Computers & Peripherals
Can a machine tell when you're lying?
March 26, 2012 8:20 am | News | CommentsInspired by the work of psychologists who study the human face for clues that someone is telling a high-stakes lie, University at Buffalo computer scientists are exploring whether machines can also read the visual cues that give away deceit. Results so far are promising.
Brookhaven to introduce new supercomputers to advance nanomaterial design
March 22, 2012 9:35 am | News | CommentsThis spring a new supercomputer will come online at Brookhaven National Laboratory, arming its scientists and engineers with a tool to advance their research. Brookhaven's Center for Functional Nanomaterials and the Chemistry Department will use this big boost in computing power, called Blue Gene/Q, to tease out new ways to put nanoscale materials to work.
Hewlett-Packard to merge printing, PC divisions
March 21, 2012 11:02 am | by Barbara Ortutay, AP Technology Writer | News | CommentsHewlett-Packard Co. will combine its printer and PC divisions to save money, part of the technology company's effort to turn around its business. The move announced Wednesday comes at a time when sales of printers and ink, once HP's lifeblood, are falling as people increasingly share documents and photos online.
Nuclear fusion simulation shows high-gain energy output
March 20, 2012 8:24 am | News | CommentsHigh-gain nuclear fusion could be achieved in a preheated cylindrical container immersed in strong magnetic fields, according to a series of computer simulations performed at Sandia National Laboratories. The simulations show the release of output energy that was many times greater than the energy fed into the container's liner.
Scientists reveal inner workings of magnets that could lead to faster computers
March 15, 2012 6:10 am | News | CommentsUsing specialized X-ray lasers, scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder and NIST have revealed the secret inner life of magnets, a finding that could lead to faster and smarter computers. Using a light source that creates X-ray pulses only one quadrillionth of a second in duration, the team was able to observe how magnetism in nickel and iron atoms works, and they found that each metal behaves differently.
Guiding robot planes with hand gestures
March 14, 2012 4:00 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsAircraft-carrier crew use a set of standard hand gestures to guide planes on the carrier deck. But as robot planes are increasingly used for routine air missions, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on a system that would enable them to follow the same types of gestures.
Youngsters tapped to make computers smarter
March 13, 2012 5:57 am | News | CommentsPeople often wonder if computers make children smarter. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley are asking the reverse question: Can children make computers smarter? And the answer appears to be 'yes.'
Holey Optochip first to transfer one terabit of information per second
March 8, 2012 3:56 am | News | CommentsIBM scientists report on a prototype optical chipset, dubbed Holey Optochip, that is the first parallel optical transceiver to transfer one trillion bits, or one terabit, of information per second, the equivalent of downloading 500 high-definition movies. With the ability to move information at high speeds, the breakthrough could transform how data is accessed, shared, and used for a new era of communications and computing technologies.
iPad dispute signals new era in trademark troubles
March 7, 2012 3:24 am | by Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsFinancially troubled Proview Electronics Co., a computer monitor and LED light maker, says it registered the iPad trademark in China and elsewhere more than a decade ago and wants Apple to stop selling or making the popular tablet computers under that name. Whatever the outcome, the dispute highlights the rising stakes of the trademark name game in the increasingly lucrative China consumer market, one that most global companies cannot afford to miss out on regardless of the risks.
Robotic cheetah sets speed record
March 6, 2012 8:39 am | News | CommentsIt won’t keep up with the real thing, but a robotic cat build for DARPA has just set a speed record for legged robots by cruising at 18 miles per hour. Boston Dynamics, known for its Big Dog and Petman projects, built the robot and intends to demonstrate a free-running prototype later this year.
New computers respond to emotions
March 2, 2012 7:36 am | News | CommentsEmotion-sensing computer software that models and responds to students' cognitive and emotional states has been developed by a professor at the University of Notre Dame. The new technology, which matches the interaction of human tutors, not only offers learning possibilities for students, but also redefines human-computer interaction.
ORNL completes first phase of Titan supercomputer transition
March 1, 2012 7:04 am | News | CommentsOak Ridge National Laboratory's Jaguar supercomputer has completed the first phase of an upgrade that will keep it among the most powerful scientific computing systems in the world. When the upgrade process is completed this autumn, the system will be renamed Titan and will be capable of 10 to 20 petaflops.
