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8/06/2009
  The first RES (Reality Enhancement System) toys coming soon  Check out this demo of an upcoming RES toy based on James Cameron's Avatar movie. Some time in the next decade you'll start wearing a RES display. And when you look at any product, shop, restaurant or person's face a little thumb overlay will appear with a percentage inside. 85% of customers liked this restaurant, 45% of customers were satisfied with this product, 0% of the women that went out with this guy enjoyed the experience. Close your eyes for slightly longer than a normal blink to bring up more details, like the full menu for a restaurant with each individual entree priced and rated by previous diners. RES, or augmented reality as the scientists like to call it, is going to upgrade your life more than any other computer technology. Labels: RES
8/05/2009
Five futuristic interfaces on display at SIGGRAPH The annual meeting of the ACM's Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques, SIGGRAPH 2009, takes place in New Orleans this week. The event brings together some of the world's best digital artists and computer researchers and is a showcase for some interesting new interfaces. Labels: RES
8/02/2009
Up RES your reality with an augmentation overlay  Metaio is a leader in what scientists call augmented reality or as we like to call it, RES, short for Reality Enhancement Systems. Metaio working on RESing up your reality, with true augmented vision featuring 3D optical tracking, stable overlay, high accuracy and an elaborate infrastructure. More demos can be found here. Labels: RES
7/30/2009
Five breakthrough Reality Enhancement Systems (RES) for socializing  Check out clips of five next generation RES bots designed to use social-media's connection capabilities to augment your reality. Shown in the image is the TwittARound RES bot.
7/18/2009
iHOBO a hobo's RES for your iPhone? During the Great Depression hobos developed signs they could chalk on a wall, street, telephone pole or sidewalk to inform their peers about opportunities or dangers. "This house will feed you." "Beware the dog." Wired has a spoof piece about the new RES (Reality Enhancement System) iHOBO for hobos with iPhone. It is funny and probably also prophetic. Because I suspect that once RES databases for every location are available. A reality augmented by RES will be the one indispensable tool for anyone living a nomadic lifestyle. Labels: RES
7/12/2009
Up the RES-olution of your reality with a Reality Enhancement System  SPRXmobile's Layar RES (Reality Enhancement System) currently available only in the Netherlands for phones running on Google's Android OS, will be spreading to the United States, Germany and Britain later this year, says the company. Meanwhile, another RES system called Wikitude.me from the Austrian company Mobilizy claims to have already compiled a worldwide RES for Android phones with 800,000 points of interest around the world. A RES is a bot that keeps track of where you are and overlays your reality with lots of intelligently selected information about your current locale. The scientific term, augmented reality, is too big of a mouthful for a real consumer product, so we just call it RES, since it takes your reality up to a higher RESolution. Whatever you call it, RES is the next big thing coming to us via the Cloud. Labels: RES
7/02/2009
A revolutionary new light, thin printable battery seems sure to boost development of wearware  For a long time, batteries were bulky and heavy. Now, a new cutting-edge battery is revolutionizing the field. It is thinner than a millimeter, lighter than a gram, and can be produced cost-effectively using using a silk-screen printing method similar to that used for t-shirts and signs. This battery should really give wearware a huge boost. All sorts of wearable technologies are suddenly practical. The researchers have already produced the batteries on a laboratory scale and say that their process is so simple and scalable that the batteries could be available on a commercial scale as quickly as the end of this year.
7/01/2009
World's smallest LCD screen for Reality Enhancement System (RES) devices  The Kopin Corporation has created a Cyberdisplay only 0.27 inches along its diagonal with a resolution of 600 x 480. The device is said to be the smallest full-color VGA screen in the world,and hopefully, will give a boost to the Reality Enhancement System (RES) market.  Experiencing life with a smart bot constantly overlaying the reality around us with useful information will radically boost the capabilities of humans. RES is likely to be the net cloud's most powerful killer app.
6/25/2009
A really good video projector built right into your cell phone  Research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena have developed a mini projector that unlike conventional beamers does not need an additional illumination system. This makes the projector small enough to fit in a cell phone and cuts energy use so much that it does not overtax the battery. "The key component of the projector is an organic display, or OLED," says Dr. Stefan Riehemann, group manager at the IOF. Currently the OLED display produces a monochrome image with a brightness of 10,000 candelas per square meter; for color images the brightness is about half that level. By way of comparison, a computer monitor generates only about 150-300 candelas per square meter. Labels: RES
6/23/2009
What is the current state of Artificial Intelligence research? Can machines think? In 1950, Alan Turing, considered by some to be the father of modern computing, published a paper in which he proposed that, "If, during text-based conversation, a machine is indistinguishable from a human, then it could be said to be 'thinking' and, therefore, could be attributed with intelligence." He predicted that a computer would pass this "Turing Test" by the end of the century. That hasn't happened--yet. But the question continues to provoke and inspire. Artificial Intelligence might be just around the corner, or it might be centuries away. Forbes Magazine brings together many experts to see where the effort to design smart bots currently stands.
6/22/2009
Your cell is transforming into a smart bot RES - Reality Enhancement System Researchers are increasingly using cell phones to better understand users' behavior and social interactions. The data collected from a phone's GPS chip or accelerometer, for example, can reveal trends that are relevant to modeling the spread of disease, determining personal health-care needs, improving time management, and even updating social-networks. The approach, known as reality mining, has also been suggested as a way to improve targeted advertising or make cell phones smarter: a device that knows its owner is in a meeting could automatically switch its ringer off, for example. Two slick new just launched cell phones continue the trend towards your cell phone morphing into a smart bot RES (Reality Enhancement System).
6/17/2009
Reality gets a higher resolution with the Layar RES - Reality Enhancement System The Layar RES (Reality Enhancement System) browser goes live in Amsterdam, Netherlands with five Dutch content providers participating.
6/15/2009
Breakthrough could super-size your personal cognitive computation capabilities  When Physicists Yulin Chen, Zhi-Xun Shen and their colleagues tested the behavior of electrons in the compound bismuth telluride they discovered a breakthrough that could revolutionize cognitive computation with dramatically faster, smaller and far more power efficient computational electronics. The results show a clear signature of what is called a topological insulator, a material that enables the free flow of electrons across its surface with no loss of energy. This is another step towards the powerful RES - Reality Enhancement Systems - that will eventually make each of us dramatically more intellectual capable, but giving us our own awesomely capable personal bot assistant.
