Jul 21, 2010 ~ TheTechEntity

Scientific team creates molecular robot from DNA

An artist's rendering of the spider nanobot

Scientists from Columbia University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a robot that’s just 4 nanometers wide. And no, it doesn’t have flashing lights, video cameras or wheels. It does, however, have four legs, and the ability to start, move, turn, and stop. Descendants of the molecular nanobot, or “spider,” could someday be used to treat diseases such as cancer or diabetes.

Fleet-of-foot robots could win $200,000

Honda's stair climbing ASIMO could be a contender for the US$200,000 'W' Prize

A prize of US$200,000 is being offered for the first robot that can successfully move 10 km (6.2 miles) within 10,000 seconds. Sound easy? Well, to claim the “W” Prize the robot must also negotiate four sets of obstacles that would stand in the way of ordinary wheeled vehicles, but could be easily overcome by a pedestrian. The robot must also accomplish this task using no more than 10 kj per kg of machine mass – in other words, less energy than it would take for a human to do the same task.

US Navy introduces 'Octavia' robot to public

US Navy introduces 'Octavia' robot to public

If members of the armed forces are going to be regularly interacting with robots, and it seems likely that such will be the case, then they had better be comfortable around those robots. The last thing a soldier, pilot or sailor needs is to be staring at some creepy-looking humanoid machine, and saying, “Um, listen, I want you to... ah, screw it, I’ll do it myself.” That’s the thinking behind an initiative from the US Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence (NCARAI), which has been working on natural human-robot interaction. If sailors can communicate with a robot through human-to-human style speech and gestures, it is thought, then they will be able to concentrate more on the task at hand, and less on the interface. NCARAI’s latest attempt at an easy-to-relate-to robot, named Octavia, was presented to the public for the first time recently in New York City.

Robotic pen assembly demo at Design Engineering & Manufacturing Solutions Expo

On display at the Design Engineering and Manufacturing Solutions Expoin Tokyo, this pen assembly machine from Keyence is an impressive example of robotic multi-tasking and dexterity – albeit perhaps not that practical. So if you happen to work on a pen assembly line, you might now be redundant thanks to this robot. Or maybe not...

It takes a little over two minutes for one robot to put together a single pen, which is not really very quick. I'm pretty confident that I could pull off this trick just as fast.

But what is impressive is that the robot is versatile enough to complete all the required steps on its own, rather than relying on a division of labor among multiple specialized robots.

There are a wide variety of motions that comprise this task, and it's remarkable that this robot can perform them all in such a short time. This might not be the most efficient way to put together a single pen, but this is such a complex demonstration of robotic dexterity that we thought the video here.

Have a look below to witness the entire pen-assembly process from start to finish.

Keyence (Japanese)

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Do You Know the Indian Operating System: BOSS Read More

BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions) is a free Indian Operating System which based on GNU/Linux distribution developed by C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) derived from Debian for enhancing the use of Free/ Open Source Software throughout India. BOSS makes it easier for Microsoft Windows user to migrate to GNU/Linux platform, by providing outstanding features like bulk document converter, presentation tool and also features like plug and play.

Reversible watermarking could thwart digital photo tricksters

Reversible watermarking could keep digitally-altered images from going undetected

In these days of PhotoShop and its brethren, it’s becoming almost impossible to tell whether or not an image has been digitally manipulated. While some ‘shopping is done simply for whimsical reasons (see picture above), the matter becomes a bit more serious when things such as military images are altered. Visible watermarks are sometimes overlaid on digital photos, but these permanently alter and obscure that copy of the picture. Recently, however, researchers in India came up with a system for verifying a photo’s authenticity, without altering it in any way.

Dakshinamurthi Sivakumar and Govindarajan Yamuna of Annamalai University, in Tamil Nadu, have developed a process that they call reversible watermarking. Using a relatively small amount of computer power, their system measures the parameters of every pixel in an image. That data is converted into a Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC), wherein the original pixel values are stored as a key.

