Advances in Computers thread

[ScienceRocks]

Microsoft HoloLens "Project X-Ray" demo aims to inspire developers

• Eric Mack
• October 6, 2015
• 6 PICTURES

Microsoft's ambition to take over your living room was more evident than ever at its new hardware event Tuesday in New York where the company demoed "wearable holograms" made possible by its HoloLens augmented reality setup. The brief demo showed how any living room can transform to an alien battlefield with the headset.

The HoloLens team demonstrated probably the most advanced use yet that we've seen of the wireless, untethered, fully self-contained system as a gaming device with something called "Project X-Ray."

Wearing the HoloLens and holding something similiar to a Wii Remote, the demo of what Microsoft calls "mixed reality gaming" showed alien (as seen through the first-person view of the player wearing the headset) enemies emerging from holes in the walls but moving within the confines of the actual room - around furniture, for instance.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Microsoft re-ignites the PC wars with Windows 10 Surface Book and Surface Pro 4

• Eric Mack
• October 6, 2015
• 14 PICTURES

Microsoft may have launched the second world war of computing on Tuesday with the unveiling of a powerful new Surface Pro 4 tablet and Surface Book, two new convertible devices that make us feel like we're back in the 1990s world where Mac vs. PC was the only conflict of note.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Facebook to provide free internet to Africa with satellites starting in second half of 2016

Facebook is teaming up with the French satellite company Eutelsat (ETCMY) to launch a satellite that will provide internet access to people in sub-Saharan Africa. The satellite will launch next year and service will start in the second half of 2016. It will reach 14 countries in West, East and Southern Africa. Facebook will use the satellite...

 

[ScienceRocks]

Google Loon is almost perfected and Google plans to scale Globally ASAP

Google has “almost perfected” its Loon balloon technology, with the first deal with operators set to be announced “hopefully very soon”, Wael Fakharany, regional business lead for Google [x], revealed this morning in Cape Town, South Africa. “For the last two years we have almost perfected the technology, it’s time for us now to scale in...

 

[ScienceRocks]

IBM wants to commercialize silicon brains with Deep learning for smarter phones

In August last year, IBM unveiled a chip designed to operate something like the neurons and synapses of the brain. Now IBM has begun work on a next generation aimed at making mobile devices better at tasks that are easy for brains but tough for computers, such as speech recognition and interpreting images. “We’re working on a next generation...

 

[ScienceRocks]

Chattanooga Implements World’s First Community-wide 10 Gigabit Internet Service

EPB
Chattanooga, TN (October 15, 2015) –

Chattanooga, known as “Gig City” for being the first in the United States to build a community-wide fiber optic network capable of delivering 1 gigabit (1,000 Mbps) Internet speeds, announced today that municipal utility EPB Fiber Optics is now offering the world’s first 10 gigabit (10 Gig) Internet service to be made available across a large community-wide territory. Unlike point-to-point commercial installations, which have been possible for some time, EPB’s 10 Gig service is now available for access by every home and business in a 600 square mile area through Alcatel-Lucent’s TWDM-PON broadband technology.

Alcatel-Lucent’s pioneering new solution is the world’s most advanced ultra-broadband technology because it delivers the scalability to offer up to 10 gigabits per second Internet speeds across a community-wide network. The 10 Gig residential service is available everywhere in EPB’s service area for $299 per month with free installation, no contracts and no cancellation fees.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Real technology to mimick the Star Wars Force or Fictional Telekenesis

Combining gesture interface, augmented reality and virtual reality interfaces, drones, power beaming, beam forming, robotics, magnetic levitation and sonic levitation would enable people to mimick the Star Wars Force or Fictional Telekenesis. Drones with speakers would be able to get into position to provide sonic leviation. Power beaming...

 

[ScienceRocks]

Google Loon will provide internet service to Indonesia in 2016

Following 17 million km of test flights across jungles, mountains and plains, Project Loon has signed agreements with three mobile network operators - Indosat, Telkomsel and XL Axiata - to begin testing balloon-powered Internet over Indonesia in 2016. Currently, only about one in three of Indonesia’s 250 million residents is connected to...

 

[ScienceRocks]

Oculus-powered consumer VR arrives later this month, as the Gear VR goes up for pre-order

• Will Shanklin
• November 10, 2015
• 5 PICTURES

When Oculus VR and Samsung announced the consumer Gear VR at Oculus Connect in September, they promised that it would arrive before the Black Friday shopping frenzy begins. Today they made good on that promise, putting the mobile virtual reality headset up for pre-order with a November 20 ship date.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Google planning a ‘watershed’ quantum computing announcement for December 8

According to Steve Jurvetson, venture capitalist and board member at pioneer quantum computing company D-WAVE, Google has what may be a “watershed” quantum computing announcement scheduled for early next month. This comes as D-WAVE, which notably also holds the Mountain View company as a customer, has just sold a 1000+ Qubit 2X quantum computer...

