The Technology Thread

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The Neuroscience of Why Virtual Reality Still Sucks

The faceputer ads say virtual reality is coming and it's gonna work this time. But here's some real talk: There are still many ways virtual reality cannot fool the human brain. And it has little to do with the tech itself. Instead, it's about neuroscience and our brain's perceptual limits.

True, the past year has brought a great flourishing of virtual reality systems that are miles better than the clunky, nauseating devices of the 90s. The HTC Vive and Sony's Project Morpheus were just unveiled. Oculus is chugging along since its $2 billion acquisition by Facebook last year. Magic Leap is doing whatever the hell it's doing.

This new set of devices is good enough to feel stomach-droppingly real—even though the images are still pixelated and lag a tiny bit. People in VR call this overwhelming feeling "presence." But it's possible to fool one part of the brain without fooling another.

When journalists write about being wowed by the latest fancy VR device, they mean the emotional gut punch of say, looking down a castle wall at an invading army. They don't mean that VR is indistinguishable from reality. As Jason Jerald, a technology consultant for VR companies, puts it, "We can get very engaged in cartoon-like worlds." Images don't have to look perfect for presence.

But these imperfections become obvious if you spend more than the typical few minutes of a press junket inside VR. Or try to walk and turn. There are many reasons, both conscious and unconscious, that your brain rejects the reality of a screen mounted a few inches in front of your eyeballs.

Latency and the Age-Old Problem of Motion Sickness

Call it motion sickness or "simulator sickness" or "cybersickness," but the nausea is real and has long bedeviled virtual reality. The main reason is latency, or the tiny but perceptible delay between when you move your head in VR and when the image in front of your eyes changes—creating a mismatch between the motion we feel (with our inner ears) and the image we see (with our eyes).

In real life, the delay is essentially zero. "Our sensory system and and motor systems are very tightly coupled," says Beau Cronin, who earned his PhD in computational neuroscience at MIT and is writing a book on the neuroscience of VR.

In virtual reality, however, the latency can get as low as 20 milliseconds, though it can go up quite a bit depending on the exact application. It will never be zero because it will always take time for a computer to register your movements and draw the new image.

So how low does latency have need to be before you don't notice it? Jerald, who did his doctoral research on the perceptual limits of latency, found that it varies wildly: His most sensitive subjects could notice lags of 3.2 milliseconds, the least sensitive hundreds of milliseconds. Indeed, sensitivity to simulator sickness can vary wildly, too. It may never be possible to design devices that make no one motion sick, but it is likely possible to design certain applications that don't make most people sick.

My Eyes! The Vergence-Accommodation Conflict

A weird thing happens in VR: You can look at the far-off horizon of a virtual beach but still feel like you're in a room. This could be partly the result of subtle feedback from the muscles surrounding your eyes. At its worst, it can cause painful eyestrain and headaches.

Here's what happens. Put a finger in front of your face and gradually move it to your nose; your eyes will naturally move closer together to track your finger. This is vergence, where our eyes converge and diverge to look at close and distant objects, respectively. At the same time, the lenses in your eyes focus so the image of your finger remains clear while the background is fuzzy. This is called accommodation.

In VR, however, vergence and accommodation no longer integrate seamlessly. The screen of a typical head-mounted display sits three inches or so in front of your eyes. A set of lenses bends the light, so the image on the screen looks about one to three meters away. However, any objects further or closer than that can look blurry. And the entire screen is always in focus, no matter where your eyes are looking. This can make spending an extended period of time in VR pretty uncomfortable.

There are high-flying ideas about how to get around the problem, and the name on everyone's lips is Magic Leap. The company hasn't publicly revealed much, though its patents show an interest in light field technology, where a screen of pixels is replaced by an array of tiny mirrors that reflect light directly into the eyes. The objects rendered through light are supposed to achieve true depth, coming in and out of focus as a real object might.

The Catch-22 of a Wide Field of View

To be truly immersive, virtual reality must show you what's in front of your eyes — but also what's to the side of them. The problem? "The larger the field of view the more sensitive you are to motion," says Frank Steinicke, a professor at the University of Hamburg who spent 24 hours inside an Oculus Rift as an experiment.

