When you eat can be just as important as what you eat

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Smart Pen

Smart pen

The Echo™ Smartpen Is A Magical Pen – In More Ways Than One

See The Video Here

If you have seen the Harry Potter
movie where the newspaper reporter interviews among others, Harry
Potter, you may remember the magical pen she used that basically wrote
down everything she was saying. This next piece of technology
immediately made me think of that moment in the movie. The folks over at
Livescribe have created something similar in principle, and built it into what looks like a normal pen. …

Full Story And Video Here

Talking about YouTube – Livescribe demos new smartpen

 

Quote

YouTube – Livescribe demos new smartpen
 

Now, Electronics That Obey Hand Gestures

Casey Rodgers/AP Images for XBox

Microsoft demonstrated its Project Natal, a new way to play Xbox without touching any device, at an electronics show in June.

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By ASHLEE VANCE

Published: January 11, 2010

LAS VEGAS — The technology industry is going
retro — moving away from remote controls, mice and joysticks to
something that arrives without batteries, wires or a user manual.

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Multimedia

Video

Canesta TV Remote Demo

Video

Canesta Avatar Demo

Graphic

New Technology in User Interaction

It’s called a hand.

In the coming months, the likes of Microsoft, Hitachi
and major PC makers will begin selling devices that will allow people
to flip channels on the TV or move documents on a computer monitor with
simple hand gestures. The technology, one of the most significant
changes to human-device interfaces since the mouse appeared next to
computers in the early 1980s, was being shown in private sessions
during the immense Consumer Electronics Show
here last week. Past attempts at similar technology have proved clunky
and disappointing. In contrast, the latest crop of gesture-powered
devices arrives with a refreshing surprise: they actually work.

“Everything
is finally moving in the right direction,” said Vincent John Vincent,
the co-founder of GestureTek, a company that makes software for gesture
devices.

Manipulating the screen with the flick of the wrist will remind many people of the 2002 film “Minority Report” in which Tom Cruise
moves images and documents around on futuristic computer screens with a
few sweeping gestures. The real-life technology will call for similar
flair and some subtlety. Stand in front of a TV armed with a gesture
technology camera, and you can turn on the set with a soft punch into
the air. Flipping through channels requires a twist of the hand, and
raising the volume occurs with an upward pat. If there is a photo on
the screen, you can enlarge it by holding your hands in the air and
spreading them apart and shrink it by bringing your hands back together
as you would do with your fingers on a cellphone touch screen.

The gesture revolution will go mainstream later this year when
Microsoft releases a new video game system known at this time as
Project Natal. The gaming system is Microsoft’s attempt to one-up
Nintendo’s Wii.

Where the Wii requires hypersensitive hand-held
controllers to translate body motions into on-screen action,
Microsoft’s Natal will require nothing more than the human body.
Microsoft has demonstrated games like dodge ball where people can jump,
hurl balls at opponents and dart out of the way of incoming balls using
natural motions. Other games have people contorting to fit through
different shapes and performing skateboard tricks.

Just as
Microsoft’s gaming system hits the market, so should TVs from Hitachi
in Japan that will let people turn on their screens, scan through
channels and change the volume on their sets with simple hand motions.
Laptops and other computers should also arrive later this year with
built-in cameras that can pick up similar gestures. Such technology
could make today’s touch-screen tools obsolete as people use gestures
to control, for instance, the playback or fast-forward of a DVD.

To
bring these gesture functions to life, device makers needed to conquer
what amounts to one of computer science’s grand challenges. Electronics
had to see the world around them in fine detail through tiny digital
cameras. Such a task meant giving a TV, for example, a way to identify
people sitting on a couch and to recognize a certain hand wave as a
command and not a scratching of the nose.

Little things like
the sun, room lights and people’s annoying habit of doing the
unexpected stood as just some of the obstacles companies had to
overcome.

GestureTek, with offices in Silicon Valley and
Ottawa, has spent a quarter-century trying to perfect its technology
and has enjoyed some success. It helps TV weather people, museums and
hotels create huge interactive displays.

