Advances in Computers thread

Facebook rolls out live streaming video service
Facebook rolls out live streaming video service - BBC News

  • 4 December 2015
Facebook has begun rolling out a new feature on its social network which allows users to stream live video.

A select group of celebrities and high profile users have been able to use the service for several months.

Live streaming via mobile phones has become one of the big technology trends of the year, with Twitter-owned Periscope and Meerkat proving popular.

Last year, Amazon paid $1bn for live streaming game site Twitch.

Initially Facebook's live video feature will be available only to a small percentage of people in the US and will be limited to iPhones.

The tech giant said that "over time, the company plans to bring it to all users" but it did not give specific timescales.
 
New ARM Cortex A35 processor will be more powerful and energy efficient then predecessors

armcortexa35.png

The ARM® Cortex®-A35 processor is ARM’s most power-efficient application processor capable of seamlessly supporting 32-bit and 64-bit code. The Cortex-A35 processor marks the beginning of a new family of ultra-high efficiency application processors from ARM. The Cortex-A35 processor uses an efficient 8-stage in-order pipeline that has been...
 
Google Finds Dwave Quantum annealer is 100 million times faster than a classic single core computer and discusses scaling and improving quantum computers

dwavefast.png

During the last two years, the Google Quantum AI team has made progress in understanding the physics governing quantum annealers. We recently applied these new insights to construct proof-of-principle optimization problems and programmed these into the D-Wave 2X quantum annealer that Google operates jointly with NASA. The problems were designed...
 
Multi-purpose Symbisa sensor looks to fast track the Internet of Things


Ceiling fans, thermostats, mailboxes and light fittings. It seems that no matter which direction you look in a smart home of the future you'll find a connected appliance interacting with its environment in one way or another. These smart devices generally feature hardware that's been carefully designed with a very specific purpose in mind, but what if there was more of a "one-size-fits-all" solution? British company Hanhaa is looking to offer inventors an easier route to the so-called Internet of Things, with a multi-purpose sensor kit that can be adapted to various tracking or monitoring applications within minutes of breaking open the box.

Mid-air holograms that respond to human touch

Researchers from Tsukuba University in Japan have created holograms that respond to human touch. Involving femtosecond lasers, which can stimulate physical matter to emit light in 3D form, the research could eventually lead to the creation of holograms that humans are able to interact with.
 
Small Massachusetts Town Offers 2 Gigabit Internet For $75/Month

As Comcast rolls out its superfast 2 gigabit fiber service for $300/month — not to mention upwards of $1,000 in startup costs — yet another municipally owned broadband service is offering similar service for less money.

===
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that LeverettNet was offerign 2Gbps speeds to customers. In fact, the speeds to the home have remained at 1Gbps (same as Google Fiber), but backbone improvements have been made. We apologize for any confusion.
===
Leverett is a small town of fewer than 2,000 residents in the western half of Massachusetts, not far from Amherst. It is also the home of LeverettNet, a town-owned fiber network.
Even though 81% of the Leverett population is already served by LeverettNet, which offers residents broadband access at 1 gigabit per second, same as the top current speed of Google Fiber, and many times faster than the top speeds offered by the only other player in town, Verizon.
So with faster speeds come higher prices, right? Apparently not in Leverett, where customers who bundle in phone and Internet will soon see a $5/month drop in their bill.
 
Deep-learning algorithm predicts photos’ memorability at “near-human” levels

Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have created an algorithm that can predict how memorable or forgettable an image is almost as accurately as humans — and they plan to turn it into an app that subtly tweaks photos to make them more memorable.
For each photo, the “MemNet” algorithm — which you can try out online by uploading your own photos — also creates a heat map that identifies exactly which parts of the image are most memorable.
“Understanding memorability can help us make systems to capture the most important information, or, conversely, to store information that humans will most likely forget,” says CSAIL graduate student Aditya Khosla, who was lead author on a related paper. “It’s like having an instant focus group that tells you how likely it is that someone will remember a visual message.”
Team members picture a variety of potential applications, from improving the content of ads and social media posts, to developing more effective teaching resources, to creating your own personal “health-assistant” device to help you remember things.
Part of the project the team has also published the world’s largest image-memorability dataset, LaMem. With 60,000 images, each annotated with detailed metadata about qualities such as popularity and emotional impact, LaMem is the team’s effort to spur further research on what they say has often been an under-studied topic in computer vision.
The paper was co-written by CSAIL graduate student Akhil Raju, Professor Antonio Torralba, and principal research scientist Aude Oliva, who serves as senior investigator of the work. Khosla will present the paper in Chile this week at the International Conference on Computer Vision.
 
HoloLens development edition is coming in 2016
Microsoft is focusing on developers, not the general public, for the latest in HoloLens events and announcements. The good news for the public is that, in doing so, the conversation is shedding light on what is behind HoloLens ..

Race to vastly better annealers, powerful universal quantum computers which will transform machine learning into quantum learning

google.quantumx519.jpg

Google has a team led by John Martinis to develop better quantum computers. They will be competing not only with whatever improvements D-Wave can make, but also with Microsoft and IBM, which have substantial quantum computing projects of their own. But IBM and Microsoft are focused on designs much further from becoming practically useful....


