Science

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed new technology that is set to revolutionize the ways in which we manipulate certain handheld devices, by transforming the human body into an actual touchscreen platform. Skinput, the name given ... to the wireless device, allows an individual to push a few holographic buttons on their arm or hand to control their mobile phone, MP3 player and even certain video game consoles. The technology was first developed by Chris Harrison at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with Desney Tan and Dan Morris at Microsoft Research Computational ... (view more)

Do you watch Jeopardy!? For those unfamiliar, Jeopardy! is "a North American quiz show featuring trivia in history, literature, the arts, pop culture, science, sports, geography, wordplay, and more. The show has a unique answer-and-question format ... in which contestants are presented with clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form." (Source: wikipedia.org ) Recently, IBM's Watson super computer brain was able to defeat two of Jeopardy's most acclaimed game show champions. One of the human champions won Jeopardy! a mind-blowing 74 times in a row, ... (view more)

A pair of Georgia-based scientists have engineered a hand-held device containing parasitic wasps able to do the work of drug-sniffing police dogs and bomb-testing robots. However, the wasps' most interesting feature may be their ability to sniff out ... bedbugs. The "Wasp Hound" is the brainchild of researchers Glen C. Rains and W. Joe Lewis, who, along with associate J.H. Tumlinson back in 1988 published a report that suggested wasps, like dogs, could be used to detect certain targets. Since then, Mr. Lewis made it a personal crusade to develop working prototypes that support his radical ... (view more)

In the end, the battle between man and machine wasn't much of a battle at all -- Watson, the IBM supercomputer specially engineered to squash humans at trivia, earlier this week easily defeated the game show Jeopardy!'s two most prolific players, ... Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Now, the question becomes: what's next for IBM's Watson? Earlier this week the long-running and very popular trivia TV show Jeopardy! switched things up by replacing one of its human competitors with a computer built by IBM. There were three intense days of competition between Watson, Jennings and Rutter (the two human ... (view more)

The long-running trivia show "Jeopardy!" is trying a new tactic to woo viewers -- replacing human players with computers. Well, sort of. Starting on Monday, February 14th, two particularly dominant former human champions will take on a computer ... specially engineered by IBM to rival the way a human answers trivia questions. It's the game show version of The Terminator. Jeopardy! Winner Racks up $3M in Prizes, Wins 74 Shows NonStop Ken Jennings is perhaps the most memorable Jeopardy! player ever, setting show records back in 2004 when he won an incredible 74 games in a row. During his run, ... (view more)

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have created a robot prototype that is able to accurately respond to human directions by identifying and reacting to simple motion commands. In a recent demonstration, a ... scientist pushed a toy car and tossed a ball in the direction of the prototype. Confused, the robot flashed a question mark on an attached screen. Without saying a word, the scientist made a throwing motion with his hand and the prototype responded by tossing the ball back to him and ignoring the car. Core System Mirrors Human Brain Activity The ... (view more)

Intel is working on new technology designed to increase the response time in diagnosing and treating NFL-related injuries. By embedding a small Intel Atom microprocessor inside a football helmet, impact measurement data can help quickly determine ... the severity of an injury for medical personnel on the sidelines. Intel, renowned for being the largest computer chip maker in the world, has worked with football helmet maker Riddell on computer simulations to improve future designs and reduce the number of injuries in the contact sport. Joining the tandem are a number of select universities, ... (view more)

Computer Science researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have created a computer system capable of performing tasks never thought possible. Dubbed "NELL" (short for Never-Ending Language Learning), the computer system has the ability to learn, ... read and express assumptions on a variety of topics. Researchers were provided funding from Google and DARPA agency (a research and development arm of the U.S. Department of Defense) to create a system capable of understanding the entirety of the human language. The Carnegie Mellon group programmed NELL to categorize the information it finds on the ... (view more)

When you've got as much money as Google, you can afford to try out some crazy-sounding ideas. But none are quite as wacky as the company's latest project: self-driving cars. The search engine giant has been trying out the system in California ... recently. It involves a combination of robotics, road data and processing power. Self-Driving Car Use Lasers, Radar Sensors The technology includes video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder, all of which are designed to detect the position of other vehicles and adjust the car's movement appropriately. The data was collected by Google cars ... (view more)

Yahoo has announced the opening of a new data center that uses wind power to drastically improve its electric efficiency. The technology used is based on chicken coops and fowl smells. Data Centers Power Hungry for Electricity Data centers, which ... process information on a huge scale, are a huge problem when it comes to energy efficiency. That's because, as you'll probably have experienced by using a notebook computer on your lap or touching the case of a desktop computer after prolonged use, processors build up a lot of heat as they work. It also takes a lot of energy running fans to keep ... (view more)