Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

Monday March 11, 2013 Daily edition   News and Blog Headlines Cloud-computing ‘Internet for robots’ launched Solving the ‘cocktail party problem’: how we can focus on one speaker in noisy crowds Plasmonic nanoparticles increase solar-cell output for near-infrared region Nanoparticles loaded with bee venom kill HIV At an annual tech show, it’s hardware’s turn in the spotlight White House petition proposes space solar power as national energy and space goal MIT ‘cheetah’ robot rivals running animals in efficiency Latest News Cloud-computing ‘Internet for robots’ launched March 11, 2013   Researchers of five European universities have developed the RoboEarth Cloud Engine, a cloud-computing platform for robots. The platform allows robots connected to the Internet to directly access the powerful computational, storage, and communications infrastructure of modern data centers — the giant server farms behind the likes of Google, Facebook, and Amazon — for robotics tasks … more… Solving the ‘cocktail party problem’: how we can focus on one speaker in noisy crowds March 11, 2013   Researchers have demonstrated how the brain hones in on one speaker to solve the “cocktail party problem.” Researchers discovered that the brain can selectively track the sound patterns from the speaker of interest and at the same time exclude competing sounds from other speakers. The findings could have important implications for helping individuals with a range … more… Plasmonic nanoparticles increase solar-cell output for near-infrared region March 11, 2013   A new technique developed by University of Toronto Engineering Professor Ted Sargent and his research group could lead to significantly more efficient solar cells by improving efficiency in colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics, a technology which already promises inexpensive, more efficient solar cell technology. Quantum-dot photovoltaics offers the potential for low-cost, large-area solar power. However, these … more… Nanoparticles loaded with bee venom kill HIV March 11, 2013   Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown. The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.“Our hope … more… At an annual tech show, it’s hardware’s turn in the spotlight March 11, 2013   At this year’s South by Southwest, the most talked-about start-ups this year include the maker of a camera that automatically takes a photo every 30 seconds, a new game console, and a gadget that lets people control their computers and devices by waving their hands, The New York Times reports. At least two dozen panels, … more… White House petition proposes space solar power as national energy and space goal March 10, 2013   A petition to the White House to task the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to examine space solar power (SSP) as a new energy and space goal for the U.S. has been posted on the White House WE the PEOPLE website, with a goal of 100,000 signatures by April 3, 2013. The … more… MIT ‘cheetah’ robot rivals running animals in efficiency March 9, 2013   A 70-pound “cheetah” robot designed by MIT researchers may soon outpace its animal counterparts in running efficiency. In treadmill tests, the researchers have found that the robot — about the size and weight of an actual cheetah — wastes very little energy as it trots continuously for up to an hour and a half at … more… Latest Kurzweil Collection posts Keep calm and carry on buying   Source: The New York Times — March 9, 2013 | Evgeny Morozov A future of frictionless, continuous shopping fits with Google’s vision for a world where we no longer need to search for anything, since we ourselves are perpetually monitored, with the relevant product or information sent to us based on perceived need. “Autonomous search,” they call it. Ray Kurzweil, Google’s director of engineering, even wants to … more… Read full article here Yahoo! Sports ThePostGame | How nanotechnology will change sports   Source: Yahoo! Sports ThePostGame Yahoo! Sports ThePostGame | FutureSport: how nanotechnology will boost athletic performance. Technology is advancing so quickly that it won’t be long before the era of performance-enhancing drugs seems like the athletic Stone Age. Injecting or ingesting chemicals will be considered primitive when athletes will have the ability to have robotic cells powered by software coursing … more… Overtaken by the future   Source: The Financial Times — March 8, 2013 | Leo Robson Futurology will always be a mug’s game – of course, I could be wrong – but for changing reasons. Imagination used to leave science behind, now it’s the other way around. The columnist and scriptwriter Charlie Brooker recently found to his irritation that a “digital afterlife” idea he had used in his TV series Black Mirror was … more… Read full article here Will we all be like Superman soon?   Source: Yahoo! Sports ThePostGame — March 7, 2013 | Zachary Todd To elucidate the sorts of innovations we can expect within the next 20 years, I defer to renown futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil (who has arguably the most stunning track-record of technological predictions). Kurzweil suggests that by 2030 many of our bodies will have nanobots, the size of red blood cells, which are billions of … more… Read full article here Get ready to lose your job   Source: TechCrunch — February 16, 2013 | Jon Evans For 50 years now Moore’s Law has been (to oversimplify) doubling computing power every two years. People like Ray Kurzweil and Vernor Vinge look at that astonishing history of nonstop exponential growth and predict a technological singularity within our lifetimes. Kurzweil claims that whenever technology hits a limit, “a paradigm shift (i.e., a fundamental change in the approach) occurs, which enables … more… Read full article here Brain cells may live longer when not tied to their weakling, mortal flesh   Source: Motherboard — February 27, 2013 | Austin Considine In an interview last year with Motherboard’s Derek Mead, professor Kevin Warwick described an experiment in which he and a team of scientists created a very simple, two-dimensional, living brain of about 100,000 neurons and connected it to robots (a human brain, by contrast, approaches 100 billion). It’s just a matter of time, he suggests, before scientists … more… Read full article here Scientists found a genetic switch to reverse aging in neurons   Source: Motherboard — March 7, 2013 | Austin Considine Another day, another step towards that elusive fountain of youth thanks, this time, to a new study that claims scientists have effectively reversed the effects of aging in neurons. Just last week, a study out of Italy revealed that neurons, specifically mouse neurons, could live much longer than usual when transplanted into a longer-living organism. Or, as we put … more… Read full article here Visit KurzweilAI.net You are currently subscribed to the KurzweilAI.net newsletter as *|EMAIL|* To unsubscribe, please click here. To change your email preferences, please click here. *|LIST:ADDRESS|*.