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POPS...2.3 gigapixel(s)... in real time!
Everyone knows that technology changes quickly. And most people have an adequate understanding of velocity and acceleration. So I'm always surprised when people ask about the next "new technology". After all, it's relatively easy to derive the "rate of change" in a technology's "position", over time and then compute its velocity and ecceleration. The attached article provides more than enough data that can be compared to the specifications of older equipment like the cameras used on the SR-71 "Blackbird" ("U2"). These two sets of data points can be used for a quick an dirty "linear" model. What is more interesting, however, is to acquire a few more intermediate data points and to then refine the "straight line" model's "rates of change". Anyone that wants an effective "shortcut" can simply use Moore's Law (capability doubles every 18 months) with the banker's "rule of 72" (72 divided by the annual rate = time to double). An even better approach is to go to any sales conv
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POPSborgles Under Michel Maharbiz at U of California, funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Cyborg beetles: Remote flight and directional control
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POPSDon't Try to Feed These Birds I don't thinl they'll come to your feeder, but they may peek into your windows. lol I wouldn't count on though, the stupid things only have a 20 sec. fly time. Oh yes, but our generous goverment is giving the creators a couple of mil to develop it just the same.
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POPS"First flapping, two-winged aircraft takes flight" more: "It's extremely complicated and technically challenging to come up with ways to control an aircraft with two flapping wings,"said Matt Keennon of AeroVironment, "but this is the closest anyone has come to a rudderless, flapping aircraft." AeroVironment wouldn't explain how the two wings accomplish flight, citing its contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
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POPSPentagon Developing Shape-Shifting 'Transformers' for Battlefield Way Cool stuff. The medical applications for this type of thing could be incredible. Granted that this is more material science than Tissue ReEngineering, but similar principles. Imagine the potential for transportation, where vehicles could expand or contract based on the need of the driver (small size for 1 person) or it's soccer night and a SUV size is needed, presto - all from the same block of "stuff". Sooo much postive stuff. So long as they don't turn into The Replicators as on Stargate SG-1 :-)
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POPSThe shape(s) of things to come more: An MIT group is building “self-folding origami” machines that “use specialized sheets of material with built-in actuators and data. These machines use cutting-edge mathematical theorems to fold themselves into virtually any three-dimensional object.” The Programmable Matter project is five months into its second phase, which is supposed to wind up early next Spring. When they’re done, the researchers ought to “assemble four or five three-dimensional solids of a specific size and shape from a set of building blocks.”
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POPSBrains! Brains!! As we increasingly move onward in our quest to better understand how we work, the human brain remains on the frontier of targets to look at. No longer are we satisfied with the homunculus seated in our cranium in grand Oz fashion. Nor does the pre-science religious concept of soul address the practical workings of the human mind.
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POPSphysicists discover important step for making light crystals a bose-einstein condensate is a collection of atoms cooled with laser light to a temp just above absolute zero-kelvin, -273 degrees Celsius, or -460 degrees Fahrenheit...the first BEC ever produced was 170 nanokelvin, or 170 billionths of a kelvin- researchers have since produced condensates as cold as 500 picokelvin - or 500 trillionths of a kelvin....there is quite a bit more at source....interesting-
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POPSUse semantic web to create a "personal assistant" Video explanation is clear. This is about AI and how to commercialize DARPA research. SIRI takes the theoretical ideas and tries to make commercializable products. 5-10 years, everyone will have a personal assistant.
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POPSBuilding a machine that can learn from experience There's another requirement: The finished cognitive computer should be as small as a the brain of a small mammal and use as little power as a 100-watt light bulb. It's a major challenge. But it's what our brains do every day. "Value systems or reward systems are important aspects," he said. "Learning is crucial because it needs to learn from experience just like we do." It won't be an easy task, says Tononi, a veteran of earlier efforts to create cognitive computers. Even the brains of the smallest mammals are quite impressive when you consider what tasks they perform with a relatively small volume and energy input. "I would be happy to create a mouse brain," Tononi says. "A mouse brain is quite remarkable. And from there, it shouldn't be too hard to scale up to a rat brain, and then a cat or monkey brain."
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