China’s transformation is trickling even into the poor interior, dragging all 1.3 billion people into the world economy. When historians look back on our time, I think they’ll focus on the resurgence of China after 500 years of weakness — and the way America was oblivious as this happened. For most of human history, China was the world’s largest economy and most advanced civilization. Then it stagnated after about 1450,… read more
Immobots (immobile robots), a new breed of cost-effective intelligent machines, are beginning to crop up in situations where autonomy is important, such as distant space probes, copiers, and cars.
Using “model-based programming,” these systems “have a commonsense model of the physics of their internal components and can reason from that model to determine what is wrong and to know how to act,” said Brian Williams, a professor at MIT’s… read more
Xerox researchers are developing an experimental polymer that can be used to make organic transistors on a plastic substrate and could be easier to manufacture at lower cost.
The Army’s goal is to come up with a uniform by 2008 with helmet that enhances hearing and protect ears from battle cacaphony and heads-up display built into the visor to display infrared images. A wheeled robot “mule” would follow a soldier around with equipment for purifying water and recharging batteries.
The Army warfighter of 2025 will have lightweight body armor made with nanomaterials to deflect a bullet with… read more
Infant rats are being decapitated and their heads grafted onto the thighs of adult rats by researchers in Japan. The purpose is to investigate how the transplanted brain can develop and maintain function after prolonged total brain ischemia (no blood flow). The controversial research may have value in studies of brain injury in newborn babies.
“We are in the early years of a truly digital decade, in which the intelligence of the PC is finding its way into all kinds of devices, transforming them from passive appliances into far more significant and indispensable tools for everyday life,” says Bill Gates.
“Computers are becoming smaller, more powerful, less power-hungry and far less expensive, making it easier to build computing power and connectivity into everyday devices.… read more
Molecular Imprints Inc. plans to unveil next week “the world’s first step and flash imprint lithography” tool for use in processing a range of emerging devices at the 100-nm (0.10-micron) node, down to a few nanometers and at about one-tenth the cost of traditional projection systems.
The tool is geared for the emerging nanotechnology field.
Hasbro’s FurReal Friends has become one of the season’s hottest toys, subordinating gadgetry to realistic cat attributes (such as fur) and behaviors.
When the cat is first turned on, it “wakes up,” stretching its neck and arching its back. It meows and then begins to monitor six scattered sensors that can tell if it is being touched on the head, neck, back or tail.
It… read more
AT&T, Intel and IBM have formed a new company, Cometa Networks, to provide broadband wireless Internet access nationwide using 802.11b (Wi-Fi) technology.
Cometa Networks plans to provide the service to telecommunications companies, Internet service providers, cable operators and wireless carriers, which can then offer it to their customers.
Cometa also plans to install “hot spots” for accessing wireless Internet networks at retail chain stores, hotels, universities, and other… read more
Purdue University is running a year-long study that puts an AIBO robot dog for six weeks in the homes of people 65 years and older who live alone to see if robots can provide social stimulation.
One manufacturer is working to include a blood-pressure sensor in its robot. Other possibilities include alerting a nurses’ station if the person does not react to the robot for extended periods.
Sony President Kunitake Ando foresees a future personal computer that knows a person’s individual tendencies and tastes, functioning almost like a surrogate brain.
Hybrid PC-television devices will evolve for consumers and people will be able to retrieve their personal information from powerful networks that allow anytime, anywhere across a variety of individual devices.
IBM researchers have designed the world’s smallest transistor, nine nanometers in length. The development would allow for high-capacity memory and faster processors in the future.
It would also extend today’s rate of progress in scaling down chips (Moore’s law) through at least 2016.
Everything is moving faster, and companies are being propelled toward “real time” as the world becomes more connected and more responsive through autonomous agents, says Christopher Meyer, vice president and director of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s Center for Business Innovation.
Moving to real time is a competitive necessity. The real-time enterprise is unavoidable and means that a company can sense and respond faster than changes in a relevant… read more
Yahoo and Carnegie Mellon have developed the “Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart” (Captchas) to block bots that post spam and collect personal data.
To stymie bots, it presents distorted words displayed against a complicated background or distorted sound clips, requiring humans to enter the correct information for admittance to chat rooms.
Honda is using its Asimo walking-talking robot as a promotional tool, reciting information about cars in showrooms and appearing in commercials and at events.
Asimo uses the visual information from a camera to recognize ten different preprogrammed faces, follows movements, and takes direction for its movements.