Hasta La Gadget!

Morality isn’t a topic discussed ’round these parts too often, but you mix in the geniuses at MIT and a boatload of magnets, and well — you’ve got us interested. According to research conducted by neuroscientists at the institution, people’s views on morality can actually be swayed by interfering with activity in a specific brain region. Past studies found that the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) is extremely active when people think about the intentions, thoughts and beliefs of others, and in the new project, gurus disrupted activity in the right TPJ by “inducing a current in the brain using a magnetic field applied to the scalp.” The result? The subjects’ ability to make moral judgments requiring an understanding of someone else’s intentions (a failed murder attempt, for example) was impaired. MIT’s own Rebecca Saxe noted that the process introduced a certain level of “bias” more than an outright change of perception, but still, this definitely sounds like an awesome way to get just about anything you ever wanted. Within reason, of course.

Magnetic waves distort the brain’s ability to make moral judgments, tell which way is north originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While many in Raleigh are wondering whatever happened to the glory days of 1983, Dr. Neil Di Spigna and company are doing far more productive things at NC State. It’s no secret that the holy grail of Braille is a tactile display that could change on a whim in order to give blind viewers a way to experience richer content (and lots more of it) when reading, but not until today have we been reasonably confident that such a goal was attainable. Gurus at the university have just concocted a “hydraulic and latching mechanism” concept, vital to the creation of the full-page, refreshable Braille display system. As you may expect, the wonder of this solution is the display’s ability to erect dots at the precise points, retract them, and re-erect another set when the reader scrolls through a document or presses a “link” on a website. We’re told that the researchers have already presented their findings, and if all goes well, they’ll have a fully functioning prototype “within a year.” Here’s hoping a suitable replacement to Lee Fowler is also unearthed during the same window.

NC State’s refreshable Braille display could revolutionize reading for the blind originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not something laypeople think about very often (space debris, for those wondering), but it’s clearly on the minds of boffins at the University of Surrey. Over the years, the amount of defunct equipment hovering around beyond our view has increased significantly, with some reports suggesting that over 5,500 tonnes of exhausted kit is currently hanging around somewhere up there as a result of “abandoning spacecraft.” In order to prevent the problem from growing (and to possibly reverse some of the damage), the CubeSail has been created. Put simply (or as simply as possible), this here parachute could be remotely deployed once a satellite had accomplished what it set out to do, essentially dragging it back through a fiery re-entry that it would never survive and clearing out the orbital pathway that it was using. We’re told that it’ll be ready for deployment in late 2011, but for now you can check out an all-too-brief demonstration vid just beyond the break.

Continue reading CubeSail parachute to drag old satellites from orbit, keep atmospheric roads clear

CubeSail parachute to drag old satellites from orbit, keep atmospheric roads clear originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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