6/08/2009
Forget about the singularity, here is true geek rapture  Finally, the ultimate Reality Enhancement System (RES) arrives, a RES girlfriend can soon be yours. By the end of this year, you will be able to dress, undress, ignore and torment or please with gifts and attention, Cyber Alice from Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc. Forget about the singularity being the rapture of the geeks. True geek rapture will arrive later this year when you un-boxing, your Cyber Alice RES girlfriend bot.
6/05/2009
Two way displays bring Reality Enhancment Systems (RES) closer  Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) have now developed a screen technology that could help make wearable displays more compact and simpler to use. By interlacing photodetector cells--similar to those used to capture light in a camera--with display pixels, the researchers have built a system that can display a moving image while also tracking the eye movements of the user to control the display. Perfect for a RES (Reality Enhancement System), the next big thing in personal enhancement electronics. Labels: RES
6/03/2009
New radio chip mimics human ear to enable universal radio  MIT engineers have built a fast, ultra-broadband, low-power radio chip, modeled on the human inner ear, that could enable wireless devices capable of receiving cell phone, Internet, radio and television signals. Rahul Sarpeshkar, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and his graduate student, Soumyajit Mandal, designed the chip that is faster than any human-designed radio-frequency spectrum analyzer and also operates at much lower power. "The cochlea quickly gets the big picture of what's going on in the sound spectrum," said Sarpeshkar. "The more I started to look at the ear, the more I realized it's like a super radio with 3,500 parallel channels." Labels: RES
6/02/2009
Head-mounted displays for RES (Reality Enhancement Systems)  Data eyeglasses also called head-mounted displays (HMDs) are the key component to the next big thing, RES devices (Reality Enhancement Systems). A RES smart bot could be in a hand-held device like an iPhone, or it could communicate with you verbally. However, the best RES would feed you the precise data you need both into your ear and eyes with an HMD. "We want to make the eyeglasses bidirectional and interactive so that new areas of application can be opened up," says Dr. Michael Scholles, business unit manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS in Dresden. A group of scientists at IPMS is working on a device which incorporates eye tracking – users can influence the content presented by moving their eyes or fixing on certain points in the image. The Dresden-based researchers have integrated their system's eye tracker and image reproduction on a CMOS chip. This makes the HMDs small, light, easy to manufacture and inexpensive. From the temple the image on the microdisplay is projected onto the retina of the user so that it appears to be viewed from a distance of about one meter. The image has to outshine the ambient light to ensure that it can be seen clearly against changing and highly contrasting backgrounds. For this reason the research scientists use OLEDs, organic light-emitting diodes, to produce microdisplays of particularly high luminance. Labels: RES
5/11/2009
Coming soon: a wrist-wrap RES display to enhance your life  Researchers at the University of Tokyo have moved a step closer to low-cost printed displays and simple computers that you can wear wrapped around your wrist. Takao Someya, an electrical-engineering professor, and his colleagues make a stretchable display by connecting organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic transistors with a new rubbery conductor. The researchers can spread the display over a curved surface without affecting performance, making it the perfect display for RES -- Reality Enhancement Systems. The display can also be folded in half or crumpled up without incurring any damage. Labels: RES
5/09/2009
Color electronic-paper that rivals the real McCoy  A new approach developed by Philips now offers fresh hope for color e-paper displays that are so bright and clear that even traditional liquid crystal displays (LCDs) will pale in comparison. "This is the closest an electronic-paper technology ever got to printed paper," said Kars-Michiel Lenssen, who headed the work at Philips Research, based in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. The new approach has the potential to create color images that are three times brighter than displays that use color filters, including LCDs..... READ Labels: RES
4/27/2009
New wearable RES displays coming from several companies  Several companies are developing prototypes for digital devices that look like stylish eyewear. These devices are a necessary component for the development of smart bot driven RES (Reality Enhancement Systems), sure to be one of the top humods killer apps.... READ .... READ (warning: clueless old media site requiring registration) Labels: RES
3/18/2009
Revolutionary nano-memristors fabbed into first 1 kilbit chip A University of Michigan electrical engineer has built the first chip composed of nanoscale memristors that can store up to 1 kilobit of information. The memristor is a computer component that offers both memory and logic functions in one simple package that has the potential to transform the semiconductor industry, enabling smaller, faster, cheaper chips and computers. Memristors could bring cheap enough computing to allow anything and everything to become a bot providing personal RES devices with ubiquitous locale data.... MORE
3/10/2009
MUST WATCH TED DEMO of RES cloud interface from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT  It was the buzz of the 2009 TED conference. This true vision of a cloud interface is similar to but much better than the fictional interface seen in the movie Minority Report. This is getting very close to the long dreamt of RES -- Reality Enhancement System -- ultimate cloud interface that most humods are prepared to sign over their souls to MIT in order RES-up their life with this baby. And, [deep breath to calm down] the price of the components that went into the prototype [another deep breath] only $350. If you haven't watched this yet, watch it.... watch ....more
3/08/2009
Military gets first bendable touch-screen displays  Researchers have developed the first computer display that is both flexible and touch sensitive. The breakthrough makes possible better RES (Reality Enhancement Systems) and other small Cloud access devices ... more ... more
2/25/2009
Microsoft demos augmented vision RES device Microsoft researchers have developed Reality Enhancement System (RES) software that can, in real time, superimpose computer-generated information on top of a digitized view of the real world. Smart RES software that could find in the cloud, filter and present exactly the localized data we need as we travel through the real world has long been one of our dreams here at Humods.com. Imagine, for example, going house hunting and having interior pictures and floor plans automatically overlay as you look at home exteriors, along with the asking price and fair market price based on all available market data in the cloud ... more
2/18/2009
NY Times notices the possibilities of a RES enabled cell phone After pushing the idea of a RES (Reality Enhancement System) -- a smart, location-aware, personal digital assistant that layers a data-rich reality model over the actual reality as you move through it -- it is great to see the mainstream press finally talking about this. The NY Times has a print and audio story by John Markoff talking about how much more useful a RES-enabled cell phones can be. With the dominance of the cellphone, a new metaphor is emerging for how we organize, find and use information. New in one sense, that is. It is also as ancient as humanity itself. That metaphor is the map.RES IS the killer app for mobile computing and the faster everyone realizes that, the faster the future will happen. Click the labels link below to learn more about why ... more (reg req) Labels: RES
