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Doug Engelbart, the visionary who foresaw the modern internet and created the mouse, dies aged 88

Doug Engelbart, founder of the Augmented Research Center (ARC) at SRI and inventor of the computer mouse, has died at the age of 88. Engelbart was one of the first great computer visionaries, and perhaps the first to envision a future where computers, and more importantly networks of computers, augment human intellect. To this end, Engelbart and his fellow researchers at the ARC devised prototypes — in the 1960s! — that could be considered the forerunners of the World Wide Web, Skype, multiple on-screen windows, screen sharing, and the computer mouse.

In 1950, at the ripe old age of 25, Douglas C. Engelbart had an epiphany that high technology had the ability to expand and augment human intelligence. In 1962, after joining the Stanford Research Institute and founding the Augmented Research Center, this epiphany was crystallized into a treatise called Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework. In short, the treatise suggested that we would all be a lot more creative, productive, and intelligent if we had a shared intellectual space. In 1968, Engelbart and his fellow researchers realized this shared intellectual space by creating the NLS (oN-Line System).

Doug Engelbart, holding his original mouse. It used two wheels on the underside to measure the X-Y distance traveled. The ball mouse was also created around the same time, by a German company called Telefunken.

On December 9, Engelbart and 17 researchers working with him at the ARC gave a 100-minute public demonstration of the NLS, which they had been working on since Engelbart’s original treatise was published in 1962. Around 1,000 computer professionals attended the presentation, which would turn out to be the first public debut of the computer mouse (pictured above), hypertext, and screen sharing with built-in video conferencing. This was in 1968, some 16 years before the mouse would be popularized by Apple and Microsoft, and decades before the arrival of the World Wide Web and Skype.

At this point, it’s better if you switch over to the video below, where Engalbert himself, on stage at the San Francisco Convention Center, demonstrates the NLS. If you don’t have time for the full 100-minute demonstration, you should probably skip forward to the 31-minute mark for a good overview of the NLS input devices (mouse and chord keyboard), and the 75-minute mark for the video conferencing and screen sharing/collaboration demo.

This demo, which left the attendees awe-struck, would later be referred to by Silicon Valley dwellers as “the mother of all demos.” In an age when computers were very much still room-sized devices intended for massive computation, NLS suggested that computers, aided by networks, could be used for real-time collaboration between researchers. Looking back, of course, sitting at our computers that are connected to billions of other people via the internet and the World Wide Web, we now know how scarily prescient Engelbart was.

The ARC was funded by DARPA, NASA, and the USAF — and you won’t be surprised, after watching Engelbart’s demo, to hear that the ARC later became one of first nodes of the ARPANET, the precursor of the internet. The first permanent ARPANET link was between the Interface Message Processor (one of the first packet-switched routers) at UCLA and the IMP at SRI. ARC, still headed by Engelbart, then became the first Network Information Center (NIC). (See: Changing the world: DARPA’s top inventions.)

Soon after the excitement of the NLS and ARPANET, however, Engelbart slipped into relative obscurity. Engelbart still firmly believed that networked collaboration was the future, while the rest of the world, including some of his fellow researchers at the ARC, were quickly shifting their towards personal computing. The ARC was eventually sold off a company called Tymshare, which was then acquired by McDonnell Douglas, and with each successive sale Engelbart’s influence waned. Disillusioned, Engelbart eventually retired from McDonnell Douglas in 1986, his vision of a networked intellectual space squeezed out by operational concerns and a lust for larger profits.

Sitting here in 2013, of course, we know that Engelbart’s epiphany wasn’t in vane. Thanks to the World Wide Web, invented in 1993 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, and continuing efforts in the realms of networking and interfaces, we finally have a network of computers and information that augments human intelligence beyond our wildest imaginations.

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Super-detailed CGI human skin could finally cross the uncanny valley, bring realistic faces to games and movies

Computer technology has grown ever more advanced in recent decades, but we reached an impasse a while back where technology collided with biology in an unexpected way. Trying to create digital versions of human faces usually resulted in something bizarre or downright disturbing. The phenomenon, known as the uncanny valley, is still vexing for the movie and game industries. However, a team led by Abhijeet Ghosh and Paul Debevec of the University of Southern California (USC) has developed a method to make artificial faces even more real, perhaps crossing the uncanny valley. It turns out the answers were only skin-deep.

The human brain is precisely tuned to understand what a face is supposed to look like. These subtle cues are deeply ingrained and when we find them missing, the response is often viscerally negative. It can be as simple as muscles around the eyes contracting oddly, or the way lips part during speech. Science is getting closer to nailing down the mechanical processes, but the USC team is tackling the most challenging aspect — skin.

It turns out modeling the reflection of light on skin is extremely complicated because skin itself is extremely complicated. It’s a patchwork of bumps, pores, blemishes, and tiny wrinkles that creep in as you approach middle age. When these details are missing, digital skin doesn’t look real and we venture into uncanny valley territory no matter how accurate the movements are. The technique being developed at USC more accurately simulates skin in a few ways, the first has to do with the lighting.

