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Researchers have developed a camera that uses a thin microlens array and new image processing algorithms to capture 3D information about objects in a scene with a single exposure. The camera could be useful for a variety of applications such as industrial part inspection, gesture recognition and collecting data for 3D display systems.

“We consider our camera lensless because it replaces the bulk lenses used in conventional cameras with a thin, lightweight microlens array made of flexible polymer,” said research team leader Weijian Yang from the University of California, Davis. “Because each microlens can observe objects from different viewing angles, it can accomplish complex imaging tasks such as acquiring 3D information from objects partially obscured by objects closer to the camera.”

In the journal Optics Express, Yang and first author Feng Tian, a doctoral student in Yang’s lab, describe the new 3D camera. Because the camera learns from existing data how to digitally reconstruct a 3D scene, it can produce 3D images in real time.

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In this video we discuss The Blindsight by Peter Watts. It is a Science Fiction book about mankind’s first contact with alien life!

My New Sci-Fi Comic: https://www.quinnhoward.net/theliebehindthestar.

Art: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rWiriwUewTnuuul0ZT4N4eV2…sp=sharing.

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3GvHMd_OJs.

Continue reading “The Horrible Truth About Consciousness | Blindsight” | >

A lot of hurdles remain before the emerging technology of self-driving personal and commercial vehicles is common, but transportation researchers at The University of Alabama developed a promising, inexpensive system to overcome one challenge: GPS hacking that can send a self-driving vehicle to the wrong destination.

Initial research shows a vehicle can use already installed sensors to detect traveling the wrong route when passengers are unaware of the change, thwarting an attempt to spoof the GPS signal to the vehicle, according to findings outlined in recently published papers in the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems and Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.

Relying on software code and in-vehicle sensors already part of the self-driving system would be cheaper for consumer and to deny the hacked directions used to steer cargo or people away from their intended destination, said Dr. Mizanur Rahman, assistant professor of civil, construction and and affiliate researcher with the Alabama Transportation Institute.

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NASA released an impressive desktop app some years back called “NASA’s Eyes Visualization,” which allowed you to check out the solar system, along with all the spacecraft exploring it. But who installs programs anymore? It graduated to the web recently, and now it has an updated interface and tools. Simply head to the “Eyes on the Solar System” site on your device of choice, and start exploring.

The main interface of the new site is simply the orbits of the planets, color-coded with highlights to show you their current positions. The layout is accurate for the current time, but you can use either buttons or the slider at the bottom to speed up or reverse time. It goes as high or as low as three years per second. You have to figure this revamp was supposed to coincide with NASA’s Artemis program, but that’s taking a bit longer than expected to get off the ground.

In addition to the clickable overview of the solar system, there are several suggested “points of interest” on the side of the screen. These are all along the same lines as the Eyes on the Solar System engine, but some (like the Perseverance landing simulation) load on a separate page.

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The concept or idea of a multiverse fascinates physicists’ as much as sci-fi fans, but if science was able to prove it exists, could every type of universe within it actually be predicted? The late Stephen Hawking believed there was a way to shed light on this strangest cosmic mystery.

Hawking’s final paper, published in the journal High-Energy Physics revisits one of his earlier (and no less mind-blowing) theories. The “no-boundary proposal” considers Einstein’s suggestion that the pre-Big Bang universe was a singularity, an extremely dense and hot micro-speck of matter where the laws of physics didn’t apply. Hawking speculated that time as we know it was nonexistent in this singularity, which had no beginning and no end—infinite and spherical rather than finite and linear. The embryonic universe is thought to have expanded rapidly and spawned parallel worlds during a period known as cosmic inflation.

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NASA is trying to pull a rabbit out of the hat to launch Artemis I this month. Watch to hear about this and other launch options in work. The main driver is getting waivers from range control on the Flight Termination System (FTS). Find out why the last attempt was scrubbed. The SpaceX Starship engine test campaign is also covered in this video after discussions of the advantages and disadvantages of using hydrogen fuels.

Worm-hole generators by the pound mass: https://greengregs.com/

For gardening in your Lunar habitat Galactic Gregs has teamed up with True Leaf Market to bring you a great selection of seed for your planting. Check it out: http://www.pntrac.com/t/TUJGRklGSkJGTU1IS0hCRkpIRk1K
Awesome deals for long term food supplies for those long missions to deep space (or prepping in case your spaceship crashes: See the Special Deals at My Patriot Supply: www.PrepWithGreg.com.

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Assistant Professor Ariel Furst and her colleagues are looking to DNA to help guide the process.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major contributor to climate change and a significant product of many human activities, notably industrial manufacturing. A major goal in the energy field has been to chemically convert emitted CO2 into valuable chemicals or fuels. But while CO2 is available in abundance, it has not yet been widely used to generate value-added products. Why not?

The reason is that CO2 molecules are highly stable and therefore not prone to being chemically converted to a different form.

Using DNA, MIT chemical engineers have found a way to speed up a chemical reaction that is key to converting captured carbon dioxide emissions into useful, valuable products.

Continue reading “Turning carbon dioxide into valuable products” | >