The Japanese government is collaborating with the private sector to develop mind-reading consumer electronics and robots that could be ready in 10 years. The robotic devices would make use of brain-machine interface technology, which would enable them to analyze the brain waves and brain blood-flow patterns of users, who would wear sensor-mounted headsets. For example, the technology would enable users to use their thoughts to control TVs or send text messages. A car navigation system could automatically search for restaurants when the driver gets hungry, and air conditioners could cool a room when it gets too warm. Also, robots could help older adults or people with disabilities. Toyota, Honda, and Hitachi, as well as the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Osaka University, and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International are expected to be involved in the initiative.
View Full Article
For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been conducting its 10th annual Cyber Defense Exercise, a contest that pits students from various military academies against each other and against the competition’s leaders at NSA in a bid to see whose cyberdefense skills are superior. The objective is to help the students learn about information assurance and its application toward the protection of the most crucial information systems in the United States and Canada. Air Force Capt. Michael Henson says the participants are tasked with building a network with all of the services mandated by the NSA’s directive. They must then keep those services operational while battling attempts to bring them down electronically. “All of the faculty have agreed that it is important for the students to be exposed to situations where they can’t guarantee a system is 100 percent locked down and have to react when that system is inevitably compromised,” Henson says. He notes that much of the technology and methods that NSA uses against the student teams also is available in the commercial Internet.
View Full Article
For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com

The Eindhoven University of Technology’s (TU/e’s) Knowledgeable Service Robots for Aging (KSERA) project aims to link robots and smart homes to help elderly people live better. The KSERA project is focusing on helping chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. Within the next three years, the project aims to complete several demonstration homes, which will be equipped with a robot and the domestic systems of a smart home. The robot will follow patients through the house, learn their habits, and warn a doctor if the patient is not doing well. In addition, the robot will provide entertainment in the form of Internet and videos. “We want to show what is possible in this area,” says KSERA project coordinator Lydia Meesters. KSERA researchers also will collaborate with the TU/e-led RoboEarth project, which aims to build a global central memory for robots that will enable them to learn from each other. Ethical issues will be given special attention. “We need to define clear limits, for the robot will continuously measure and see very private data,” Meesters says.
View Full Article
For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com

Researchers in Barcelona are developing virtual reality spaces that incorporate touch-sensitive tiles and immersive animations. Pompeu Fabra University professor Paul Verschure says his research team has built an experience-induction machine as part of the PRESENCCIA project to understand how humans can exist in physical and virtual environments simultaneously. One of the project’s major challenges was creating a credible virtual environment, which required the researchers to understand how people’s brains construct a vision of the world. “Imagine what we see is sort of rapidly jumping about–that would not be a believable experience for us,” Verschure says. “So that means one thing we have really tried to engineer here also from a psychological perspective is how do I feed this continuity of expectations that our brain is generating about the world.” The researchers say the ultimate goal is to advance human-computer interaction beyond the traditional keyboard, screen, and mouse. “What we’re trying to do is to understand why people behave in a more or less natural way in a virtual reality,” says PRESENCCIA project coordinator Mel Slater. Petar Horki, a student at Austria’s Graz University of Technology, is using PRESENCCIA concepts to create a virtual reality system that uses mind control, allowing the user to simply think about an action to perform that action in the virtual world. “Actually, I’m not doing anything, I’m just imagining I’m doing a brisk foot movement, and by this imagination I can move at least in this virtual room,” Horki says.

View Full Article

For More Information:http://www.cpccci.com

Cornell University computer scientists have developed a method for generating the crashing and rumbling noises of objects made from thin harmonic shells such as cymbals and garbage can lids. The method, developed by professor Doug James and graduate students Jeffrey Chadwick and Steven An, will be presented at ACM’s SIGGRAPH Asia conference, which takes Dec. 16-19 in Yokohama, Japan. When a thin-shelled object falls or is struck, the metal or plastic slightly deforms and then snaps back into place, creating a vibration. Previous methods of synthesizing these noises did not account for the coupling effect that occurred when energy transfers from one vibration to another and back again, which resulted in a clean, clear sound that is more appropriate for a bell or chime. The new method accounts for this interaction and maps how the sound waves radiate to determine how the event will sound to a listener in any particular location. The researchers say that although their method is significantly faster than existing systems, the computations for a simple demonstration still take about an hour on a laptop. However, the researchers are hopeful that the simulation process can be accelerated by making some approximations. Their research is part of a larger project to synthesize various sounds, including dripping and splashing fluids, small clattering objects, and shattering glass.

View Full Article

For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com