Each simulated light source is split into four rays — one that bounces off the epidermis, and three others that penetrate the skin to different depths before being scattered. The result is a more natural sheen with realistic shadows.

To make this technology really work, the team also cranked up the level of detail for CGI skin. Using a special scanner, Ghosh and Debevec took extremely high resolution images of human skin from volunteers’ cheeks, chins, and foreheads. Each pixel in the images contained an area only 10 micrometers across (that’s 0.00001 meters, by the way). At this level of detail, a single skin cell is only three pixels wide on average.

The scans were used to generate incredibly detailed 3D renders of skin. When combined with the new simulated lighting, the results are incredibly impressive. The CGI network of pores and bumps make the faces look almost real as the artificial light plays across them.

There has been intense interest from game developers and Hollywood as this project has proceeded. The CGI blockbuster Avatar used a rudimentary version of the USC technology to make the film’s blue-skinned aliens more realistic. Activision and Nvidia have been collaborating with USC in hopes of developing a software package that can generate photorealistic faces on consumer hardware like game consoles and PCs. The day might be fast approaching that your in-game avatar looks completely real in every way that matters.

View the original article here

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TSMC adopts new lithography technique to push Moore's law to 20nm

As process nodes shrink, it’s become increasingly difficult for the major semiconductor foundries to offer compelling advantages at each new node. TSMC recently disclosed some additional information about how it intends to build 20nm chips using double patterning. The technique, while vital to constructing processors at this node, comes with some significant costs.

For nearly a decade, TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and Intel have collectively relied on argon-fluoride (ArF) lasers to etch microprocessor wafers. These lasers generate light at 193nm, deep in the ultraviolet range, and have been instrumental in driving the semiconductor industry from 90nm geometries down to 28nm. Unfortunately, 193nm light has reached its effective limit — transistor densities below 28nm are simply too small for 193nm light to etch.

In single-pattern lithography, a wafer is covered with a light-sensitive material, known as a photoresist. Light is then streamed through a patterned photomask (a template of the chip, essentially). The light strikes the photoresist and changes the chemical properties of the material. The wafer is then bathed in a chemical solution, which washes away the areas the light touched. This process is repeated multiple times, and the end result is (hopefully) a microprocessor.

When the silicon features become too small relative to the wavelength of light being used to etch them, however, the defect density skyrockets. Double patterning — using two photomasks, each with half of a pattern — can correct this, as shown below.

There are multiple types of double patterning and it can be used in different ways, which is why you may have heard the term before. Intel adopted it for critical areas at 45nm, when the rest of the industry was pushing immersion lithography. Then, at 32nm, TSMC and GlobalFoundries began using some double patterning, while Intel went with immersion lithography. What’s changing for TSMC at 20nm is that the company is adopting what’s called double pattern/double etch (2P2E).

The same cell area built with single exposure, double exposure, and double patterning. Note how the feature size and regularity improves at each step.

The big-picture takeaway from TSMC’s announcement is that while double patterning is already in use at 28nm, it’s going to be significantly more important at 20nm. Driving up the number of manufacturing steps per wafer slows down total production and increases cost, both in terms of wafers per hour and the additional tools required for the double patterning.

GlobalFoundries is also making greater use of double patterning at 20nm. Intel, meanwhile, uses the technique to a limited degree at 22nm, but has avoided the need to adopt it as widely. Chipzilla is expected to adopt double-patterning at 14nm, with TSMC and GF bringing FinFET to market sometime in 2016. Long term, everyone is hoping to get extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography off the ground, for reasons that this next graph makes obvious.

EUV’s wavelength, at 135nm, allows for single-patterning again — at least, for a little while. At 7nm, double-pattern EUV may be required, but that’s far enough ahead that Intel can afford to push it back. The biggest problem with double patterning, in the end, is that it’s very much an interim solution. We were never supposed to get stuck on 193nm for as long as we have; Intel was researching 157nm lithography when it began deploying 193nm back in 2003. Problems with scaling and production ultimately killed 157nm, EUV lithography faces serious ramp issues, and none of the alternative lithography approaches have proven commercially viable.

If EUV can’t be brought online in the near future, the major semiconductor manufacturers will be talking about quad-patterning by 14-16nm — and that’s enough of a cost increase that it could seriously damage the foundry model altogether. As the number of patterns increases, the chance of a mistake in mask-switching is higher, and with the space between transistors shrinking, even a tiny mistake will cause unsustainable defects.

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Canon 70D with dual-pixel CMOS AF: The first DSLR that can autofocus videos

Canon says its new Canon EOS 70D digital SLR is the first DSLR with serious autofocus for video as well as still shooting. Canon uses dual-pixel CMOS autofocus technology that effectively each of the camera’s 20.2 million pixels in half to perform highly accurate phase detection autofocus. With most DSLRs, when you press the record button, serious autofocusing goes away, leaving the user to take a stab at following focus — with continuous dual-pixel CMOS autofocus, the 70D could be exactly what the videographers ordered.