After a visible watermark has been added and the image has been sent, the recipient simply uses the embedded HMAC to extract the watermark and restore the original image. Even if some unsavory character had intercepted the image and manipulated it in a way that didn’t alter the appearance of the watermark, the HMAC would still not match the pixel value of the current image, so the recipient would know something was up.

One would assume that the HMAC is unalterable after being initially created, although those hackers can be a pretty crafty bunch.

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NASA releases low-light space images captured with Nikon dSLRs

At the end of 2009, Nikon managed to secure a nice little order from NASA for a bunch of D3S digital cameras and seven of its AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lenses. These were destined to be whisked off into space for photographic documentation.

Nikon quite rightly made a bit of a song and dance about this order. After all, if you want to show off how well your cameras cope with low light and how durable they are, what better client to have than NASA?

Now, humble Earthlings are being given the chance to have a look at some of the rather spectacular images taken by astronauts on the International Space Station. To date, NASA has captured more than 700,000 images with its own Nikon equipment, showing off the D3S’ noise suppression features and how well it’s able to cope with the low-light conditions of space.

Windows 8 PCs Will Turn on Instant Fast

Your PC with Windows 8 will able to boot up within twinkling of eyes. Microsoft focused on optimizing the startup of Windows PCs will continue with Windows 8. According to leaked information Windows 7 customers are undoubtedly already well aware of the fact that the Redmond company has fine-tuned their operating system to boot and shut down as fast as possible. Obviously, the software giant needs to deliver even better startup and shut down performance with Windows 8.

Fotopro’s fully adjustable flexible tripod with interchangeable feet

Chinese photographic accessory company Fotopro has developed a heavy-duty flexible tripod that has interchangeable feet. The Fotopro RM-110 is comprised entirely of adjustable joints and comes standard with four sets of feet: spiked, suction, rubber and magnetic. We’ve tried all four and they offer a stable mount on any surface, but particularly so on flat or metal surfaces - the suction cups and magnetic feet are capable of affixing so solidly they can handle the weight of even a middleweight pro video camera. We’re predicting the USD$60 RM-110 will become a standard fixture in the kit of every photographer and videographer.

Sony unveils world’s first consumer HD camcorder with interchangeable lens system

Sony's NEX -VG10 interchangeable lens HD camcorder

The interchangeable lens consumer-oriented HD camcorder Sony teased us with when it announced its NEX interchangeable lens digital camerashas now been unveiled. As previously revealed, the Handycam NEX-VG10 features the same Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor found in the NEX-5 and NEX-3 and will be able to share E-mount interchangeable lenses with those devices. Calling the NEX-VG10 the world’s first consumer HD camcorder with an interchangeable lens system, Sony says it enables users to capture images and videos with background defocus effects and shallow depth of field.

HTC's released Evo 4G, the world's first 4G mobile phone when it comes out. This phone comes with a new and experimental multi-network technology will allow the phone to make seamless voice calls while simultaneously accessing the internet at high-speed. The HTC Evo 4G is a CDMA phone, operating on CDMA 1X, EV-DO and WiMAX; where CDMA 1X is the Voice Carrier, and EV-DO and WiMAX technology will be used for Data Communication. The HTC Evo 4G operates on Qualcomm's QSD8650 Snapdragon processor at 1GHz and the OS is Nexus One. The volume of operative RAM i.e. 512MB is also as same as that of the Nexus One. The HTC Evo 4G is one of the rare mobiles at this point in time to feature the Android 2.1 platform; and add that to HTC's capacitive multi-touch Sense UI, the Evo 4G makes for a superbly usable device. The screen size is pretty huge for a mobile phone, that 4.3-inch TFT LCD will display a resolution of only 800x480 pixels. HTC Evo 4G a touch only device as its lack of a QWERTY keypad. This phone has an HDMI port to hook it to an HDTV, a must have feature for a smartphone nowadays. This will surely boost your multimedia appetite. You can also use the Evo 4G with its kickstand for a fully handsfree high-res video experience. The main camera is a 8MP imaging device with 720p video recording ability and a powerful LED flash, while the secondary camera is a front facing 1.3MP device. The internal storage is only 1GB, the package comes with an 8GB microSD card - which still leaves you with not too much to spare. The phone's WiFi connectivity is an overstatement in the present day and age, when it is not able to handle the 802.11n standard. The market release of HTC Evo 4G anytime this summer, though not sure about expected price yet.