Ever see something fly by at the edges of your vision? That's because your peripheral vision is especially sensitive to movement. Capturing movement in the periphery is key to an immersive experience, but that also means capturing it accurately is key to a non-nauseating immersive experience. Peripheral vision actually goes through its own pathways in your brain, separate from those used by your central vision. It appears to be closely integrated with your sense of spatial orientation.

Because peripheral and central vision work so differently, it actually means that a wide field of view, which incorporates both, actually needs to solve two sets of problems. A flickering that is not noticeable right in front of your eye becomes distracting in your peripheral vision.

Navigating Virtual Space, or Motion Sickness Rears Its Ugly Head Again

Even in a world with perfect motion tracking and zero latency, we still have motion sickness. And that means that there's an additional hurdle to creating a realistic experience in virtual spaces.

This goes back to the mismatch between the images we see and the movements we feel. If you're controlling a character with a joystick in an immersive virtual environment, there's always going to be a mismatch. The only way around it is perfect 1:1 motion in the real and virtual world, which means physically walking a mile if your character is walking a mile. This becomes pretty darn impractical if you want to play games in your living room.

One solution is simply game design, which is the exact topic of a 53-page Oculus Best Practices Guide. For example, when people are put in a virtual cockpit, they can sit still and drive or fly around with less motion sickness—kind of like driving a car in the real world. But this pretty obviously negates the fun of a truly interactive VR experience.

There's also the possibility of using omnidirectional treadmills. An even more intriguing idea is redirected walking, which exploits the fact that our sense of direction is not perfect. For example, people trying to walk in a straight line in the desert will naturally start to walk in circles. Studies at USC and the Max Planck Institute among others have found people can be subtly nudged into thinking they are walking around in a bigger space than they actually are.

VR as the Ultimate Neuroscience Experiment

Virtual reality companies, for their part, are well aware their technology is not exactly ready for primetime. Oculus has only released its PChardware as "developer kits," and the release date for a consumer version is still floating vaguely in the future. Other products are available now, like the Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard, but VR suffered from overly high expectations before, and its enthusiasts are wary of it happening again.

Admitting that there are unsolved neuroscience problems with VR doesn't mean the technology is doomed to fail. Instead, it means something far more fascinating: Understanding why virtual reality fails to fool us could lead to a better understanding of the exquisite complexity of the human brain. Or, as Cronin put it, "The Oculus Best Practices guide may be the most substantial thing ever written on applied sensorimotor neuroscience."

And further out on the horizon, ever more sophisticated VR technology could dramatically expand what we do in neuroscience experiments. For example, William Warren, a professor of cognitive science at Brown, has studied spatial navigation by putting people inside virtual environments with wormholes. Crude forms of virtual reality for mice, fruit flies, and zebrafish are already a common part of neuroscience research.

By confusing the brain deliberately, we learn how it works in ordinary situations. And we just might get some awesome games out of it, too.

http://gizmodo.com/the-neuroscience-of-why-vr-still-sucks-1691909123

Lots of good links in the original article if you are interested in learning more about this stuff. This tech is the most exciting thing for me right now

 

[Iceman]

Will be a while before that technology is perfected. But will be cool when they eventually get there.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I still remember going to an early VR project at Disney's Epcot center. I know it was in the 90's, I must have been 12 or 13. I raced 3 other people on a magic carpet in Alladin's world. It looked just like the cartoon. Ever since then I was always excited by VR, it's amazing to think I'll have it in my home soon

 

[Iceman]

There was a good VR thing with a guy in a headset moving around doing all the actions at the games convention I went to last year and you could see what he sees on the big screen. Hopefully they have that again this year improved even more. Would be crazy having that in your lounge.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

One thing is for sure, it's a damn good time to be alive but I must say I'm kind of jealous of the babies now who will get to grow up with this stuff haha

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Locking Knife Block Keeps Your Blades Inaccessible to Kids

When you're bustling in the kitchen prepping a meal, quickly grabbing a knife out of a storage block is easier than digging through a drawer to find one. Storing them in a block is also just a better way to keep your knives sharp and in good shape, but it unfortunately means they're easily accessible to children. So Joseph Joseph has incorporated a locking mechanism into its new LockBlock that makes knives harder for kids to remove.