2/17/2009
Military working on powerful RES (Reality Enhancement System)  A company called MNB Technologies is working on a powerful RES (Reality Enhancement System) for the military. The display is a great looking pair of glasses that lets the user see reality with a location aware information overlay from a wearable super computer. A true RES would always provide you with location specific, filtered and highly useful data. It would also have powerful object and face recognition code tied into multiple cloud databases, allowing you to identify and obtain relevant data on anything or anyone you observe. One day, everyone will wear a RES and MNB has taken one of the most impressive steps towards our RES future ... more Labels: RES
2/15/2009
I want to hi-RES my life with a Reality Enhancement System I'm in a strange place, my RES knows where I am and all the foods I like to eat for lunch. As lunch time approaches it looks around the web and finds some deals at nearby restaurants on the foods I like and pops a little notice onto my RES screen, which now, thanks to MIT I can make appear at will on any surface or even on the empty palm of my hand ... watch ... more Labels: RES
1/26/2009
Research finds that frightened people develop more brand loyalty Horror movie directors may be about to find lucrative new careers shooting brand promotion commercials for the world's largest corporations. According to a newly released study by Aric Rindfleisch and Nancy Wong of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and James E. Burroughs (University of Virginia), people form the strongest connections to particular product brands when their levels of anxiety are the highest. "Materialistic consumers with anxiety about their existence are especially in need of the symbolic security that brand connections provide," write the authors. "Given the recent rise in materialistic tendencies along with the media's heightened focus on existential threats, the number of consumers who display this combination of values and motives should increase in the near future."Their research shows that the effect works for cars, microwaves, jeans, cell phones, MP3 players, and sunglasses. After all, inept politicos have successful used fear tactics to get re-elected for years, so why shouldn't instilling fear into consumers work equally well to strengthen all consumer brands?
1/25/2009
Long-distance teleportation between two atoms achieved For the first time, scientists have successfully teleported information between two separate atoms in unconnected enclosures a meter apart - a significant milestone in the global quest for practical quantum information processing. Teleportation works because of a remarkable quantum phenomenon called entanglement which only occurs on the atomic and subatomic scale. Once two objects are put in an entangled state, their properties are inextricably entwined. Although those properties are inherently unknowable until a measurement is made, measuring either one of the objects instantly determines the characteristics of the other, no matter how far apart they are ... more
1/25/2009
Live your life in hi-RES with the latest location-aware apps  Shown in the image is SafetyNetMobile a RES app that does an amazing job of keeping you safe in the city. RES (Reality Enhancement Systems) are smart, location-aware apps that let you more powerfully, safely and efficiently connect to the surrounding reality. Simply put, location changes everything. This one input - our coordinates - has the potential to change all the outputs. Where we shop, who we talk to, what we read, what we search for, where we go - they all change once we merge location and the Web ... moreWired picks the ten best RES apps ... more Labels: RES
1/23/2009
Stretchable electronics that can be wrapped around complex shapes  Jizhou Song, a professor in the University of Miami College of Engineering and his collaborators Professor John Rogers, at the University of Illinois and Professor Yonggang Huang, at Northwestern University have developed a new design for stretchable electronics that can be wrapped around complex shapes, without a reduction in electronic function. The secret of the design is in the silicon (Si) islands on which the active devices or circuits are fabricated. The islands form a chemically bonded, pre-strained elastomeric substrate. ... more
1/13/2009
Nanoscale MRI offers 3D images of viruses and even molecules Researchers at IBM Almaden Research Center have developed an MRI scanner with resolution 100 million times better than previously achieved. Good enough to image individual viral particles and with further refinements, the technique could potentially generate 3-D images of individual molecules. "The dream of imaging a single molecule is something that keeps chemists up at night," says John Marohn, an associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University. "If you had this tool, there's no end of things that you could do with it, and there's no end to the good that would come of it." ... more ... more Labels: RES
1/04/2009
MOBVIS creating first true Reality Enhancement System (RES)  We've been wishing for a device that always knows where we are in the real world, has access to geo-data on every spot on earth, is able to sift through this data intelligently and present us with just what we need to facility our lives. We have coined a term for this device, a RES, short for Reality Enhancement System, an intelligent computer model over reality to make our lives easier, more productive and rewarding. Researchers say MOBVIS will be the first true RES. It will be aware of objects, activity, and events with vision and multi-modal based sensor readings underlying initial hypotheses on items and events in the real world. MOBVIS will detect and recognize objects of high interest in urban scenarios, such as, buildings, infrastructure, people, and faces. MOBVIS will demonstrate research results on map indexing from vision and multi-modal context priming, but also on map aiding functionality to demonstrate how retrieved geo-information features improve performance of the vision task, such as, mobile object recognition. Intelligent maps will augment standard digital city maps with visual, context, and strategic procedural information to aid mobile vision and advanced context awareness tasks. Can't wait to own one ... more Labels: RES
12/28/2008
Test of new global weather model produces breakthrough results Breakthrough results have been obtained from a test of the first computer model that simulates the global atmosphere with a resolution down to individual clouds. The model, called the Nonhydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), was developed for the supercomputer Earth Simulator at JAMSTEC. In the test, atmospheric conditions present 1-2 weeks before the formation of cyclones in the Indian Ocean in December 2006 and January 2007 were fed in. The model captured the timing and location of the formation of the observed cyclones as well as their paths and overall evolution. "We attribute the successful simulation to the realistic representation of both the large-scale circulation and the embedded convective vortices and their merging," says Hironori Fudeyasu, lead author of the study and IPRC postdoctoral fellow ... more Labels: RES
12/24/2008
Augmented Intelligence & Open Source Collaboration in the New Year The universe we live in acts as an intelligence creation engine, wiping out any lifeforms that do not get smart enough fast enough. Humods are all that stand between the human cognitive line and extinction ~ see Humods Worldview. Bio & nano molecular modding technologies have undreamed of power that can extend our line for millions of generations, but they can also destroy us unless we are thoughtful about how we apply them. The old human institutional tools can be of no help, the two tools that can get us through this safely are the new humods institutional tools of Augmented Intelligence and Open Source Collaboration. Make it your new year's resolution that you will do all you can to speed the development and application of both these tools.
