There could be a revolution brewing in billboard advertising. Instead of simply presenting a static image, why not let people interact with the advertisement? This is the vision of electronics giant Samsung and interactive advertising company Reactrix Systems. The two companies have partnered to bring 57-inch interactive displays to Hilton hotel lobbies by the end of the year. These displays can "see" people standing up to 15 feet away from the screen as they wave their hands to play games, navigate menus, and use maps.
Read more @ www.technologyreview.com
A Display That Tracks Your Movements
Intelligent Computers See Your Human Traits
Today’s computers can do a lot as far as computation goes, but they tend to do it in an impersonal, stand-offish way, so to speak. However, computer engineers are busy changing that, as they try to give computers a bit of a personal touch to make human-computer interaction more natural and friendly.
For instance, two studies from a recent issue of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia have investigated enabling computers to recognize users’ emotional states and ages. The researchers hope that tomorrow’s computers will be able to “look” at a human face and extract this type of information, much like humans do with each other.
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Doughnut-shaped Universe bites back
The doughnut is making a comeback – at least as a possible shape for our Universe.
The idea that the universe is finite and relatively small, rather than infinitely large, first became popular in 2003, when cosmologists noticed unexpected patterns in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – the relic radiation left behind by the Big Bang.
Read Complete @ www.nature.com
Dutch robot Flame walks like a human
Researcher Daan Hobbelen of TU Delft has developed a new, highly-advanced walking robot: Flame. This type of research, for which Hobbelen will receive his PhD on Friday 30 May, is important as it provides insight into how people walk. This can in turn help people with walking difficulties through improved diagnoses, training and rehabilitation equipment.
TU Delft is a pioneer of the other method used for constructing walking robots, based on the way humans walk. This is really very similar to falling forward in a controlled fashion. Adopting this method replaces the cautious, rigid way in which robots walk with the more fluid, energy-efficient movement used by humans.
Read Complete @ physorg.com
Climate scientists call for their own 'Manhattan Project'
In the wake of a thousand-year drought in Australia and last weekend's lethal cyclone in Burma, the world's climate modellers are drawing up plans for a global supercomputing centre that would provide detailed local forecasts of future climate change.
Meeting at the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, UK, the scientists liken the billion-dollar project to CERN, the international particle accelerator near Geneva, and to the Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb. They hope to present their plan to the G8 meeting in Japan this summer.
The modellers say they need a centre with computing power of 100 petaflops – two thousand times greater they have access to today.
"We think we know how to do it, but we need the computing power," said Jagadish Shukla, chair of a meeting of 150 top modellers drawing up the plans.
Read Complete @ newscientist.com
Robotic suit could usher in super soldier era
Software engineer Rex Jameson, wearing a robotic soldier suit being made for the U.S. Army by Raytheon, poses next to a mockup statue of a future soldier on Monday, April 14, 2008, in Salt Lake City. The suit can multiply its wearer's strength and endurance as many as 20 times, with relatively little loss of agility, by sensing and almost instantly amplifying every movement the wearer makes. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
Read Complete @ physorg.com
Fifty years of DARPA: A surprising history
n 1957, the Soviet Union caught the US completely off-guard. Its military launched Sputnik – the world's first artificial satellite – heralding the dawn of the space age.
President Eisenhower's response was to create the Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA) with a clear mission: "prevent technological surprise". Eisenhower hoped that the agency would produce revolutionary technologies and thus guarantee that never again would the US military be caught with its technological trousers down.
Now in its 50th year, the Defence Advance Research Projects Agency has an impressive list of accomplishments behind it.
After playing an integral role in the fledgling US space programme, DARPA gave us the satellite-based global positioning system (GPS), stealth aircraft and the precursor to the internet. So it is hard to argue that the agency hasn't lived up to Eisenhower's early dream.
Read Complete @ www.newscientist.com
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