Lifeboat Foundation

That was the year she learned to control a Nexus tablet with her brain waves, and literally took her life quality from 1980s DOS to modern era Android OS.

A brunette lady in her early 50s, patient T6 suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), which causes progressive motor neuron damage. Mostly paralyzed from the neck down, T6 retains her sharp wit, love for red lipstick and miraculous green thumb. What she didn’t have, until recently, was the ability to communicate with the outside world.

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Every time you log in to Facebook, every time you click on your News Feed, every time you Like a photo, every time you send anything via Messenger, you add another data point to the galaxy they already have regarding you and your behavior. That, in turn, is a tiny, insignificant dot within their vast universe of information about their billion-plus users.

It is probable that Facebook boasts the broadest, deepest, and most comprehensive dataset of human information, interests, and activity ever collected. (Only the NSA knows for sure.) Google probably has more raw data, between Android and searches–but the data they collect is (mostly) much less personal. Of all the Stacks, I think it’s fair to say, Facebook almost certainly knows you best.

They can use this data for advertising, which is contentious, I suppose; but much worse, it’s boring. What’s long been more interesting to me is the possibility of interpolating from this data, i.e. deducing from your online behavior things that you never explicitly revealed to Facebook–and extrapolating from it, i.e. predicting your reactions to new information and new situations. What’s interesting is the notion that Facebook might be able to paint an extraordinarily accurate pointillist picture of you, with all the data points you give it as the pixels.

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You might not be able to control the 7Bot robotic arm with your mind or your eyes, but at least it’ll only cost you around $350 — cheaper than an iPhone, its creators point out — to get one. Even better, you don’t need to know how to code to program it: just physically guide the arm or use a gesture control device like a Kinect or a Leap motion sensor to make it mimic your movements. In the video below the fold and on its Kickstarter page, you can see it doing calligraphy after a team member’s grandfather physically taught it how. The team also managed make it paint cherry blossoms and do basic mathematics, and we’ll bet you can teach it other productive things, like how to terrorize your cat.

If you prefer the more hands-off approach, you can remotely control it using its 3D visualization app on a computer. And, in case you’re more tech-savvy than the average user, you can program it using the C and C++ open source APIs the 7Bot team provides. In addition to the basic model, the team also offers packages with more features, such as a version with two arms and one that comes with a 3D printer, though they’re also understandably more expensive. According to its campaign page, rewards should start shipping out as soon as January 2016, but as always, it’s best not to treat Kickstarter and other crowdfunding websites as a store.

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Haptics is a growing field that aims to allow our bodies to control and ultimately ‘feel’ our virtual identity. Instead of using the theorized mechanism of a neural computer link, haptic tech attaches sensors and stimuli to our body. A report by research firm Markets and Markets thinks haptic technology, which could soon include something like a glove that let’s you move a hand in cyberspace, will be worth 30 billion by 2020.

Haptic technology, also known as kinesthetic communication, sounds like something out of science fiction. But products, like the vibrating cell phone, have been out for decades. And there’s more advanced systems on the way. That’s partly because of another hyped field: virtual reality. With pioneering virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift poised for release next year, the question becomes: How to make this experience even more immersive.

Continue reading “Haptics Technology: Soon, We Might Be Able To ‘Feel’ Cyberspace” »

A representation of a stable sequential working memory; different information items or memory patterns are shown in different colors. (credit: Image adopted from Rabinovich, M.I. et al. (2014))

Try to remember a phone number. You’re now using “sequential memory,” in which your mind processes a sequence of numbers, events, or ideas. It underlies how people think, perceive, and interact as social beings. To understand how sequential memory works, researchers have built mathematical models that mimic this process.

Cognitive modes

Continue reading “Is your thinking chaotic? There’s a model for that.” »

eora 3D is raising funds for eora 3D | High-Precision 3D Scanning on Your Smartphone on Kickstarter!

Green lasers are cool, especially when they turn your smartphone into a highly accurate and affordable 3D scanner.

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If you think the image above looks frightening, you’re right. The crazy contraption pictured in the image is the first portable railgun, a futuristic projectile launcher associated most commonly with the military or NASA. The man in the image above isn’t in the military, and he’s not a NASA engineer. Instead, he’s a civilian who used some engineering smarts, some widely available parts and a 3D printer to create a functioning weapon that can fire graphite, aluminum, tungsten and even plasma projectiles at speeds of more than 560 mph.

And then there’s the best part: There are videos of this homemade railgun in action.

Continue reading “3D printing used to make first real handheld railgun, which fires plasma projectiles at 560 mph” »

UK pedestrians in Chesham will experience a first when they stroll around. Virgin Media is behind the initiative of a Smart WiFi Pavement, to provide people with Wi-Fi access. Residents will be able to “streetsurf,” according to the news release. Virgin Media is a provider of all four broadband, TV, mobile phone and home phone services in the UK.

The company is out to make a name in improving out-of-home connectivity. The Virgin Media news release said, “Chiltern District Council and Virgin Media have joined forces to blanket Chesham’s high street with superfast WiFi. The unlimited WiFi service is available to residents, businesses and visitors passing through the center of Chesham; the service even covers parts of Lowndes Park – Chesham’s 36 acre park space.” The pilot is available to all the 21,000 residents and businesses of Chesham.

Speeds of up to 166Mbps are highlighted; the number is seven times the average UK broadband speed.

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Adobe engineer Ashutosh Jagdish Sharma demonstrated the technology on stage, enlisting the help of host Kim Chambers and Parks and Rec star Nick Offerman to act as stand-in tourists who were getting in the way of the desired shot. When the smartphone was held in place, Monument Mode was able to slowly erase the “tourists” from the image, building up a clear version of the photo slowly as human obstructions moved around. Even though Chambers and Offerman remained inside the frame, the final result showed the background only, the feature able to create a clear image from multiple shots.

Traditionally photographers have been able to remove tourists and other obstructions after their photos are taken with clever Photoshop work, by taking multiple shots, or by taking them from various angles. But Monument Mode works in real-time, cutting down on legwork, and requiring fewer photo-editing skills. The company says it the feature ”uses a new algorithm to distinguish moving objects from fixed ones,” but notes that it’s still only a tech preview, and that it may not come to fruition. That said, the company has a history of swiftly incorporating technology shown off at its MAX conferences. Adobe first detailed its “dehaze” feature during the same segment at last year’s show — it now comes as standard in Lightroom.

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