 

[ScienceRocks]

Quantum computer coding in silicon now possible
A team of Australian engineers has proven—with the highest score ever obtained—that a quantum version of computer code can be written, and manipulated, using two quantum bits in a silicon microchip. The advance removes ...

 

[ScienceRocks]

'Power Over Wi-Fi' named one of the year's game-changing technologies
University of Washington engineers have developed a novel technology that uses a Wi-Fi router—a source of ubiquitous but untapped energy in indoor environments—to power devices.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Low cost compact solid state LiDAR

Quanergy Systems, Inc. will introduce in early 2016 the world’s first solid state LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor for self-driving cars for less than $1,000 per car, it was announced today at the Los Angeles Auto Show’s Connected Car Expo. Quanergy’s solid state LiDAR sensor, used for autonomous vehicles, contains an integrated...

 

[ScienceRocks]

This Is Samsung's Crazy New 128GB RAM Chip

Fast broadband for all by 2020 pledged by David Cameron

Quote

7 November 2015

All UK homes and businesses will have access to "fast broadband" by 2020, David Cameron has pledged.

The PM is to introduce a "universal service obligation" for broadband, giving the public a legal right to request an "affordable" connection.

It would put broadband on a similar footing to other basic services such as water and electricity.

In 2010, the coalition government promised the UK would have the best superfast broadband in Europe by 2015.

Then, in 2012, a pledge was made by then-Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt that the UK would have "the fastest broadband of any major European country" by 2015.

He defined high-speed broadband as offering a download speed of greater than 24 megabits per second (Mbps). Communications regulator Ofcom defines it as 30Mbps.

Fast broadband for all by 2020 pledged by David Cameron - BBC News

 

[ScienceRocks]

Stretchable, programmable keyboard is tailor-made for wearable tech

• Eric Mack
• November 28, 2015
• 2 PICTURES

Most of the keyboards we're familiar with are actually rather complicated pieces of hardware, usually invlolving springs and wiring for dozens of keys, but scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand have developed a streamlined, programmable keyboard using a soft, flexible and stretchable type of rubber known as a dielectric elastomer.

Samsung Gear VR review: Almost an Oculus Rift, no PC required

• Will Shanklin
• November 27, 2015
• 11 PICTURES

In just three years, virtual reality has gone from a curiosity (sparked by a crowdfunding indie startup called Oculus VR) to a new category of consumer product that many consider to be "the next big thing." Never one to shy away from such things, Samsung has partnered with Oculus to launch the first consumer VR headset that matters. Meet the groundbreaking Gear VR.

 

[longknife]

Light-bending microchip could fire up quantum computers

I have absolutely no idea what all of this means. Only that is has something to do with making computer stuff faster.



Read more @ Light-bending microchip could fire up quantum computers | Fox News

 

[ScienceRocks]

Japanese scientists create touchable holograms

A group of Japanese scientists have created touchable holograms, three dimensional virtual objects that can be manipulated by human hand.

Using femtosecond laser technology the researchers developed ‘Fairy Lights, a system that can fire high frequency laser pulses that last one millionth of one billionth of a second.

The pulses respond to human touch, so that – when interrupted – the hologram’s pixels can be manipulated in mid-air.

The touchable hologram, which is being experimented with at the Utsunomiya University Center for Optical Research and Education, uses a laser provided by the university to the researchers.

Read more at Japanese scientists create touchable holograms | NewsDaily

 

[ScienceRocks]

Researchers demonstrate world's first 5G, 100 to 200 meter communication link up to 2 Gbps
December 1, 2015 by Daniel Kane

Shown here is the Keysight equipment used for the 60-GHz 802.11ad and 5G link measurements with the UCSD 64-element wafer-scale phased array, including the M8190A arbitrary waveform generator, E8267D PSG vector signal generator and the …more

Keysight Technologies, Inc., in collaboration with electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego, has demonstrated the world's first 64 (8 x 8) and 256-element (16 x 16), 60-GHz silicon wafer-scale phased-array transmitter with integrated high-efficiency antennas for Gbps communications at 100 to 200 meters. With this demonstration, Keysight and UC San Diego have proven that a 5G communication link is not only possible, but can deliver record performance.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-world-5g-meter-link-gbps.html#jCp

 

[ScienceRocks]

MIT boosts 3D imaging resolution 1,000-fold which will help 3D printing and driverless cars

MIT researchers have shown that by exploiting the polarization of light — the physical phenomenon behind polarized sunglasses and most 3-D movie systems — they can increase the resolution of conventional 3-D imaging devices as much as 1,000 times. The technique could lead to high-quality 3-D cameras built into cellphones, and perhaps to...

 

[ScienceRocks]

LifePrint brings photographs to life by embedding video within prints

• Stanley Goodner
• December 3, 2015
• 3 PICTURES

A picture is worth a thousand words, so the saying goes. But how many words is an image that springs to life with sound and moving video when viewed through a mobile device worth? LifePrint has launched a wireless portable printer and companion app, designed to print and share photos enhanced with augmented reality technology.