Robotics Competition Gets Grant From NASA
Technology News Daily (08/01/06)
NASA has provided the University of Houston with a $20,000 grant that will
aid the campus in its effort to successfully host annual robotics
competitions for young people who are interested in mathematics, science,
engineering, and technology. The university's College of Technology has
hosted the Texas Regional Botball Robotics Tournament for the past four
years, as well as the Lone Star FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Robotics Tournament
since 2002. "The NASA grant enables the college's efforts in promoting
these efforts, and this endorsement lends credence to and assists the
outreach effort," says William Fitzgibbon, dean of the College of
Technology. Students from around the state are drawn to the campus for
competitions that have them use special LEGO equipment to build and program
autonomous robots. The college's Coordination of Robotics Education (CORE)
puts on Botball and FLL each March and December, respectively. "UH has
turned into this region's control center for junior high and high school
robotics education," says Lucien Junkin, a robotics engineer for NASA
Johnson Space Center.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Quantum Leap
Fortune (08/07/06) Vol. 154, No. 3, P. 76; Schwartz, Peter; Koselka,
Rita; Tkaczyk, Christopher
Silicon-based computing power is expected to reach its physical limits in
2015, when it becomes impossible to keep up with Moore's Law; squeezing
more power past the silicon barrier requires a transition to quantum
computing, which some of the world's top research agencies and technology
companies are pursuing. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) was a primary mover in the development of magnetic random-access
memory (MRAM) chips, which made their commercial debut in July. MRAM
supports very high speeds via the giant magnetoresistive effect, which
enables a shift in the direction of an electron's spin; a magnetic device
retains memory even if the power is cut off, while the elimination of
electricity makes overheating a non-issue. The quantum phenomenon of
superposition means that quantum bits (qubits) can encompass all values
simultaneously, allowing quantum computers to rapidly calculate tough
problems such as reliably forecasting weather or traffic. Another unique
property of subatomic particles is entanglement, in which a pair of
particles mirror each other's movements no matter how far the distance is
between them. If this capability could be tapped, completely secure
communications would become a reality. Many scientists agree that the most
likely application of quantum computing will be the ubiquitous--and for the
most part invisible--presence of computers. True artificial intelligence
and a neural network that mimics the human brain are expected to be
supported by exponentially smarter machines based on quantum computing.
Concepts that currently lie in the realm of science fiction, such as
telepathy, are also believed to be possible via quantum computing.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link May Require Paid Subscription
to the top
Boffins Give Mice the Finger
VNUNet (07/31/06) Jaques, Robert
In an attempt to bridge the gap between human knowledge and computer
knowledge, researchers at the University at Buffalo have developed a
technology that enables computers to read the gestures of human hands. The
Fingertip Digitizer, a device that users wear on the tip of their index
fingers, reads gestures such as pointing and tapping and translates them
into the virtual environment. Users can direct the functions of a device
with the Fingertip Digitizer in a similar fashion as a mouse guides a
computer, but with greater accuracy, according to the researchers. "The
gesture-recognition function of this device, in particular, has great
potential for a wide range of applications, from personal computing to
medical diagnostics to computer games," said Young-Seok Kim, director of
the Virtual Reality Lab at Buffalo. The device, which the researchers
claim is a major breakthrough in haptic technology, could eventually
replace a joystick or a mouse. They modeled the device around the
biomechanical attributes of a human finger so that it can intuitively sense
an object's properties. To detect movement and touch, the Fingertip
Digitizer uses a force sensor, an accelerometer, and a motion tracker. The
device reads the force feedback an object exerts when it is touched, and
the system reads hand gestures by tracking its acceleration and
location.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
UK's Blair Seeks Secret of Silicon Valley's
Success
Reuters (07/30/06) Croft, Adrian
British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with technology leaders in Silicon
Valley on Monday to pick their brains about the secrets behind the United
States' culture of innovation. "We're trying in our way in Britain to make
sure the U.K. is a dynamic, innovative country," Blair told the executives.
