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Category: computing – Page 515

If Fungi Could Talk: Study Suggests Fungi Could Communicate in Structure Comparable to Humans

Mushrooms could be communicating in a structure that resembles human language, suggests a study published in the Royal Society Open Science.

Professor Andrew Adamatzky analysed the electrical signals in fungi and found patterns that have a structural similarity to English and Swedish languages at the University of the West of England’s Unconventional Computing Laboratory. The hope is to better understand how information is transferred and processed in mycelium networks, and to one day create fungi-based computing devices.

Mojo Vision’s New Contact Lens Brings Seamless Augmented Reality a Step Closer

Around the rim of the lens is an array of other electronics, including a custom-designed chip with a radio that streams content to the display and a variety of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer for tracking the user’s eye movements. This eye tracking capability not only ensures that AR imagery holds still as the user looks around, but also makes it possible to control the device through eye movements alone.

Despite their efforts to pack as much into the lens as possible, it won’t be a stand-alone piece of equipment. Most of the computing power required to run AR applications will be contained in a companion device worn around the neck, which will stream the content to the lens wirelessly.

The lens also hasn’t yet been cleared by the FDA for human use, so early demonstrations involve looking through a lens on a stick just in front of the eye. At present it is only capable of producing images in a green monochrome. But according to CNET , the device allows a user to select a variety of apps arranged in a ring around the periphery of their field of vision using nothing more than their gaze. These make it possible to do everything from checking flight information to using a compass to navigate and track fitness data like heart rate and lap number.

Quantum computing: The benefits of being quantum-ready

To fully embrace the benefits of quantum computing in the future, we need to focus on education and workforce development and become quantum-ready today.

The 13-year-old daughter of a friend visiting my workplace — the IBM Research lab in Zurich — seemed puzzled. She knew I worked in a research lab and I that work with computers, but the computers she knows don’t typically resemble the chandelier-like structure that hung from the ceiling in front of us.

Yet, it is a computer – a quantum computer. And while someone in their early teens right now can be excused for not knowing what a quantum computer is, I would very much like that to change.

Brain Implant Allows Completely Locked-In Patient To Communicate

A man left in a completely locked-in state by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been able to communicate with his family and carers thanks to an implant. The device helped the patient, who was unable to move any muscles or even open his eyes, contact the outside world using only his brain activity.

Rapid neurodegeneration

In the last decade, combinations of brain implants and brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have enabled people with severe brain injuries or neurodegeneration to regain communicative ability. The new study, published in Nature Communications by an international research team, is the first to be used successfully in a patient with such severe neurodegeneration.

Ancient Namibian stone could hold key to future quantum computers

A special form of light made using an ancient Namibian gemstone could be the key to new light-based quantum computers, which could solve long-held scientific mysteries, according to new research led by the University of St Andrews.

The research, conducted in collaboration with scientists at Harvard University in the US, Macquarie University in Australia and Aarhus University in Denmark and published in Nature Materials, used a naturally mined cuprous oxide (Cu2O) gemstone from Namibia to produce Rydberg polaritons, the largest hybrid particles of light and matter ever created.

Rydberg polaritons switch continually from light to matter and back again. In Rydberg polaritons, light and matter are like two sides of a coin, and the matter side is what makes polaritons interact with each other.

Molecular thermal energy system can store solar energy for 18 years

Developed by a Chinese-Swedish research group, the device is an ultra-thin chip that could be integrated into electronics such as headphones, smartwatches and telephones. It combines a Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage System (MOST) with a micro-fabricated system that includes a thermoelectric generator (TEG) with a low-dimensional material-based microelectromechanical system (MEMS).

Quantum approximate optimization algorithm can be implemented using Rydberg atoms

Existing quantum devices can actually do things that we cannot compute with classical computers. The question is only can we harness this computational power that is apparently there,” van Bijnen says. “Maybe doing arbitrary computational problems is a bit much to ask, so we are now looking at whether we can match problems well to available quantum hardware.” Many current experiments involving Rydberg atoms would likely not require any radical changes in instrumentation that is already being used, he adds.

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