New Air Force 3.1 Petaflop Thunder Supercomputer helping develop hypersonic vehicles and railguns

icex.jpg

The Air Force Research Laboratory officially presented its latest supercomputer acquisition in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Dec. 14, 2015. The Thunder supercomputer is part of the DOD High Performance Computing Modernization Program. It joins two other large systems -- Spirit and Lightning -- already located at the center. The Silicon Graphics...
 
Giant enhancement of magnetic effect will benefit spintronics
December 21, 2015 by Lisa Zyga feature

(Top) perpendicular and (bottom) parallel magnetic anisotropy. Credit: Yang, et al. ©2015 American Chemical Society
(Phys.org)—Researchers have demonstrated that coating a cobalt film in graphene doubles the film's perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), so that it reaches a value 20 times higher than that of traditional metallic cobalt/platinum multilayers that are being researched for this property. In a material with a high PMA, the magnetization is oriented perpendicular to the interface of the material's layers. High-PMA materials are being researched for their applications in next-generation spintronic devices, such as high-density memories and heat-tolerant logic gates.
The researchers, Hongxin Yang, et al., have published a paper on the giant PMA enhancement in a recent issue of Nano Letters.



Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-giant-magnetic-effect-benefit-spintronics.html#jCp
 
X-ray vision? New technology making it a reality for $300
December 22, 2015 by By Scott Eisen
xrayvisionne.jpg

In this Nov. 19, 2015, photo, MIT researchers Emad Farag, left, and Fadel Adib walk through a room with chairs as a screen displays how RF-Capture is tracking their movements through the wall behind them, on the MIT campus in Cambridge, …more
X-ray vision, a comic book fantasy for decades, is becoming a reality in a lab at MIT



Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-x-ray-vision-technology-reality.html#jCp
 
Scientists create world's first biologically powered computer chip

The dream of melding biological and man-made machinery is now a little more real with the announcement that Columbia Engineering researchers have successfully harnessed a chemical energy-producing biological process to power a solid state CMOS integrated circuit.


Transport for London tries out e-ink signage

E-readers are already prolific on London's public transport – and now the same tech is being built into the transport infrastructure itself. Transport for London (TfL) is trialling e-ink digital displays to provide passengers with travel information. Maps, timetable and arrival times are shown in real time.
 
Last edited:
Engineers demo first processor that uses light for ultrafast communications
Engineers have successfully married electrons and photons within a single-chip microprocessor, a landmark development that opens the door to ultrafast, low-power data crunching.

Virtual reality is finally here, yet still has a ways to go
With the launch of Samsung's Gear VR headset a few weeks ago, virtual reality for the masses is finally a thing. Now comes the next big challenge: Who, exactly, will care?

Electromagnets promise precision finger-tracking for VR environments


Expected some time in the new year, the consumer launch of the Oculus Rift and Touch controllers soon after are set to open immersive new worlds for VR explorers. But how we interact with those worlds will continue to evolve long after the first headsets are strapped on. Offering a glimpse into the future of these input devices, one alumni of Oculus' research division has developed an electromagnetic sensor system that tracks fingertip movements, should you need to say, stop and play a piano or create an oil painting during your VR travels.
Icaros fitness machine powers your workouts with virtual reality

Munich-based startup Icaros GmbH has a new way to motivate people to exercise more. Its somewhat intimidating fitness system blends the physical world with the virtual world, making you the protagonist of your own video game while working key muscles up and down your body. The company hopes the system will motivate folks that have come to avoid the gym like it's radioactive. Gimmick or a viable modern spin on exercise?
 
New half-meter record for quantum superposition at macroscopic level
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers working at Stanford University has extended the record for quantum superposition at the macroscopic level, from 1 to 54 centimeters. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the team ...

Print Share/bookmark Carrier-mediated ferromagnetism in a magnetic topological insulator

carrierdoped.jpg

A group of researchers in Japan and China identified the requirements for the development of new types of extremely low power consumption electric devices by studying Cr-doped (Sb, Bi)2Te3 thin films. At extremely low temperatures, an electric current flows around the edge of the film without energy loss, and under no external magnetic...


Optoelectronic microprocessors shown to dramatically reduce chips’ power consumption
High-performance prototype built using existing chip manufacturing means chipmakers could now start building optoelectronic chips
December 28, 2015

Rsearchers at MIT, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Colorado have produced a working optoelectronic microprocessor, which computes electronically but uses light to move information — using only processes found in existing microchip fabrication facilities.

Optical communication could dramatically reduce chips’ power consumption, which is essential to maintaining the steady increases in computing power that we’ve come to expect.
 
Underwater haptic feedback glove gives users "dolphin power"

Rescue workers searching flood sites have a unique challenge – they need to know what's under the water, but invariably that water is going to be very murky. Well, that's the main scenario for which the IrukaTact was created. It's a submersible haptic feedback glove that lets users "feel" what's below the surface, without having to dive down to actually touch it.

i-Blades smartcase aims to make smartphones "smarter"

As great as today's smartphones are, two of the biggest problems with them continue to be battery life and memory. Silicon Valley start-up i-Blades is out to change that with its smartcase technology, that it says can boost battery power up to 10 times and memory by up to 1 Terabyte.