Among the chief executives at the roundtable session were Apple's Steve
Jobs, Cisco's John Chambers, AMD's Hector Ruiz, and Sun's Jonathan
Schwartz. The panel told Blair that U.S. innovation has been driven by a
culture of taking risks and close partnerships with universities. That
culture does not look at failure as a dead end, they said. "In the U.S.
and especially Silicon Valley, if you have taken a risk and you fail, you
in fact become more interesting and potentially more valuable because now
you know something," Schwartz said. "Frankly, if you hop over the pond you
end up with a very, very different perception of risk and how risk should
be viewed." He also suggested that government leaders such as Blair keep
blogs. Blair's trip to Silicon Valley followed the visit by George
Osbourne, the Conservative Party member whose comments questioning why
Britain had produced no major Internet companies such as Yahoo or Google
drew sharp criticism from British researchers.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Video-Game Project Hopes to Expose Middle-Schoolers to
Science Fun
Athens News (OH) (07/31/06) Waititu, Ernest
Ohio University has launched an outreach project that partners graduate
students with middle-school teachers to boost student interest in science.
Working under an National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, the STEAM
(Science and Technology Enrichment for Appalachian Middle-schoolers)
program will develop educational video games exploring subjects such as the
relationship between the moon and sea levels and measuring mass and
density. The program aims to use technology "to enrich, excite, and engage
students in learning difficult science concepts," said Teresa Franklin,
associate professor of instructional technology at OU. Given the amount of
time that children already spend playing video games, the medium is a
natural vehicle for instruction on otherwise unappealing subjects, the
program developers say. The program also hopes to help students see the
social dimension of science. If it is a success, the program could be
expanded to a national level, says Chang Liu, assistant professor of
electrical engineering and computer science.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Media Grid Takes Step Forward
Grid Today (07/31/06)
Sun Microsystems is partnering with MediaGrid.org to develop international
standards for working with digital media in grid computing environments.
The partnership was announced at the ACM SIGGRAPH conference in Boston.
The program will link the Sun Grid to the public Media Grid network. "We
look forward to collaborating with Sun Microsystems and the Sun Grid to
develop a new generation of grid-based digital media infrastructure and
application standards," said MediaGrid.org director Aaron Walsh.
"Connecting Media Grid and Sun Grid will have an immediate impact on open
Grid Gateway standards by providing a significant real-world gateway
implementation and corresponding technical specifications, upon which
MediaGrid application standards--such as those for rendering, gaming, and
virtual reality--ultimately build." The combined platform will support a
host of computationally intensive applications in fields such as aerospace,
health care, and education. The Media Grid also supports immersive
education, massive media on demand, real-time high resolution rendering,
and immersive virtual reality environments.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
BYU Scientists Create Tool for 'Virtual Surgery'
Deseret Morning News (UT) (07/31/06) Collins, Lois M.
Researchers at Brigham Young University have developed a software tool
that enables surgeons to derive 3-D images from medical scans. The
"virtual surgery" application, called Live Surface, which could prove
useful preoperative exams, diagnosis, and evaluation, could also help
patients see their medical information in an understandable form, according
to William Barrett, the BYU computer science professor who developed the
software with graduate student Chris Armstrong. Barrett added that the
technology could potentially preclude some exploratory surgeries, though he
admits that the it is still experimental. By extracting a 3-D image from
data such as MRI or CT scans, the software allows surgeons to visualize any
part of a patient's body faster and with less effort than previous
applications. The technology could also be used to extract images of an
actor's performance or inanimate objects from a video clip. With only
minimal input from the user, Live Surface uses an algorithm to produce a
simple, interactive image. Recent developments in algorithms have enabled
programs like Live Surface to produce increasingly refined images in much
less time. "We're able to traverse 10-15 levels of the hierarchy in less
than a half-second," Barrett said. The program enables users to cut out
broad chunks of an image that they do not need to analyze with coarse mouse
selections, and then refine the area of interest to produce an interactive
image that could, for instance, be projected onto the patient's body during
surgery, serving as a virtual road map throughout the operation.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Future Shocks, Visions: Techies, Artists Flock to
Event
Boston Herald (07/30/06) Noyes, Jesse
This week's ACM SIGGRAPH convention will feature the world's largest
digital art exhibit, a performance by a robotic percussionist, and a
computer animation festival that will include short films by major studios
such as DreamWorks and Pixar. The annual conference on computer graphics
and interactive technologies is expected to draw as many as 25,000
participants. One exhibit will feature the world's largest Etch A Sketch,
a 30-foot by 60-foot screen that can be manipulated by audience members.