This past work,
however, has relied on limited, standard cameras that perceive the
world in two dimensions. The major breakthrough with the latest gesture
technology comes through the use of cameras that see the world in three
dimensions, adding that crucial layer of depth perception that helps a
computer or TV recognize when someone tilts their hand forward or nods
their head.

Canesta, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has spent 11
years developing chips to power these types of 3-D cameras. In the
early days, its products were much larger than an entire desktop
computer. Today, the chip takes up less space than a fingernail. “We
always had this grand vision of being able to control electronics
devices from a distance,” said Cyrus Bamji, the chief technology
officer at Canesta. Competition in the gesture field has turned fierce
as a result of the sudden interest in the technology. In particular,
Canesta and PrimeSense, a Tel Aviv start-up, have fought to supply the
3-D chips in Microsoft’s Natal gaming system.

At last week’s
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, executives and engineers from
Canesta and GestureTek were encamped in suites at the Hilton near the
main conference show floor as they shuttled executives from Asian
electronics makers in and out of their rooms for secretive meetings.

Similarly,
PrimeSense held invitation-only sessions at its tiny, walled-off booth
and forbade any photos or videos of its products.

In one
demonstration, a camera using the PrimeSense chip could distinguish
among multiple people sitting on a couch and even tell the difference
between a person’s jacket, shirt and under-shirt. And with such
technology it’s impossible, try as you might, to lose your remote
control

Most cleverest Rat Hubble J

 

Scientists
claim to have created the world’s cleverest rat by introducing modifications in
a single gene.

Named Hobbie-J, after a Chinese cartoon character, it can remember
objects much longer than other rats. It is also much better in finding its way
through mazes.

During its embryo stage, the rat was injected with genetic material to
improve the NR2B gene, which controls memory.

Scientists hope a similar technique could someday be used to augment
human brainpower.

"Hobbie-J can remember information for longer. It’s the equivalent
of me giving you a telephone number and somehow you remembering it for an
hour," the Telegraph quoted Dr Joe Z Tsien, the leader of the experiment
team at the Medical College of Georgia, as saying.

The expert added: "Our study provides a solid basis for the
rationale that the NR2B gene is critical to enhancing memory. That gene could
be used for memory-enhancing drugs."

Dementia organisations in Britain have welcomed the new research.

"This research involving rats may lead to new ways to reduce the
risk of developing diseases like Alzheimer’s or to ameliorate dementia
symptoms," Andrew Scheuber from the Alzheimer’s Research Trust said. He
added: "A treatment involving NR2B may have the potential to slow the
deterioration that takes place in dementia patients, but it is too soon to
tell." (http://www.dc-epaper.com/DC/DCH/2009/11/23/ArticleHtmls/23_11_2009_012_010.shtml?Mode=0#)

The VASIMR® Rocket Propulsion System – A New Day For Space Travel?

Isn’t
it amazing how technology evolves – usually first from a concept or an
idea – then to the actual implementation, and then the inevitable
happens… Granted – sometimes it takes many years – but eventually the
inevitable happens – the technology evolves from what it first was.

And
so it seems to be happening again. This time, it has to do with the way
rockets of the present and the future will be propelled. And dare we
say, this technology is almost like the rocket being re-invented,
instead of just evolved.

This
new propulsion system will enable a trip from earth to Mars to be
shortened from about 6 months, to only 39 days. So what is it you ask?

Well,
instead of the usual fuel rockets use, this new engine is based on a
plasma propulsion system. It is called the VASIMR®, and has been named
one of the top ten emerging technologies of 2009 by the AIAA (American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics).

The
company behind the technology, "Ad Astra Rocket Company" (AARC), summed
up their vision for this technology with the following: "To
revolutionize space transportation and exploration, through the
development and commercialization of the VASIMR® engine and related
technologies".

According
to the company’s website, Dr. Franklin R. Chang Díaz (who also serves
as company President and CEO) was responsible for inventing the VASIMR®
concept, which has been a work in progress since 1979. Work first began
on the project at the The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge
Massachusetts and continued at MIT Plasma Fusion Center. After that,
the project moved to the Johnson Space Center in 1994.