You'll actually need a pair of adult-sized hands to operate the block's stiff blade release which helps to make it kid-proof. And each knife is locked in place with a clever "Cam-lock mechanism" that increases the grip the harder a knife is pulled, making them all but impossible to remove using just brute force.

The LockBlock itself, with universal slots that will accommodate your existing knives, is available now for $60. But there's also a $150 version that comes with six knives of its own and slots custom-sized to fit each one if you're just starting to outfit your kitchen.

http://www.josephjoseph.com/en-us/product/lockblock-knife-block/?_$ja=tsid:52996|prd:1503186

A good option for people with children

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Watch Out Apple Watch, There's a Swiss-Made Android Wear Watch Coming

Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer is teaming up with both Google and Intel are going to team up to make a luxury Android Wear watch to do battle with the upcoming (and expensive) Apple Watch. Sounds interesting! But unfortunately that's about all we've got in the way of details so far.

Rumors have been swirling, and now they're confirmed. In an announcement that seems roughly one million percent an attempt to respond to the Apple Watch as quickly as possible, the Swiss watchmaker, along with representatives from Google, and Intel announced that, yes, the first luxury Android Wear smartwatch is coming, but basically no other info. Price, features, even what the dang thing looks like won't be revealed until later this year.

If nothing else, the partnership shows that it's not just smartwatch makers that are afraid of the Apple Watch; it's the Swiss too. The folks at Tag Heuer are actually going so far as to lobby to expand the definition of "Swiss-made" to allow for the inclusion of microprocessors made outside of the country.

How exactly this watch will look, work, and most importantly how it will compare to the Apple Watch is still pretty much completely up for grabs, but it will be assembled in Switzerland and sounds like it'll feature at least some traditional mechanical parts. We'll see! If you're looking to drop an obscene amount of money on a luxury watch with smarts, Apple won't be your only choice.

http://gizmodo.com/google-intel-and-tag-heuer-are-making-luxury-android-1692348423

This is exciting since they make damn good watches but I'm still not sold on the whole smartwatch thing yet. I get a new phone every 2 years or so. The thought of wasting money on a watch to do things my phone already does and then having to buy a new one very few years just doesn't sound that appealing to me

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Transforming Scooter Is the Ultimate Mobility Aid for Any Age

It's assumed that electric scooters are a tool designed for those with mobility issues or the elderly, but the creators of the transforming ILY-A concept see it as the perfect solution for commuters, travelers, or anyone who occasionally just doesn't feel like walking.

The scooter—which is the best way to describe the ILY-A—can transform into an electric-powered sit-down rideable, a standing scooter that's propelled by the rider, a powered luggage cart that makes it easier to push around a mountain of suitcases, and finally a compact travel mode for dragging it up to your office after your commute.

Jointly developed by Aisin Seiki, an auto parts manufacturer, and the Chiba Institute of Technology, the ILY-A will have a top speed of just over six miles per hour, and a battery range that should keep it running for a full day. And to ensure that it's safe to operate around pedestrians, the ILY-A includes a front-facing wide-field infra-red sensor that restricts the scooter's speed when there are large crowds around, and stops is altogether when there's an obstacle directly in front of it.

There's no word on when the ILY-A concept will officially be available, but its creators definitely want to put it into production one day as a cheaper and greener commuting alternative. Plus, it looks slightly less dorky than a Segway.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20150318/409863/

I am lazy and I want one t:

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

NASA's New Landing System Can Adapt in Real-Time Based on What It Sees

[YT]-1DlP71ukTw[/YT]

Taking a spacecraft to the surface of an alien planet is hard enough, but it can be even more difficult to reach the exact landing spot. Now, new NASA technologies could enable landers to adapt in real-time to what they see before them.

A team of engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been testing several new landing technologies on a demonstration vehicle known as the Autonomous Descent and Ascent Powered-flight Testbed (ADAPT). A vertical-launch, vertical-landing rocket, ADAPT allows the team to approximate the high-speed landings that spacecraft experience when touching down on planets like Mars.

Among the new technologies being tested is a system called Lander Vision System (LVS) which allows the lander to determine its position relative to its specified landing site. During descent, it acquires real-time images of the surface and compares them to previously acquired maps of the area, allowing it to identify its landing spot and change course without intervention from flight engineers.

