The World’s First ‘Hands On Search’

Introducing the world’s first hand on search, allowing visually impaired children in Tokyo to search with their hands. The vending machine-like pod recognises your verbal search, then recreates with a 3D printer. For the first time, visually impaired people will be able to touch what they can’t see, anything from giraffes to skyscrapers.

Could future devices read images from our brains?

As an expert on cutting-edge digital displays, Mary Lou Jepsen studies how to show our most creative ideas on screens. And as a brain surgery patient herself, she is driven to know more about the neural activity that underlies invention, creativity, thought. She meshes these two passions in a rather mind-blowing talk on two cutting-edge brain studies that might point to a new frontier in understanding how (and what) we think.

Enabling speed reading

The reading game is about to change forever. With Spritz, which is coming to the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Samsung Gear 2 watch, words appear one at a time in rapid succession. This allows you to read at speeds of between 250 and 1,000 words per minute. The typical college-level reader reads at a pace of between 200 and 400 a minute.

Other apps have offered up similar types of rapid serial visual presentation to enhance reading speed and convenience on mobile devices in the past. What Spritz does differently is manipulate the format of the words to more appropriately line them up with the eye’s natural motion of reading. The “Optimal Recognition Point” (ORP) is slightly left of the center of each word, and is the precise point at which our brain deciphers each jumble of letters. The unique aspect of Spritz is that it identifies the ORP of each word, makes that letter red and presents all of the ORPs at the same space on the screen. In this way, our eyes don’t move at all as we see the words, and we can therefore process information instantaneously rather than spend time decoding each word.

This is 250 words per minute. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone is 76,944 words long. At this rate you could read HP1 in just over 5 hours.




350 words per minute doesn't seem that much faster. 3 hours and 40 minutes to finish Potter.

Science quote from their web page:
When reading, only around 20% of your time is spent processing content. The remaining 80% is spent physically moving your eyes from word to word and scanning for the next [Optimal Recognition Point].




Now it's getting harder to follow. Probably takes time to get used to, but still, I can't imagine being able to concentrate on this for too long. If you could keep up with this for two and a half hours, you could read Harry Potter 1 from cover to cover.




Boston-based Spritz, which says its been in "Stealth Mode" for nearly three years, is working on licensing its technology to software developers, ebook makers and even wearables.

Here's a little bit more about how it works: In every word you read, there is an "Optimal Recognition Point” or ORP. This is also called a "fixation point." The "fixation point" in every word is generally immediately to the left of the middle of a word, explains Kevin Larson, of Microsoft's Advanced Reading Technologies team. As you read, your eyes hop from fixation point to fixation point, often skipping significantly shorter words.

"After your eyes find the ORP, your brain starts to process the meaning of the word that you’re viewing," Spritz explains on its website. Spritz indicates the ORP by making it red, and positions each word so that the ORP is at the same point, so your eyes don't have to move. That's what makes it different from RSVP speed reading, which just shows you words in rapid succession with no regard to the ORP. Here's a graphic that shows how Spritz keeps your eyes still while reading:



via HuffingtonPost

A New Car UI

How touch screen controls in cars should work

The problem: Several automotive companies have begun replacing traditional controls in their cars with touch screens. Unfortunately, their eagerness to set new trends in hardware, is not matched by their ambition to create innovative software experiences for these new input mechanisms. Instead of embracing new constraints and opportunities, they merely replicate old button layouts and shapes on these new, flat, glowing surfaces. So even controls for air condition and infotainment - which are commonly used while driving - now lack any tactile feedback and require the driver's dexterity and attention when operated. Considering that distracted driving is the number one cause for car accidents, this is not a step in the right direction. The solution: A new mode that can be invoked at any time: It clears the entire screen of those tiny, intangible control elements and makes way for big, forgiving gestures that can be performed anywhere. In place of the lost tactile feedback, the interface leverages the driver's muscle memory to ensure their ability to control crucial features without taking their eyes off the road. via Matthaeus Krenn

Exoskeletal robot suit to make astronauts super-strong

X1 was initially designed as a human assist device to allow persons with paraplegia to walk again. Strategically designed motors allow for high torque applications such as stair climbing, while multiple points of adjustment allow for a wide range of users. We are now exploring space applications for exoskeletons, such as amplifying astronaut strength, or even as exercise devices for long duration missions.

