Nov 27

Caltech research could lead to quantum hard drives, networks, parallel universes

Posted in: memory, research, storage, Today's Chili, university

Quantum anything has typically fallen into our oft-used category of ‘awesome things that’ll never happen,’ but if a crew of researchers at the California Institute of Technology have anything to say about it, they’ll soon be changing the fortunes of that segment. The team has recently demonstrated quantum entanglement for a quantum state stored in four spatially distinct atomic memories, and while that probably just blew your mind a little bit, the breakdown is fairly interesting. Essentially, they’ve uncovered a quantum interface between the atomic memories, which is said to “represent something akin to a computer hard drive for entanglement.” If extended, it could pave the way toward quantum networks, and in turn, massive webs of quantum computers. We’re obviously decades out from understanding what this all means for the common computer user, but just remember this: “for an entangled quantum system, there exists no objective physical reality for the system’s properties.” And you thought The Matrix was deep.

Caltech research could lead to quantum hard drives, networks, parallel universes originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 11:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 26

Intel research projects bring Legos to life, make groceries interactive

Posted in: augmented reality, AugmentedReality, intel, lego, research, Today's Chili, video

Kinect hacks aren’t the only projects using depth cameras these days, Intel’s Seattle research lab has also been working on a whole range of projects using what it describes “Kinect style” cameras, and it’s now showing off some of the results. Among the most interesting are a pair of projects that combine a depth camera with a projector for some rather inventive augmented reality applications. One of those examples can effectively bring Legos to life (as pictured above), while the other adds a whole new degree of interactivity to everyday objects, namely groceries — which could let you manage a grocery list using actual fruits and vegetables, for instance, or even warn when you’ve left a tub of ice cream sitting on the counter too long. That’s just scratching the surface, though — the group has also devised a system that can map a room just by walking around with a depth camera, which can then of course be navigated using the very same depth camera and a pair of 3D goggles. Head on past the break for a couple of videos, and hit up the source link below for the rest.

Continue reading Intel research projects bring Legos to life, make groceries interactive

Intel research projects bring Legos to life, make groceries interactive originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 19

MIT’s laser camera can photograph around corners, render your camouflage useless

Posted in: camera, laser, light, mit, photography, prototype, research, Today's Chili, university

You know, we’d love to meet this Ramesh Raskar character. Possibly even shake his hand, or secretly become injected with a pinch of his DNA. You see, he’s devoted his life to proving that the impossible is actually possible, first conjuring up a 6D “super-realistic” image system just over two years ago. Now, he’s onto bigger and better things… things like cameras that can see around corners. Granted, this concept isn’t exactly a new one — LIDAR-equipped robots have been discovering hidden objects for years, but the mere thought of cramming this technology into a camera has us salivating. Auntie Beeb has a new piece up on the technology, and it actually does an exceptional job of explaining the technobabble. Put simply, the created prototype utilizes an ultra-short, highly intense burst of laser light (a femotosecond laser, if you have to know) to light up a scene; from there, it bends around corners and bounces back, using algorithms to figure out what’s inside of the room based on the bounce points. We’re guessing it’ll still be a few decades before this gets wrapped into a mid-range DSLR, but we’re cautiously hoping for a working mockup at CES 2015. Seriously, we just marked it down. Don’t disappoint us, guys.

MIT’s laser camera can photograph around corners, render your camouflage useless originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 18

Dark excitons could light up your quantum computer, life

Posted in: research, Today's Chili

Dark excitons could light up your quantum computers, lifeYeah, we’re still hanging around playing Q*bert and waiting on folks to get those qubits a spinning. Meanwhile, researchers have found a new path to follow on the way to quantum enlightenment. A new, darker path, which entails the use of so-called dark excitons as quantum bits. While doubling as a great name for future robo-gigolos, a dark exciton is an electron-hole pair with parallel spins. The parallel spin, which makes this quasiparticle “dark,” also enables it to be long-lasting and, critically, to be excited with an electrical charge to set its state, a state that can then be read by looking for an emitted photon. Fascinating? Absolutely. Coming to a desktop near you? Not likely — not unless your desktop is kept at a temperature of 4.2K, anyway.

[Image credit: Smite-Meister]

Dark excitons could light up your quantum computer, life originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 17

Artificial retina reconstructs normal vision in mice, human trials next

Posted in: Medicine, research, science, Today's Chili
Scientists have been working on artificial retinas for years, and while the main focus of research has been to increase the amount of light captured, a study led by Sheila Nirenberg, PhD, has taken a different tack. The new system being devised at Weill Cornell Medical College better mimics frontline photoreceptor cells, making it easier for the ganglion cells to output a more accurate image. “If you want to really restore normal vision, you have to know the retina’s code,” Nirenberg said. “Once you have that, the door is open to the possibility of restoring normal vision.” When researchers performed tests with mice, they found that those with the new system reconstructed more details (the second image, above) than those without (image three, above). “Incorporating the [more accurate] code jumped the system’s performance up to normal levels – that is, there was enough information to reconstruct faces, newsprint, landscapes, essentially anything,” Nirenberg said. The next step? Coordinating with other researchers to test the technology on human participants.