The "Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket" (VASIMR®) consists of 3 linked magnetic cells.

– The "Plasma Source" cell is involved in the main injection of neutral
gas (usually hydrogen or other light gases) which is turned into
plasma, and also involves the ionization subsystem.

– Using electromagnetic waves, the "RF Booster" cell works as an
amplifier which further energizes the plasma to reach the desired
temperature.

– Finally, the "Magnetic Nozzle" cell then converts the energy of the plasma into thrust.

The company claims some of the advantages of the system includes
variable specific impulse and thrust at full power, an electrodeless
design incorporating magnetic insulation, and high efficiency ion
cyclotron resonance heating. The system also uses more abundant, less
expensive fuels. These include argon, neon, and hydrogen.

But
how does the rocket work? Basically we need to understand what "plasma"
is. A Plasma state is achieved when a gas, or a substance in gas form,
is heated to super high temperatures – tens of thousands, even millions
of degrees. At these temperatures, something happens to the electrons.
The electrons (which hold a negative charge) are stripped, or lost,
from neutral atoms. Magnetic fields are then used to accelerate the
resulting plasma to generate thrust.

This
type of rocket is ideal for use in space, but it will need to catch a
ride on a traditional rocket up into space. Once there, the engine can
be powered by solar or nuclear power. The benefit of this type of
propulsion system is that it is extremely fuel eficient for use in
space – far more than traditional rocket motors. The system will be
tested in 2012 on the International Space Station. Fast, efficient and
long range space travel could be made possible by this new technology.

We’ll certainly need to watch this….uhm, space. 🙂       

New-Technology-World

More info available Here
  |  Video 1
  |  Video 2

Spaceplanes and scramjets: A 50-year history

16:57 22 July 2009

Engineers
have struggled for decades to make reusable space planes – see their best
attempts in our gallery: Spaceplanes
and scramjets: A 50-year history

Disorderly genius: How chaos drives the brain

Your
brain is like a pile of sand, but don’t worry: that’s why it has such
remarkable powers (Image: Phanie Agency/Rex Features)

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more image

Video: See
simulations of the chaotic brain

HAVE you ever
experienced that eerie feeling of a thought popping into your head as if from
nowhere, with no clue as to why you had that particular idea at that particular
time? You may think that such fleeting thoughts, however random they seem, must
be the product of predictable and rational processes. After all, the brain
cannot be random, can it? Surely it processes information using ordered,
logical operations, like a powerful computer?

Actually, no. In
reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it
runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and
unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise.

It might seem precarious to have a brain that plunges randomly into
periods of instability, but the disorder is actually essential to the brain’s
ability to transmit information and solve problems. "Lying at the critical
point allows the brain to rapidly adapt to new circumstances," says Andreas
Meyer-Lindenberg from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany.

Hovering on the edge of
chaos provides brains with their amazing capacity to process information and
rapidly adapt to our ever-changing environment, but what happens if we stray
either side of the boundary? The most obvious assumption would be that all of
us are a short step away from mental illness. Meyer-Lindenberg suggests that schizophrenia may be
caused by parts of the brain straying away from the critical point. However,
for now that is purely speculative.

"They say it’s a
fine line between genius and madness," says Liley. "Maybe we’re
finally beginning to understand the wisdom of this statement." Read
full article

Ice on fire: The next fossil fuel

DEEP in the Arctic Circle, in the Messoyakha gas
field of western Siberia, lies a mystery. Back in 1970, Russian
engineers began pumping natural gas from beneath the permafrost and
piping it east across the tundra to the Norilsk metal smelter, the
biggest industrial enterprise in the Arctic.

By
the late 70s, they were on the brink of winding down the operation.
According to their surveys, they had sapped nearly all the methane from
the deposit. But despite their estimates, the gas just kept on coming.
The field continues to power Norilsk today.

Where
is this methane coming from? The Soviet geologists initially thought it
was leaking from another deposit hidden beneath the first. But their
experiments revealed the opposite – the mystery methane is seeping into
the well from the icy permafrost above…Read full article

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