Researchers at IBM set three records, close in on quantum computing
February 29, 2012 3:24 am | News | CommentsUsing a variety of techniques in the IBM labs, scientists have established three new records for reducing errors in elementary computations and retaining the integrity of quantum mechanical properties in quantum bits, the basic units that carry information within quantum computing. Their results were presented at the annual American Physical Society meeting this week in Boston.
Argon cleaning helps trapped ions chill out
February 28, 2012 4:17 am | News | CommentsThe reliability of trapped-ion quantum information systems can be dramatically improved by giving the trap electrodes a good scrub. That's the conclusion of NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory researchers who found that cleaning the electrode surfaces of a room-temperature, gold-film trap with a beam of argon ion produced a 100-fold decrease in thermal jitter of the trapped ions, a phenomenon called anomalous heating.
Interactive 3D graphical objects may soon be common on the web
February 23, 2012 3:35 am | News | CommentsUntil now, web developers have been dealing with multiple third-party programs to display images in a complex way, such as in 3D. The new HTML extension XML3D, to be demonstrated at the Cebit show in Germany in March, will soon allow developers to embed 3D content in an easy way without having to resort of videos or innumerable photographs of various angles.
NIST reveals switching mechanism in promising computer memory device
February 22, 2012 5:18 am | News | CommentsSometimes knowing that a new technology works is not enough. You also must know why it works to get marketplace acceptance. New information from NIST about how layered switching devices for novel computer memory systems work, for example, may now allow these structures to come to market sooner, helping bring about faster, lower-powered computers.
Energy-recycling computer technology goes global
February 21, 2012 6:21 am | News | CommentsAn energy-recycling computer circuit born at the University of Michigan will enable a new generation of power-efficient laptop PCs and servers. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced that the company's forthcoming 64-bit processor core, dubbed Piledriver, incorporates the technology.
Researchers develop better control for DNA-based computations
February 17, 2012 9:29 am | News | CommentsA North Carolina State University chemist has found a way to give DNA-based computing better control over logic operations. His work could lead to interfacing DNA-based computing with traditional silicon-based computing.
UCB selects IDBS for enterprise research data management platform
February 16, 2012 6:07 am | News | CommentsIDBS announced that UCB has selected IDBS to deliver a data management and process development platform across its global research organization. UCB will deploy E-WorkBook Suite and BioBook across several research divisions to streamline data capture, eliminate data silos, facilitate collaboration and information sharing, reduce complexity, and speed time to research.
Quantum computer is a (qu)bit closer to reality
February 15, 2012 5:00 am | by Eric Gershon, Yale University | News | CommentsPhysicists at Yale University have taken another significant step in the development of quantum computing. In their research, the physicists have demonstrated the most basic form of quantum error correction—a way to compensate for quantum computing's intrinsic susceptibility to errors.
Microchips' optical future
February 15, 2012 4:15 am | by Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office | News | CommentsTo keep energy consumption under control, future chips may need to move data using light instead of electricity—and the technical expertise to build them may reside in the United States, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study.
UnitedHealth unveils patient info service for MDs
February 15, 2012 3:09 am | by Tom Murphy, AP Business Writer | News | CommentsThe Optum business group of UnitedHealth, working with Cisco, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and others, has announced it will soon be launching a cloud-based service that allows doctors to share information about patients over the Internet.
Scientists build GPU cluster for subatomic calculations
February 14, 2012 4:05 am | News | CommentsThe latest addition to computing power at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is a 45-teraflop cluster of graphics processing units (GPU) that scientists use to explore the properties of the strong nuclear force. The GPU nodes power through data faster than any other computing nodes at more than five times the rate of the processing units of the previous generation.
Astronomers brace for data deluge
February 13, 2012 7:08 am | News | CommentsAccording to the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, the world’s most powerful telescope—the Square Kilometre Array—will produce on exabyte of data every day when it begins operation. Though still awaiting construction, scientists involved in SKA are already planning on how to deal with such a tremendous influx of information.
SCaN satellite to redefine software-defined radio
February 9, 2012 12:19 pm | News | CommentsNASA scientists are in the midst of preparing their Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed for launch later this year. Its mission will be to push the limits of software-defined radio, a communication system in which components typically implemented in hardware are instead provided by means of software.