Read more over on TechLand

Meet Baxter: A Robot With Common Sense

Baxter robots are a new line of androids that can apply common sense behavior in manufacturing workplaces.

Developed by Boston-based Rethink Robotics, Baxter automatically adapts to changing environments through cameras, sensors and software that enable it to “‘see’ objects, ‘feel’ forces and ‘understand’ tasks,” according to the company’s website.

For this reason, Rethink claims that a Baxter robot can safely work alongside humans. It can also be trained like a person, with the robot capable of juggling multiple tasks, and learning a new one in less than 30 minutes (Check out the video above to see them in action).

Priced at $22,000 and with no integration required, a Baxter robot is “a fraction of the cost of a traditional industrial robot,” according to Rethink. “Baxter was specifically designed to be affordable for mid-size and small manufacturers, companies that have never been able to afford robots before.”

“We [can] offer new hope to the millions of American manufacturers who are looking for innovative ways to compete in our global economy.”

The android is ready to start work in less than one hour after it hits the factory floor, the company adds.

Baxter is a complete, self-contained system with application software that can be updated. Rethink says it plans to offer a software development kit in early 2013 for those who want to make use of the technology.

via Mashable

Robot & Frank

Set in the near future, Frank, a retired cat burglar, has two grown kids who are concerned he can no longer live alone. They are tempted to place him in a nursing home until Frank's son chooses a different option: against the old man's wishes, he buys Frank a walking, talking humanoid robot programmed to improve his physical and mental health. What follows is an often hilarious and somewhat heartbreaking story about finding friends and family in the most unexpected places.

Telehuman

Researchers at Queen’s University have created a life-size pod that allows people to video conference each other in 3D, as if they were standing in front of one another. Think of it as 3D Skyping.

The pod, dubbed “TeleHuman,” works by having users stand in front of an acrylic, cylindrical pod. Video cameras capture images from all angles and a computer converts them into a life-size representation of the caller, which is then displayed to the receiver — and vice versa.

Read more here at Discovery.com

Introducing the Leap

Leap Motion has created a new device, called the Leap. It is an 8 cubic feet space in front of your computer, once connected to your computer via USB, it creates a four-cubic-foot virtual workspace. It claims is 200 times more accurate than existing technology and will take gesture controls to the next level.

"Leap can distinguish your individual fingers and track your movements down to a 1/100th of a millimetre"

"For the first time, you can control a computer in three dimensions with your natural hand and finger movements"

The Leap is $70, and a select few can pre-order them now, with the full roll-out coming this winter.

Bionic eyes to be tested next year

Bionic Vision Australia plans to complete when bionic eye testing next year. Using 98 separate electrodes, the implanted chip will help those with genetic eye conditions see large objects such as buildings and elephants (if you happen to live amongst elephants).

It will be a camera built into a pair of glasses and wired to an external processing device. That information is then sent to the aforementioned implant and finally it reaches the vision processing center of the brain.

The company doesn't plan to stop there: a "high-acuity device" that would help those same folks recognise smaller things like facial features. Presuming it works, it will join the other bionic implants.

Via The Verge

Battery-powered Portable X-ray Machine

Battery-powered Portable X-ray Machine. The device is capable of taking approximately 300 consecutive xrays on a single charge, so it can be used in remote areas or in emergency circumstances when the power supply has been cut.

Robotic Pillow Phone Lets You Hug The Person You’re Calling

Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory in Japan, is known for his life-like androids. His latest creation may not resemble a realistic human, but these body-shaped pillows are equipped with two vibrators that mimic heartbeats. The Hugvie robot connects to your mobile phone and responds the caller’s voice. The throbbing vibrations become faster and stronger depending on the pitch, volume, and mood of the caller. via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2012/04/robotic-pillow-phone.html#ixzz1tXDxwbQv

Scientists regenerate hair on bald mouse

After cultivating two different kinds of cells taken from hair follicles in mice, the team transplanted the cells into the hair follicles of a bald mouse. Within three weeks, 74% of the hair follicles implanted with the cells grew back hair. The new hair connected with nerves and surrounding tissues showing that the follicles had become fully functional and were able to regrow hair even after hair was pulled out. The scientists were also able to play around with the density and color of the hair by changing the type of cells they transplanted into the mouse’s hair follicles. When they used cells from a human hair follicle, a human hair grew.