12/19/2008
Restoring your brain's ability to rejuvenate itself Researchers have discovered why your brain loses its capacity to re-grow connections and repair itself, knowledge that could lead to therapeutics that can rejuvenate the brain. The study identifies a set of proteins, calpain and cortactin, which regulate and control the sprouting of neurons, a mechanism known as neural plasticity. "This discovery is exciting because we now know that neurons haven't lost their capacity to re-grow connections, but instead are under constant repression by the protein calpain," says postdoctoral fellow Ana Mingorance-Le Meur, who led the investigation along with UBC Professor Timothy O'Connor. "If we can target therapies that block this mechanism, then neurons should be able to sprout new connections, therefore stimulating the brain's ability to repair its wiring network." ... University of British Columbia
12/18/2008
RNAi can act like a vaccine giving immunity to re-infection Researchers are finding ways to use the gene silencing mechanism known as RNA interference to treat a host of diseases. Now, a new study opens up an entirely new possibility for this powerful tool, demonstrating for the first time that RNA interference can be used to develope vaccines. "Our data suggest that an RNAi prophylactic treatment can reduce infection and disease pathogenesis while also acting like a vaccine to engender immunity that protects against subsequent re-infection," said Ralph Tripp ... University of Georgia
12/17/2008
Will mobile phones be the primary net device by 2020? The mobile phone will be "the primary Internet connection and the only one for a majority of the people across the world," the Pew Internet & American Life Project writes in a new The Future of the Internet III report based on a survey of net activists. Actually by 2020, this milestone will be long past. Already mobile net use dominates in the third world and among the young everywhere. By 2020 you won't even think of your mobile net device as a phone. It will be much more of a personal assistant and a Reality Enhancement System (RES), capable of intelligently filtering out and presenting to you the geospacial data that you most need to live your life effectively. Many of your communications with friends and collaborators will be entirely automatic with your net unit automatically adjusting your schedule, if a friend's unit reports they are running late for lunch.
12/10/2008
See-through breakthrough in RES (Reality Enhancement System) devices A group of scientists at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has fabricated a working computer chip that is almost completely clear -- the first of its kind. The new technology is called transparent resistive random access memory (TRRAM) and is important because it enable the development of clear computer monitors and televisions that are embedded inside glass or transparent plastic. Perfect for the creation of RES (Reality Enhancement System) devices ... more Labels: RES
11/14/2008
Silencing natural growth inhibitors causes the regeneration of neurons Researchers have temporarily silenced genes that prevent mature neurons from regenerating, causing them to recover and re-grow vigorously after damage. The breakthrough promises to make possible brain or spinal cord regeneration to correct injury or age-related malfunctions ... Children's Hospital Boston
11/04/2008
Increase the resolution of your reality with the Geode RES bot A RES bot is an intelligent reality enhancement system that dynamically builds and updates a location-based data set for your use. A good RES bot should take your interests, your friend's locations, and all available location net data into account to provide you with intel that increases the resolution of your reality. Geode for Firefox is an early effort at creating a RES bot ... Geode
10/28/2008
Google's amazing Reality Enhancement System (RES) The Google Earth on the iPhone or iTouch is an awe inspiring RES bot. A massive knowledge base covering any location on Earth in your palm whenever you need it. Sat photo, ground photos or the menu and phone number of the nearest bistro, turn up the RES of your life ... watch
9/24/2008
Crowd tagging your reality so it displays in HiRES In addition to extending our lifespans and enhancing our minds internally, an important element of our humods future is the tagging of reality to create a Heuristic Informational Reality Enhancement System (HiRES or just RES for short). Eventually, we will all carry a smart bot to pickup and filter these tags, feeding us relevant intel about our immediate environment. TonchiDot is developing such a system, check out their demo ... watch
9/21/2008
New Bluetooth Reality Enhancement System (RES) developed A new Bluetooth RES system called "Talking Points" places a layer of information technology over the real world to tell pedestrians about points of interest along their path as they pass them. "The idea behind Talking Points is to enhance the journey," said James Knox, one of the system's developers. "If it caught on, this would be an effective way to tag the whole world," said Jason Stewart, a master's student in the School of Information who is involved in the project. "Anyone with a reader could use it to find out more information about where they are." ... University of Michigan Labels: RES
8/29/2008
RES device reads signs, overlays nav arrows on real time video  The closest thing yet to the Reality Enhancement System (RES) humods have been longing for appears to be the navigation, communication and entertainment device, World Travel Pilot 700 from Blaupunkt. With GPS-driven arrows integrated right into the real time video keeping your navigation on track, plus traffic sign recognition. This device appears to be a big step towards the ideal of a smart bot RES that models reality as you move through it with an overlay of information that tells you exactly what you need to know, exactly when you need to know it. That's the humods' future and this device seems a big step towards it ... more
8/29/2008
Winners of Google's first Android Developer Challenge  Here are the 10 winners of Google's $275,000 prizes, and the 10 winners of their $100,000 prizes, along with all the runners up. Shown below is a screen shot from $275,000 winner cab4me. As our main computing platform shifts to a pocket device in the years ahead, these devices will run Reality Enhancement Services (RES), which Android is designed to facilitate. RES overlays location-based information on the reality around you, so no matter where you go, you will always have exactly the location-specific data you need. Apple's iPhone and Android are the leaders in RES. Because Android is more open than iPhone, look for Android to take over from Windows as the number one computer operating system ... more Labels: RES
8/20/2008
New nano-positioners with atomic-scale precision  The device, called a monolithic comb drive, might be used as a "nanoscale manipulator" that precisely moves or senses movement and forces. The devices also can be used in watery environments for probing biological molecules, said Jason Vaughn Clark, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering, who created the design.The monolithic comb drives could make it possible to improve a class of probe-based sensors that detect viruses and biological molecules. The sensors detect objects using two different components: A probe is moved while at the same time the platform holding the specimen is positioned. The new technology would replace both components with a single one - the monolithic comb drive. The innovation could allow sensors to work faster and at higher resolution and would be small enough to fit on a microchip. The higher resolution might be used to design future computer hard drives capable of high-density data storage and retrieval. Another possible use might be to fabricate or assemble miniature micro and nanoscale machines. The size of the entire device is less than one millimeter, or a thousandth of a meter. The smallest feature size is about three micrometers, roughly one-thirtieth as wide as a human hair. "You can make them smaller, though," said the developers. The work is based at the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue's Discovery Park ... more
