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Jan 6, 2016

Using Genes to Understand the Brain’s Building Blocks

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Here’s a brief video explaining how our researchers are using single-cell gene expression to classify cell types in the brain. The research was published online today in Nature Neuroscience.

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Jan 6, 2016

Osterhout Design Group unveils high-end enterprise augmented reality glasses

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, energy, health, transportation

The Osterhout Design Group, which has been making high-end night-vision goggles for years, has begun shipping its R-7 augmented reality glasses for enterprise applications. The $2,750 smartglasses are a sign of things to come, as the company eventually hopes to bring the technology to the masses at consumer prices.

Augmented reality is expected to become a $150 billion market by 2020, according to tech advisor Digi-Capital. But first, it has to become cheaper, lighter, and otherwise more practical. The R-7 represents ODG’s best trade-off between capability and cost. The company is showing the R-7 at the 2016 International CES, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas this week.

The ODG R-7 shows heads-up display images on the inside of the lenses, so you can see stereoscopic 3D or other animated imagery on top of objects in the real world. The company is targeting applications in health care, energy, transportation, warehouse, logistics, and government.

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Jan 6, 2016

The First 802.11ad Router Makes Your Wi-Fi Network Almost Three Times Faster

Posted by in categories: habitats, internet, mobile phones

Remember when a cheap $60 wireless router was all your home needed? We were so naive back then. When everything from your phone to your fridge is on your home network, you need a little more wi-fi horsepower. So TP-Link is introducing the first wireless router with blazing 802.11ad.

For the uninitiated, the 802.11ad protocol adds yet another band of spectrum in the 57-66GHz range (depending on what part of the world you live in) in addition to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands that 802.11ac routers use now.

There’s quite a few technical reasons as to why the jump to 60GHz is a good thing, but the most important for the average consumer is speed. The 5GHz band maxes out at 1,733Mbps, but the new 60GHz band can achieve wireless transfer speeds of up to 4,600Mbps. So streaming 4K video without a network cable? Not a problem.

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Jan 6, 2016

Science and photography: a special issue — By Clive Cookson | Financial Times

Posted by in categories: media & arts, science

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“Clive Cookson introduces a special issue looking at the places where science and photography meet, from the intimate observation of illness to the quiet machinery of surveillance”

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Jan 5, 2016

The Secret to Everyday Time Travel Is Simple, Insane

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics, time travel

Since you first started learning about the world, you’ve known that cause leads to effect. Everything that’s ever happened to or near you has reiterated this point, making it seem like a fundamental law of nature. It isn’t.

It is, in fact, possible for an event to occur before its causal factors have manifested or happened. This isn’t how appliances work — you don’t have to worry about will have having left the oven on — but it is how particle physics works. It’s also the key to explaining how time travel, under the laws of quantum physics, could operate.

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Jan 5, 2016

Camera Stabilizer

Posted by in category: electronics

You can shoot in any circumstances and maintaining the image with this device…

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Jan 5, 2016

The Art of Biography — By Joseph Epstein | The Wall Street Journal

Posted by in category: media & arts

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“Patrick Hayes’s “Human 2.0? Life-Writing in the Digital Age” provides a defense of autobiography as it comes through Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, blogging and the rest.”

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Jan 5, 2016

How to Cultivate the Art of Serendipity — By Pagan Kennedy | The New York Times

Posted by in categories: media & arts, science

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“Do some people have a special talent for serendipity? And if so, why?”

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Jan 5, 2016

How Assistive Technology Is Opening New Doors for ALS Patients

Posted by in categories: innovation, science, wearables
Image credit: iDigitalTrends

Image credit: iDigitalTrends

While the “Ice Bucket Challenge” raised millions to fuel research toward a cure for
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), there are a number of assistive technologies already at work to help those currently affected by the disease. According to Alisa Brownlee, a clinical manager for the ALS Association, more assistive technologies and brain-computer-interfaces are on the way. At present, the largest hurdle is access.

Brownlee noted that the loss of communication is often the hardest part of ALS for someone to endure. As ALS is a progressive disease, there are several forms of assistive technology that are used based on a given patient’s physical status. Each form of that technology will work for awhile, but then patients will have to move on to something else as the disease progresses, she says.

Using computer access as one way to help maintain an ALS patient’s communication skills, ALS patients can transition to a track-ball mouse and on-screen keyboard in lieu of a standard computer mouse. From there, a person can use a head-mount, eye-gaze system, and even a tablet computer with a switch scanner.

Continue reading “How Assistive Technology Is Opening New Doors for ALS Patients” »

Jan 5, 2016

Dolfi — The Tiny Gadget That Could One Day Replace Your Washing Machine

Posted by in category: futurism

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0oWKr6_ttx0

Dolfi is a portable device that relies on ultrasound technology to do the work of a washing machine. It can be used anywhere, it’s cheap and silent.

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