Hasta La Gadget!

Here’s your classic case of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” Microsoft’s Innovation Labs have just demonstrated a OneVision Video Recognizer algorithm that’s powerful enough to perform face detection duties on a running video feed. It can recognize and track humanoid visages even while they’re moving, accept tags that allow auto-identification of people as they enter the frame, and can ultimately lead to some highly sophisticated video editing and indexing via its automated information gathering. Of course, it’s that very ease with which it can keep a watchful eye on everyone that has us feeling uneasy right now, but what are you gonna do? Watch the video after the break, that’s what.

Continue reading Microsoft’s OneVision Video Recognizer can detect, identify, and track your face on video… so smile!

Microsoft’s OneVision Video Recognizer can detect, identify, and track your face on video… so smile! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The future’s here, someone tell Starfleet. Scientists from Fudan University in Shanghai have developed a plan to make a tractor beam that is capable of moving molecules using only light. The device hasn’t been produced, but an NYU scientist is convinced that it can work. The physicist, David Grier, built the first ever working tractor beam last year, based on a similar design.

According to this article on ScienceNews, the theoretical machine developed by the Chinese scientists would focus a beam of light on an object, creating electromagnetic fields on it. The light scattered by these fields would push the object towards the beam, instead of away from it like in a traditional laser. Physicist Jun Chen at Fudan University said that this type of beam would work as a way to draw in particles using only light.

Grier’s beam, demonstrated in a paper published about a year ago, showed how light could be used to pull objects instead of push them in a lab. He wasn’t exactly using it to rearrange his furniture though; the device moved a 1.5 micrometer sphere about 8 micrometers. With that in mind, Grier said a similar type of beam could be used to pull a person, but it would have to carry about a terrawatt of power. Definitely not a safe amount of energy, as he was quoted saying “it would be a short trip.” Yikes.

Just knowing that something like this exist brings us that much closer to feeling like we’re living in a sci-fi movie. We may not have flying cars, but tractor beams? No problem.

[via ScienceNews]

Before you go leaping to any conclusions, do remember that Microsoft plans on keeping the Xbox 360 going until at least 2015 so we’re not really talking imminent changes here. Nonetheless, the software giant has listed a plethora of new job openings, with the most interesting ones being at its Mountain View research campus, where a team responsible for “defining and delivering next generation console architectures” is looking for fresh blood. A graphics hardware architect is sought to ensure that the next Xbox strikes the optimal balance between the awesome and affordable, while a design verification engineer and a few others will be hired to test and help develop prototypes. This bolstering of numbers seems to indicate Microsoft is starting to ramp up research and development on its next-gen home entertainment linchpin, and while nothing’s likely to emerge from those Mountain View labs in the short term, the mere sound of clanking tools and buzzing electrons is getting us excited already.

Microsoft goes on a hiring spree for new Xbox hardware devs, staffing up for next console push? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s something of a saying that you can only remember the things you try to forget, but if you’d prefer to hang on to those photographic moments from Thunder Mountain back in 1991, a gaggle of gurus from the Weizmann Institute of Science just might have the magic elixir you’ve been yearning for. According to a newly published study on long-term memory revitalization, Reut Shema and colleagues found that boosting the amount of PKMzeta could potentially help one recall memories that were on the brink of being forgotten. In testing, lowering the levels of PKMzeta caused rats to lose track of memories more quickly, but the zany part is that boosting levels on a specific day helped animals recall memories from days prior — days where they weren’t having PKMzeta jacked into their system. Heaven help our legal system should this ever get FDA approval for use in humans.

Enzyme found to make fading memories fresher, old wounds painful again originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The verdict is still out on whether or not cell phone can cause cancer, but thanks to researchers at Harvard’s medical school, they can play a role in detecting it. A new, handheld device that interfaces with smartphones can tell if a patient has cancer with a 96 percent accuracy rate. The detector contains a very small needle that takes a sample of the patients tissue, then suspends it in magnetic fields looking for potential tumor markers. The whole process only takes about half an hour, and can be used at doctors’ offices instead of requiring a costly trip to a hospital.

Usually, doctors use larger nuclear magnetic resonance machines to perform this type of detection, but because the handheld version uses simplified measurement techniques and the tissue sample taken is so much smaller, it can be miniaturized using a much less powerful magnet.

This type of detection could be used to judge how effective cancer treatment has been without requiring a core-needle biopsy, making it much easier for cancer patients to get updates on their recovery.

“If a patient is already getting chemotherapy, the doctor could quickly tell whether a treatment is working,” said Hakho Lee, a professor at Harvard who designed the device.

It’s not quite bug free though. The technique used to detect cancer is extremely sensitive, but might lead to some false positives. And don’t expect to be able to pick this up at your nearest Apple store either; researchers are still working out the kinks before the device is available commercially.

[via IEEE Spectrum]