Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s “Adaptive Use Musical Instruments for the Physically Challenged” program enables students with severe physical disabilities to make music by just moving their heads. The system uses a digital video camera to track a student’s head movements on a computer screen and then translates the movements into piano scales or drum beats. Zane Van Dusen, a RPI undergraduate student in computer science and electronic media arts and communication, developed the idea of using a digital video camera to track the user’s head. A cursor is digitally placed on a portion of the student’s head, usually the tip of the nose, to follow the user’s movements. As the cursor moves, sounds are created based on the user’s movements. Moving the head completely in one direction will create a scale climb on the piano or a quick series of drum beats or a drum roll. The project’s ultimate goal is to eventually enable students to compose their own pieces to help students learn the creative process and build communication skills. “The client or patient doesn’t have to be a musician to participate,” says the American Musical Therapy Association’s Al Bumanis. “The goal is not usually a performance, it’s increasing communication skills, understanding, relearning lost skills.”
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The number of doctorates awarded in science and engineering (S&E) fields has risen for the fourth consecutive year, according to the National Science Foundation. Last year the United States produced 29,854 doctorate degrees in S&E fields, an increase of nearly 7 percent from the previous year. Computer science doctorates led the way with a 28 percent increase to 1,452 degrees, following a double-digit increase in CS doctorates from the previous year. CS doctorates are up 79 percent since 2002 and now represent a considerable share of not only S&E doctorates but all doctorate degrees. Non-U.S. citizens have been key to the growth in CS doctorate degree production. In the mid-to-late 1990s permanent or temporary visa holders received about half of CS doctorates, but last year they accounted for 61 percent. CS doctorates to U.S. citizens rose 42 percent from 2002 to 2006, but jumped 115 percent for non-U.S. citizens over the same period.
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The Obama administration has declassified part of its plan to improve the security of cyberspace in an attempt to cultivate greater collaboration between government and civilian groups. More cooperation between the private sector and the U.S. National Security Agency is the centerpiece of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI). The declassified abstract of the plan reveals that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will operate a new security system, called Einstein 3, that analyzes email and other data traffic into and out of federal networks. CNCI also urges merged oversight of federal spending on research and development in cybersecurity, with a particular focus on “leap-ahead” technology. Although the initiative acknowledges that traditional security approaches “have not achieved the level of security needed,” it says the federal government is now outlining “grand challenges” for the research community to help solve the most difficult problems.
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Hewlett-Packard (HP) Labs announced the opening of a new research and development (R&D) center in Singapore. The Singapore lab will work with HP labs in Bristol, England, and Palo Alto, Calif., on research in cloud computing and software development. The Singapore lab is located in a government-owned research facility called Fusionopolis. HP says the lab in part will work to meet the needs of telecom companies. According to a recent National Science Foundation report, Singapore, China, and South Korea are the fastest growing countries for overseas R&D by U.S. companies. The Singapore lab is part of HP’s renewed effort to generate cutting-edge technology developments from its scientific centers in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. HP Labs director Prith Banerjee has urged labs in China, England, India, Israel, and Russia to work with each other to produce more inventions that can be turned into revenue-producing technology for the company.
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Japanese scientists have developed a statistical program that could enable portable baby-monitoring devices to determine whether infant cries mean a baby is sleepy, hungry, needs a change, or is in pain. Tomomasa Nagashima and colleagues at the Muroran Institute of Technology used a sound pattern recognition strategy to analyze infants’ crying patterns. The team analyzed the frequency of cries and the power function of the audio spectrum to classify different types of crying. Nagashima and colleagues were able to correlate the different recorded audio spectra with the emotional state of a baby as confirmed by the parents. Recordings of a crying baby with a painful genetic disorder helped the researchers differentiate the cries of babies who are in pain. They were able to achieve a 100 percent success rate in classifying pained cries and normal cries via their technique.
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