Friday, 30 May 2014
Scientists developing electronic skin
Saturday, 17 May 2014
Carnegie Mellon prototype shows interface value of smartwatch
The smartwatch is an interesting form factor but a Carnegie Mellon team that is focused on interfaces noted its limitations and addressed the size challenge. Because the device is worn on the wrist, the sophistication of interactions that people can perform on it is limited. The team suggested a workable approach that can make the smartwatch capable of offering enhanced convenience in information access and retrieval. The Carnegie Mellon team came up with a smartwatch that uses the watch face as the multi-degree of freedom interface without having to occlude the screen with fingers.
The smartwatch is an interesting form factor but a Carnegie Mellon team that is focused on interfaces noted its limitations and addressed the size challenge. Because the device is worn on the wrist, the sophistication of interactions that people can perform on it is limited. The team suggested a workable approach that can make the smartwatch capable of offering enhanced convenience in information access and retrieval. The Carnegie Mellon team came up with a smartwatch that uses the watch face as the multi-degree of freedom interface without having to occlude the screen with fingers.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-carnegie-mellon-prototype-interface-smartwatch.html#jCp
The smartwatch is an interesting form factor but a Carnegie Mellon team that is focused on interfaces noted its limitations and addressed the size challenge. Because the device is worn on the wrist, the sophistication of interactions that people can perform on it is limited. The team suggested a workable approach that can make the smartwatch capable of offering enhanced convenience in information access and retrieval. The Carnegie Mellon team came up with a smartwatch that uses the watch face as the multi-degree of freedom interface without having to occlude the screen with fingers.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-carnegie-mellon-prototype-interface-smartwatch.html#jCp
Toronto team's robotic arm control is all in the mind
This week's attention-getting version of a mind-controlled robotic device comes in the form of an Emotiv EPOC BCI headset controlling a robotic arm with a system smart enough to move the arm using simple movements such as a clenched jaw or wink of the eye. University of Toronto student Ryan Mintz and his team connected an Emotiv EPOC BCI headset to a robotic arm, which responded to the brainwaves captured by the headset. Emotiv EPOC is a high resolution, multi-channel, wireless neuroheadset. The EPOC uses a set of 14 sensors and two references to tune into electric signals produced by the brain to detect a user's thoughts, feelings and expressions in realtime. The EPOC connects wirelessly to most computers. The team designed the system with the hope of contributing to technologies applied to prosthetic limbs.
Read More :http://phys.org/news/2014-05-toronto-team-robotic-arm-mind.html#jCp
Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Dangerous nitrogen pollution could be halved
The most important fertilizer for producing food is, at the same time, one of the most important risks for human health: nitrogen. Chemical compounds containing reactive nitrogen are major drivers of air and water pollution worldwide, and hence of diseases like asthma or cancer. If no action is taken, nitrogen pollution could rise by 20 percent by 2050 in a middle-of-the-road scenario, according to a study now published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Ambitious mitigation efforts, however, could decrease the pollution by 50 percent. The analysis is the very first to quantify this.
"Nitrogen is an irreplaceable nutrient and a true life-saver as it helps agriculture to feed a growing world population – but it is unfortunately also a dangerous pollutant," says Benjamin Bodirsky, lead-author of the study. In the different forms it can take through chemical reactions, it massively contributes to respirable dust, leads to the formation of aggressive ground-level ozone, and destabilizes water ecosystems. Damages in Europe alone have been estimated at around 1-4 percent of economic output, worth billions of Euro. About half of these nitrogen pollution damages are from agriculture. This is why the scientists ran extensive computer simulations to explore the effects of different mitigation measures.
Both farmers and consumers would have to participate in mitigation
"It became clear that without mitigation the global situation may markedly deteriorate as the global food demand grows," says Bodirsky, who is also affiliated to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Colombia (CIAT). "A package of mitigation actions can reverse this trend, yet the risk remains that nitrogen pollution still exceeds safe environmental thresholds."
Only combined mitigation efforts both in food production and consumption could substantially reduce the risks, the study shows. Currently, every second ton of nitrogen put on the fields is not taken up by the crops but blown away by the wind, washed out by rain or decomposed by microorganisms. To reduce losses and prevent pollution, farmers can more carefully target fertilizer application to plants' needs, using soil measurements. Moreover, they should aim at efficiently recycling animal dung to fertilize the plants. "Mitigation costs are currently many times lower than damage costs," says co-author Alexander Popp.