8/18/2008
Self-assembling polymer arrays for data storage A new manufacturing approach holds the potential to overcome the technological limitations currently facing the microelectronics and data-storage industries, paving the way to smaller electronic devices and higher-capacity hard drives.The new method builds on existing approaches by combining the lithography techniques traditionally used to pattern microelectronics with novel self-assembling materials called block copolymers. When added to a lithographically patterned surface, the copolymers' long molecular chains spontaneously assemble into the designated arrangements. The block copolymers pattern the resulting array down to the molecular level, offering a precision unattainable by traditional lithography-based methods alone and even correcting irregularities in the underlying chemical pattern. Such nanoscale control also allows the researchers to create higher-resolution arrays capable of holding more information than those produced today ,,, more Labels: RES
8/18/2008
Better and faster ways to image proteins Understanding the form and function of certain proteins in the human body is becoming faster and easier, thanks to the work of researchers at the University of Illinois. By combining custom-built spectrometers, novel probe designs and faster pulse sequences, a team led by Illinois chemistry professor Chad Rienstra has developed unique capabilities for probing protein chemistry and structure through the use of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The researchers' recent results represent significant progress toward atomic-scale resolution of protein structure by solid-state NMR spectroscopy. The technique can be applied to a large range of membrane proteins and fibrils, which, because they are not water-soluble, are often not amenable to more conventional solution NMR spectroscopy or X-ray crystallography. "In our experiments, we explore couplings between atoms in proteins," Rienstra said. "Our goal is to translate genomic information into high-resolution structural information, and thereby be able to better understand the function of the proteins." ... more
8/13/2008
New metamaterials to weave your invisibility cloak  Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have for the first time engineered 3-D materials that can reverse the natural direction of visible and near-infrared light, a development that could help form the basis for higher resolution optical imaging, nanocircuits for high-powered computers, and, to the delight of science-fiction and fantasy buffs, cloaking devices that could render objects invisible to the human eye ... moreLabels: RES
8/12/2008
Flickr Introduces Simpler, Faster Geotagging Tools  One vitally important humods technology that is quickly moving from concept to reality is RES, Reality Enhancement Services. These are bots that harness the wisdom of crowds through location taggging to always have available helpful location-centric data for you . Popular photo-sharing site Flickr has introduced a simpler way to geotag your photos. The site now offers a link, “add to your map,” beside all your photographs. Click the new option and you’ll be greeted with a mini Yahoo Map. Just drag the shot where you want it and the geotags will be automatically added. This is another step towards RES that makes you life a lot easier ... more
8/10/2008
Smart bots are keeping airport runways safe  Remember those horrible images of the Concorde burning in the air after hitting debris on a runway in France. Today smart bots are monitoring runways to prevent that type of accident from ever happening again.The Tarsier automatic foreign object debris (FOD) detection bot from QinetiQ automatically detects FOD, birds and wildlife, metal, glass and plastic, even cellophane and card. With unique radar signal processing, Tarsier can pinpoint a bolt-size object anywhere on the runway ... more The iFerret™ from Stratech Systems Limited utilizes intelligent computer Vision to detect and classify foreign objects. This bot features self-calibrating cameras, automated scene analysis and configurable scan resolution for different object sizes. Providing continuous runway inspection in-between flights, it facilitates rapid recovery response through accurate assessment and real-time alert for FOD, bird strike conditions ... more
8/10/2008
Extending your sensory web with a WiFi mobile bot  Soon net-connected smart bot mobile units will be able to handle many tasks for you. You might, for example, assign a smart bot to watch over your home when you are away and alert you over the net of any problems, feeding you video over WiFi of its observations. Surveyor's SRV-1 is an early prototype of such a system. Designed for research, education, and exploration, this internet-controlled bot integrates a 1000MIPS 500MHz Analog Devices Blackfin BF537 processor, a digital video camera with resolution from 160x28 to 1280x1024 pixels, laser pointer ranging, and WLAN 802.11b/g networking on a quad-motor tracked mobile bot base. Operating as a remotely-controlled webcam or a self-navigating autonomous robot, the SRV-1 can run onboard interpreted C programs or user-modified firmware, or be remotely managed from a Windows, Mac OS/X or Linux base station with Python or Java-based console software. The Java-based console software includes a built-in web server to monitor and control the SRV-1 via a web browser from anywhere in the world, as well as archive video feeds on demand or on a scheduled basis ... more
8/08/2008
Body part most in need of re-design ~ the spine  The spine is probably the human body part that could most benefit from a complete re-engineering. It has been a source of pain for so long to so many. Nexgen Spine, a leading developer of innovative spinal implants for the surgical treatment of degenerative disc disease is trying to relieve that pain, but of course, the world's medical bureaucrats have been standing in the way. But good news, the EU medical bureaucrats have now approved their Physio-L(R) Lumbar Artificial Disc. "We are delighted that the Physio-L(R) Artificial Disc Prosthesis has received CE mark approval," said Alastair Clemow, Ph.D., President and CEO of Nexgen Spine. "This represents an important milestone in our plan to launch a full range of artificial disc prostheses based on our proprietary elastomeric disc technology." ... moreLabels: RES
8/04/2008
Perfect design for use as RES display eye-ware  A number of efforts have been made to turn eye-ware into a display system. This would allow a computer model to be layered over your reality, creating a Reality Enhancement Service (RES) that could always give you any real-time, location-specific intel you needed. One drawback to these efforts has always been that while some of them work remarkably well as display systems, all tend to put enough extra weight on your nose to be too bothersome for extended ware. That problem is what has me excitedly admiring this cool new eye-ware design from W.J. Kim of Seoul, South Korea, where the back of the head and ears could support any extra display weight, instead of the long suffering nose. Kim's web page says he has worked for LG for the last 12 years. Please LG, let Kim design a really cool eye-ware display and sell it to humods for a reasonable price ... moreLabels: RES