HTC's released Evo 4G, the world's first 4G mobile phone when it comes out. This phone comes with a new and experimental multi-network technology will allow the phone to make seamless voice calls while simultaneously accessing the internet at high-speed. The HTC Evo 4G is a CDMA phone, operating on CDMA 1X, EV-DO and WiMAX; where CDMA 1X is the Voice Carrier, and EV-DO and WiMAX technology will be used for Data Communication.

The HTC Evo 4G operates on Qualcomm's QSD8650 Snapdragon processor at 1GHz and the OS is Nexus One. The volume of operative RAM i.e. 512MB is also as same as that of the Nexus One. The HTC Evo 4G is one of the rare mobiles at this point in time to feature the Android 2.1 platform; and add that to HTC's capacitive multi-touchSense UI, the Evo 4G makes for a superbly usable device. The screen size is pretty huge for a mobile phone, that 4.3-inch TFT LCD will display a resolution of only 800x480 pixels. HTC Evo 4G a touch only device as its lack of a QWERTY keypad.

This phone has an HDMI port to hook it to an HDTV, a must have feature for a smartphone nowadays. This will surely boost your multimedia appetite. You can also use the Evo 4G with its kickstand for a fully handsfree high-res video experience. The main camera is a 8MP imaging device with 720p video recording ability and a powerful LED flash, while the secondary camera is a front facing 1.3MP device.

The internal storage is only 1GB, the package comes with an 8GB microSD card - which still leaves you with not too much to spare. The phone's WiFi connectivity is an overstatement in the present day and age, when it is not able to handle the 802.11n standard. The market release of HTC Evo 4G anytime this summer, though not sure about expected price yet.

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Invisible computer mouse cost only $20 to build

The Mouseless invisible mouse system is the next logical step in input periperhal development

Image Gallery (6 images)

Pranav Mistry, Pattie Maes and Liyan Chang from MIT's Media Lab have managed to create an invisible computer mouse for just a few dollars. Using an Infrared laser and tracking camera, the Mouseless system registers and interprets a user's hand movement and translates it into onscreen actions such as cursor movement and button clicking.

While others take the familiar input peripheral to new levels by crammingas many buttons as possible onto it or making the surface available for multi-touch interaction or even moving the whole experience to the end of a user's leg, Pranav Mistry and colleagues have dispensed with its physical form altogether.

With their Mouseless prototype, a user's hand movements are tracked with a line-capped Infrared laser beam and an Infrared camera. The beam's plane is aimed just above the surface of the user area and when the user cups the hand, as if holding a physical mouse, this breaks the beam at the points where each finger touches the surface The camera then registers and interprets the changing field shapes and translates them into movement or action, such as clicking and double-clicking.

The developers are continuing to improve the tracking and recognition algorithms to build up a library of commands, possibly leading to multi-touch gesturing in addition to simple click confirmation.

The prototype system is said to have cost just US$20 to put together and can be seen in action in the following demonstration:

View all

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Seagate Momentus XT hybrid claimed as world's fastest laptop drive

Seagate has revealed a hybrid solid state/hard drive which is claimed to be 'the world's fastest 2.5 inch laptop PC hard drive'

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Seagate has revealed a hybrid solid state/hard drive which is claimed to be "the world’s fastest 2.5 inch laptop PC hard drive." The Momentus XT offers users the price and capacity benefits of a hard disk drive and the speed advantages of solid state memory in one laptop-sized drive.

Lightning speed, drive longevity and resistance to shock damage are amongst the numerous benefits of installing solid state drives (SSD) in computers and laptops. The major drawback, at the moment at least, is price. SSDs are frighteningly expensive.

A less costly compromise comes in the shape of the hybrid setup, where a hard disk drive (HDD) is supplemented by solid state memory. Seagatehas announced just such a solution in its "best-of-both-worlds" Momentus XT hybrid drive. It squeezes a 500GB/320GB/250GB 7200RPM HDD with 32MB cache and a 4GB SLC NAND solid state memory module into a 2.5 inch form factor suitable for installation in laptops.