"For consumers in developed countries, halving food waste, meat consumption and related feed use would not only benefit their health and their wallet," Popp adds. "Both changes would also increase the overall resource efficiency of food production and reduce pollution.".......
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-dangerous-nitrogen-pollution-halved.html#jCp
Ambitious mitigation efforts, however, could decrease the pollution by 50 percent. The analysis is the very first to quantify this.
Both farmers and consumers would have to participate in mitigation
"It became clear that without mitigation the global situation may markedly deteriorate as the global food demand grows," says Bodirsky, who is also affiliated to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Colombia (CIAT). "A package of mitigation actions can reverse this trend, yet the risk remains that nitrogen pollution still exceeds safe environmental thresholds."
Only combined mitigation efforts both in food production and consumption could substantially reduce the risks, the study shows. Currently, every second ton of nitrogen put on the fields is not taken up by the crops but blown away by the wind, washed out by rain or decomposed by microorganisms. To reduce losses and prevent pollution, farmers can more carefully target fertilizer application to plants' needs, using soil measurements. Moreover, they should aim at efficiently recycling animal dung to fertilize the plants. "Mitigation costs are currently many times lower than damage costs," says co-author Alexander Popp.
"For consumers in developed countries, halving food waste, meat consumption and related feed use would not only benefit their health and their wallet," Popp adds. "Both changes would also increase the overall resource efficiency of food production and reduce pollution.".......
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-dangerous-nitrogen-pollution-halved.html#jCp
10-Foot Sea Level Rise Now Unstoppable Due To Glacier Collapse
water that flows into the Amundsen Sea, is likely already in the process of collapsing, probably irreversibly. A pair of studies show that part of the sheet is melting more quickly than previously thought, and that several of its large glaciers will probably melt into the ocean, raising global sea levels at least 10 feet in the coming centuries. And it cannot be stopped.
The first study, to be published May 16 in the journal Science, suggests that the Thwaites Glacier, a relatively fast-moving part of the ice sheet, will likely melt away into the ocean within several centuries, enough by itself to raise sea levels 2 feet. Another study to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters looked more broadly at Thwaites and other glaciers bordering the Amundsen Sea, and likewise concluded they are collapsing.
The term "collapsing" is perhaps not the best one, because it implies something sudden. These glaciers are expected to melt in the next several centuries, and both studies suggest there is little chance that their runaway melt and slide into the sea will slow down. While not sudden in normal everyday language, it is still quite rapid in geological terms.
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A large part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, a massive expanse of frozen
The second study, done in part by NASA researchers, concerns three lines of evidence--collected over the last 40 years--that suggest the glaciers will soon melt away: the changes in their flow speeds, how much of each glacier floats on seawater, and the slope of the terrai they are flowing over and its depth below sea level. Regarding the first, they are flowing more quickly toward sea than before, and this pace is accelerating. Likewise, the amount of floating ice is increasing, and the shape of the sea floor under the ice doesn't appear capable of stopping this increased flow. Specifically, the "grounding line"--where the glaciers cease to lay atop land, and begin rather to float over water, is moving inland quicker than thought, an observation reached by satellite measurements.
Part of the reason this is happening, the researchers think, is because melting makes the ice weigh less, thus causing more of it to float rather than rest on the sea floor. (And as you probably know, floating ice displaces as much water as melted ice.)...
Read More :http://www.popsci.com/article/10-foot-sea-level-rise-now-unstoppable-due-glacier-collapse?src=SOC&dom=fb
The first study, to be published May 16 in the journal Science, suggests that the Thwaites Glacier, a relatively fast-moving part of the ice sheet, will likely melt away into the ocean within several centuries, enough by itself to raise sea levels 2 feet. Another study to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters looked more broadly at Thwaites and other glaciers bordering the Amundsen Sea, and likewise concluded they are collapsing.
The term "collapsing" is perhaps not the best one, because it implies something sudden. These glaciers are expected to melt in the next several centuries, and both studies suggest there is little chance that their runaway melt and slide into the sea will slow down. While not sudden in normal everyday language, it is still quite rapid in geological terms.
