from h+ Magazine:
As human neural networks and electronic digital networks converge there is some debate over how to best move data from neural to digital formats.
Since the human brain is equipped with high-resolution sensory organs, there are many obvious routes for digital-to-neural input, but organic systems lack sufficient neural outputs for porting thoughts, memories, and dreams directly to digital memory.
from University of Southampton via alphagalileo.org:
Computer scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a system of computerised agents which can manage energy use and storage in homes.
Having already developed agents that can trade on the stock market and manage crisis communications, a team of researchers, led by Dr Alex Rogers and Professor Nick Jennings at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science, have now developed an agent-based micro-storage management technique that allows homes to adapt their energy use to match market conditions.
The ultimate aim of this system is to optimise individual electricity usage and storage, in order to improve efficiency of the electricity grid and to reduce emissions.
from ITC Results:
Researchers from Israel and six EU countries have carried out pioneering work on self-healing software capable of automatically and autonomously detecting, identifying and fixing errors in the copious lines of code that make up complex systems.
The results of their research are already being used internally by several companies and could feed into commercial products in the near future.
from ZDnet:
An international research team from Japan and Michigan Technological University have demonstrated a molecular circuit that can evolve continuously to solve complex problems that challenge today’s supercomputers.
The massively parallel circuit contains a layer of molecular switches (monolayer) that simultaneously interact in a manner similar to the information processing performed by the neurons in the human brain. That is, they can evolve to tackle complex problems. That’s because information processing circuits in digital computers are static, and operate serially.
from DVICE:
When we first saw GM’s EN-V (Electronic Networked Vehicles), they looked like yet another far-fetched design concept, but now the company’s rolled out a video that shows the prototypes in action.
from PHYSORG:
An optical fiber backbone (red) provides broadband connections between the central offices and antenna base stations.
Then, the base stations wirelessly transmit 5-mm-wave (60 GHz) signals to customers. Within buildings and homes, the short-range wireless signals can provide high-speed connectivity (faster than 1 Gb/s) for a variety of wireless, high-bandwidth communication devices.
from Perdue Newsroom:
Purdue University researchers have developed a miniature device capable of converting ultrafast laser pulses into bursts of radio-frequency signals, a step toward making wires obsolete for communications in the homes and offices of the future.
Such an advance could enable all communications, from high-definition television broadcasts to secure computer connections, to be transmitted from a single base station.
Tagged communications, microrings, networks, RF signals, tv, wireless
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from The Economist:
Information has gone from scarce to superabundant. That brings huge new benefits, says Kenneth Cukier—but also big headaches.
[...] Wal-Mart, a retail giant, handles more than 1m customer transactions every hour, feeding databases estimated at more than 2.5 petabytes—the equivalent of 167 times the books in America’s Library of Congress.
[...] By 2013 the amount of traffic flowing over the internet annually will reach 667 exabytes, according to Cisco, a maker of communications gear.
from ITC Results:
Powerful computers made up of physically separate modules, self-organising networks, and computing inspired by biological systems are three hot research topics coming together in one European project.
European researchers have developed an innovative computing platform. At the heart of the system are many small modules, each made from chips with an inbuilt ability to learn. A self-configuring wireless network connects the modules, allowing them to operate as a coherent group.
from Open Sailing: ( via techn0ccult)
Open_Sailing is an international community trying to develop the International_Ocean_Station as an open-source project, developing hardware and software to enable intelligent human activities at sea.
Open_Sailing is divided into several labs investigating novel technologies :
- Instinctive_Architecture : an architecture that behaves like a super-organism, reacting to the weather conditions and other variables, reconfiguring itself.
- Energy_Animal : an independent module that generates energy from the waves, wind and sun, providing continuously off-grid energy and being a node for environment and data mesh networking.
- Nomadic_Ecosystem : engineering a mobile aquaculture to sustain human long term life at sea.
- Openet.org : forum to formulate a global standard for a purely civilian internet, an internet moderated by its users, not by the governments nor the industries nor the militaries.