Evacuated Tube Transport could take you around the world in just 6 hours

Evacuated Tube Transport is an airless, frictionless, maglev-like form of transportation which is safer, cheaper and quieter than trains or airplanes. Six-person capsules travel in the tubes and can reach a maximum speed of 6,500 km/h, and provide 50 times more transportation per kwh. A tube can travel from New York to Beijing in two hours, and make a round-the-world trip in just six hours.

Behind the Screen Overlay Interactions

Behind the Screen Overlay Interactions: Behind-the-screen interaction with a transparent OLED with view-dependent, depth-corrected gaze.
A project by Jinha Lee and Cati Boulanger, former intern and researcher respectively, at Microsoft Applied Sciences would change all that. They’re using a special transparent OLED screen from Samsung and a series of sensors, along with custom software that reshuffles the keyboard to the back of the screen. So you can work with your hands inside the virtual desktop.

A Day Made of Glass 2: Same Day. Expanded Corning Vision.

"A Day Made of Glass 2," Corning's expanded vision for the future of glass technologies. This video continues the story of how highly engineered glass, with companion technologies, will help shape our world.

Telepathy machine reconstructs speech from brainwaves

When you read this sentence to yourself, it’s likely that you hear the words in your head. Now, in what amounts to technological telepathy, others are on the verge of being able to hear your inner dialogue too. By peering inside the brain, it is possible to reconstruct speech from the activity that takes place when we hear someone talking.

Because this brain activity is thought to be similar whether we hear a sentence or think the same sentence, the discovery brings us a step closer to broadcasting our inner thoughts to the world without speaking. The implications are enormous – people made mute through paralysis or locked-in syndrome could regain their voice. It might even be possible to read someone’s mind.

Imagine a musician watching a piano being played with no sound, says Brian Pasley at the University of California, Berkeley. “If a pianist were watching a piano being played on TV with the sound off, they would still be able to work out what the music sounded like because they know what key plays what note,” Pasley says. His team has done something analogous with brain waves, matching neural areas to their corresponding noises.

via New Scientist and Popsci

Read the research here.

Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing

2012 may be the year of 3D printing, when this three-decade-old technology finally becomes accessible and even commonplace. Lisa Harouni gives a useful introduction to this fascinating way of making things -- including intricate objects once impossible to create.

Soon, You May Download New Skills to Your Brain

New research suggests it may be possible to learn complex tasks with little to no conscious effort, just like in The Matrix.

PROBLEM: Unlike Neo in The Matrix or the titular superspy in the comedy series Chuck, we can't master kung fu just by beaming information to our brain. We have to put in time and effort to learn new skills.

METHODOLOGY: Researchers from Boston University and Japan's ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories designed a decoded functional MRI neurofeedback method that induces a pre-recorded activation pattern in targeted early visual brain areas that could also produce the pattern through regular learning. They then tested whether repetitions of the fMRI pattern caused an improvement in the performance of that visual feature.

RESULTS: The experiments successfully demonstrated that, through a person's visual cortex, decoded fMRI could be used to impart brain activity patterns that match a previously known target state. Interestingly, behavioral data obtained before and after the neurofeedback training showed improved performance of the relevant visual tasks especially when the subjects were unaware of the nature of what they were learning.

Read more at The Atlantic

Cyborg Insects Could Be First Responders in Rescue Situations

A group at the University of Michigan has a plan to unleash cyborg insects equipped with sensors as first responders in dangerous environments.

The bugs carry small devices on their backs that harvest the energy of wing movements, and use it to power cameras, microphones, sensors and communication equipment.

"Through energy scavenging, we could potential power cameras, microphones and other sensors and communication equipment that an insect could carry aboard a tiny backpack," says Professor Khalil Najafi, chair of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Michigan. "We could send these 'bugged' bugs into dangerous or enclosed environments where we would not want humans to go."

via ScienceDaily