Hasta La Gadget!

Scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a prototype system that could one day aid the congenitally blind by converting video into auditory cues. The “Sonar Vision” works in a similar way to a bat’s echolocation system, but instead of chirping, uses a video camera embedded in a pair of glasses. A laptop or smartphone then converts the images into sound, which is transmitted to a headset. After 70 hours or so of training, that allowed users to identify objects like faces or houses, position objects in space and even identify individual letters. Surprisingly, researchers also found that after only several hours using the device, regions of the cerebral cortex dedicated to sight became activated for the first time in the congenitally sightless. That could possibly let doctors “wake up” regions of the brain never before used, according to the team, “even after a lifetime of blindness.”

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

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Via: Ubergizmo

Source: CEA

Promising to turn even the poorest of doodlers into artificial Rembrandts, researchers at Keio University have developed a desk that will automatically guide the tip of a pen to draw straight lines or perfectly round circles. It can even guide an artists’ hand through a pre-determined illustration, making the technology sound like a forger’s dream come true. More »

Astronomers have announced that they have discovered the most massive black hole ever found. The gigantic and massive black hole is in a small galaxy that is about 250 million light years from Earth. The astronomers estimate that the supermassive black hole has a mass equivalent to 17 billion suns.

The massive black hole is located inside the galaxy NGC 1277 found in the constellation Perseus. The supermassive black hole makes up 14% of the host galaxy’s mass. According to astronomers, the typical blackhole makes up only 0.1% of the mass of its host galaxy.

Scientist Carl Gebhardt from the University of Texas at Austin said, “this could be the first object in a new class of galaxy-blackhole systems.” The astronomers say that the supermassive blackhole is about 11 times as wide as the orbit of Neptune around the sun in our solar system. Interestingly, the incredible mass of the black hole was so far out of the range of normal that the team of scientists who discovered it took an additional year to verify their findings before submitting the research paper for publication.

The next closest competitor for size comes from galaxy NGC 4486B. That galaxy has a blackhole that makes up 11% of its central bulge mass. The research paper published by the astronomers who discovered the massive black hole in NGC 1277 can be found in the latest issue of the journal Nature, which is available today.

[via Space.com]

Astronomers discover the most massive black hole ever is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft earlier this week made a point of noting that there have been 40 million downloads of Windows 8 since it launched a month ago, putting it ahead of where Windows 7 was at the same point in its sales cycle. But according to figures out today from NPD, in the midst of an overall slowdown in PC sales, this is not translating into robust hardware sales in the influential U.S. market.

U.S. sales of Windows devices in the last month are down by 21% compared to the same period a year ago, with Windows-powered notebooks — generally in decline since the rise of tablets and smartphones — down by 24%. Desktop devices were down, too, but less, at 9%.

It gets worse. Microsoft has make a big bet on the touchscreen and tablets with Windows 8, but so far, NPD’s Stephen Baker says that Windows 8 tablet sales “have been almost non-existent.” Unit sales, he says, have been less than 1% of all Windows 8 device sales to date. The caveat is that NPD’s numbers do not include sales of Microsot’s own tablet, the Surface. (We are contacting Baker at NPD to see if he can give more detail on how those are selling and why they have been left out.)

So do these numbers indicate that — despite the record-breaking sales we’ve seen so far for online shopping this holiday season, which often gives an annual boost to the consumer electronics industry — Microsoft has a turkey on its hands in the form of Windows 8? Not exactly, says NPD. The problems could be just as attributable to a sluggish market at this point.

“After just four weeks on the market, it’s still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market,” writes Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. “We still have the whole holiday selling season ahead of us, but clearly Windows 8 did not prove to be the impetus for a sales turnaround some had hoped for.”

There are still devices being sold with earlier versions of Windows, and NPD says that since launch Windows 8 hasn’t been performing as well against legacy equipment, compared to the same period in the Windows 7 sales cycle. It says 58% of Windows devices sold are loaded with Windows 8, versu 83% powered by Windows 7 one month after its launch.

“The bad Back-to-School period left a lot of inventory in the channel,” Baker explains.

Silver lining: hybrid devices — notebooks with touchscreens, such as the Asus Transformer, pictured — seemed to be doing alright. Yes, they accounted for just 6% of notebook sales, but with an average price of $867 (compared to $433 across all Windows devices) they show that there is at least some appetite for premium products, an area where Windows OEMs traditionally compete against Apple.

NASA‘s teased data “for the history books” from the Curiosity Mars rover has all been a huge misunderstanding, the space agency now says, with the reference apparently encompassing the mission as a whole – not a specific finding. Anticipation was built earlier this month when principal investigator John Grotzinger told NPR that “this data is gonna be one for the history books” and that “it’s looking really good”; his comments were interpreted as specific to a set of soil sample results Curiosity’s onboard labs had just beamed back to Earth, but NASA says it was all a case of confusion.

In fact, Grotzinger’s statement had been intended to encompass the Curiosity mission as a whole, NASA clarified to Mashable, not to hint that the sample had contained evidence of organic compounds. Adding to the mix-up was the fact that the project lead voiced his enthusiasm just after discussing the first set of Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) results had come in, but refused to detail them as they still needed to be checked over.

NASA tweeted out an attempt to calm expectations from the official Curiosity account, but the story had already caught the imagination and – following the identification of an ancient seabed – an organic discovery seemed all too possible.

“What did I discover on Mars? That rumors spread fast online. My team considers this whole mission “one for the history books”” CuriosityRover Twitter account, November 12, 2012

According to Veronica McGregor, NASA’s news and social media manager, the NPR team simply happened to be around at the right time to see some very excited scientists at work. “The short story is NPR was there when the first soil results were hitting the ground and the team was ecstatic to see data” she told Slate.

“Could they analyze that data on the fly and give an accurate result?” McGregor continued. “No. In fact, they’ve spent a good part of two weeks sorting through the data in order to reach conclusions based on solid science.”

The results of that solid science will be shared at a press conference on December 3 at the American Geophysical Union meeting, an event that has been on the calendar since before Curiosity reached the red planet. And, while it’s possible that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory could have some groundbreaking news from Curiosity, with a two year mission planned, we may have to wait a little longer to see Mars give up some of its secrets.

Curiosity’s whole Mars mission is “history books” worthy clarifies NASA is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.