Sophisticated numerical simulations of DNA folding have enabled a European research team to gain a better understanding of how genomes work. The GENetic NETworks Emergence and Complexity (GENNETEC) team was able to prove that the regular spacing of the same transcription factor along a chromosome helps determine the structure of the folded or condensed strand of DNA. Moreover, the researchers learned that the final shape is important for gene expression. The GENNETEC team used the new positional predictor with the standard sequence predictor, and was able to find new gene-regulator relationships more efficiently. GENNETEC project coordinator Francois Kepes says consortium partner NorayBio is developing commercial software that employs this approach for deciphering genetic networks, and the consortium plans to make a less sophisticated version available for free. GENNETEC’s research could be used in different fields for designing software and engineering systems, says Kepes.
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Cooperation between researchers, chipmakers, and tool suppliers working on the EUREKA MEDEA+ microelectronics Cluster ROBIN project has led to improved design methods for silicon chips. The researchers say the project has created a process that solves problems far earlier in the design phase, enhancing integrated circuit design techniques. Project partners formalized the problems; specified software tools, models, and design flows with strong interoperability; and proposed test cases. The project focused on optimizing the design method for both existing 130 nm and 90 nm and future 65 nm and 45 nm technologies by defining the most efficient trade-offs between circuit robustness, in regards to yield and reliability, and the efficient use of technology affecting performance, specifically density and power consumption. For example, on inter-block couplings, the project enabled a decrease of simulation time by a factor of four in critical radio-frequency circuits. The researchers say the benefits of the project have been demonstrated in automotive, telecommunications, and multimedia applications.

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University of Southampton (ECS) researchers recently won the inaugural Lemonade Game Tournament by defeating research teams from Princeton University, Brown University, Rutgers University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Michigan. The teams had to create an agent that recognizes a collaborator in a repeated three-player zero-sum game. The agent must cooperate with the collaborator in order to defeat the third player. However, the agents are not able to communicate directly with one another, so they must indicate their willingness to collaborate by signaling. The ECS team designed an agent that classified the style of behavior that other agents in the game are playing, and used this information to rank their potential as collaborators. The researchers are working on improving the agent for the next tournament.

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Integrating visible and infrared video could lead to more successful rescue and search missions, according to Brigham Young University’s Nathan Rasmussen, who has created a hybrid system that makes it easier to interpret video images. To calibrate feeds from visible and infrared cameras, Rasmussen filmed a grid of black wires on a white blackboard. Sending a current down the wires to heat them up enabled the infrared camera to “see” the wires. He also developed an algorithm to align the vertices of the grids and make up the differences in viewing angles. Warmer areas in natural environments picked up by the infrared camera appear magenta on the hybrid video stream. During tests, volunteers were asked to watch either the hybrid feed or the two separate visible and infrared video streams while a series of beeps was played. Both groups were able to identify objects in the footage, but the viewers of the hybrid video were more accurate in noting the number of beeps they had heard, which suggests the hybrid feed was easier to interpret.