Updated Google Glass pops up on FCC’s website
Updated Google Glass pops up on FCC’s website | ExtremeTech
The FCC isn’t where most people go for leaked product photos and pre-release information, but every now and then a few tidbits slip out of the government database. Today is one such day — if, at least, you’re a fan of Google Glass and interested in how the platform has evolved since Google unceremoniously canceled it. There hasn’t been much to say about Glass since then, and while Google insisted the program wasn’t canceled, it wasn’t falling over itself to reveal anything of note about it, either.

The FCC’s website has new high-resolution images of Google Glass 2.0, and there’s a number of subtle changes between the original version and the new model. The new model can apparently fold (there’s a hinge in the image below).
 
Can you download me now? NY payphones become Wi-Fi hot spots
Operator, won't you help me replace this call? A 9-foot-tall, narrow structure installed this past week on a Manhattan sidewalk is signaling a plan to turn payphones into what's billed as the world's biggest and fastest municipal ...

Google moves to open source version of Oracle's JDK
Google is moving away from its implementation of Java application programming interfaces (APIs) in Android N, the next version, and to OpenJDK, the open source version of Oracle's Java Development Kit (JDK). ReadWrite is ..

Human-machine superintelligence can solve the world's most dire problems
The combination of human and computer intelligence might be just what we need to solve the "wicked" problems of the world, such as climate change and geopolitical conflict, say researchers from the Human Computation Institute ..


New DFG grant proposal for a software quality control able to stand the test of time

For a software to be maintained in an optimal condition, as well as in track of any necessary updates and innovations, it needs to be kept in check constantly. This...


Rumored Google-Ford Deal, Low-End Robocars, and Tesla’s Backslide


Yahoo Autos is reporting rumours that Google and Ford will announce a partnership at CES. Google has always said it doesn’t want to build the cars, and Ford makes sense
 

LG Display: Expect display rollable like newspaper at CES
Anyone following tech stories from month to month will recognize LG Display as those tech people focused on "bendy" and "rollable" displays, bolstered by the company's aggressive attention toward novel organic light-emitting .


Oculus to start taking virtual reality headset orders
Facebook-owned Oculus VR will begin taking orders for its Rift virtual reality headsets on Wednesday, as the doors of Consumer Electronics Show gadget extravaganza officially open in Las Vegas.
 
Oculus Rift costs $599, adds Remote accessory, ships March 28 to 20 countries


High-end PC gaming has never been a cheap endeavor, and the same goes for high-end, PC-based virtual reality. Oculus Rift pre-orders kicked off today, and the headset is priced at the upper end of our prediction window, for a healthy US$599.

VW's e-Golf Touch gestures to the future of compacts

As well as displaying its BUDD-e concept at CES, Volkswagen has unveiled a new version of its e-Golf electric compact. VW says the e-Golf Touch is one of the world's first compact cars with gesture control. It also offers wireless charging, electronic voice amplification and personalization options.


Nanowalls for smartphones
Researchers at ETH Zurich have manufactured transparent electrodes for use in touchscreens using a novel nanoprinting process. The new electrodes are some of the most transparent and conductive that have ever been developed.
 
Hands-on with the intriguing Avegant Glyph headworn personal theater

For the third straight CES, we sat down with Avegant, makers of the Glyph personal theater. With the Avegant Glyph just about set to start shipping to the public, what we found was a much more polished headset, about to launch in a world that may need some time to warm up to it.


i-Blades smart cases will deliver on-the-go entertainment

i-Blades and IdeaNova Technologies have announced a video distribution and playback system designed to give media companies and movie studios an "on-the-go" entertainment delivery mechanism for mobile device users. The mobile content platform will allow anyone using the i-Blades smartcase's "content blades" to store up to 100 HD-quality, DRM-protected, feature-length movies, then view them on a smartphone using the IdeaNova INPLAY technology.

An 18-inch video display you can roll up like a newspaper
January 6, 2016

LG is creating a buzz at CES with its concept demo of the world’s first display that can be rolled up like a newspaper.

LG says they’re aiming for 4K-quality 55-inch screens (the prototype resolution is 1,200 by 810 pixels), BBC reports.

The trick: switching from LED to thinner, more-flexible OLED technology (organic light-emitting diodes), allowing for a 2.57 millimeter-thin display. One limitation: the screen… read more
 
Rollup TVs and displays are very near commercialization

LGrollupTV.jpg

LG Display has been working on its fully flexible screen for some time now and they revealed displays that can be rolled up at CES. The screen can be rolled up and scrunched around, and the display is full HD. The BBC was shown a 18 inch diagonal display. LG says they're aiming for screens that are 55 inch and beyond. At that size they...

LG finally showed us the roll-up TV it’s been teasing for years

Palm-sized $79 computer targets emerging-nation needs
It is a spherical computer that costs $79, is packed with a fair amount of what the Internet has to offer—and fits in the palm of your hand.
 
Last edited:

Forum List

Back
Top