The team's also been testing a system called Guidance for Fuel-Optimal Large Diverts (G-FOLD) which takes information from LVS about deviations from the intended landing spot and calculates the most fuel-efficient route to get there. "No previous Mars lander has used onboard surface imaging to achieve a safe and precise touchdown, but a future spacecraft could use LVS and G-FOLD to first autonomously determine its location and then optimally fly to its intended landing site," explains Nikolas Trawny, who works on the project, in a NASA article.

So far the new systems have been tested successfully on Earth, landing ADAPT from heights of 1,066 feet, diverting its course by 984 horizontal feet from a height of 623 vertical feet. It's not clear when the technology may make it into a real mission—but it may allow NASA to ensure future landings are silky smooth.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4514

Man that's dope, I wonder if it will ever get commercialized for airline planes or something?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Combo 3-D Printer, CNC Machine And Laser Etcher Makes A Lot Of Sense

3-D printers are powerful but limited tools: you can make anything you want, but only out of a specific kind of plastic. But combine that with a CNC machine that shapes metal, and a laser etcher for fine detail, and you have an all-in-one workshop that doesn't require you getting your hands dirty.

BoXZY is a Kickstarter project to create a 3-D printer that goes full Transformers, turning into a CNC machine or laser etcher without too much effort. On the surface,the idea makes a lot of sense: all three kinds of production require a head that moves around, and as such all three machines have a lot of commonality.

The printer/drill/laser pulls off its trick thanks to interchangeable heads, which can be changed fairly easily between plastic-printing and lazer-zapping. The package isn't exactly cheap, with BoXZY plus two attachments running you $2,000, or the full fabrication motherlode up for pre-order for $3K. And, as always, the usual Kickstarter caveats apply: although shipping is slated for November of this year, you're still pre-ordering a product, and there's no guarantee that what shows up in your mailbox will bear a resemblance to the snappy Kickstarter GIFs.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boxzy/boxzy-rapid-change-fablab-mill-laser-engraver-3d-p

If they can pull that off it will be a game changer

 

[Teelie]

Windows 10 Could Mean Never Typing a Password Again

http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwi...-personal-and-more-secure-with-windows-hello/

One less password? Sign me up

This will fail for the simple reason someone can literally print a copy of your face out on a piece of paper and wear it as a mask to fool the sensor.

And you inadvertantly pointed that out with this post. While it might be slightly more complicated than printing it on a piece of paper it isn't that much further from that to fool a sensor.

 

[Teelie]

Also Windows 10 and pirates isn't as simplistic as thought.

The consumer free upgrade offer for Windows 10 applies to qualified new and existing devices running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1. Some editions are excluded from the consumer free upgrade—including Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1. Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to other Windows 10 enterprise offerings.

We have always been committed to ensuring that customers have the best Windows experience possible. With Windows 10, although non-Genuine PCs may be able to upgrade to Windows 10, the upgrade will not change the genuine state of the license. Non-Genuine Windows is not published by Microsoft. It is not properly licensed, or supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner. If a device was considered non-genuine or mislicensed prior to the upgrade, that device will continue to be considered non-genuine or mislicensed after the upgrade. According to industry experts, use of pirated software, including Non-Genuine Windows, results in a higher risk of malware, fraud (identity theft, credit card theft, etc), public exposure of your personal information, and a higher risk for poor performance or feature malfunctions.

 

[Iceman]

This will fail for the simple reason someone can literally print a copy of your face out on a piece of paper and wear it as a mask to fool the sensor.

And you inadvertantly pointed that out with this post. While it might be slightly more complicated than printing it on a piece of paper it isn't that much further from that to fool a sensor.

You could probably just choose to add the iris or voice recognition. It's a first attempt anyway and can be improved on. At the moment they just need password hacking software which is widespread. With this someone still needs to have a copy of your face which many hackers won't have for everyone when they hack millions of accounts at the same time.

 

[Teelie]

This isn't about hacking millions of accounts but protecting them from being accessed by someone in person and I have my doubts anyways that it is all that useful. Most of those said massive hacks are done via the site itself, not the end users hardware.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The FAA Will Let Amazon Drones Fly After All—But Only for Testing

Just one short month ago, it looks like Amazon's drone delivery dreams were dashed. But today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted the company an "experimental airworthiness certificate." Does this mean your Amazon Prime will come from the sky now? Not even close.