A large part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, a massive expanse of frozen
The second study, done in part by NASA researchers, concerns three lines of evidence--collected over the last 40 years--that suggest the glaciers will soon melt away: the changes in their flow speeds, how much of each glacier floats on seawater, and the slope of the terrai they are flowing over and its depth below sea level. Regarding the first, they are flowing more quickly toward sea than before, and this pace is accelerating. Likewise, the amount of floating ice is increasing, and the shape of the sea floor under the ice doesn't appear capable of stopping this increased flow. Specifically, the "grounding line"--where the glaciers cease to lay atop land, and begin rather to float over water, is moving inland quicker than thought, an observation reached by satellite measurements.
Part of the reason this is happening, the researchers think, is because melting makes the ice weigh less, thus causing more of it to float rather than rest on the sea floor. (And as you probably know, floating ice displaces as much water as melted ice.)...
Read More :http://www.popsci.com/article/10-foot-sea-level-rise-now-unstoppable-due-glacier-collapse?src=SOC&dom=fb
Thursday, 8 May 2014
Live International Space Station pictures
Check out an amazing view of Earth like we have never seen before.
NASA is streaming pictures from the International Space Station, live and in high definition.
You can even get alerts for when the Station is passing over your home to see if you can spot your backyard.
Check out this amazing rare view of Earth like we have never seen before.
NASA is now streaming pictures from the International Space Station, live and in high definition.
You can get alerts for when the Station is passing over your home to see if you can spot your backyard.
The cameras are part of an experiment to test their ability to transmit and film in harsh environments.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/23337010/spacestation-pictures/?cmp=fb
NASA is streaming pictures from the International Space Station, live and in high definition.
You can even get alerts for when the Station is passing over your home to see if you can spot your backyard.
Check out this amazing rare view of Earth like we have never seen before.
NASA is now streaming pictures from the International Space Station, live and in high definition.
You can get alerts for when the Station is passing over your home to see if you can spot your backyard.
The cameras are part of an experiment to test their ability to transmit and film in harsh environments.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/23337010/spacestation-pictures/?cmp=fb
Thursday, 1 May 2014
Coming soon: A brain implant to restore memory
The implantable BrainGate neural interface can detect and record brain signals, allowing persons who have lost the use of arms and legs to have point-and-click control of a computer. A BrainGate device has remained functional for 2.7 years (1,000 days). Credit: Matthew McKee/BrainGate Collaboration
In the next few months, highly secretive US military researchers say they will unveil new advances toward developing a brain implant that could one day restore a wounded soldier's memory.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is forging ahead with a four-year plan to build a sophisticated memory stimulator, as part of President Barack Obama's $100 million initiative to better understand the human brain.
The science has never been done before, and raises ethical questions about whether the human mind should be manipulated in the name of staving off war injuries or managing the aging brain.
Some say those who could benefit include the five million Americans with Alzheimer's disease and the nearly 300,000 US military men and women who have sustained traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"If you have been injured in the line of duty and you can't remember your family, we want to be able to restore those kinds of functions," DARPA program manager Justin Sanchez said this week at a conference in the US capital convened by the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas.
"We think that we can develop neuroprosthetic devices that can directly interface with the hippocampus, and can restore the first type of memories we are looking at, the declarative memories," he said.
Declarative memories are recollections of people, events, facts and figures, and no research has ever shown they can be put back once they are lost.
In the next few months, highly secretive US military researchers say they will unveil new advances toward developing a brain implant that could one day restore a wounded soldier's memory.
The science has never been done before, and raises ethical questions about whether the human mind should be manipulated in the name of staving off war injuries or managing the aging brain.
Some say those who could benefit include the five million Americans with Alzheimer's disease and the nearly 300,000 US military men and women who have sustained traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"If you have been injured in the line of duty and you can't remember your family, we want to be able to restore those kinds of functions," DARPA program manager Justin Sanchez said this week at a conference in the US capital convened by the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas.
"We think that we can develop neuroprosthetic devices that can directly interface with the hippocampus, and can restore the first type of memories we are looking at, the declarative memories," he said.
Declarative memories are recollections of people, events, facts and figures, and no research has ever shown they can be put back once they are lost.
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