Like its handheld counterpart, the giant toy can be shaken to clear the
existing drawing. "You'll see some pretty cool technology that feels
futuristic," said John Finnegan, chairman of the conference and an
associate professor at Purdue University. "If I had to boil [the
conference] down to a single thing, it's about visual communication." The
offsite SIGGRAPH fashion show will feature devices such as the No-Contact
Jacket, which can emit a jolt of 80,000 volts of electricity when someone
attempts to make unwanted contact. Also on display will be the
Day-for-Night dress, which consists of 436 white circuit boards, and the
Computer Hood, which is made of a material that can stretch over the head
and create a soundproof privacy filter by attaching to a computer. "It
really ties into the idea of fashion being second skin," said Amanda
Parkes, curator of the fashion show.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Momentum Builds for 'Revolution' to Recycle Electronic
Waste
Christian Science Monitor (07/31/06) P. 13; Moore, Elizabeth Armstrong
A growing number of grass-roots, nonprofit "e-cycling" outfits are
emerging throughout the country to address the mounting environmental
problem caused by discarded electronics. There are more than 100 chemicals
in computers alone, including lead, cadmium, barium, and mercury. Each
year, more than 250 million personal computers and 100 million cell phones
are discarded, prompting some states to enact legislation governing their
disposal. Many domestic manufacturers are now using free e-cycling
programs as an additional selling point. "In the last several years...we
discovered that this was an issue that resonated with many consumers," said
Ted Smith of the Silicon Valley Toxics Association. "More and more people
realized that they didn't know what to do with the old electronic gear that
was building up in their homes." The five-year-old nonprofit Free Geek has
recycled 760 tons of electronics that otherwise would have ended up in
landfills. Partners of the nonprofit build computers from donated parts
for low-income families throughout the world, addressing both the issue of
electronic waste and the digital divide, according to Oso Martin, founder
of Free Geek. Electronic recycling is reshaping the consumer side as well,
as a growing number of customers are becoming as concerned with the
environmentally friendly disposal of their old electronics as they are with
cutting-edge features in new products. In September, Dell will roll out
the first totally free recycling program in the country where customers
will not be required to purchase a computer to have their old PC shipped to
a recycling center at no cost, but the United States is still well behind
Europe in e-cycling. In 2002, the European Union began requiring
manufacturers to shoulder the entire cost of recycling electronic devices
that they produce. The "producer responsibility model" includes everything
from toasters to laptops, and similar laws have since been passed at the
state level in the United States. While he admits that Dell's program is a
breakthrough, Smith says that even by the most generous estimates, only 10
percent of the equipment sold is returned to manufacturers or vendors for
recycling under existing programs. With the average life span of a PC down
from four and a half years in 1992 to two years in 2005, the problem is
only exacerbated. Ultimately, the success of e-cycling programs will
depend on consumer restraint in terms of how quickly they replace their
electronics and how they dispose of them.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Grad Students in San Diego Build Biometric Vending
Machine
Contactless News (07/31/06) Williams, Andy
Graduate students at the University of California, San Diego, are
outfitting a soda machine with a small computer, a barcode scanner, a
fingerprint reader, and a Web cam to enable facial recognition. If someone
wants a soda, he can simply place his thumb on the reader and it recognizes
his account. The idea for the SodaVision project came from UCSD associate
engineering professor Stefan Savage, who purchased a soda machine last year
with an eye toward improving the system at UCSD's snack and soda
cooperative. "I bought the soda machine and a touch screen and the
fingerprint reader," Savage said. "We looked for a fingerprint reader that
would work with our software and with Linux. Now they [the students] have
actually torn [the fingerprint reader] apart and rewired it to work with
the machine." The students created the interface, and they are now working
on the facial-recognition technology. "Recognition requires detecting a
face, morphing the face, running preprocessing on the face, looking up the
face in the repository, running an election over many frames, and finally
logging in the user with the most votes in the election," wrote graduate
student Tom Duerig in a paper detailing the project. The system currently
recognizes faces with 80 percent accuracy, but the researchers are hoping
to reach 95 percent.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Can Grid Computing Help Us Work Together?