Basically, all the FAA is letting Amazon do is research and development. (This, after the company threatened to take its drone R&D abroad.) There are quite a few caveats, as well. Here's what the FAA said in its press release:

Under the provisions of the certificate, all flight operations must be conducted at 400 feet or below during daylight hours in visual meteorological conditions. The UAS must always remain within visual line-of-sight of the pilot and observer. The pilot actually flying the aircraft must have at least a private pilot's certificate and current medical certification.

The certificate also requires Amazon to provide monthly data to the FAA.​

So the fact that Amazon won't actually be able to deliver anything with its delivery drones remains. Unless, of course, the delivery happens to be a few hundred feet away. That said, the FAA restrictions pretty much follow the proposed rules for commercial drones announced last month. Based on that bit about the data, though, it sounds like Amazon's R&D will also serve as the FAA's R&D since all of the flight data will go back to the agency for analysis.

Nothing wrong with R&D, though! Especially with drones.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/19/8259881/amazon-prime-air-delivery-drone-faa-permission

I really want drones delivering my stuff

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Magic Leap Claims This Kickass Reality-Bending Raygun Game Is Real

(Can't link to this insanely cool vid due to one stupid curse word but search YT for: Just another day in the office at Magic Leap )

Remember Magic Leap, the elusive Google-funded company promising to make virtual objects look like they exist in the real world? The one whose technology we've never actually seen? The secretive startup just released this incredible video filled with robots, retro rayguns, and a holodeck-like user interface.

Oh, and the company claims this is a real game that real Magic Leap employees are actually playing around the office today.

Honestly, it's pretty hard to take the company at its word that this is entirely real and not just an artist's interpretation of what the technology will be. (I've asked the company to clarify.) Last I'd heard—take this with a grain of salt—Magic Leap hadn't yet miniaturized the tech to the point where you could actually wear a full-color display on your head, much less roam around a room, grab rayguns and shoot up a room.

But that doesn't make this video any less cool. And I did indeed see experiences not too far behind this when I used Microsoft's Hololens for the first time a couple months ago.

Wouldn't you like to pick up one of Dr. Grordbort's Infalliable Aether Oscillators? I sure would.

http://gizmodo.com/magic-leap-claims-this-kickass-reality-bending-raygun-g-1692445684

This looks amazing, if they can pull this stuff off it will have huge implications

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Tesla's Cure For Range Anxiety Is An Idiotproof Navigation Update

Tesla's big announcement to end range anxiety with a software update basically makes it impossible for a driver to run out of range unless they're wearing diapers.12

That's the word from Elon Musk, who announced two new features to the Model S in version 6.2 of its software, which will be pushed out in the coming weeks.

The first is something called Trip Planner that's always running in the background and communicates between the car and the Supercharger and its partner destination charging network to warn the driver if he goes out of range. It keeps tabs on the most convenient charging locations, along with elevation changes and uses the onboard data connection to determine the windspeed of a certain area to provide more accurate range estimation.

"It's impossible to run out unless you do so intentionally," says Musk.

Range Assurance is basically a trip planner that plots out the optimal route based on the charging network, and when you're plugged in, it will send a notification to your phone when it's ready.

All told, it's exactly what we expected: more granular data to provide drivers with better information.

http://jalopnik.com/teslas-cure-for...sure-its-drive-1692388053/+kcampbelldollaghan

I want a Tesla

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Tesla Auto-Steer Will Let Drivers Go From SF To Seattle Hands-Free

In addition to Tesla's over-the-air software update to address range anxiety, Elon Musk finally offered up more details on its AutoPilot program, including its test route, where Tesla has almost completed a trek from San Francisco to Seattle hands-free.

Version 7 of the Model S software is due to hit later this year and with it will come an overhaul of the aging user interface and two new features that Musk promised last year.

Musk says that the company is making progress on auto-steering, where the car keeps track of the lines on the road and doesn't let it veer out of the lane. The test route Tesla is using is between San Francisco and Seattle and Musk says it's "almost able to go [between the two locations] without touching the controls at all."

Musk clarified that it's technically possible to go from "parking lot to parking lot," but instead insists that the system is mainly to be used for freeway cruising, combining the sensors that scan the road for obstacles – basically adaptive cruise control – to keep it going for those boring runs down the freeway.