"For notebook PC users looking forward to faster PC performance without sacrificing storage capacity or affordability, now there’s an option" said the company's John Rydning. Dave Mosley, Seagate's Executive VP of Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management, followed with, "We see the Momentus XT drive as a game changer, a product heralding a new generation of hard drives that combine SSD and HDD capabilities so that laptop users don't have to make trade-offs on speed, cost or capacity."

According to Seagate, the new Momentus XT drive with SATA 3Gb/s interface and Native Command Queuing benefits from fast boot ups and Adaptive Memory technology, which studies a user's habits and moves frequently accessed data into the drive's flash memory for speedier access. This no doubt helps it to perform up to 80 percent faster than traditional HDDs of the same spin speed.

Seagate has revealed that ASUS has already announced it will offer the Momentus XT drive as an upgrade option for the ROG G73Jh gaming laptop.

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iPad app mines web links for 'social magazine'

-iPadeb links for 'social magazine'

July 22, 2010

Flipboard Photo: iTunes

Apple's iPad has hatched a new breed of magazines, one filled with a constantly changing mix of articles, photos and videos picked out by your friends, family and other people within your online social circle.

This new twist on digital publishing comes courtesy of Flipboard, a free iPad application that made its debut this week.

Flipboard is mining the hundreds of millions of web links posted each day on two of the world's most popular outlets for sharing information and imagery, Facebook and Twitter.

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What do you get when you cross a CPU with a GPU? AMD’s Fusion family of APUs

The AMD Fusion ushers is what AMD says is a significant shift in processor architecture an...

AMD says combining the CPU, GPU, video processing and other accelerator capabilities in a single-die design provides more power-efficient processors that are better able to handle demanding operations such as HD video, media-rich Internet content and DirectX 11 games – AMD hasn’t revealed the technical specs of the GPUs it will embed in its APUs, but has disclosed they will be DirectX 11 compliant.At Computex 2010 AMD gave the first public demonstration of its Fusion processor that combines the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) on a single chip. The AMD Fusion family of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) not only adds another acronym to the computer lexicon, but ushers is what AMD says is a significant shift in processor architecture and capabilities.

Motorola DROID Review

Introduction:

The deed is complete and the joining of two unfamiliar players has come to fruition – finally. Verizon Wireless has held out long enough from embracing the Android camp because of the fear losing complete control in the way apps and media are carefully handled on their devices. It's been too long that customers were given only a single outlet for most of their needs with Verizon tacking on software like V-Cast music, VZ Navigator, and VZAppStore – all locking down the user experience. Now that the marriage between these two unlikely names is set in stone, it's a refreshing site to witness on sore eyes that Verizon has come to grasp Android and its community of open development.

It was over a year ago that Android came out of the depths of the Google corporation to take its first flight in the form of the T-Mobile G1. That device, thanks to being a first, was able to conjure up a small following that proved to be successful. We've seen a number of Android handsets since then hit the market, with most of them coming out from the HTC camp, but we're in the hopeful process of witnessing Motorola's transformation back to a big name player. For the longest of times, the former great American manufacturer partnered with Microsoft for their smartphone handsets – only recently moving towards Android for future development. They've seen what kind of impact Android will have down the road – especially now more than ever.

All of this brings us to one of the most talked about phones from Motorola's camp – the Motorola DROID A855.By now we’ve all heard how this reinvents both Motorola's vision of where they want to go and how the Android platform will be received by a new class of customers. It's the first phone on the market to get the Android 2.0 treatment – although its lacking the MOTOBLUR integration that's found on the Motorola CLIQ. Now that the DROID will sit side-by-side in stores and compete with other smartphones on Verizon's lineup, we'll see in due time if its solid design and user experience entices customers to make the change and take the plunge with something unfamiliar.

