As Google’s head of artificial intelligence takes charge of search, deep learning is already changing the way Googling works.
Category: internet – Page 326
India has to build its own capability in R&D
I cannot wait to see India’s version of DARPA — it is probably going to be amazing.
India is unable to spend its defence modernisation budget, says a report in this newspaper. Out of a current year allocation of Rs 63,675 crore, 40% remained unspent by end-December. This is bad not just for upgrading defence capability but also for Indian research and development and for Indian manufacturing.
It is time defence reimagined its entire strategy for procurement, using a portion of its typically large outlays to stimulate R&D in universities and specialised labs and private companies, and to give Indian companies, big and small, a chance to become suppliers of parts and equipment on a scale much larger than what obtains today. The key is to create an Indian equivalent of the Americans’ Darpa.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was set up in response to the Soviet Sputnik, with the mission to initiate strategic technological surprises and not be caught off-guard by such surprises. Its size and budget are small. What it does is detailed assessment and forecasting of technology and contracting out of research in diverse areas, to universities, research contractors, companies and specialised labs, matching bits of the huge defence budget with the R&D capability available in the nation. Apart from stealth bombers and precision guidance of missiles, this effort has also yielded the internet and the geopositioning system now available on every smartphone.
Apple takes interest in Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab
Apple and any other tech company with an interest in consumer interactive experience (communications, gaming, internet, video/ streaming media) knows you will need VR to remain relevant; and who can do it best will be king.
Rumors are stating that Apple is investing heavily in virtual and augmented reality solutions.
Apple representatives are said to be visiting Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab quite a bit more often. Founding director Jeremy Bailenson told the folks over at The Wall Street Journal that Apple’s recent visits were the first since the lab that was founded in 2003. Bailenson had the following to say regarding the matter:
Apple hasn’t come to my lab in 13 years, except they’ve come three times in the last three months. They come and they don’t say a word, but there’s a data point for you.
Why Ray Kurzweil’s Predictions Are Right 86% of the Time
It’s that time of the year again when techno pundits are once again breathlessly telling us all about the technology and innovation trends that will be big in 2013. That’s great, but many of those predictions will be hopelessly wrong by the end of March. That’s why it’s so fascinating that Ray Kurzweil, one of the leading thinkers when it comes to the future of technology, has had such a strong track record in making predictions about technology for nearly two decades. In fact, of the 147 predictions that Kurzweil has made since the 1990’s, fully 115 of them have turned out to be correct, and another 12 have turned out to be “essentially correct” (off by a year or two), giving his predictions a stunning 86% accuracy rate. So how does he do it?
The fact is, Ray has a system and this system is called the Law of Accelerating Returns. In his new book How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed, Kurzweil points out that “every fundamental measure of information technology follows predictable and exponential trajectories.” The most famous of these trajectories, of course, has been the price/performance path of computing power over more than 100 years. Thanks to paradigms such as Moore’s Law, which reduces computing power to a problem of how many transistors you can cram on a chip, anyone can intuitively understand why computers are getting exponentially faster and cheaper over time.
The other famous exponential growth curve in our lifetime is the sheer amount of digital information available on the Internet. Kurzweil typically graphs this as “bits per second transmitted on the Internet.” That means the amount of information on the Internet is doubling approximately every 1.25 years. That’s why “Big Data” is such a buzzword these days — there’s a growing recognition that we’re losing track of all the information we’re putting up on the Internet, from Facebook status updates, to YouTube videos, to funny meme posts on Tumblr. In just a decade, we will have created more content than existed for thousands of years in humanity’s prior experience.
This is Microsoft’s plan to power the internet from under the sea
Microsoft has a radical plan to change the way we power content on the internet. And it involves installing data centers in the ocean.
Microsoft Research.
We use data centers for just about everything we see on the web: websites, images, videos, and software are all powered by servers that can both store and ship tons of data in mere seconds.
NASA’s new light-based modem will transmit data up to 100 times faster than radio signals
NASA is developing a first-if-its-kind modem that incorporates light-based technology to help enable dramatically faster communications between spacecraft and ground stations.
The device, which is scheduled to be tested on board the International Space Station in 2020, is part of a broader NASA project called the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD). This laser system, which the space agency says could dramatically overhaul today’s radio frequency (RF) communications, will enable data transmissions at rates 10 to 100 times faster than what’s currently possible.
It’s not the first time NASA has experimented with laser communications in place of radio signals. In 2013, the agency achieved record-breaking download and upload speeds to and from lunar orbit – at 622 megabits per second (Mbps) and 20 Mbps respectively – with its Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE).
Quantum computing near and disruptive, warns academic at Davos
True points and many that I have been sharing on Quantum around its own potential to change everything that we know about technology (devices, internet & networking in general, wireless and satellites, AI, advancements in biotech, security, big data, and singularity itself). The author also highlights many of the same concerns that I have shared around hackers on Quantum breaking through the older digitized platforms and networks; therefore, many companies and governments are exposed as well as consumers who have not adopted Quantum.
Although the author speculates we’re less than 10 yrs for Quantum to be seen in the everyday usage; I believe we’re within 7 yrs.
Within four years quantum computers will have the beating of conventional computers and that will produce a dramatic change in both the technology landscape and in business, according to Professor Jeremy O’Brien from Bristol University.
Connected Medical Devices Are Sick with Vulnerabilities, According to New Research
This is not good especially as we look at those aspirations for more nanobots to connect us to the cloud plus Mr. Kurzweil’s desire to live forever.
Medical device manufacturers are struggling to safeguard their newly connected designs from current and emerging security threats.
Natick, MA (PRWEB) January 29, 2016.
The medical device sector will be among the fastest growing markets for embedded security software through the next five years, according to a new report by VDC Research (click here to learn more). The market for medical devices spans a variety of hardware profiles including high-performance imaging systems, mobile diagnostic equipment and pumps, and wearable or implantable devices. Until recently, the majority of medical device manufacturers and others within the ecosystem treated security as an optional value-add under the misconception that their devices/products did not produce valuable data or would be a target for a hacker. The Internet of Things has enlarged the crosshairs on medical devices as such systems become more accessible and integrated with enterprise hospital platforms.
FDA Guidelines Target IoT Medical Device Security
Could the FDA crush IoT opportunities in Healthcare?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week took a step toward addressing the threat the Internet of Things poses to patients and their data by releasing some proposed guidelines for managing cybersecurity in medical devices.
“A growing number of medical devices are designed to be networked to facilitate patient care. Networked medical devices, like other networked computer systems, incorporate software that may be vulnerable to cybersecurity threats,” the FDA says in its proposal.
“The exploitation of vulnerabilities may represent a risk to the safety and effectiveness of medical devices and typically requires continual maintenance throughout the product life cycle to assure an adequate degree of protection against such exploits,” the agency notes.