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Jul 1, 2019

How Big Is the Gap Between ‘Ready Player One’ and Current VR Tech?

Posted by in categories: computing, virtual reality

Where reality is still lagging considerably is in recreating the physical experience of VR. In the movie, the haptic gloves OASIS players wear make them virtual objects almost indistinguishable from real ones. Other characters have even more advanced set-ups, like full-body haptic suits that simulate both pleasure and pain, complicated harnesses and treadmills that allow users to run around and move their bodies just like they would in real life, and even “smell towers.”

But a report released by analysts IDTechX to coincide with the movie’s release suggests the first step towards most of these technologies has already been taken. VR handsets already feature the same kind of rumble packs found in computer game controllers that provide simple haptic feedback in the form of vibrations.

Continue reading “How Big Is the Gap Between ‘Ready Player One’ and Current VR Tech?” »

Jul 1, 2019

Garbage collectors open library with abandoned books

Posted by in category: futurism

Garbage collectors in the Turkish capital have opened a public library comprised entirely of books once destined for the landfills.

The library, located in the Çankaya district of Ankara, was founded after sanitation workers started collecting discarded books.

Jul 1, 2019

A Compilation of mushrooms we picked on our travels

Posted by in category: futurism

Dreamy times Animation by Fractually.

Jul 1, 2019

Ridiculous Patent: Infinite Data Compression

Posted by in category: futurism

“claims to compress any input data by at least one bit”

“Now, suppose I compress 10 different files in this way — each of them compresses to a single ‘1’ or ‘0’ (a single bit).”

Why stop at a single bit? If it can compress any input by at least one bit, then it can compress an input of one bit into 0 bits. Infinite compression!

Jul 1, 2019

NASA’s cold fusion tech could put a nuclear reactor in every home, car, and plane

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, particle physics, transportation

The cold fusion dream lives on: NASA is developing cheap, clean, low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology that could eventually see cars, planes, and homes powered by small, safe nuclear reactors.

When we think of nuclear power, there are usually just two options: fission and fusion. Fission, which creates huge amounts of heat by splitting larger atoms into smaller atoms, is what currently powers every nuclear reactor on Earth. Fusion is the opposite, creating vast amounts of energy by fusing atoms of hydrogen together, but we’re still many years away from large-scale, commercial fusion reactors. (See: 500MW from half a gram of hydrogen: The hunt for fusion power heats up.)

A nickel lattice soaking up hydrogen ions in a LENR reactor

Continue reading “NASA’s cold fusion tech could put a nuclear reactor in every home, car, and plane” »

Jul 1, 2019

A review over the cold plasma reactors and their applications

Posted by in category: futurism

The cold plasma reactors are more often used in the last decades for diverse activities such as: the pollutant treatment from air or from solutions, plasti.

Jul 1, 2019

Scientists Have Detected a Strange Connection Between Gamma Rays And Lightning

Posted by in category: climatology

For the first time, scientists have clearly linked together two types of gamma-ray phenomena in thunderclouds, suggesting that weak bursts of gamma-ray activity might precede lightning flashes in certain conditions.

The two phenomena in question are weak emissions called gamma-ray glows, which last about a minute, and much shorter and more intense terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs).

Both are known to happen inside thunderclouds, depending on the various positive and negative electrical charges around them, brought on by accelerating electrons. But scientists have never fully understood how the two gamma ray phenomena work together or their link to lightning.

Jul 1, 2019

Britain to become Europe’s first spaceport as UK joins space tourism race

Posted by in categories: government, satellites

Britain could soon be sending tourists into orbit after the UK Space Agency began drafting regulations to allow human launches from spaceports in Cornwall and the Scottish Highlands.

The government is already committed to putting satellites into space from British soil and recently signed a deal with Virgin Orbit to start building the facilities to allow horizontal launches.

Now the UK Space Agency has confirmed it is drawing up regulations to allow sub-orbital human spaceflight, with Virgin Galactic the most likely candidate to take tourists beyond Earth’s atmosphere where they can experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the planet.

Jul 1, 2019

Tech Armor powered by Wikia

Posted by in category: energy

Tech Armor is a tech power in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3’s single-player and multiplayer modes.

The power generates an energy armor suit that boosts the user’s shields.

Jul 1, 2019

Neuromorphic computing finds new life in machine learning

Posted by in categories: innovation, robotics/AI

Neuromorphic computing has had little practical success in building machines that can tackle standard tests such as logistic regression or image recognition. But work by prominent researchers is combining the best of machine learning with simulated networks of spiking neurons, bringing new hope for neuromorphic breakthroughs.