Day: February 18, 2011

Controlling a computer with YOUR mind, that is! That is what they are trying to set up at the University of Pittsburgh research center! Cool!

Controlling a Computer With Thoughts?

“ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2011) — Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have been awarded funding for two projects that will place brain-computer interfaces (BCI) in patients with spinal cord injuries to test if it is possible for them to control external devices, such as a computer cursor or a prosthetic limb, with their thoughts.

The projects build upon ongoing research conducted in epilepsy patients who had the interfaces temporarily placed on their brains and were able to move cursors and play computer games, as well as in monkeys that through interfaces guided a robotic arm to feed themselves marshmallows and turn a doorknob.

‘We are now ready to begin testing BCI technology in the patients who might benefit from it the most, namely those who have lost the ability to move their upper limbs due to a spinal cord injury,’ said Michael L. Boninger, M.D., director, UPMC Rehabilitation Institute, chair, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Pitt School of Medicine, and a senior scientist on both projects. ‘It’s particularly exciting for us to be able to test two types of interfaces within the brain.'”

Well, at least helping with the diagnosis!

What’s next for Watson? Or, should we say, Dr. Watson?

“IBM’s supercomputer Watson proved that it’s able to understand human language enough to stomp out the best contestants in Jeopardy history like they were a couple of high school freshmen. Now, it has its sights on a much more meaningful goal.

Watson became a household name this week during a three-day-long Jeopardy competition. While some may not have been blown away that it was able to parse together the often-verbose quiz show clues well enough to create a one or two word response, those who understand computer science should be able to appreciate what a breakthrough this is.

The way Watson works is by going through a highly complex series of algorithms to figure out what words in a sentence are the most important. For example, in a clue that reads, ‘This Ohio city shares the same name as a kind of bean,’ Watson can not only figure out that the word ‘city’ is the apex of the question, but also that it’s from ‘Ohio’ and needs to also be a type of ‘bean.’ (The correct response, by the way, would be Lima).

It’s more difficult than it sounds, as there are an infinite amount of potential questions and keywords. Yet, there’s only one correct response to each question.

IBM says the most parallel application of that in the real world is in medicine. Imagine a day when doctors can type in their patient’s symptoms, and feed it into a Watson computer that can comb through literally every medical journal ever published. Watson would be able to tell what the best course of treatment is and what the most likely diagnosis is.”

Yes, that is BEFORE the final release, when they will push it out via Windows Update. Pretty impressive! I guess it shows how much folks want Microsoft to support real web standards!

Without auto-update, 2 million users downloaded IE9 RC

“Raw first-week sales numbers are often used to indicate the efficacy of a product’s launch. But really, the thing these numbers best represent is the level of user excitement. Today, Microsoft revealed that users were very excited about Internet Explorer 9 RC, which launched last week.

According to Microsoft, IE9 RC was downloaded 2 million times in the six days following its launch. While a big number, it’s doubly significant because these were users who actively downloaded the software without a Windows Update auto update, or a system alert telling them an update was available. These users knew the update was there and went out and got it.

Starting on Friday last week, IE9 Release Candidate began rolling out as an Automatic Update to a small group of IE9 Beta users. The Internet Explorer Engineer’s blog said it will eventually expand to cover all beta users.”

“Anti-LASER?” Something that can cancel out a laser beam? Dewd! Cool! Now we can stop the alien invasion in its tracks!

Scientists Build First “Antilaser”

“The laser – a 50-year-old invention now used in everything from CDs to laser pointers — has met its match in the ‘antilaser,’ the first device capable of trapping and canceling out laser beams.

While such a device would seem most fitting in a science fiction movie, its real-world application will likely be in next-generation, optical computers, which will be powered by light in addition to electrons, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

‘It’s a device which basically works like running a laser backwards,’ A. Douglas Stone of Yale University, who published his findings in the journal Science, said in a telephone interview.

While a laser takes in electrical energy and emits light in a very narrow frequency range, Stone said, his antilaser takes in laser light and transforms it into heat energy.

But it could be easily converted into electrical energy, he said.”