Recently in technology Category

"I received a letter that ends, as far as I am concerned, the discussion about 3D. It doesn't work with our brains and it never will.

The notion that we are asked to pay a premium to witness an inferior and inherently brain-confusing image is outrageous. The case is closed."

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/01/post_4.html#more

Based on what we know about depth perception and the brain, do you agree with Roger?

Cancer surgery has left Roger Ebert without the ability to speak or eat food. This video talks about how Rogers has dreams of talking and eating. Towards the end, the video discusses how researchers are reconstructing a computerized voice for Roger based on archived recordings of his actual voice.

"The motion detection isn't perfect, but it's very close - probably as close as it needs to be at this stage. Natal knows when you are moving forwards, backwards or even turning around in a full circle, revealing a detailed understanding of the dynamics and makeup of the human body."

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/15353/new-media/project-natal-hands-on-review

What do we know from S&P about motion and how we calculate movement of other objects? What might programmers want to know about the human brain's ability to detect motion that may be helpful with project Natal?

"The idea that we live in a hologram probably sounds absurd, but it is a natural extension of our best understanding of black holes, and something with a pretty firm theoretical footing. It has also been surprisingly helpful for physicists wrestling with theories of how the universe works at its most fundamental level."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126911.300-our-world-may-be-a-giant-hologram.html?full=true

"This seems like a harmless tube. In fact, it was harmless: Israeli farmers used the first version to scare birds from crop fields. Then, somebody converted it into a crowd dispersion mechanism. And then, they discovered it could kill."

http://gizmodo.com/5451357/sound-generator-could-kill-humans-at-ten-meters

What are the physics of sound? There is a clip somewhere from myth busters where they tried to find the "brown note" how does that relate to this clip? The reader comments are pretty funny.

Brown note wiki : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note

What do we know about perception that might make up believe her leg was photoshopped off?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/06/emma-watson-for-burberrys_n_413731.html

How small is small?

The snowman was made from two tin beads used to calibrate electron microscope astigmatism. The eyes and smile were milled using a focused ion beam, and the nose, which is under 1 [micrometer] wide (or 0.001 mm), is ion beam deposited platinum.

Parviz has been using the prototypes to display biosensor feedback about the wearer's vital signs, but they'll eventually serve as a heads-up display for displaying other data. Read more...