7/29/2008
Bioengineers develop 'microscope on a chip'  Researchers have developed a super-compact high-resolution microscope, small enough to fit on a finger tip. This "microscopic microscope" operates without lenses but has the magnifying power of a top-quality optical microscope, can be used in the field to analyze blood samples for malaria or check water supplies for giardia and other pathogens, and can be mass-produced for around $10. "It could be put in a cell phone," says Changhuei Yang, assistant professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering at Caltech, who developed the device. The new instrument combines traditional computer-chip technology with microfluidics--the channeling of fluid flow at incredibly small scales ... more
7/28/2008
Getting up-close and personal pictures of nanobots  The fab of nanobots and other nano-devices benefits from good nano-scale imaging. Now Jülich scientists have succeeded in precisely measuring atomic spacings down to a few picometres using new methods in ultrahigh-resolution electron microscopy. This makes it possible to find out decisive parameters determining the physical properties of materials directly on an atomic level in a microscope ... more
7/23/2008
Turn your mobile phone into a social life control bot Loopt.com, a new Reality Enhancement Service (res) bot, shows users where friends are located and what they are doing via detailed, interactive maps on their mobile phones. The bot helps friends connect on the fly and navigate their social lives by orienting them to people, places and events. Users can also share location updates, geo-tagged photos and comments with friends in their mobile address book or on online social networks, communities and blogs ... more
7/18/2008
Curing diseases by blocking signaling proteins Curing diseases by blocking or re-programming signaling proteins is a promising area of scientific inquiry. The body's inflammatory response often can get out of hand and do much more harm than good. In the latest success with signaling proteins, a team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has uncovered a new signaling mechanism used to activate protein kinases that are critical for the body's inflammatory response. "These results may identify a potential therapy for interfering with inflammation," said Michael Karin, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and pathology in UC San Diego's Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction ... more
7/18/2008
The race to build a bot that can understand language Semantic search is the term used by computer scientists to describe bots that can actually understand the context of a web page, not just look for keywords. Obviously, such a bot could greatly improve everyone's search results and many teams are working on this problem at universities all over the world. Companies working on a language understanding bot include: Poweset (recently assimilated by Microsoft), Cognition Technologies, Hakia, and Expert Systems. The financial success of Google has researchers focused on search applications, but the greatest advantage of building a bot able to understand the context of language will come elsewhere. Solving the semantic search problem will also put an enormously powerful personal assistant bot in everyone's pocket that we chat with constantly to organizes our lives. It will function as a RES (reality enhancement system) bringing us the data we need to successfully negotiate reality. It will handle our communication, letting in friends and filtering out spam. Our personal assistant bots will ultimately become the technology we rely on the most.
7/14/2008
Successful 2,700 hour test of micro fuel cell chip  The Mobion chip is 9ccs in size, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. The chips are based on 100% methanol feed, passive, direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) technology, and represent a number of scientific breakthroughs that the Company believes will ultimately enable it to power portable devices longer than lithium-ion batteries, while allowing for instant, cord-free re-charging."Our test results are a clear indication of the technical progress we have made on performance metrics including life, degradation, temperature, and humidity levels which are required to bring products to market in the consumer electronics industry. To our knowledge, there are no other published results that match ours," said Jim Prueitt, Vice President of Engineering and Operations at MTI Micro.
7/12/2008
Altering a cold virus to track cancer cells Using a re-engineered common cold virus, UCLA researchers delivered a genetic payload to prostate cancer cells that allowed them, using positron emission tomography, to locate the diseased cells as they spread to the lymph nodes, the first place prostate cancer goes before invading other organs ... more
7/10/2008
DNA sewing machine  Japanese scientists have made a micro-sized sewing machine to sew long threads of DNA into shape. The work published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Lab on a Chip demonstrates a unique way to manipulate delicate DNA chains without breaking them. Scientists can diagnose genetic disorders such as Down's syndrome by using gene markers, or "probes", which bind to only highly similar chains of DNA. Once bound, the probe's location can be easily detected by fluorescence, and this gives information about the gene problem. Detecting these probes is often a slow and difficult process, however, as the chains become tightly coiled. The new method presented by Kyohei Terao from Kyoto University, and colleagues from The University of Tokyo, uses micron-sized hooks controlled by lasers to catch and straighten a DNA strand with excellent precision and care. "When a DNA molecule is manipulated and straightened by microhooks and bobbins, the gene location can be determined easily with high-spatial resolution," says Terao. The team used optical tweezers – tightly focused laser beams – to control the Z-shaped micro hook and pick up a single DNA "thread". The hook is barbed like an arrow, so the thread can't escape. When caught on the hook, the DNA can be accurately moved around by refocusing the lasers to new positions.
7/09/2008
The future of disease prevention is slowing aging Slowing the aging process would have a much greater benefit for people's health than traditional medical approaches that target individual disease, say British and American experts on BMJ.com today. Most medical research focuses on preventing and curing individual diseases as if they were independent of one another, but as people in developed nations are living longer they are increasingly experiencing more than one age related disease. Co-morbidity is now the norm rather than the exception. Professor S Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and colleagues believe that the effectiveness of the disease-specific approach will become increasingly limited and that even if a "cure" was found for any of the major fatal diseases, it would have only a marginal effect on life expectancy. They argue that because our susceptibility to disease increases as we grow older, the most efficient approach to combating disease and disability is a "systematic attack on aging itself." Recent advances in understanding the biological mechanisms responsible for aging, which give rise to most diseases and other age related health problems, means that the time has arrived for this new model of health promotion and disease prevention. What a wonderful thing it is to finally see such thinking in a mainstream medical journal. Doctors are finally starting to catch on to what a handful of medical researchers have know for years, that bio/nano technologies can be used to re-engineer humans for extended life spans.
