Computers & Peripherals
Fighting house fires with computer models
May 24, 2012 4:34 am | News | CommentsThrough advanced computer modeling of house fires, mechanical engineers at the University of New South Wales are giving fire fighters a new suite of tools to investigate and battle dangerous blazes in time for the traditionally high-risk winter months. Beginning with an ignition point, the models can map how fires behave as they grow, accurately predicting their overall temperature and pinpointing dangerous hotspots that responding personnel should avoid.
U.K. virtual orchestra puts you in conductor's stand
May 23, 2012 7:19 am | by Raphael Satter, Associated Press | News | CommentsSome 37 cameras shot 132 musicians running through the score of Gustav Holst's "The Planets” on the specially-blacked out stage at Watford Colosseum, just outside London, early this year. That footage has been used by a London museum to put the conductor's baton in visitors' hands, allowing guests to direct a virtual orchestra using 3D motion sensors.
New model of geological strata may aid in oil extraction
May 23, 2012 6:41 am | News | CommentsA Sandia National Laboratories modeling study contradicts a long-held belief of geologists that pore sizes and chemical compositions are uniform throughout a given strata, which are horizontal slices of sedimentary rock. By understanding the variety of pore sizes and spatial patterns in strata, geologists can help achieve more production from underground oil reservoirs and water aquifers.
Mathematical framework formalizes oddball programming techniques
May 22, 2012 8:40 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsA group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers will present a new mathematical framework that allows computer scientists to reason rigorously about sloppy computation. The framework can provide mathematical guarantees that if a computer program behaves as intended, so will a fast-but-inaccurate modification of it.
Google strives to enlighten with new search tool
May 18, 2012 6:36 am | by Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsThe search engine giant has spent the past two years poring through online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the CIA Factbook and other sources to expand a database of 12 million items that it picked up as part of its 2010 acquisition of Metaweb. On Wednesday it used this massive database to launch a new feature that provides a summary of vital information alongside main search results.
More doctors are ditching the old prescription pad
May 18, 2012 6:33 am | by Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer | News | CommentsThe U.S. government has been pushing doctors to e-prescribe, in part because it can be safer for patients. Now, more than a third of the nation's prescriptions now are electronic, and starting this year, holdouts will start to see cuts in their Medicare payments.
Quantum computer leap
May 18, 2012 3:44 am | News | CommentsThe main technical difficulty in building a quantum computer could soon be the thing that makes it possible to build one, according to new research from The Australian National University.
Computing experts unveil superefficient “inexact” chip
May 17, 2012 7:17 am | News | CommentsIn a recent project that has challenged the notion that the best chip is the most accurate one, a research team has unveiled this week its prototype “inexact” computer chip. By allowing the chip to make a few mistakes, developers were able to slash the power consumption of the chip dramatically. The result is a chip at least 15 times more efficient than today’s technology.
Engineers tackle challenges of hypersonic flight
May 16, 2012 4:20 am | by Simon Firth, Stanford University | News | CommentsA multiyear collaboration among Stanford University engineering departments uses some of the world's fastest supercomputers to model the complexities of hypersonic flight. Someday, their work may lead to planes that fly at many times the speed of sound.
ICANN offers refunds to domain name applicants
May 9, 2012 6:03 am | News | CommentsThe organization behind a major expansion of Internet address suffixes is offering full refunds to companies and organizations affected by a weeks-long delay in taking proposals.
Cafe conquerors use high-tech gadgets to take over public spaces
May 9, 2012 5:59 am | News | CommentsIt’s a situation we’ve all probably encountered: a coffee shop full of laptop users and no place to sit. According to recent studies at Boston College, “plugged-in” customers are increasingly grabbing extra seats counter space and table tops by using cell phones, laptops, and cups of steaming hot coffee to shield others from seemingly public spaces
Jury deadlocks on key issue in Google-Oracle trial
May 9, 2012 5:23 am | by Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsA federal jury failed to agree on a pivotal issue in Oracle's copyright-infringement case against Google, blunting the impact of its finding that Google relied on another company's technology to build its popular Android software for mobile devices. The impasse reached Monday in San Francisco hobbles Oracle Corp.'s attempt to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Google on grounds that the Internet search leader pirated parts of Android from Oracle's Java programming system.
Internet group: Quality over speed in new domains
May 8, 2012 2:59 pm | by Anick Jesdanun, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsThree weeks ago, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers abruptly shut down a system for letting companies and organizations propose new suffixes, after it discovered a software glitch that exposed some private data. At the time, ICANN planned to reopen the system within four business days. But the system remains suspended.