MSI offers BIOS-free Windows core unlocking software

MSI has announced the development of a Windows-based software tool to unlock processor cores

MSI has announced the launch of a Windows-based software tool that puts an end to all that bothersome fiddling around in the BIOS to enable inactive processor cores. The tool lists available cores, and with a few simple clicks on the basic interface and a reboot, a user is able to unleash previously disabled ones.

Thankfully, most users will never have to enter the ASCII zone that is the system BIOS. Those who want a little more from their machine than what factory presets allow, however, generally have had a couple of options. They could try and find a BIOS expert, who would be more than happy to help tweak system settings, but would almost always take the opportunity to explain in great detail just what complicated procedure was being undertaken... or, they could become a system guru and do it themselves.

Users looking to tap into otherwise unavailable processor power now have a third option. Following on from the creation of easy to use overclocking software and the introduction of technology to unlock a four core AMD processor to six cores, MSI's new software tool enables users to unlock processor cores on its 800 series AMD chipset motherboards, without ever needing to go into the BIOS.

Opening the attractive but basic interface gives users a list of available cores, graying out any that have been turned off. Although there might be a good reason for disabling a core, such as it being faulty, the tool gives the user the power to easily manage available cores. To enable an inactive core, a user just needs to click on the appropriate button, reboot the system and voila - the previously unavailable processor core is brought online.

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World’s fastest 4GB DDR3, 2133MHz memory modules unveiled by OCZ Technology

OCZ Flex EX DDR3 2133MHz 4GB Memory Module

OCZ Technology has unveiled its fastest 4GB DDR3 RAM modules yet. Capable of reaching frequencies up to 2133MHz and CL 10-10-10-30 timing, OCZ’s new modules are available in 4GB, 8GB Dual Channel and 12GB Triple Channel kits and feature a liquid cooling system and aluminum fins for maximum heat dissipation. Due to the growth in High Definition and High Quality media, OCZ says it has designed the ultimate in memory technology to ensure that the bottle-neck in your system will not be the memory modules.

18 Gigapixels- 360 Cities Unveils World's Largest Panorama Image

360 Cities, a network of photographers around the world creating immersive panoramas of various interesting locations, boasts to have put together the largest image of this kind in the world, a stunning 18-Gigapixel 360 image of the Czech capital Prague. The previous record was a 13-Gigapixel image of Harlem, New York, shot in 2007. The image, or rather series of images, was shot from a TV tower in Prague and the online tool set up to explore it enables you to explore the city and zoom in to see the details.“360Cities.net, home of the most extensive collection of interactive, spherical panoramic images on the web, announced today it has released the largest known spherical panoramic photograph in the world,” 360 Cities announced in a statement.

“The record-setting photograph was created from 600 individual exposures stitched together into a single image measuring 192,000 pixels in width by 96,000 pixels in height, or 18.4 billion pixels altogether. When printed, it will be sixteen meters (54 ft.) long at standard photographic quality. Not only is the subject matter of this new panorama arguably more picturesque than the previous record-holder, the road to its creation is one that has spanned continents.”

The finished product is more than impressive, but you have to see if for yourself, preferably in full screen, for the full effect. The level of detail is amazing and you can zoom in on buildings, cars, even people at an incredible distance from where the photos were taken.

First-tier motherboard makers launch GeForce GTX 460-based graphics cards

Asustek ENGTX460 TOP graphics card
Photo: Company

MSI N460GTX Cyclone series graphics card
Photo: Company

Taiwan-based motherboard/graphics card makers Asustek Computer and Micro-Star International (MSI) have announced their latest Nvidia GeForce GTX 460-based graphics cards.

Asustek has launch four models under its ENGTX460 line with prices set between NT$8,000-8,500 (US$249-265).

Asustek has adopted its DirectCU cooling technology, which is a technique placing copper heat-pipes, custom flattened and brought into direct contact with the GPU core for improved heat transference in some of the models, as well as its exclusive Voltage Tweak technology to enhance performance.

Meanwhile, MSI has launched two graphics cards under its N460GYX Cyclone series, the N460GTX Cyclone 768D5 and N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5, both equipped with, the company claimed, military-class components.

The graphics cards also feature MSI's self-developed Afterburner overclocking software as well as Cyclone