7/05/2008
Is your GPS device a spy eye for Big Brother? Well, alas, it could be. New Scientist has an article titled Why satnavs are a detective's best friend explaining how GPS devices (and certainly the more sophisticated RES, Reality Enhancement Systems that are in your future) can be a significant threat to your privacy. Many don't properly erase past trips. This could be sloppying programming or governments may have put pressure on a company to include this "feature," as with the spy capabilities built into every American communication system. The solution to maintaining your privacy is to always insist on using open source code in all of your devices. Because of it open nature, open source code always tends to be much more privacy friendly and much less accomindating the efforts by Big Brother to spy on us all.
7/03/2008
RES software tracks where the wild things are  Like a Doppler weather map with red blotches tracking the paths of major storms, a new RES (Reality Enhancement System) tracking software service co-developed by Columbia University computer science professor Tony Jebara instantly shows people where the hottest clubs or hangouts are, in real time. Jebara’s creation, Citysense, uses advanced machine learning techniques to number crunch vast amounts of data emanating from thousands of cell-phones, GPS-equipped cabs and other data devices to paint live pictures of where people are gathering. Fed to websites such as Google or Yelp, the data reveals what’s happening at any location. Translation: if you have a Blackberry, you have instant 411 on where the cool folks are. Or, are not. (An IPhone version is coming). The technology can also show if your favorite commute route is backed up and possibly offer alternative ones. Other applications abound ... more
7/02/2008
New company to produce RES applications AppLoop is a Silicon Valley start up founded by Eric Kerr and Jacob Eiting for designing Reality Enhancement System (RES) applications that track your location and send you data relevant to where you are currently located. Their first product will allow advertisers to give you location specific ads over your iPhone. For example, a nearby restaurant might offer you a lunch special just before the lunch hour. Labels: RES
7/01/2008
New map IDs the core of the human brain  An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex -- the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher level thinking -- connect and communicate. Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain. It not only provides a comprehensive map of brain connections (the brain "connectome"), but also describes a novel application of a non-invasive technique that can be used by other scientists to continue mapping the trillions of neural connections in the brain at even greater resolution, which is becoming a new field of science termed "connectomics." "This is one of the first steps necessary for building large-scale computational models of the human brain to help us understand processes that are difficult to observe, such as disease states and recovery processes to injuries," said Olaf Sporns, co-author of the study and neuroscientist at Indiana University. The team of neuroimaging researchers used state-of-the-art diffusion MRI technology, which is a non-invasive scanning technique that estimates fiber connection trajectories based on gradient maps of the diffusion of water molecules through brain tissue. The work by the researchers from Indiana University, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and Harvard Medical School appear in the journal PLoS Biology.
6/29/2008
LightPole building RES infrasturcture for publishers LightPole offers software and services for Reality Enhancement Sytems (RES), enabling publishers to distribute geo-specific content to mobile devices. In the next 5-10 years, mobile devices will supplant PCs as the primary interface to the Web. In addition, mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular as personal tools for social networking, calendaring, and location-based services. LightPole says that their mission is to bring the world of geo-contextual content to the growing population—now counted in hundreds of millions—of mobile phone users. LightPole publishing services make it easy for publishers, bloggers, and other content providers to distribute content to mobile device users, and to engage users in interactive communities. No special programming or expensive IT investments are required. LightPole enables publishers to easily extend the publishing systems they already have to reach new markets and build new communities. The LightPole publishing service supports a variety of content distribution models, including subscriptions, transactions, and advertising. The company offers “location-aware discovery” of content, giving mobile devices users unprecedented access to a wealth of information about where they are. Labels: RES
6/25/2008
Closed cell phone operating systems open up Symbian the software that dominates the world market for cell phone operating systems is going open source. With Apple also opening its iPhone to developers and Google's Android already wide open, all major cell phone operating systems are now open. So instead of the handful of crappy apps on your phone today, you will soon be seeing tens of thousands of available applications, many of which will no doubt be fully RES (Reality Enhancement Systems) and net enabled. Nokia's announcement.
6/24/2008
A cool RES app for iPhone from Schmap Reality Enchancement Systems (RES) moves a step forward as Schmap the publisher of hundreds of city guides in the cloud has added a neat little rotate to map feature for iPhones. I'd love to see a map, then rotate to get tags (geo-specific user comments) function for any location in the world. ... more Labels: RES
6/20/2008
Advance in tags tech to RES-up your cell phone Turning your cell phone into a Reality Enhancement System (RES) is moving closer with Duke University engineers work on geotags. A team led by Roy Choudhury has developed a new software system that enables users to obtain location-specific, real-time information - either passively or directly - from other mobile phone users across the world. It will be as if every participating mobile phone works together, allowing each individual to access information throughout that virtual network. Iterested in trying that new Mexican restaurant? Tap into the virtual sticky notes (geotags) floating in the cloud within the restaurant and find what other network users thought of it. ... more
6/18/2008
Don't just chat over your computer, chat with it For a pocket computer to truly become a Reality Enhancement System (RES), users need to be able to chat with their computers. Motivated by the idea of allowing people to say what they want to say, in the way they want to say it, the EU-funded TALK (Tools for Ambient Linguistic Knowledge) project set about developing technology that would also allow for the systems to learn from the process ... more Labels: RES
6/18/2008
Chill, your RES will soon have all the answers In more Reality Enhancement System (RES) developments, European researchers are working to create the smart agents necessary to make pocket computers more human-centric, able to anticipate your needs and smoothly act to meet them. Rather than focusing on human-and-machine interaction, they are thinking more in terms of teaching our computers to grease the skids of human-to-human interactions, which is exactly how it needs to be. European researchers have developed code that can understand the context of meetings and proactively help the participants by filtering and responding to incoming mobile phone calls, secretly reminding participants of facts such as other participants’ names, and providing a virtual shared workspace for all. This is what RES systems need to do, overlay an intelligent database model on our reality and feed us exactly the information we need to preform at our best, based on the location and situation that we are in, while keeping all the potential distractions at bay ... more Labels: RES