- Life_Cable : a simpler unified standard for energy, water, waste, information in a complex built structure.
- Swarm_Operating_System : a customizable decision assisting software, using real-time data about global threats or personal interests.
- Ocean_Cookbook : making the experience at sea not of a survival quality but a truly yummy experience.
- Open_Politics : think tank about a possible internal organization for a new oceanic urban structure.
Tagged animal, architecture, ecosystems, energy, networks, oceans, swarm
from MIT’s Technology Review:
Engineers at Rutgers University in New Jersey have combined simple ultrasonic sensors, GPS receivers, and cellular data networks to create a low-cost, highly effective way to find the nearest available parking space.
The Rutgers researchers say that making detailed parking data widely available via Web-based maps or navigation systems could alleviate traffic congestion by allowing travelers to decide whether to park in a central garage, hunt for street parking, or choose another mode of transportation in advance.
If drivers choose street parking, it could help by suggesting parking spaces to users through a navigation device or cell phone.
from MIT’s Technology Review:
A wireless network that uses reflected infrared light instead of radio waves has transmitted data through the air at a speed of one gigabit per second–six to 14 times faster than the fastest Wi-Fi network.
Such optical networks could provide faster, more secure communications and would be especially suitable for use in hospitals, aircraft, and factories, where radio-frequency transmission can interfere with navigation equipment, medical devices, or control systems.
from MIT’s Technology Review:
An Indian telecom company is deploying simple cell phone base stations that need as little as 50 watts of solar-provided power. It will soon announce plans to sell the equipment in Africa, expanding cell phone access to new ranks of rural villagers who live far from electricity supplies.
from Investors.com:
“We are seeing the world moving away from the global Internet to a series of national networks,” warned Columbia Law School Professor Tim Wu at the New America Foundation on Wednesday.
[...] University of Toronto Professor Ron Deibert says China’s response to the Google controversy is key. If China closes down cyberspace to Google users, “the once-unified global Internet space will begin a process of disintegration as countries define their own sovereign clouds.”
from MSNBC:
Fully-rendered simulation streaming online allows scientists to collaborate
Supercomputing has helped astrophysicists create massive models of the universe, but such simulations remain out of reach for many in the United States and around the world. That could all change after a successful test allowed scientists in Portland, Ore. to watch a Chicago-based simulation of how ordinary matter and mysterious dark matter evolved in the early universe.
from the Institute For the Future:
Looking for a way to see if a drug might give you side effects–without having to deal with the whole pesky process of experiencing those effects?
Science writer David Ewing Duncan highlights an experimental technology from Cell Dynamics International involving reverse engineering cells from the body, such as blood cells, into pluripotent stem cells, and then engineering them back into organ cells in order to test out how different stimuli and medications might impact one’s cells.
Interesting series from KedgeForward:
” The creation of emerging properties that are greater than the sum of the parts involved. Perception by the parts (people, nodes, actors, etc.) of the emerging whole as a “unique entity.”
An awareness by the parts within the system of their individual diversity and their role in creating the emerging whole/larger purpose. Intentional evolution practiced by the parts and the whole.”
from Futurism Now:
In a story from the AAAS/Science journal, it’s reported that fewer but fiercer and more-destructive hurricanes will sweep the Atlantic Basin in the 21st century as climate change continues, which is suggested from a new modeling study by U.S. government researchers. Category 4 and 5 hurricanes may double in number by the end of the 21st century.
from Future Blogger:
An article by Rosabeth Moss Kanter was just published today on the Harvard Business Review website, titled On Twitter and in the Workplace, It’s Power to the Connectors. In it, she highlights the fact that there is an organizational trend moving away from the hierarchical networks of the 20th century, and towards complex, distributed, non-hierarchical structures of business organization and leadership.
She also points out that success today is based on a person’s ability to leverage power and influence within their social networks, to act as “connectors” between people and information, and in turn build social capital. [ Read On ]
