Friday, December 10, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Robotics Update
As I predicted, here's the next step in the evolution of the sexbot:
I DO think it's only a matter of 10-15 years before sexbots can replace "real" lovers so well one can't tell the difference between them.
Alternative Energies Update
New integrated solar system increases captured solar energy efficiency to 80%:
Computing Update
Breakthrough in chip technology integrates light and electrical devices on the same chip to allow smaller, faster and more powerful computers:
and follow-up article:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/by-2018-supercomputers-could-operate-100-times-faster-than-the-human-brain
"The new technology could accelerate the performance of supercomputers a thousand times, taking us from the current 2.6 petaflops (1015 or quadrillion operations per second) Chinese Tianhe-1A supercomputer to an exaflop (1018 or a quintillion operations per second) supercomputer in just 8 years (“flops” stands for “floating point operations per second”). And that means a supercomputer that runs 100 times faster than a human brain operating at peak capacity, currently estimated to be around 1016 operations per second by Ray Kurzweil and others."
Weaponry Update
New XM25 rifle allows soldiers to use programmable exploding bullets to negate the advantages of enemies hiding behind cover:
Singularity Update
An interview with Ray Kurzweil for Time magazine:
(Watch the video--link is in the left bar)
Nanotechnology Update
Upcoming e-paper may display full-motion video...and yet be cheap enough to be disposable:
Robotics Update
The AMAR (ARMAR?) robot uses touch to adapt to and manipulate new items in a kitchen environment:
Computing Update
New nanowire "racetrack" memory may make shockproof hard drives 100,000 times faster and that consume less power than current drives:
Robotics Update
The first robot actress:
She only sits for now, and her expressions aren't very realistic yet...but just wait a few years....
Robotics Update
The first robot actress:
She only sits for now, and her expressions aren't very realistic yet...but just wait a few years....
Singularity Update
If you're wondering what the projected timeline is for achieving the technological singularity, here's the most detailed:
Computing Update
35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every...minute:
"...you’ve increased the amount of video uploaded to YouTube to 35 hours per minute. That breaks out to 2,100 hours uploaded every 60 minutes, or 50,400 hours uploaded to YouTube every day. If we were to measure that in movie terms (assuming the average Hollywood film is around 120 minutes long), 35 hours a minute is the equivalent of over 176,000 full-length Hollywood releases every week. Another way to think about it is: if three of the major US networks were broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the last 60 years, they still wouldn’t have broadcast as much content as is uploaded to YouTube every 30 days."
Like the amount of traffic and related infrastructure in the world, it is unfathomable to me how such quantity can be supported.
Virtual Reality Update
New glasses allow one to view augmented reality on a 60" virtual screen projected 10' away, both in 2D and 3D:
Computing Update
Even if missing a quarter of their components, quantum computers should still be able to function properly:
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Nanotechnology Update
Nanogenerators can now scavenge enough mechanical energy to power small personal electronics:
Cybernetics Update
The next generation of military exoskeleton, Lockheed's HULC, can carry 200 lb loads for extended periods:
Robotics Update
Driverless, mapless, all-electric robotic vehicles successfully navigate from Italy to China...and even stop to pick up a hitchhiker:
Virtual Reality Update
Testing to see whether the universe we live in...is actually just a hologram:
Alternative Energies Update
Google investing heavily in a $5 billion project to develop offshore wind energy production:
Cybernetics Update
DARPA working on robot limbs with natural-motion dexterity wired directly to the brain:
Computing Update
Researchers are shooting for 1 terabit Ethernet speeds by 2015, and 100 tb by 2020:
Computing Update
Babbage's 1837 design for a mechanical "analytical engine" computer may finally be built!
Of course, it'll only have 1k of memory and be 13,000 times slower than a ZX81....
Computing Update
Graphene-based computers could use less energy, generate less heat and perform much faster than conventional computers:
Computing Update
Graphene based computers could use less energy, generate less heat and perform much faster than conventional computers:
Alternative Energies Update
California to mandate 33% of energy produced from alternative sources by 2020:
Artificial Intelligence Update
Computer beats a human at shogi (Japanese chess--more complicated than regular chess):
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Genetic Engineering Update
"A rapid DNA-synthesis technique has been used to synthesize a complete mitochondrial genome from scratch":
Robotics Update
Google has been testing autonomous, robot-driven cars for some time now:
“We’ve driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles."
