This is Tech

Photo by: Mr. Jaded

• Anyone who has seen a baby startled by the sight of its own hand will not be surprised to learn that pigeons are smarter than our toddlers. Specifically, pigeons were trained to recognize themselves in video and to discriminate between different painters’ works. (Via Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends)
• Los Alamos and IBM build first petaflop supercomputer (Via Practical Technology)
• Astrophysicists again demonstrate that Einstein was smart:
  

  … because the Universe is such a complex system, many scientists believe that Einstein’s theory [general theory of relativity] might not be able to explain things fully and comprehensively in all situations.

  … some theories have predicted that stellar pairs with different degrees of compactness would behave in a different way. The Swinburne team decided to conduct their intensive study using this type of stellar system …

  “Einstein’s theory predicts that the pair’s orbit should shrink at a rate of approximately two millimetres per day. Using extremely precise measurements we were able to track this rate of shrinkage. We found it to be exactly the same rate that was predicted by the theory,” said Verbiest. “This confirms that Einstein’s theory on its own is very comprehensive.”

With the US economy struggling, the news has been especially grim lately. To help balance out this gloomy outlook, a number of MIT faculty and researches comment on emerging technology trends they find hold promise for improving the economy and society in general:

Digital Fabrication

Neil Gershenfeld

Director, Center for Bits and Atoms

The most significant coming technology is the digitization of fabrication, the impact of which will be analogous to the digitization of communication and computation. Like those earlier revolutions, the consequence will be personalization, in this case, allowing anyone to make almost anything, anywhere. Coupled with digital video and digital libraries, this means that the formerly scarce resources (facilities, books, people) of advanced technical institutions (such as MIT) can become much more widely accessible.

(Via EconLog)

Paramount’s Iron Man is receiving overwhelmingly rave reviews from critics and is on track for breaking the $100 Million mark on its opening weekend. Tony Stark, the comic book scientist behind the metal outfit is a hero without any innate supernatural abilities. New Scientist explores the scientific reality behind the technology:

Flying machines

Of course, the coolest thing about Stark’s suit is not its strength but its ability to fly. In the film, Stark zooms to Afghanistan, just in the nick of time to stop warlords killing a group of poor villagers.

It couldn’t reach Afghanistan, perhaps, but SoloTrek was a flying exoskeleton that was apparently capable of travelling more than 200 kilometres. (The project shut down after a crash in 2002.)

MIT Technology Review has published its annual top ten emerging technologies list for 2008. See below for a summary of the list and links to more information about each emerging technology at the Technology Review website.

Technology Review: 10 Emerging Technologies 2008:

Modeling Surprise

Combining massive quantities of data, insights into human psychology, and machine learning can help manage surprising events, says Eric Horvitz.

Probabilistic Chips Krishna Palem thinks a little uncertainty in chips could extend battery life in mobile devices–and maybe the duration of Moore’s Law, too.

NanoRadio Alex Zettl’s tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics.

Wireless Power Physicist Marin Soljacic is working toward a world of wireless electricity.

Atomic Magnetometers John Kitching’s tiny magnetic-field sensors will take MRI where it’s never gone before.

Offline Web Applications Adobe’s Kevin Lynch believes that computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop.

Graphene Transistors A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer of Georgia Tech could lead to speedy, compact computer processors.

Connectomics Jeff Lichtman hopes to elucidate brain development and disease with new technologies that illuminate the web of neural circuits.

Reality Mining Sandy Pentland is using data gathered by cell phones to learn about human behavior.

Cellulolytic Enzymes Frances Arnold is designing better enzymes for making biofuels from cellulose.

(Via MIT Technology Review.)

The guardian has posted some amazing images from the Wellcome Image Awards 2008. This contest gives awards the boldest pictures taken during groundbreaking scientific research.

Wellcome Image Awards 2008 | Science | guardian.co.uk: Wellcome Image Awards 2008

A clump of breast cancer cells. The blue cells are actively growing whereas the yellow ones are in the process of dying by programmed cell death (apoptosis)
Photograph: Dave McCarthy and Annie Cavanagh/Wellcome Trust

(Via The Guardian.)

I have been looking into wearable cameras that include a loop feature. The idea is that the camera records video and sound and caches 5 or 10 minutes in storage. If anything you see is worth recording, you hit a button and start capturing audio and video including the 5 or 10 minutes you cached.

I found the POV.1 from VIO. They specialize in helmet cams, but their product includes the loop function and comes with a wireless remote to tag recorded items for later viewing.

Pretty slick. I haven’t used the product, but am temped to buy one and post a review. If it sucks, I would resell it on eBay (at $700 it’s not cheap). Let me know if you you would be interested in reading a review or if you have experience with the camera and can give some feedback.

