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Category: engineering – Page 254

DARPA wants to build wetware so we can mind control computers

Hot damn, our Ghost in the Shell future is getting closer by the day. DARPA announced on Tuesday that it is interested in developing wetware — implantable brain-machine interfaces (BMI) that will allow their users to control computers with their thoughts. The device, developed as part of the Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) program, would essentially translate the chemical signals in our neurons into digital code. What’s more, DARPA expects this interface to be no larger than two nickels stacked atop one another.

“Today’s best brain-computer interface systems are like two supercomputers trying to talk to each other using an old 300-baud modem,” Phillip Alvelda, the NESD program manager, said in a statement. “Imagine what will become possible when we upgrade our tools to really open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics.”

The advanced research agency hopes the device to make an immediate impact — you know, once it’s actually invented — in the medical field. Since the proposed BMI would connect to as many as a million individual neurons (a few magnitudes more than the 100 or so that current devices can link with), patients suffering from vision or hearing loss would see an unprecedented gain in the fidelity of their assistive devices. Patients who have lost limbs would similarly see a massive boost in the responsiveness and capabilities of their prosthetics.

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The US Military Wants a Chip to Translate Your Brain Activity Into Binary Code

It’s been a weird day for weird science. Not long after researchers claimed victory in performing a head transplant on a monkey, the US military’s blue-sky R&D agency announced a completely insane plan to build a chip that would enable the human brain to communicate directly with computers. What is this weird, surreal future?

It’s all real, believe it or not. Or at least DARPA desperately wants it to be. The first wireless brain-to-computer interface actually popped up a few years ago, and DARPA’s worked on various brain chip projects over the years. But there are shortcomings to existing technology: According to today’s announcement, current brain-computer interfaces are akin to “two supercomputers trying to talk to each other using an old 300-baud modem.” They just aren’t fast enough for truly transformative neurological applications, like restoring vision to a blind person. This would ostensibly involve connect a camera that can transmit visual information directly to the brain, and the implant would translate the data into neural language.

To accomplish this magnificent feat, DARPA is launching a new program called Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) that stands to squeeze some characteristically bonkers innovation out of the science community. In a press release, the agency describes what’s undoubtedly the closest thing to a Johnny Mneumonic plot-line you’ve ever seen in real life. It reads:

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Bridging the Bio-Electronic Divide

A new DARPA program aims to develop an implantable neural interface able to provide unprecedented signal resolution and data-transfer bandwidth between the human brain and the digital world. The interface would serve as a translator, converting between the electrochemical language used by neurons in the brain and the ones and zeros that constitute the language of information technology. The goal is to achieve this communications link in a biocompatible device no larger than one cubic centimeter in size, roughly the volume of two nickels stacked back to back.

The program, Neural Engineering System Design (NESD), stands to dramatically enhance research capabilities in neurotechnology and provide a foundation for new therapies.

“Today’s best brain-computer interface systems are like two supercomputers trying to talk to each other using an old 300-baud modem,” said Phillip Alvelda, the NESD program manager. “Imagine what will become possible when we upgrade our tools to really open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics.”

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A Brief History of Stephen Hawking Being a Bummer

Yeah, he’s turned into quite the man-of-panic as of late.

Stephen Hawking is at it again, saying it’s a “near certainty” that a self-inflicted disaster will befall humanity within the next thousand years or so. It’s not the first time the world’s most famous physicist has raised the alarm on the apocalypse, and he’s starting to become a real downer. Here are some of the other times Hawking has said the end is nigh—and why he needs to start changing his message.

Speaking to the Radio Times recently ahead of his BBC Reith Lecture, Hawking said that ongoing developments in science and technology are poised to create “new ways things can go wrong.” The scientist pointed to nuclear war, global warming, and genetically-engineering viruses as some of the most serious culprits.

“Although the chance of a disaster on planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, becoming a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years,” he was quoted as saying. “By that time we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so it would not mean the end of the human race. However, we will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for at least the next hundred years, so we have to be very careful in this period.”

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Could this be humanity’s LAST century? Expert says ‘re-engineering our children’ will lead to the creation of a new species

Definitely something to ponder on.

‘We can eventually produce offspring that are as different from us as dogs are from grey wolves,’ said Seth Shostak in an opinion piece for Seti.

‘Everyone expects our progeny to establish colonies on the moon or Mars, but the better deal is to build huge, orbiting habitats in which you can live without a spacesuit.

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Microbots individually controlled using magnetic fields

This image shows how two microbots can be independently controlled when operating within a group. (Purdue University image/David Cappelleri)

Purdue University researchers have developed a method to use magnetic fields to independently control individual microrobots operating within groups.

The design allows for each microbot to work independently while operating in groups, similar to how ants work. Until now, it was generally only possible to control groups of microbots to move generally in unison, said David Cappelleri, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue.

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Mars Utopia towers to terraform red planet into breathable environment

**Spanish architect Alberto Villanueva’s Mars Utopia concept would see the planet transformed into an inhabitable environment using towers formed by bacteria**

Villanueva, who works at Idea Architecture Office, created the project while completing a masters in Environment Design at London’s Ravensbourne College. “As an architect I am worried about the overpopulation issue”. “I was studying how the most populated cities around the world are growing non-stop. At the same time I realised that at least 30 per cent of territories are in extreme environments and I wanted to understand how, with my responsibility as an architect, I could think in new ways to build in these areas,” he added.

![enter image description here](http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/01/Mars-Utopia_Alberto…1568_3.jpg “enter image title here”)

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DARPA Backs Atoms-to-Products Milestone

DARPA funds the Atoms-to-Products program that aims to maintain quantum nanoscale properties at the millimeter scale of microchips.

The main goal of the atoms-to-products program is to create technology and processes needed to create nanometer-scale pieces, with dimensions almost the size of atoms, into components and materials only millimeter scale in size. And to spur developments in the program DARPA has now posed the challenge to 10 laboratories across the nation.

To get the full benefits of nanoscale engineering at the millimeter scale, the organization has partnered with Intelligent Materials Solutions. “Our initial project will be to control infrared light by assembling nanoscale particles into finished components that are one million times larger,” explains Adam Gross, the team leader working closely with Christopher Roper to bring the Atoms-to Products project to fruition.

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