Science (07/28/06) Vol. 313, No. 5786, P. 433; Clery, Daniel
Grid computing could make it easier for research teams around the world to
work collectively using networked computers. "Centers without walls," also
known as virtual organizations and collaboratories, have emerged as a new
way for scientists to work together, and grid computing would make it
easier for the researchers to share their resources. Grid computing would
enable each institution in a virtual organization to share their computer
processing power, which would essentially create a supercomputer for the
participants. The institutions could also use grid computing to contribute
their databases, memory storage facilities, and scientific instruments such
as telescopes. CERN has a test-bed grid that will become operational in
October, and next year research centers from around the world will be able
to access it to archive, process, and study data from the Large Hadron
Collider (LCH) at the organization's particle physics lab near Geneva,
Switzerland. Although grid computing holds much promise for virtual
organizations, some observers note that the technology has been slow to
catch on because of concerns that it was not user-friendly and due to
institutions possessive over resources. "Policy, culture, and behavior
will all have to adapt," says Malcolm Atkinson, director of the e-Science
Institute at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. "That's
why it's not going to happen in five years."
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link to Publication Homepage
to the top
Google to Host Repository for Open-Source Projects
IDG News Service (07/28/06) Gohring, Nancy
Google has offered developers 100 MB of disk storage space and a host of
software tools such as issue tracking to support and share their
open-source projects. Google claims the offer comes from a desire to
foster productive, healthy open-source communities, though the response
from developers has been muted. There will be no advertisements on the
pages of the new service, but users will be required to have a Gmail
account. Only projects with a single license will be supported, and, as
part of an effort to standardize development under strong, popular
licenses, developers will only have a limited number of licensing options.
Google's service is similar to one offered by SourceForge.net, which had
hosted 100,000 projects since its introduction, according to an
announcement SourceForge made last May. In online discussions, some
developers complained that SourceForge's service performs poorly, and
expressed hope that Google's would work better. Others complained that
Google's service will only offer limited support for tools and licenses.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
A Mind of Their Own
Los Angeles Times (07/28/06) Verrier, Richard
Using artificial intelligence, computers are emulating human thought to
guide the actions of lifelike characters in animated movies. Developed by
computer graphics expert Stephen Regelous, the technology, known as
Massive, has been used in numerous productions, including "King Kong" and a
Budweiser commercial that featured 97,000 animated fans hoisting cards to
form a collective image. Now in use at major digital graphics houses, the
technology is enabling complex animation that was previously deemed too
costly. "Artificial intelligence software is going to continue to allow us
to tell more interesting and complex stories," said Chris DeFaria of Warner
Bros. Though the technology has made a splash in the animation community,
some fear that it will come at the expense of human creativity. "There's
always concern by the animators when a new piece of software comes out that
it reduces their artistry by making it all mechanical," said Joan Carey,
chair of the Los Angeles chapter of SIGGRAPH. "Once they understand they
are not threatened, then they embrace it." Peter Jackson enlisted Regelous
to design the animation for the elaborate battle scenes for the "Lord of
the Rings" trilogy. To build characters that could interact with each
other and their environments, Regelous developed three-dimensional computer
agents that recreated the movements of human actors. He then created
"brains" for the agents consisting of thousands of nodes that enabled the
agents to respond to environmental activity.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Senate Subcommittee Hears Testimony on HPC
HPC Wire (07/28/06) Trader, Tiffany
The importance of high performance computing to national competitiveness
was the focus of a hearing held by the Senate Subcommittee on Technology,
Innovation, and Competitiveness on July 19, 2006. Dr. Simon Szykman,
director of the National Coordination Office for Networking and Information
Technology Research and Development, testified that federal funding and
interagency coordination are key to the competitiveness of high performance
computing on a global level, adding that the budget of the NITRD Program
has increased 65 percent over five years with a budget request of more than
$1.3 billion for fiscal year 2007. Advancements in supercomputing and its
impact on all facets of society, from defense and national security to
weather and climate research, health care, and business were highlighted by