Alternative Energies Update
Improved storage for solar thermal power plants:
"Developing a supercritical fluid thermal storage system promises increased power storage and lower cost for solar thermal power plants. The proposed system is expected to have twice the energy storage density of current two-tank molten salt systems and cost less than 70% of what current systems cost."
Artificial Intelligence Update
SETI should be searching for machine intelligence, not biological intelligence:
"If we build a machine with the intellectual capability of one human, then within 5 years, its successor is more intelligent than all humanity combined."
Friday, October 1, 2010
Alternative Energies Update
"Makani Power is one of six recent US Department of Energy ARPA-E grant winners for their Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT), a tethered flying wing that flies in endless loops around its anchor point on the ground and generates electricity from propellers on board. Makani believes it will be able to produce wind power that is 40% cheaper than conventional wind power and, more importantly, at an unsubsidized real cost competitive with coal-fired power plants":
Cybernetics Update
"Raytheon has unveiled its second-generation exoskeleton (XOS 2), essentially a wearable robotics suit. XOS 2 is lighter, stronger and faster than its predecessor, yet it uses 50 percent less power, and its new design makes it more resistant to the environment":
Nanotechnology Update
"Carbon nanotubes — those tiny particles poised to revolutionize electronics, medicine, and other areas — are much bigger in the strength department than anyone ever thought, scientists are reporting. New studies on the strength of these submicroscopic cylinders of carbon indicate that on an ounce-for-ounce basis they are at least 117 times stronger than steel and 30 times stronger than Kevlar, the material used in bulletproof vests and other products":
Alternative Energies Update
"University of Arizona physicists have discovered a new way to harvest waste heat and turn it into electrical power":
Robotics Update
I'm not sure how much this hints at self-awareness (not being privy to the programing), but...
Computing Update
"Research is closing in on the next-generation of ultra-high-density magneto-optical storage devices that could store more than 6,000 Terabits (6 petabits) of data, more than 70 times the contents of the entire U.S. Library of Congress, on a single 5-inch disc":
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Robotics Update
"Researchers have created electronic sensors for artificial skin that can detect the slightest touch, for use on prosthetic limbs or robots":
Alternative Energies Update
"Solar funnel" concentrates solar energy 100 times using carbon nanotubes, which should allow the development of much smaller and more powerful solar arrays:
Cybernetics Update
DARPA funding a method to connect nerves to fiber optics to allow "true" bionics that transfer signals like the real thing:
Nanotechnology Update
"Graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of graphitic carbon, has great potential to make electronic devices such as radios, computers and phones faster and smaller. But its unique properties have also led to difficulties in integrating the material into such devices.... A group of UCLA researchers demonstrate how they have overcome some of these difficulties to fabricate the fastest graphene transistor to date":
"Graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of graphitic carbon, has great potential to make electronic devices such as radios, computers and phones faster and smaller. But its unique properties have also led to difficulties in integrating the material into such devices.... A group of UCLA researchers demonstrate how they have overcome some of these difficulties to fabricate the fastest graphene transistor to date":
Singularity Update
Here's a good reminder of how fast things are changing. But be aware this is from 2008 and thus out of date...but STILL impressive. Here it talks about taking a full YEAR to equal all the information generated in the past 5,000 years. Now it supposedly takes TWO DAYS to generate the same amount of info:
Computing Update
"Rice University scientists have created the first two-terminal memory chips that use only silicon to generate nanocrystal wires as small as 5 nanometers — far smaller than circuitry in even the most advanced computers and electronic devices. The technology breakthrough promises to extend the limits of miniaturization subject to Moore’s Law, and should be easily adaptable to nanoelectronic manufacturing techniques":
Computing Update
Memristors will go to market in 2013, allowing greater storage and instant switch on capability for computers and other devices:
"The goal is to be at least double whatever flash memory is in three years--we know we'll beat flash in speed, power, and endurance, and we want to beat it in density, too."