Musk is also promising an ability to summon your car. Basically press a button on the Tesla smartphone app, the car will come to your front door, and when you return, it will park itself.

Musk also says the next update will include a series of smaller enhancements that build off of emergency braking, blind spot warning, and others, as well as a valet mode to limit speed, torque and personal information.

http://jalopnik.com/tesla-auto-steer-allows-drivers-to-go-from-sf-to-seatt-1692392516/+megneal

I really want a Tesla

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Google Wants to Change TV Advertising Forever

Google Fiber is about to change the way TV ads look for subscribers in Kansas City. And it has the potential to upend the entire TV industry in the very near future.

In the next few weeks Google will roll out a small but revolutionary TV ad-tracking program, tipped early today at Adweek. The program will utilize Google Fiber, the high-speed internet and TV service now available in Kansas City, Provo and Austin, and rolling out in other markets soon. The long and short of it? Google is about to make the sale of TV ads much more like ads on the web — for better and for worse. Ads will arguably be much more relevant to consumers, but those consumers will also be sacrificing a certain amount of privacy.

Google's new program will deliver ads to Google Fiber subscribers that will be automatically selected based on the viewer's geography, the kind of show airing, and that house's viewing history. The new ad program will also directly measure how many people see a given TV ad, bringing the TV industry much closer to the way that ads are now sold on the web.

"If you're a local business in Kansas City, just as with digital ads, you'll only pay for ads that have been shown, and can limit the number of times an ad is shown to a given TV," Google says in a blog post that went up this afternoon.

Traditionally TV advertising has been very profitable for the TV networks, partly because when someone buys an ad, it's being viewed by a huge audience with many people who may not care about that product or service. Google clearly wants to turn the shotgun approach of broadcast advertising into a sniper's bullet. Which is good for advertisers, but less great for the networks selling airtime.

As inevitable as this shift toward hyper-targeted advertising may have been, TV networks can't be too happy about it. Google's new program will no doubt drive the cost of ads way down. Again, great news for advertisers, and terrible news for people selling those ads.

Even with modern viewership measuring programs from research companies like Nielsen, there has never been a perfect way for a brand to know how many people saw their ad. As Adweek points out, very few Americans have a Nielsen box — the way that the company directly measures who's watching a given show. Everybody with Google Fiber TV has a Google Fiber box.

With the implementation of Google Fiber's tracking and delivery the TV industry could be about to about to have its deadtree newspapers moment. There will, of course, be concerns raised over privacy and letting Google track what you're watching. But those concerns almost seem quaint in a world where things like Facebook have been doing the same thing for years already. Buying into the Google ecosystem means giving up any semblance of privacy from their robots' prying eyes. If consumers already trust the company with their most intimate emails and search history, it's hard to see why they'd mind if Google started tracking their TV habits.

http://gizmodo.com/google-wants-to-change-tv-advertising-forever-1692678431

*Google drops the mic and walks away*

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Here's How You Can Help Build a Quantum Computer

Quantum computers—theoretical machines which can process certain large and difficult problems exponentially faster than classical computers—have been a mainstay of science fiction for decades. But actually building one has proven incredibly challenging.

A group of researchers at Aarhus University believes the secret to creating a quantum computer lies in understanding human cognition. So, they've built computer games to study us, first.

There are ways in which modern computers vastly outstrip our cognitive capacity—storing and regurgitating facts, for instance. But while most humans will struggle to memorize a list of a hundred names, we can learn recognize a hundred faces—a much more complex task—with ease. For decades, neuroscientists and engineers have dreamed of designing a computer that performs tasks such as facial or hand-writing recognition efficiently.

To understand how humans solve complex problems, Jacob Sherson and his colleagues created Quantum Moves, a simple problem-solving game in which a player searches for the best way to move atoms around on the screen. Ultimately, the researchers hope their freely accessible game—which has already been played over 400 thousand times—will offer insights into how our brains easily perform tasks that stump computers.

To build a quantum computer, researchers are first mapping human thoughts. Image: Shutterstock.

"The players showed us that there's an unexploited capacity for ingenuity in the human brain. We see solutions that a computer would never have allowed, and which optimize the processes," said Sherson in a press release.