Dr. Irving Wladasky-Berger, vice president of technical strategy and
innovation at IBM. And in written testimony, Tom West, CEO of National
LambdaRail, noted that its high-capacity optical network is the type of
national research infrastructure that can take advantage of the high
performance resources that are able to improve the competitiveness of the
country. The hearing could lead to a companion legislation in the Senate
for the High Performance Computing Revitalization Act (HR 28), which was
passed last April. Panel minority leader Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)
said the House version is "a good framework to start with."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Linux Creator Torvalds Still No Fan of GPLv3
IDG News Service (07/28/06) Martens, China
After the release of the second draft of GPLv3, Linux creator Linus
Torvalds remains steadfast in his opposition to the proposed update, and
says he still has no intentions of adopting it for the Linux kernel. The
recent update toned down the language and clarified the provisions
concerning DRM. "I don't actually see any real fundamental changes there,
and it all seems to boil down to the same meaning in the end," Torvalds
said. "The FSF [Free Software Foundation] is trying to make some things no
longer permissible under the GPLv3 that the GPLv2 left open, and I just
happen to think that those things were better off being left open." Though
it is not a complete repudiation of DRM, the second update bars third
parties from limiting the ability to use or modify software licensed under
the GPL through technical means. Though the GPL has not been updated in 15
years, Torvalds questions the need for a new version, and sees no
incentives for making the change. "I just don't see any advantages to the
new limitations, and am personally much happier with the older version 2,"
he said. "I'll always leave the door open for future input and
improvements, but the way things look right now, the new v3 license will
not actually impact the kernel, although it probably will affect a number
of other projects." Torvalds is also disappointed with the comment process
by which the FSF solicited feedback from the community, claiming that
emotions generally tend to muddle the discussions and undermine their value
in terms of the core issue of actually writing code.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Carnegie Mellon's Storage Guru
Network World (07/24/06) Vol. 23, No. 27, P. 56; Schultz, Beth
Working at Carnegie Mellon University's Data Center Observatory (DCO), lab
director Greg Ganger is developing automated, cost-effective techniques for
managing massive storage infrastructures. Run by CMU's Parallel Data
Laboratory, the DCO will provide access to campus constituencies with
projects that require extensive computing and storage resources. Instead
of researchers exploring fields such as scientific visualization,
earthquake simulation, and nanotechnology, each using their own computing
cluster, Ganger is hoping to make the DCO's shared infrastructure the hub
for university computing resources. The system is using generic servers
and storage systems that take up 12 racks. The team intends to add three
enclosures over the three years, by which time Ganger expects the system to
hold more than a petabyte of data. The systems will have 4,000 GHz of
processing power and consume 774 kw of power.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
The Sensor Web: Distributed Sensing for Collective
Action
Sensors (07/06) Vol. 23, No. 7, P. 18; Delin, Kevin A.
Wireless sensor networks cannot become truly ubiquitous without first
recognizing and meeting real-world needs, and the Sensor Web stands out by
having a synchronous and router-free communication architecture that
enables every node or pod to know what every other pod is doing throughout
every measurement cycle. The Sensor Web architecture supports both omni-
and bidirectional information flows, allowing information to be extracted
from raw data input registered at a specific pod; post-processed sensed
data from a pod or cluster of pods; commands inputted into the distributed
instrument by an external end user through the portal pod; and commands
inputted via a component pod. Sensor Web technology is ready to be
specially tailored for many practical applications, particularly those that
involve macroscopic, off-the-cuff data fusion and reaction. The Sensor Web
exists as a distributed instrument, providing a snapshot of the area it is
observing. Each pod's awareness of every other pod's activity allows the
aggregation, organization, and processing of its collective information,
which is very important when the Sensor Web is positioned remotely in the
absence of Internet access. The Sensor Web facilitates global pod-to-pod
information exchange, which is highly valuable in scenarios calling for
situational awareness, such as urban search and rescue of collapsed
buildings. Sensor Web technology is advancing toward applications where
new kinds of operations can be effected by its collective action
properties. The stability of the Sensor Web's platform enables algorithms
to be crafted from the data flow coming from the whole distributed
instrument, which guarantees performance for real-world needs.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top