Technology Information

Remains of the Day: Schooled by the iPad (Macworld.com)

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 06:30:00 +0000

Macworld.com – Think the iPads too cool for school? Think again. At least it isnt being viciously beat up and dissected by those iFixit bullies like its iPod cousins. And while it may take $1 billion every year to keep the iTunes Stores doors open, YouTube still hasnt managed to post a profit. Fortunately, the remainders for Thursday, September 9, 2010 are free of charge.

Best Buy to offer Amazon’s Kindle e-reader (AFP)

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 05:09:49 +0000

AFP – Best Buy said Thursday that it will begin selling Amazon’s Kindle electronic reader this year, making the US consumer electronics giant the third brick-and-mortar US store to offer the device.

Prank Auto-Tune friends with T-Pain Dialer (Macworld.com)

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:50:00 +0000

Macworld.com – Smule’s
I Am T-Pain app gained immense popularity last year for letting iPhone users emulate rapper T-Pain’s trademark auto-tune vocal styling. Rather than let its popular app fade into obscurity, Smule has updated it with a major new feature: the T-Pain Dialer, which lets you send auto-tune messages to anyone with a phone.

Technology for Truckers

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:19:40 +0000

Venice, Florida Truck Insurer 1st Guard Corporation announced today the launch of Technology for Truckers, a series of webinars focused on the use of technology in the trucking industry. 1st Guards target market is the leased owner operator. To succeed as a small business owner, it is imperative to embrace technology. 1st Guard will provide an overview of how technology can increase…

DARPA Wants to Install Transcranial Ultrasonic Mind Control Devices in Soldiers’ Helmets

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:53:30 +0000

div class=center-imageimg src=http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/800px-US_soldiers_wearing_the_PASGT_helmet,_Hawaii.jpg alt= title= class=imagecache imagecache-article_image_large /divstrongStandard Issue Mind Control/strong DARPA wants ultrasound-enhanced helmets that allow soldiers to stimulate certain regions of their brains. em/em/div/divdiv
!–paging_filter–pDARPA has been trying to crawl inside the minds of soldiers for a while now, but a new ultrasound technology could let them get deeper inside than ever. Working under a DARPA grant, a researcher at Arizona State is developing a href=http://science.dodlive.mil/2010/09/01/remote-control-of-brain-activity-using-ultrasound/transcranial pulsed ultrasound/a technology that could be implanted in troops’ battle helmets, allowing soldiers to manipulate brain functions to boost alertness, relieve stress, or even reduce the effects of traumatic brain injury./p
pManipulating the brain to enhance warfighting capabilities and maintain mental acuity on the battlefield has long been a topic of interest for DARPA and various military research labs, but the technology to do so remains limited. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), for instance, requires surgically implanted electrodes to stimulate neural tissues, while less-invasive methods like transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) possess limited reach and low spatial resolution./p
pBut Dr. William J. Tyler, an assistant professor of life sciences at ASU, writes on the DoD’s “a href=http://science.dodlive.mil/2010/09/01/remote-control-of-brain-activity-using-ultrasound/Armed With Science/a” blog: “To overcome the above limitations, my laboratory has engineered a novel technology which implements transcranial pulsed ultrasound to remotely and directly stimulate brain circuits without requiring surgery. Further, we have shown this ultrasonic neuromodulation approach confers a spatial resolution approximately five times greater than TMS and can exert its effects upon subcortical brain circuits deep within the brain.”/p
pTyler’s technology, packaged in a warfighter’s helmet, would allow soldiers to flip a switch to stimulate different regions of their brains, helping them relieve battle stress when it’s time to get some rest, or to boost alertness during long periods without sleep. Grunts could even relieve pain from injuries or wounds without resorting to pharmaceutical drugs. More importantly, in the periods after brain trauma ultrasound technology could reduce swelling and metabolic damage that is often the root cause of lasting brain damage./p
p[a href=http://science.dodlive.mil/2010/09/01/remote-control-of-brain-activity-using-ultrasound/Armed With Science/a via a href=http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/remote-control-minds/Danger Room/a]/p
/div

How art galleries embrace new media

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:42:58 +0000

The first data on how Americans are using new media to engage with the arts shows a surprising link between internet use and actual attendance. Many experts had thought that technology had caused a decline in audiences for live events. But the report from the National Endowment for the Arts shows that Americans who participate through electronic media are three times more likely to go to a gallery, theater or concert than those who never go online or use an electronic device. Jane O’Brien reports…

Vector drawing app Sketch features powerful tools, minimalist design (Macworld.com)

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:34:00 +0000

Macworld.com – Theres no shortage of vector drawing apps on the market today, but Bohemian Codings
Sketch stands out from the crowd by combining a minimalist, Mac-like interface with numerous vector design tools and a drawing space that has both an unlimited size and number of layers.

Military Research Teaches Robots How to Deceive Each Other

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:44:45 +0000

div class=center-imageimg src=http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/liebots.jpg alt= title= class=imagecache imagecache-article_image_large /divstrongRobot Deception/strong The red robot thinks the black robot is hiding down the corridor. Georgia Tech Regents professor Ronald Arkin (left) and research engineer Alan Wagner look on. emGeorgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek/em/div/divdiv
!–paging_filter–pBelieve it or not, your robots may soon be lying to you. But you don’t have to take our word for it; Georgia Tech researchers, with funding from the Office of Naval Research, have been toying with algorithms that allow a robot to determine whether or not it wishes to deceive another robot or human, and then to a href=http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/giot-rgr090910.phpcarry out a deceptive strategy/a to that end./p
pFor the purposes of the study, the researchers focused on the cognitive abilities of a robot attempting to hide from another pursuing robot. Their first objective was to create a means for the robot to decide whether or not deception was in order. If the robot decided that deceiving its pursuer was indeed in its self-interest, the it would proceed to the second step: executing a deceptive strategy./p
pTapping interdependence theory and game theory to formulate their algorithms, they came up with two conditions that must be satisfied to set a deceptive tactic in motion: there must be a conflict of some sort between the pursued and the pursuer, and the deceptive robot must somehow benefit from its devious actions. Once the first condition was met, the deceiving bot began selecting tactics based on what it knew about the pursuing robot./p
pThe robots were placed in a course in which they played 20 games of robo-hide-and-seek. There were three possible hiding spots, the paths to which were marked by different colored markers. The seeker was programmed to locate the hiding robot based on which markers it knocked over on the way to its hiding spot. But the in 75 percent of the trials, the hiding bot would knock down the markers on the way to one hiding spot, then once past the markers would turn and hide somewhere else, indicating a false path to the pursuing robot./p
pWhy might this be helpful other than to create a race of a href=http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/evolving-robots-learn-lie-hide-resources-each-otherevil Decepticons/a? In military robots, the ability to hide and otherwise decieve could be vitally important for keeping both technology and information out of the hands of the enemy. Such an ability could also be handy in search and rescue situations where a robot must placate a panicking or erratic victim./p
p[a href=http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-09/giot-rgr090910.phpEurekalert/a]/p
/div

Intel to Spotlight Future Laptop, Desktop Chips at Show (PC World)

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:10:11 +0000

PC World – Laptops and desktops with Intel’s next-generation Core chips will ship early next year, and the chip maker will use its conference next week to highlight the architecture behind the new processors.

New iPods: The unanswered questions (Macworld.com)

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Macworld.com – After we posted our reviews of the new iPod shuffle, iPod nano, and iPod touch, we got questions from readers about things we didnt specifically cover in those reviews. Here are answers to some of those questions.