The game has already produced some interesting findings. For one, while your loved ones may scold you for your lack of attentiveness, when it comes to problem solving, the ability to disregard irrelevant information is a blessing. Computers are unable to ignore even the most obscure details, and waste precious energy trying to incorporate them into the solution.

"We presumably manage to separate whatever is of no importance in relation to a given problem," Sherson said. "We hope to transfer this to the work with quantum computers, where the behaviour of atoms is the crucial factor."

So, while the actual business of building a quantum computer may out of reach for those of us lacking a Ph.D. in physics, now at least there's a way for us plebeians to contribute to the effort, by doing what we do best—playing games.

You can check out (and play!) the games that researchers are using to map our thoughts and design better computers here.

http://scitech.au.dk/en/current-affairs/news/show/artikel/atlas-of-thoughts/

That's pretty cool

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The Trick to Hacking Top-Secret Computers: Just Add Heat

[YT]EWRk51oB-1Y[/YT]

Security researchers just found a way to hack into specially secured computer systems by sending messages using blasts of air. This is another example of how even the most walled-off systems can still get hacked.

By messing with a computer's thermal sensor, researchers at Ben-Gurion University were able to hack into air-gapped computers. Air-gapping is a computer security technique that keeps information safe by cutting off all access to the internet. It's a way to isolate super-sensitive data used by top secret military networks, as well as bankers, journalists, and anyone with information they desperately want to keep private.

But, as this demonstration shows, it's not foolproof. In fact, a heater positioned the wrong way could screw everything up.

Since air-gapped computers are protected from typical network attacks, the researchers manipulated their thermal sensors—the sensors that determine when a computer is getting too hot—by blasting air at specific temperatures using a nearby computer. The researchers designed a malware that made the "safe" computers receive these hot air emissions as a binary code, so a blast of air 1 degree above the standard temperature would get translated as a "1."

Simply by adding heat, the researchers tricked an air-gapped computer into turning a model missile-launch toy. Watch the hack in action above.

Now, this isn't something that anybody running an air-gapped system needs to freak out about. For this hack to work, both systems need to be infected with malware. And they need to be very close together, fifteen inches or less. This isn't a hugely applicable trick.

But it is worth paying attention to as evidence that air-gapping is not a magical solution either, and that hackers are going to get creative with the internet of things. The researchers used another computer here, but any internet-connected system will do. That means an air-gapped computer left near a smart home heater, for instance, would be a prime candidate for this sort of hacking.

As more of the stuff around us is connected, it's inevitable that there will be more opportunities for hacking. People taking the time to secure their computers by air-gapping will also have to be careful about securing their larger connected environment if they really want to keep people out.

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/stealing-data-computers-using-heat/

How do people even figure this kind of thing out?

 

[Slushy]

A Locking Knife Block Keeps Your Blades Inaccessible to Kids

Saw this at Target. Pretty nifty.

Smartphone Crank

I really need one of these.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Boeing Patents Star Trek-Like Force Field Technology For Vehicles

Force fields have been a mainstay in science fiction since just about forever. Now, the future may finally be close at hand as Boeing recently patented a "method and system for shock wave attenuation via electromagnetic arc," which aims to make invisible and instant protection from nearby explosions a reality.

The concept behind Boeing's force field goes something like this: a sensor mounted on a vehicle would detect a shock wave caused by a nearby explosion. A computer then figures out the range direction of the shock wave based on sensor data so that it can know how to defend against it. As with all things in life, timing is everything.

Then, an "arc generator' creates a 'second medium' (atmosphere being the first) by initiating an electronic arc that travels along a conducive path via a laser system that emits a series of pulses. The combination of which ionizes the atmosphere between the vehicle and the shock wave and creates a plasma field that temporarily protects the vehicle from the incoming shock waves. Other alternative catalysts for making a conductive ion trail are listed as pellets, microwaves, sacrificial conductors, projectiles trailing wires and magnetic induction.

Although the concept is not yet envisioned as one that can protect a vehicle against direct projectile strikes, it could protect it from the deadly shock waves produced by things like roadside bombs and nearby artillery and bomb strikes. The shock waves of such blasts are known to be more deadly than the shrapnel deployed from them, which is a problem that still plagues ground combat vehicle and combat personnel equipment designers.