V.I.O. — Products — Digital Products: “”

I have been posting links to coverage of the TED Talks that I think are most interesting. This one is cool enough to have a post of its own. I am fascinated by how smart Crows are. They use tool and solve complicated problems. In this TED Talk, Joshua Klein talks about how he trained crows to put coins in a vending machine to get peanuts. Once he took away the supply of coin, the crows went out and found their own to bring back to the machine. Amazing.

TED 2008: Crow vending machine maker Joshua Klein: “(I’m liveblogging from TED 2008, in Monterey, CA)

Presenter:

Technology hacker Joshua Klein built a vending machine that teaches crows to deposit coins they find into a special vending machine that dispenses peanuts. He has been studying crows for over ten years and has learned that they are very intelligent. Their brain/body weight ratios are similar to chimpanzees. He’s showing a video of how a crow learned to use a tool to pull an object out of of a tube. It’s impressive.

Crows are smart and adaptable. For example, they drop nuts on streets so cars run over them, then wait for the traffic signal to change so they can pick up the food. Other crows who see this happen quickly learn how to do this for themselves.

His machine uses Skinnerian training. He put coins and peanuts around the machine. The crows eat the peanut on the feeder tray. Then Joshua took away the nuts and left coins in the feeder tray. It pisses off the crows. They sweep the coins around with their beaks, looking for food. When a coin accidentally drops into the slot, it dispenses a peanut. Next, Joshua took away the coins. The crows learned to find coins elsewhere and deposit them.

So now he wants to train crows for search and rescue, picking up trash, and other mutually beneficial tasks.

(Via Boing Boing.)

Video of Microsoft’s new WorldWide Telescope. This idea seemed a little overblown to me originally, but seeing it in action helps demonstrate why this is fairly exciting. I think the appeal won’t be as wide spread as Google Earth. Particularly since I can’t see pictures of my house when I look into space. That said, anything that can help us get a better sense of how we fit into the universe is worthwhile. The power of technology to spread ideas is immense and this is will be a step forward in spreading understanding.

Science educator Roy Gould and Microsoft’s Curtis Wong give an astonishing sneak preview of Microsoft’s new WorldWide Telescope — a technology that combines feeds from satellites and telescopes all over the world and the heavens, and weaves them together holistically to build a comprehensive view of our universe. (Yes, it’s the technology that made Robert Scoble cry.)

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.482120&w=425&h=350&fv=bgColor%3DFFFFFF%26file%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fstatic.videoegg.com%2Fted%2Fmovies%2FROYGOULD-2008_high.flv%26autoPlay%3Dfalse%26fullscreenURL%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fstatic.videoegg.com%2Fted%2Fflash%2Ffullscreen.html%26forcePlay%3Dfalse%26logo%3D%26allowFullscreen%3Dtrue] from TED Talks posted with vodpod

The TED Conference is underway in Monterey California. Those those unfamiliar with the conference, TED brings together forward thinkers from around the world to give short talks on technology, entertainment and design. Past TED talks are available for download from their website and through iTunes. The short length of the speeches makes them easy to digest and get you thinking expansively about some really cool stuff.

There are several bloggers reporting live from the event, including Mark Frauenfelder from BoingBoing.net, one of the best blogs on the web. I will post links to coverage of the talks that look most interesting here. TED releases the talks onto iTunes slowly over time, so you probably wont be able to watch this most recent round of talks for a while. The good news is that their are lots of old ones posted, and you will have plenty to watch while you wait. If you have favorite TED talks, post links in the comments below.

Other Bloggers Covering the Event: Ethan Zuckerman’s blog | Renny Gleeson’s blog | Michael Parekh’s blog

(more…)

Scientists Find Believing Can Be Seeing: “Ponca City, We Love You writes ‘Scientists at University College London have found the link between what we expect to see, and what our brain tells us we actually saw revealing that the context surrounding what we see is all important — sometimes overriding the evidence gathered by our eyes and even causing us to imagine things which aren’t really there. A vague background context is more influential and helps us to fill in more blanks than a bright, well-defined context. This may explain why we are prone to ’see’ imaginary shapes in the shadows when the light is poor. ‘Illusionists have been alive to this phenomenon for years,’ said Professor Zhaoping. ‘When you see them throw a ball into the air, followed by a second ball, and then a third ball which ‘magically’ disappears, you wonder how they did it. In truth, there’s often no third ball — it’s just our brain being deceived by the context, telling us that we really did see three balls launched into the air, one after the other.’ The original research paper is available on PLOS, the open-access, peer-reviewed journal.’

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

(Via Slashdot.)