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Researchers engaged in the together anywhere, together anytime (TA2) project seek to make telepresence technology available to households by creating the components needed to build an affordable and easy-to-install in-home telepresence system. The hardware would consist of a TV set, sound system, cameras, and microphones positioned in a living room, while the communications backbone would be managed by transparent software. The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS has devised an audio communication engine to supply low-delay, hi-fi quality sound, while other project partners are focusing on the development of enhanced video communications, the linkage of interactive devices, and ambient intelligence deployment. The researchers say the technology should be especially beneficial for children and older adults, because they often find themselves more alone than other social groups.
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Korea University researchers have developed a method for transmitting data at a rate of 10 megabits per second through a person’s arm, between two electrodes on their skin placed 30 centimeters apart. The electrodes use significantly less energy than a wireless link because low-frequency electromagnetic waves pass through skin with little attenuation. The researchers say the technology has major benefits for the health care industry, including monitoring vital signs such as blood sugar levels or the heart’s electrical activity. “If we use wireless for each of these vital signs we would need many batteries,” says Korea University’s Sang-Hoon Lee. A network transmitting through the skin could cut energy needs by about 90 percent, Lee says. The electrodes are coated with a flexible silicon-rich polymer and are 300 micrometers thick. Future versions of the device could be embedded beneath the skin for long-term monitoring applications.
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Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) researchers have developed a configuration for a residential gateway (RGW) device, which would connect a residential communications network to an access network from any server. The RGW could be used to assist all household communications. “Other research focuses on defining which functionalities a residential gateway should have, while ours is aimed at facilitating the way to implement them and making them more flexible,” says UC3M professor Jaime Garcia Reinoso. A RGW could connect the telephone, radio, TV, and any other device that uses an Internet Protocol to communicate over the Internet. The researchers say that an ADSL router with a RGW could be converted into a much more intelligent device. For example, Reinoso says the RGW would coordinate with the other devices to obtain the best performance possible and guarantee the necessary features. He says it also “frees up the users from awkward configurations since it is designed to be able to carry out all of its functions autonomously and efficiently.”
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Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing the Affective Intelligent Driving Agent (AIDA), a robot that would act as a helpful companion for drivers. The robot would be capable of picking up a driver’s usual routes and regular destinations, monitoring facial expressions for signs of fatigue or agitation, using visual clues such as winking and smiling, and communicating verbally to make suggestions about alternate routes, fuel level, energy efficiency, safe behavior, and gas stations with the lowest prices. AIDA would be embedded in the dashboard and use the Internet to provide real-time information about traffic, businesses, and gas stations along the driver’s route. “With the ubiquity of sensors and mobile computers, information about our surroundings is ever abundant,” says professor Carlo Ratti, director of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab. “AIDA embodies a new effort to make sense of these great amounts of data, harnessing our personal electronic devices as tools for behavioral support.” The MIT team is working with Audi and the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics Research Lab on the project.

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A consortium of network researchers has received a three-year grant from the U.S. Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) program to develop iGENI, an international version of GENI. The GENI research initiative was launched by the U.S. National Science Foundation to create a virtual laboratory for researching and exploring future Internets at scale. Led by Northwestern University’s International Center for Advanced Research (iCAIR), the consortium includes the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago; the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at the University of California, San Diego; Cisco Systems; and BBN Technologies. “The iGENI initiative will enable our consortium to extend and build on these partnerships in order to develop and implement a large-scale distributed environment for GENI researchers, and to make that environment available to many more research communities,” says iCAIR’s Joe Mambretti. IGENI will integrate multiple network resources, segments of national research and education network infrastructures, a national wide-area private network run by Cisco called C-Wave, and components of the international optical-networking Global Lambda Integrated Facility. “One of the consortium’s major strengths has been its ability to develop teams, tools, and infrastructure on an accelerated schedule,” EVL’s Maxine Brown. “Each consortium member has over a decade of experience of active involvement in international networking infrastructure, projects, and community development.”

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A consortium of 23 research and business partners, working on the European OpenTC project, have developed open source software and applications for trusted computing (TC) environments using openSUSE, a commercially available version of the Linux operating system. Building TC support in openSUSE involved compiling a trusted software stack for Linux, developing universal virtualization layers, and creating TC and trusted platform module management software. The developers say the accomplishment represents a breakthrough in TC technology as openSUSE is now the first operating system to offer full TC support. The OpenTC platform continually monitors the computer for changes, ensuring that only trusted, verified software is running. “Until now, TC had been implemented for specific applications, such as Microsoft’s BitLocker hard drive encryption in Windows Vista and Windows 7, or the fingerprint reader on some HP laptops,” says OpenTC project manager Herbert Petautschnig. “With the OpenTC platform, we are extending the TC environment to the full operating system and beyond.”

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