Friday, February 24, 2012

Going underground: The massive European network of Stone Age tunnels that weaves from Scotland to Turkey


* Evidence of tunnels has been found under hundreds of Neolithic settlements
* That so many tunnels have survived after 12,000 years shows that the original network must have been enormous

Stone Age man created a massive network of underground tunnels criss-crossing Europe from Scotland to Turkey, a new book on the ancient superhighways has claimed.

German archaeologist Dr Heinrich Kusch said evidence of the tunnels has been found under hundreds of Neolithic settlements all over the continent.

In his book - Secrets Of The Underground Door To An Ancient World - he claims the fact that so many have survived after 12,000 years shows that the original tunnel network must have been enormous.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2022322/The-massive-European-network-Stone-age-tunnels-weaves-Scotland-Turkey.html

Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year’s End


People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.

According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.

The people familiar with the Google glasses said they would be Android-based, and will include a small screen that will sit a few inches from someone’s eye. They will also have a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/google-to-sell-terminator-style-glasses-by-years-end/?ref=technology

Heated Fabric Using Carbon Nanotube Coated Fibers

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

How Companies Learn Your Secrets (Link incl. Video)



Target sells everything from milk to stuffed animals to lawn furniture to electronics, so one of the company’s primary goals is convincing customers that the only store they need is Target. But it’s a tough message to get across, even with the most ingenious ad campaigns, because once consumers’ shopping habits are ingrained, it’s incredibly difficult to change them.

There are, however, some brief periods in a person’s life when old routines fall apart and buying habits are suddenly in flux. One of those moments — the moment, really — is right around the birth of a child, when parents are exhausted and overwhelmed and their shopping patterns and brand loyalties are up for grabs. But as Target’s marketers explained to Pole, timing is everything. Because birth records are usually public, the moment a couple have a new baby, they are almost instantaneously barraged with offers and incentives and advertisements from all sorts of companies. Which means that the key is to reach them earlier, before any other retailers know a baby is on the way. Specifically, the marketers said they wanted to send specially designed ads to women in their second trimester, which is when most expectant mothers begin buying all sorts of new things, like prenatal vitamins and maternity clothing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?_r=3

Organic TFT For Use In Foldable Displays Of The Future

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Science decodes 'internal voices'


Researchers have demonstrated a striking method to reconstruct words, based on the brain waves of patients thinking of those words.

The technique reported in PLoS Biology relies on gathering electrical signals directly from patients' brains.

Based on signals from listening patients, a computer model was used to reconstruct the sounds of words that patients were thinking of.

"From a prosthetic view, people who have speech disorders... could possibly have a prosthetic device when they can't speak but they can imagine what they want to say," Prof Knight explained.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16811042

Quadrotor Autonomous robots that can Learn

The swarmbots are not controlled directly. They are given a goal with parameters and they figure out how to achieve it. Amazing technology, frightening potential.