6/18/2008
Nokia to focus on giving their phones RES capabilities Nokia is finally grasping the huge potential market for what I like to call RES for Reality Enhancement Systems. These are databases of useful tags delivered to you in an intelligent, useful and timely way over a small geo-aware internet device. Nokia has just complete a study aimed at better utilizing the power of tagging, also know as crowd sourcing, to make their devices more intelligent and much more useful. "We see phones as becoming less phones and more a bridge between the analog world we live in and the digital world of the Internet," says Nokia Chief Technical Officer Bob Ianucci. Nokia is finally clued in. Give us a digital model of the reality around us full of useful tags that is continuously overlayed on the actual reality as we travel through it. That is RES. That is the killer app for mobile devices. Now that Nokia understands RES is king, hopefully all the other device makers won't be too far behind. Update: on the way to lunch today Tom Tom was running ads for a new system that would let your GPS find the cheapest gas and lead you to it. RES is finally arriving ... more Labels: RES
6/17/2008
An electromagnetic nano-positioning actuator Researchers are working on a novel nano-positioning actuator with large displacement and driving force called a flexure-based electromagnetic linear actuator (FELA). The device offers an electromagnetic driving scheme and flexure-supporting bearings that provide infinite positioning resolution and highly repeatable motion ... more
6/17/2008
Viral genes wound for ejection into a host cell A novel twist of DNA may keep viral genes tightly wound within a capsule, waiting for ejection into a host, a high-resolution analysis of its structure has revealed. A comparison between images of the virus with and without its DNA cargo revealed that the DNA twists tightly into a donut shape, or toroid, in the neck of the virus between its head and tail. "This highly distorted DNA structure is unlike anything previously seen or even predicted in a virus," said Timothy Baker who headed the research team. "It's an improbably tight turn for DNA, which is generally considered inflexible over very small distances." During assembly of the virus, a molecular motor in the neck winds the DNA strand into a tight coil within the head. "It's under tremendous pressure -- about 20 times that of champagne in a bottle," said Tang, the lead author of the paper ... more
6/15/2008
GPS for the iPhone creates a second platform for RES The announcement of GPS for the iPhone creates a second platform for Reality Enhancement Systems (RES). RES are devices that always know where you are and constantly pull in the location specific intel you need to live your life better. Imagine a system that uses other users' tags to always take you to the best and cheapest of everything from gasoline to tacos. The other RES system is Google's Android that benefits from having about 100 developers for every 1 iPhone currently has ... more Labels: RES
6/10/2008
VIA release OpenBook netbook reference design VIA, a major innovator in computer chips that are far less power hungry for use in ultra-portable computers like the EeePC has released the OpenBook mini-note reference design to help push forward development in the mini-note category of computers. Features include an 8.9” screen with up to 1024x600 resolution, flexible local WiFi and long range WiMAX, HSDPA or EV-DO/W-CDMA 3G cellular connectivity options, and DirectX 9.0 3D graphics for quality multi-media playback. To see what is just ahead in the most personal level of computing, click for pics and more details from VIA's web site ... more
6/08/2008
Implanted Bluetooth with GPS Implanted Bluetooth with GPS could allow doctors to monitor heart attack or diabetic patients remotely and send help if needed ... more Labels: RES
6/08/2008
Humods want RES (Reality Enhancement Systems) RES (Reality Enhancement Systems) are devices that will always track where you are with GPS and utilize smart agents to constantly pull in useful informationabout your locale. A cloud of intelligent agents to get you what you need and filter out all the spam and other background noise is going to be essential in the years ahead as automated systems start to throw more and more intel at us. Google's Android software platform is perfectly designed to allow development of RES agents. Google is offering $10 million in awards with no strings attached to developers coming up with cool apps for the Android platform and some amazing ideas are among the early award winners. Take a look at photos and details of what you will be seeing in Android mobile internet apps in the next year or so ... more pdf Labels: RES
6/08/2008
Accurate recognition of voice commands is finally getting real With a whole host of highly advanced speech technologies, including emotion and lie detection, now moving from the lab to the marketplace, voice commands get real. Software released last year has achieved a high enough accuracy to have boosted speech recognition into a $2 billion annual market ... more Labels: RES
6/07/2008
Sony unveiled the key hardware for a Reality Enhancement System (RES) Sony unveiled the key hardware for a Reality Enhancement System (RES) a see-through QVGA resolution eyeglass display. This with an audio system in the glasses frame can make a decent RES system work. Imagine looking at an Italian restaurant you are thinking about giving a try and having your glasses whisper in your ear, "56% bad tags on this one. There's another Italian restaurant in the next block with 93% good tags." And then as you turn to look back down the street your glasses point the good restaurant out to you. Never be offline. ... more Labels: RES
6/06/2008
Wearable personal transportation Humods want more personal transport that you put on rather than get into, like the Segway x2 Adventure and now this wearable motorcycle concept created by a design student for Yamaha ... more ... x2 Adventure For my money, Syd Mead (of Blade Runner fame) still holds the title for the coolest wearable transport design. A small image of it can be found at the top left on his web page ... more Motor or peddle, whatever your ride this universal bike mount for RES, MID, cell, PDA or GPS is a must ... more
6/05/2008
Making cells trackable throughout our body Individual cells can be made to produce tiny magnetic nuggets inside themselves, allowing them to be extremely precisely tracked as they move throughout the body using magnetic resonance imaging by the introduction of a single gene called MagA from magnetotactic bacteria. Being able to do the highly detailed brain maps necessary to create a direct high-res brain/computer interface just got a step closer. ... more And new research into designing nano-particles for gene delivery to DNA could make getting those MagA genes in place much easier ... more
6/01/2008
Reality Enhancement Systems (RES) come closer A number of new developments in the Reality Enhancement System (RES) area. BlackBerry Bold w/ GPS, player, camera, Wi-fi & 3G moves a step closer to the COM+RES (Reality Enhancement System) devices that humods would like to see available ... more And dynamic traffic data and relevant location data on 800,000 miles of US roads arrives ... more Labels: RES Send comments to: humods [at] gmail [dot] com |