The fact of the matter is that there is already a solution for protecting from 'direct fire' attacks on vehicles in the form of Israel's 'Trophy' active defense system and its many clones that are now arriving on the international weapons marketplace. By pairing Boeing's blast wave defense system with an active defense system like Trophy, a vehicle's occupants could presumably be protected from both forms of attack. In doing so, their chances of surviving even intense combat situations could astronomically increase. Additionally, the fielding of both system may allow future combat vehicles to be less heavily armored, much more maneuverable and faster, not to mention cheaper to build. All of which would give a military force an edge in sustained combat.

There is also the possibility that such a system could one day be fielded aboard aircraft. Most surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles do not kill their targets via impacting them directly. Instead they use proximity fusing to explode nearby the target so that there is a better chance of affecting the target at all.

The shock wave of such a nearby detonation can have devastating effects on fragile, high performance aircraft, along with the missile's fragmentation warhead's projectiles. Still, peppering an aircraft with shrapnel is not akin to breaking its back or wing via a nearby highly concussive explosion. With this in mind, the idea of mounting such a 'force field' system on an aircraft one day in the future is intriguing.

The same can be said for surface combatants that have to contend with cruise missile attacks. Although these missiles may be destroyed before impacting a ship's hull via close-in weapon systems, this does not mean the two thousand pounds of explosives going off a few hundred yards from that same ship may not kill deck crew or damage key aerials and external systems. Boeing's force field system could help protect against such secondary effects.

It is amazing to think that laser induced plasma fields could be really the future's armor, but after 15 years of counter-insurgency warfare, incredible developments in self protection systems were bound to happen.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/bo...tyle-force-field-technology/story?id=29839654

Man that is awesome

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Amazon Fire Stick's New Wi-Fi Powers Let You Stream Almost Anywhere

Dig through Amazon's new software update for Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, and you'll find an intriguing detail—one that shows us where streaming TV is heading. Mainly to your hotel room.

The update includes a number of new features, like Bluetooth headphone support and expandable USB storage, which is certainly useful. But what's really cool? Your Fire device will now be able to connect to web-authenticated Wi-Fi networks, the sort you find at hotels, schools, and dorms. That means you'll be able to stream what you want to the screen in, say, whatever random Marriott you're staying in on a business trip, or connect directly to a TV when giving a presentation at school so long as there's Wi-Fi.

It's a fairly small upgrade, but one that illustrates how streaming devices are moving beyond the living room and out into the world. Next time you're stuck watching infomercials on your hotel TV, you'll be able to just stream Netflix instead.

http://gizmodo.com/amazon-fire-sticks-new-wi-fi-powers-let-you-stream-almo-1693340581

That's a really cool feature but I'm a Chromecast guy

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

These Light-Emitting Fibers Could Make Fabrics That Glow

A team of researchers has developed a new light-emitting fiber than could be woven into fabrics, providing flexible smart fabrics than can illuminate themselves.

The fibers use a stainless steel wire core, which is coated with a thin layer of ZnO nanoparticles and then wrapped in electroluminescent polymer. Finally, a transparent coating of carbon nanotubes is applied. The resulting millimeter-diameter fibers are effectively long, thin polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells.

In tests the devices worked for several hours, glowing either bright blue or yellow. But in theory these devices could last for thousands of hours—and yes, other colors should be possible, too. The light gets thrown out in all directions, so it can be seen from any angle, and they also consume less power then conventional LEDs.

The researchers claim that the fibers are lightweight and highly flexible, which means it should be possible to easily incorporate them into fabrics. Indeed, the team, from Fudan University in Shanghai, suggest that they could "be woven into light-emitting clothes for the creation of smart fabrics." This could be the fabric the 80s always needed.

Currently, though, the fibers are too short and delicate to be woven into fabrics at commercial scale. If their resilience can be increased and diameter reduced, it's possible to imagine a fabric densely woven with the fibers that could appear invisible, suggests Engadget, by emitting the right patterns of light. But let's not get ahead of ourselves: for now, they're the itty bitty glow sticks that science always wanted us to have.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/24/light-emitting-fabrics-80s-ski-outfits/?ncid=rss_truncated

Hell yeah, raves will never be the same