June 15, 2006, 0:12 AM CT

Controlling The Computer By Thought

Controlling a computer just by thought is the aim of cerebral interfaces. The engineer from Pamplona, Carmen Vidaurre Arbizu, has designed a totally adaptive interface that improves the performance of currently existing devices in, reducing the time needed to become skilled in their operation and enhance the control that users have over the interface. Moreover, as per Ms Vidaurre, the majority of the population is capable of using it.

The results appear in the PhD thesis, Online Adaptive Classification for Brain-Computer Interfaces, defended recently at the Public University of Navarre.

Cerebral interface.

A cerebral interface or brain-computer interface (BCI) allows people with communication problems to relate to their surroundings using a computer and the electrophysiological signals from the brain. The actual interface with which Carmen Vidaurre has worked with is based on electroencephalograms (EEG) of the individual, eventhough there are others that use signals recorded from electrodes fitted directly into the brain.

The user and the interface are highly interdependent "systems" that, up to recently, adapted to each other independently. In the past, when a non-experienced individual started to use a BCI, the systems were unable to supply feedback, i.e. the individual was unable to see the results of their brain patterns on the screen.........

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June 13, 2006, 11:55 PM CT

Teach Computers To Perceive Three Dimensions

We live in a three-dimensional world but, for the most part, we see it in two dimensions. Discerning how objects and surfaces are juxtaposed in an image is second nature for people, but it's something that has long flummoxed computer vision systems.

Now, however, researchers in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science have found a way to help computers understand the geometric context of outdoor scenes and thus better comprehend what they see. The discovery promises to revive an area of computer vision research all but abandoned two decades ago because it seemed insoluble. It may ultimately find application in vision systems used to guide robotic vehicles, monitor security cameras and archive photos.

Using machine learning techniques, Robotics Institute researchers Alexei Efros and Martial Hebert, along with graduate student Derek Hoiem, have taught computers how to spot the visual cues that differentiate between vertical surfaces and horizontal surfaces in photographs of outdoor scenes. They've even developed a program that allows the computer to automatically generate 3-D reconstructions of scenes based on a single image.

"The technique provides an approximate sense of the scene, a qualitative grasp of the structure of a scene," said Efros, assistant professor of computer science and robotics.........

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June 11, 2006, 9:36 AM CT

Apple's Itunes DRM Is Illegal

On 25th January, the Consumer Council lodged a complaint with the Consumer Ombudsman against iTunes Music Store Norge for breach of fundamental consumer rights.

Important victory.

The decision is in accordance with what the Consumer Council alleged in its complaint.

"We are very satisfied with the decision. There is a general tendency for consumers to meet grossly unreasonable agreements when they download files with cultural content. It is therefore positive that the Ombudsman gets a grip on this so that consumer interests are also protected when such material is downloaded," senior advisor Torgeir Waterhouse says.........

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June 11, 2006, 9:31 AM CT

A Sixth Sense for a Wired World

What if, seconds before your laptop began stalling, you could feel the hard drive spin up under the load? Or you could tell if an electrical cord was live before you touched it? For the few people who have rare earth magnets implanted in their fingers, these are among the reported effects -- a finger that feels electromagnetic fields along with the normal sense of touch.

It's been described as a buzzing sensation, a tingling, an oscillation, movement, pure stimulation and, in the case of body-modification expert Shannon Larrett's encounter with a too-powerful antitheft gateway at a retail store, "Like sticking your hand in an ultrasonic cleaner".

Body-mod artists Jesse Jarrell and Steve Haworth's original idea was to implant a magnet to carry metal gadgets. It turns out that doesn't work: If you try to carry something magnetic on your implant regularly, the pinched skin between the magnets dies and your body rejects the implant. But they came up with a new application when a mutual friend suffered an accident that left a shard of iron in his finger. He worked with audio equipment, and found that he could tell which speakers were magnetized from the sensation that passed through his finger at close range.

That gave Jarrell and Haworth a new direction: Could they obtain that effect deliberately, extending the sense of touch into a sense of magnetism?........

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June 11, 2006, 8:17 AM CT

Indian Beatles

Earlier this year, Israeli scientists created plasma balls by using microwaves to vaporise various materials, but Gerd Fussmann and his colleagues (at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and the Humboldt University in Berlin) used a different approach that they believe comes closer to the natural phenomenon.

“It is likely that lightning flashes and water interact to produce ball lightning,” says Fussmann. “We therefore use a short, high-voltage discharge of 5000 volts to vaporise some of the water in a glass tank and create the plasma ball.”

The tank contains two electrodes, one of which is insulated from the surrounding water by a clay tube. The high voltage causes enormous currents of up to 60 amps – over 200 times those needed to cause death – to flow through the water for a fraction of a second. These enter the clay tube, causing the water there to evaporate and a luminous plasma ball - consisting of ionised water molecules - to rise from the surface.........

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June 10, 2006, 7:59 PM CT

Producing Bio-ethanol From Agricultural Waste

Research conducted by Delft University of Technology has brought the efficient production of the environmentally-friendly fuel bio-ethanol a great deal closer to fruition. The work of Delft researcher Marko Kuyper was an important factor in this. His research in recent years has greatly improved the conversion of certain sugars from agricultural waste to ethanol. On Tuesday 6 June, Kuyper received his PhD degree for his research into the subject.

