An Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) study examined how appearance, motion quality, and other characteristics of computer-generated characters impact the moral and ethical decisions of their viewers. The research found that the decisions of men were strongly affected by presentational aspects of the simulated woman, while women’s decisions were not. In the study, a simulated female character, whose photorealism and motion quality were varied in four ways, presented participants with an ethical problem related to sexual conduct and marital infidelity. The changes had no significant effect on female viewers, while male viewers were much more likely to rule against the character when her visual appearance was obviously computer generated. “Although it is difficult to generalize, I think the general trend is that both men and women are more sympathetic to real human characters than to simulated human characters,” says IUPUI professor Karl F. MacDorman. The findings could impact the design of future systems created to facilitate medical decision-making and crime reenactments.
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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) researchers have developed a technique for examining networks to help identify patterns and see how connections evolve. They say the approach offers the ability to examine networks that vary over time and have multiple kinds of connections. “This method offers new potential for handling a fire hose of information, whether you’re looking at an online social network or a real-world web of people or things,” says UNC professor Peter J. Mucha. The researchers derived the new method from mathematical principles and applied it to a few example datasets, including the complete historical roll call voting record in the U.S. Senate through 2008, and a set of Facebook profiles from nearly 1,700 students at an anonymous U.S. university. The method divides a network into multiple “slices,” with each slice representing the network at one snapshot in time, or a different set of connections between the individuals within it. These slices are then combined and analyzed to identify communities.
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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have developed a transistor, which they say could be a step toward making prosthetic devices that can be wired directly into a person’s nervous system. The transistor consists of a carbon nanotube that behaves like a semiconductor, bridging the gap between two metal electrodes and coated with an insulating polymer layer that leaves the middle section of the nanotube exposed. The entire device is then coated again, this time with a lipid bi-layer similar to those that form the membranes surrounding a human’s cells. The researchers then applied a voltage across the transistor’s electrodes and poured a solution containing adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This caused a current to flow through the electrodes, with a higher concentration of ATP resulting in a stronger current. LLNL researcher Aleksandr Noy says this is the first example of an integrated bioelectronic system. “I hope that this type of technology could be used to construct seamless bioelectronic interfaces to allow better communication between living organisms and machines,” Noy says.
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University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers have developed a type of quantum cryptography, which guarantees that only a person at a certain location can read an encrypted message. The researchers say their method makes no assumption other than that laws of quantum physics are correct. It is not technically complex, because it only calls for a qubit to be sent along a quantum channel, while all other communication can be completed classically. A quantum measurement is required, but not quantum computation. The researchers say that there is no technological reason why this scheme cannot be implemented today. Although the approach is relatively simple, the proof of its security is complex and involved. “Unfortunately we do not have a security proof, and we leave it as an open problem to find an attack or prove its security,” says UCLA’s Nishanth Chandran.
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