Artificial retina reconstructs normal vision in mice, human trials next originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 17

Intel learns from Dr. Dre, wants Atom chips in NFL helmets to know when heads are ringing

Posted in: intel, intel atom, IntelAtom, research, Today's Chili

We always understood that Intel looked after the rock stars of tomorrow, but who knew that included football players? Yup, according to PC World, Intel is currently investigating adding Atom chips inside NFL helmets to provide real-time impact data to medical staff on the sidelines. While there’s no explicit time frame set for this project, we’re thinking the sooner the better — lest we forget it took the league until 2009 to require players who display signs of a concussion to stop playing for at least one day. This isn’t the first time though that the world’s largest chip maker has actually helped make the gridiron safer. In fact, it previously worked with helmet maker Riddell’s fittingly named HITS (Head Impact Telemetry System) and academic researchers to run head injury simulations using linked Xeon-powered computers. Off the field, Intel is also currently partnering with the Mayo Clinic to boost medical cranial scans using MIC (Many Integrated Core) supercomputer co-processors. Codenamed Knights Corner, this hardware puts teacher’s pets to shame by running trillions of calculations per second, and apparently accelerates head scans by up to 18 times. Sure, safety’s all well and good, but we know Intel’s really just curious about how Moore’s Law holds up to the shoulder pressure of NFL d-backs.

Intel learns from Dr. Dre, wants Atom chips in NFL helmets to know when heads are ringing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 04:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 16

Hitachi displays a capacitive screen capable of accepting stylus input (video)

Posted in: capacitive, concept, Japan, prototype, research, screen, Today's Chili, touchscreen, video

Can someone ring up Lucifer and check that his heating’s still working? Hitachi has achieved the unthinkable in bringing together the high precision and input flexibility of resistive touchscreens with the finger friendliness of capacitive panels. It’s graced this year’s FPD trade show with a new prototype that offers the capacitive functionality we’re all used to by now, augmented with the ability to recognize input from a stylus or, perhaps more importantly, gloved hands. We’re sure we can hear the sound of cheering coming from the chilly shores of Scandinavia right now. If all goes well, Hitachi should be able to bring them (and you, and the rest of the world) this finger-saving innovation at some point in late 2011, after production gets going in the second half of that year. Video demonstration after the break.

Continue reading Hitachi displays a capacitive screen capable of accepting stylus input (video)

Hitachi displays a capacitive screen capable of accepting stylus input (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 14

EU providing $21 million grant to IBM and others, funding research into cloud storage

Posted in: cloud, research, Today's Chili
EU providing $21 million grant to IBM and others, funding research into cloud storage

Clouds are beautiful things that fill our skies with wonderment, and as it turns out they make awfully good places to store our precious data, too. In that way European Union wants to make them even better, providing a €15.7 million (that’s $21.4 million US) research project called Vision Cloud. It’s set to tackle a number of related storage issues, including the ability to run applications within cloud storage, proper auditing and access restriction, and mobility of said data, so that it can be accessed from anywhere. IBM‘s Haifa, Israel think tank is going to be leading the effort, while Siemens and SAP will be playing nice too. Really, when you’re getting paid to think about clouds, how would it be possible to not play nice?

EU providing $21 million grant to IBM and others, funding research into cloud storage originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Nov 2010 06:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 11

Robo-nurse gives gentle bed baths, keeps its laser eye on you (video)

Posted in: laser, medical, Medicine, research, robot, robotics, Robots, Today's Chili, university, video

When they’re not too busy building creepy little humanoids or lizard-like sand swimmers, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology like to concern themselves with helping make healthcare easier. To that end, they’ve constructed the Cody robot you see above, which has recently been demonstrated successfully wiping away “debris” from a human subject. The goal is simple enough to understand — aiding the elderly and infirm in keeping up their personal hygiene — but we’d still struggle to hand over responsibility for granny’s care to an autonomous machine equipped with a camera and laser in the place where a head might, or ought to, be. See Cody cleaning up its designer’s extremities after the break.

Continue reading Robo-nurse gives gentle bed baths, keeps its laser eye on you (video)

Robo-nurse gives gentle bed baths, keeps its laser eye on you (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nov 09

Forrester: e-book sales to hit nearly $1 billion this year, $3 billion by 2015

Posted in: e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, ebooks, kindle, research, Today's Chili
There’s no denying that e-books are already big business, and market research firm Forrester is now offering some pretty impressive numbers that show just how big it already is, and how much bigger it will get in the next few years. The firm surveyed some 4,000 people and found that while just seven percent of those actually read e-books, they still bought enough of them to translate to $966 million in sales this year — a number that’s projected to grow to $3 billion by 2015. As for the reading habits of that seven percent, Forrester found that they “read the most books and spend the most money on books,” and that they read 41 percent of their books in digital form. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they use actual e-readers, though — a full 35 percent apparently do most of their e-book reading on a laptop, followed by 32 percent on a Kindle, 15 percent on an iPhone, 12 percent on a Sony e-reader, and ten percent on a netbook. Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Kindle users seem to be the biggest boosters of e-books — they do 66 percent of all their reading in digital form.

Forrester: e-book sales to hit nearly $1 billion this year, $3 billion by 2015 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CNET News  |  sourceForrester  | Email this | Comments

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