disorders that affect speech. For example, current mechanical methods are already capable of recognizing vocal patterns common in the early stages of Parkinson’s, but the trio hopes to utilize their project for even earlier detection. Such an algorithm could also be instrumental in identifying psychiatric conditions that impact the speech centers of the brain. Unfortunately, the lack of a comprehensive database of different types of speech patterns stands in the way of wider implementation. Even so, the team is hopeful that verbal tests might someday be used in place of invasive diagnostic procedures to identify certain illnesses.
Via: IBM
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