Study: Bandwidth caps create uncertainty, risky decisions
May 7, 2012 7:26 am | News | CommentsMany U.S. Internet service providers have fallen in line with their international counterparts in capping monthly residential broadband usage. But according to a recent study conducted with the help of Microsoft Research, these pricing models offer few tools for consumers to manage their data usage, and lead to uninformed decisions.
Researchers demonstrate new way to control nonvolatile magnetic memory devices
May 7, 2012 5:00 am | News | CommentsCornell University researchers have demonstrated a new strategy for making energy-efficient, reliable nonvolatile magnetic memory devices, which retain information without electric power. The researchers use a physical phenomenon called the spin Hall effect, that turns out to be useful for memory applications because it can switch magnetic poles back and forth.
Robots that reveal the inner workings of brain cells
May 7, 2012 3:38 am | by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office | News | CommentsResearchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way to automate the process of finding and recording information from neurons in the living brain. The researchers have shown that a robotic arm guided by a cell-detecting computer algorithm can identify and record from neurons in the living mouse brain with better accuracy and speed than a human experimenter.
Objects that know when they are touched
May 4, 2012 6:10 am | News | CommentsTouché, a new sensing technique developed by a team at Disney Research, Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University, is a form of capacitive touch sensing, similar to what’s used in smartphone touchscreens. But its ability to monitor capacitive signals across a broad range of frequencies allows it to perform functions based on complex movements: doorknobs that know when to lock based on the type touch, for example.
Life-size, 3D hologram-like telepods may change videoconferencing
May 4, 2012 5:37 am | News | CommentsUsing off-the-shelf parts, a researcher in Canada has created a Star Trek-like human-scale 3D videoconferencing pod that allows people in different locations to video conference as if they are standing in front of each other. Called TeleHuman, the device projects a full body image that is viewable from 360 degrees.
Vertical takeoff and landing UAV enters new development phase
May 1, 2012 6:20 pm | News | CommentsPart helicopter, part airplane, the Office of Naval Research-sponsored Flexrotor vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle has an oversized propeller with helicopter-like controls for vertical takeoff and landing and the wings of a conventional aircraft. If successful, the craft will extend UAV surveillance capabilities to smaller platforms like ships.
IDBS, Thomson Reuters partner to transform biological content delivery
April 27, 2012 9:47 am | News | CommentsIDBS announced a partnership with the Intellectual Property & Science division of Thomson Reuters to transform how researchers access curated biological content and apply it to their research workflow.
Hubbub over content rights greets Google Drive
April 26, 2012 1:55 pm | by Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsShortly after Tuesday's release of the long-awaited Google Drive service, technology blogs and Twitter users were picking apart a legal clause that made it sound as if all the users' content stored in Google Drive automatically would become the intellectual property of Google Inc. As it turns out, the worries are probably unfounded.
Computing the best high-resolution 3D tissue images
April 24, 2012 4:01 am | News | CommentsReal-time, 3D microscopic tissue imaging could be a revolution for medical fields such as cancer diagnosis, minimally invasive surgery, and ophthalmology. University of Illinois researchers have developed a technique to computationally correct for aberrations in optical tomography, bringing the future of medical imaging into focus.
A divided Congress confronts a rising cyberthreat
April 23, 2012 8:44 am | by Donna Cassata and Richard Lardner, Associated Press | News | CommentsAs cyber attacks worsen and the tactics employed by hackers grow more nefarious, Congress is being asked to consider legislation to improve defenses for government, municipal, and corporate networks. However, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups are applying pressure from the other side, saying the rules would cost money without improving risk.
New institute to tackle 'data tsunami' challenge
April 19, 2012 6:19 am | by Louise Lerner | News | CommentsMany simulations and experiments already generate petabytes of data—a single petabyte is 2,000 times more data than you can fit on a typical laptop—and they will soon be generating exabytes. The Department of Energy’s newly established Scalable Data Management, Analysis, and Visualization (SDAV) Institute is intended to help scientists deal with the deluge of data.
Accelrys issues call to close innovation productivity gap
April 18, 2012 5:25 am | News | CommentsAs part of an all-industries challenge to speed innovation and reduce the time and effort required to commercialize new products, informatics and data management company Accelrys is introducing a scientifically aware enterprise platform that is designed to greatly improve the scientific innovation lifecycle.