Computing Update
"In recent years the limits of physics and finance faced by chip makers had loomed so large that experts feared a slowdown in the pace of miniaturization that would act like a brake on the ability to pack ever more power into ever smaller devices like laptops, smartphones and digital cameras." But recent developments should allow miniaturization to far smaller scales:
Friday, August 27, 2010
Cybernetics Update
Computers can now read minds well enough to know exactly what words you are thinking:
Artificial Intelligence Update
Here a robot learns like a child how objects can be stacked:
(See videos)
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Computing Update
"Graphics chips are doubling in capacity every six months. That translates into a thousandfold increase in capacity over a five-year period":
Monday, August 23, 2010
Virtual Reality Update
Researchers working on sending virtual objects over the Internet so they can be touched and manipulated by the recipient:
Alternative Energies Update
New York building a flywheel energy storage system to store excess energy from the grid:
Computing Update
"A computer chip that performs calculations using probabilities, instead of binary logic, could accelerate everything from online banking systems to the flash memory in smart phones and other gadgets":
Computing Update
Plastic “spintronics” devices could store more data in less space, process data faster, and consume less power:
Artificial Intelligence Update
The brain may be wired much like the Internet (which explains its ability to recover from damage to any one small area):
It makes one wonder if the Internet itself may become self-aware.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Nanotechnology Update
Logic devices have been created that could give nanobots computing ability at the nano-scale:
Artificial Intelligence Update
Digital life forms evolve memory. The principle could be scaled up to evolve high-level artificial intelligence:
Computing Update
Think the world isn't changing fast? Think again. Every two days that pass now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until the year 2003. Mind-blowing!:
Alternative Energies Update
"Stanford University engineers have figured out how to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing methods and potentially cheap enough to compete with oil":
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/new-solar-method-080210.html
Computing Update
Prototype interconnect uses light to speed up data transmission inside computers. The prototype can transmit an entire high-definition movie each second:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/202018/intel_turns_to_light_to_transfer_data_inside_pcs.html
Computing Update
Prototype interconnect uses light to speed up data transmission inside computers. The prototype can transmit an entire high-definition movie each second:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/202018/intel_turns_to_light_to_transfer_data_inside_pcs.html
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Cybernetics Update
A new "walking wheelchair" allows many wheelchair users to stand and walk around, making it easier to interact with the conventional world:
Cybernetics Update
Highly dexterous artificial limb with a sense of touch can be controlled by thought alone:
Alternative Energies Update
New ultra-low-power devices are being developed that can use radio waves as a power source:
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Robotics Update
Robot teachers are in their infancy...but the writing is on the wall. I will be replaced by a robot within a couple decades:
Alternative Energies Update
Solar powered plane successfully flies through the night on stored solar power:
Robotics Update
Blind robot with a human-like gait can negotiate uneven surfaces and even recover from stumbles:
Alternative Energies Update
Researchers use super-high pressures to create a new form of material capable of storing energy in batteries at densities bested only by nuclear power:
Cybernetics Update
VA Tech creates a robotic vehicle capable of being successfully driven by blind drivers:
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Alternative Energies Update
Process could use the sun's light and heat to break down carbon dioxide into solid carbon (for manufacturing) or carbon monoxide (for fuel):
http://www.physorg.com/news199005915.html
Most significantly, this process could:
"...decrease carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to pre-industrial levels within 10 years."
!!!
http://www.physorg.com/news199005915.html
Most significantly, this process could:
"...decrease carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to pre-industrial levels within 10 years."
!!!
Virtual Reality Update
Another use of haptics in improving the realism of virtual reality experiences:
http://www.physorg.com/news197186879.html
http://www.physorg.com/news197186879.html
Virtual Reality Update
New haptics technology gives a sense of touch to users handling virtual objects:
http://www.physorg.com/news197256614.html
http://www.physorg.com/news197256614.html
Alternative Energies Update
Lithium-ion batteries with nanotube electrodes could deliver 10 times more power than a conventional battery and store five times more energy than a conventional ultracapacitor:
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/25634/?ref=rss
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/25634/?ref=rss
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Alternative Energies Update
Using gravel and argon gas to store energy generated by erratic alternative energy production like solar and windmills:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)