The search for alternatives to the current, oil-based, fuels is the focus of great interest around the world. One of the most attractive alternatives is bio-ethanol - alcohol produced from agricultural crops. At present, bio-ethanol is only made from sugars derived from corncobs, sugar beets, grain and sugarcane, with the help of baker's yeast. A great number of by-products result from the cultivation of these crops, such as straw and corn husks. It would be a major step forward if this leftover material, which also largely consists of sugar, could be used for the production of bio-ethanol. This would allow agricultural land to be used more efficiently and at the same time prevent competition with food supplies.

Until recently, the problem was that the complex mixture of sugars that makes up these leftover materials could not be efficiently converted into ethanol by the baker's yeast. Delft University of Technology, however, has recently devised a solution for this, which is achieved by genetically modifying the baker's yeast. The Delft researchers have inserted a gene (derived from a fungus that is found in elephant faeces) into baker's yeast, allowing it to convert an important sugar type, xylose, into ethanol, thereby making the production of bio-ethanol from supplies of leftover materials possible.........

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June 10, 2006, 7:47 PM CT

Circuit Board Materials May Like It Hot

Electrical circuits may act differently in Arizona than they do in Alaska--potentially affecting the performance of computers and other electronics. A new technique identifies and quantifies an important cause of this temperature sensitivity.

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and DuPont Electronic Technologies (Research Triangle Park, N.C.) have demonstrated a nondestructive method for measuring how temperature affects the electrical properties of three common circuit board materials (ceramic, polymer and glass). The work, described at a recent conference,* provides manufacturers with an accurate technique for measuring high-frequency electrical properties of substrates without cutting up the material--enabling faster, less expensive and easier testing--as well as a tool for designing circuits and substrates with improved performance.

NIST has been working with ceramic and printed-wiring board manufacturers for five years to develop the technique. They previously have used the method to measure changes in electrical properties as substrates are subjected to different electromagnetic frequencies. The work is important to the electronics industry because the performance of electrical circuits depends in part on the electrical properties of the substrate.........

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June 9, 2006, 0:27 AM CT

How To 'Infect' Students With A Love Of Science

Studies may show that U.S. high school students are losing interest in science, but don't tell Andrew Hrykowian. As a sophomore at Greater Latrobe Senior High School in Latrobe, Pa., he began the research that would lead to his discovery of a new bacteria-eating virus, which he named "catera" after a friend's dog.

Today, the work done by Hrykowian--who is now a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh--and three other high school students, three high school teachers, seven undergraduate and seven graduate students at Pitt, one volunteer, and seven scientists (from Pitt, the University of Montana, Cornell University, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Stanford University, and Williams College)--is being reported in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics.

The paper, titled "Exploring the Mycobacteriophage Metaproteome: Phage Genomics as an Educational Platform," not only represents groundbreaking research into the nature of the bacteriophage genome, but also serves as a blueprint for getting students interested in science.

Bacteriophages ("phages" for short) are viruses that infect bacteria. The most prevalent life form on earth, some cause serious diseases like botulism and cholera. However, phages also may offer cures for bacteria-caused diseases.

Graham Hatfull, who is Eberly Family Professor of Biotechnology and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences, brings high school and undergraduate students into his "phage-hunting" research through his appointment as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Professor.........

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June 7, 2006, 7:08 AM CT

Fooling Fingerprint Sensors

A Japanese cryptographer has demonstrated how fingerprint recognition devices can be fooled using a combination of low cunning, cheap kitchen supplies and a digital camera.

First Tsutomu Matsumoto used gelatine (as found in Gummi Bears and other sweets) and a plastic mould to create a fake finger, which he found fooled fingerprint detectors four times out of five.

Flushed with his success, he took latent fingerprints from a glass, which he enhanced with a cyanoacrylate adhesive (super-glue fumes) and photographed with a digital camera. Using PhotoShop, he improved the contrast of the image and printed the fingerprint onto a transparency sheet.

Here comes the clever bit.

Matsumoto took a photo-sensitive printed-circuit board (which can be found in a number of electronic hobby shops) and used the fingerprint transparency to etch the fingerprint into the copper.

From this he made a gelatine finger using the print on the PCB, using the same process as before. Again this fooled fingerprint detectors about 80 per cent of the time.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink

June 6, 2006, 11:43 PM CT

Supercomputers To Transform Science

New insights into the structure of space and time, climate modeling, and the design of novel drugs, are but a few of the a number of research areas that will be transformed by the installation of three supercomputers at the University of Bristol.

At peak performance the multi-million pound high performance computers (HPCs) will carry out over 13 trillion calculations per second. That is equivalent to the entire population of the world working simultaneously on hand-held calculators for about three hours.

"This initiative puts Bristol at the forefront of high performance computing", said Professor David May, Head of Computer Science. "The HPC impact will be enormous - right across all disciplines - turning data into knowledge. It will influence both research and teaching. Universities that understand this will be the most competitive in the 21st century".

The University today announced the award of the contract to install the computers to a consortium led by ClusterVision, working with IBM and ClearSpeed Technology. The largest of the three HPCs will be one of the fastest University research computers in the UK, and is expected to be one of the top 100 computers of its type in the world.

Dr David Newbold, physicist, explained how the new HPC cluster will allow the University's physicists to be amongst the first to examine results from the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle collider which is set to provide new insights into the structure of space and time and the origin of mass.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

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