Andy Johnson, a professor in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Electronic Visualization Laboratory, is developing ultra-high-speed connections paired with high-definition video collaboration. Johnson says the technology is similar to commercial video phone services, but is more reliable, larger, and has a much clearer display. A stable, high-resolution video connection could change how people consult with doctors, auto mechanics diagnose cars, or businesspeople hold meetings, he says. The technology pairs life-sized display screens with near-instant Internet connections. “That gives us a much higher resolution interaction, and could make it much easier for remote groups to work together,” Johnson says. However, the system will require the United States to upgrade its Internet infrastructure with fiber-optic cables to increase access speeds.
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Florida State University (FSU) researchers have discovered four crystals that possess properties which could lead to the development of a new generation of computer chips and other information storage devices. “We identified these four crystals as ‘multiferroic,’ meaning that they are simultaneously ferromagnetic and ferroelectric in nature when cooled to a specific temperature,” says FSU professor Naresh Dalal. Multiferroic crystals could be used to create high-powered computer memories that could hold far more information than is currently possible, says FSU professor Sir Harold Kroto. “Theoretically, it might be possible to design devices that are much smaller and faster than the ones we use today to store and transmit data,” Kroto says. The researchers say that electronic devices using multiferroic crystals would have far less environmental impact than devices used today. “The four new multiferroic crystals that we have identified all substitute other, less toxic metals for lead, which is a potent neurotoxin,” Dalal says.
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The United States is engaged in an international race to develop both cyberweapons and cyberdefenses. Thousands of daily attacks on federal and private computer systems in the United States, some malicious and some testing for weak points in the U.S.’s firewalls, have prompted the Obama administration to review the nation’s strategy. Efforts include developing a highly classified replica of the Internet of the future to simulate what would be needed for the country’s enemies to shut down power stations, telecommunications, and aviation systems. Obama is expected to propose a significantly larger cyberdefensive effort, including the expansion of a $17 billion, five-year program approved by Congress last year, as well as an end to the bureaucratic battle over who is responsible for defending the country’s cyberinfrastructure. However, Obama is not expected to discuss the U.S.’s cyberoffensive capabilities, which has been a major investment area for the nation’s intelligence agencies, as many of these cyberweapons remain classified. The White House declined to comment on whether Obama supports or opposes the use of U.S. cyberweapons. Some exotic cyberweapons under consideration would enable a military programmer to enter a computer server in Russia or China and destroy a botnet, or activate malicious code that is secretly embedded on computer chips when manufactured, enabling the U.S. to take control of an enemy’s computer system.
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The fusion of high-performance computing (HPC) and high-performance data (HPD) could potentially result in the generation of robust systems that are at least one order of magnitude faster than anything the HPC community currently uses for certain applications, says San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) interim director Michael Norman. Last November, SDSC announced plans to construct Gordon, a data-intensive supercomputer that is expected to read latency-bound files at 10 times the speed and efficiency of current HPC systems with the help of flash memory solid state drives. Ultimately, Gordon will possess 245 teraflops of total compute power, 64 TB of digital random access memory, and 256 TB of flash memory. Gordon also will assist in the integration of HPC and HPD because it is designed for data-intensive predictive science as well as data-mining applications.
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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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