The Canon 70D also adds features from costlier cameras in the Canon line, making the price something of a bargain if you value video autofocus that works. The price is an estimated $1,200 for the camera body, $1,350 with an 18-55mm lense, or $1,550 with an 18-135mm lens. Still, the Canon 60D it replaces is now $600. Actually, if the video works as well as claimed when the 70D is released September, some videocentric buyers might sidestep costlier Canon DSLRs for the 70D, especially when it also has built-in WiFi, the ability to shoot 7 frames per second, and touchscreen operation from the rear viewfinder.

The Canon 70D uses a variant — a significant variant — of phase detection autofocus. With a traditional high-end DSLR using phase detection, when light from the image arrives at the lens, the camera measures how far out of phase (how far apart) the images are from the left and right (or opposite) sides of the lens when they converge and strike the autofocus sensor. The camera quickly makes an adjustment, the image is in focus, and the picture is captured.

But there’s a problem with these DSLRs: The autofocus sensor is separate from the image sensor. It captures light that hits the mirror and reflects down to the dedicated AF sensor. It works great when you look through the viewfinder. When the mirror flips up to capture the picture, or when you go to live view to capture a video (and the mirror locks up), the autofocus sensor doesn’t see the image for continuous focusing.

Some digital cameras, including some entry Canon DSLRs, use limited on-chip phase detection, but they have had issues with accuracy and work less well (sometimes not at all) in low light. They use comparatively few focusing points across the main sensor.

Canon’s new dual-pixel autofocus system splits every one of the camera’s 20.2 million pixels into pairs during focusing. One half tracks the image coming from one side of the lens, the other half tracks the image from the other half, same as with a dedicated AF sensor, but this one is always available, even when the mirror is up in live view or video mode. When the image is captured, the pixel halves combine to form the single pixel. Canon says two-thirds of the frame is used for phase detection autofocus, not just a handful of locations. It’s effective enough that the face-detect feature (focus keyed to faces, not trees or walls) works. Canon says it also works with high apertures (f/11), which you’d use on very bright days.

For shooting videos, some DSLRs employ slower contrast detection autofocus, where an out-of-focus object is lower contrast; as autofocus racks back and forth, the camera settles on the position with the most contrast. (The 70D has contrast detection as well as dual-pixel phase detection.) With current DSLRs, the process goes something like this: The video starts out in focus, then the subjects move, you try to manually focus and find that doesn’t work so well, you press the refocus button and for an agonizing second the camera hunts for the best focus, locks in, and then you go through the wash-rinse-repeat focus process again. That had some photographers buying a dedicated video camera, swapping the high resolution, image quality, and wide range of lens offerings for focus that worked.

View the original article here

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Catalyst Cover for Wii Remote with MotionPlus is a sleek cover made from carefully chosen materials that improve comfort and grip, designed with you and your living room in mind. No matter your hobby, you want your equipment wrapped with the most comfortable and best quality grips available. Function alone doesn’t give you the edge you need today. Added style in both equipment and wardrobe provide a heightened sense of confidence to excel in sports, life, and epic gaming battles. At CM4 we believe the objects that enhance your life should blend perfectly with your design aesthetic. Our premium Catalyst Covers for Wii Remote with MotionPlus do just that. Introducing Catalyst. Comfort. Grip. Style. Elevate your game.

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How to write a single atom and on the cheap

There are always two stages in the development of any new technology: inventing it, and making it useful. The first computer was the size of a room, and slower than a first-grader counting on his fingers. The first telephone transmitted noises so garbled they could barely be understood even when you knew what was being said. We’ve had abilities in nanoscale writing, or “lithography,” for some time, but it was too expensive, too slow, too limited, to be of use in many contexts. Researchers often despaired at using the technique outside of very specific uses, or with huge grants, and many ended up using it simply to write their names as a proof of concept. Now, Boston University researchers say they’ve taken nanoscale lithography to the a new level of usefulness, creating a machine that can lay down previously impossible patterns at the atomic scale, and do it without crippling hassle or expense.

The technique involves heating a writing material in a vacuum so that it enters a gaseous state, and using a simple shutter system to carefully rain the atoms down onto a surface. It’s controlled by a two-plate system of polysilicon plates which slide relative to one another. One has a 20µm (micrometer) hole, large in comparison to the scales the researchers are interested in, and the other an assortment of pinholes as small as 50 nanometers across. When the hole in the top plate aligns with a desired hole on the bottom one, the atoms flow through and settle onto the surface below. Four ultra-sensitive springs can move the bottom plate in any direction the researchers desire.

This technique allows a range of applications that were previously impossible, most notably creating loops or other shapes with holes; to prove the machine’s abilities, the researchers made a series of eights, or infinity symbols. Prior solutions of this type rely on nanoscale stencils that cannot support hollow areas within the shape. The researchers are confident that their machine can reliably lay down single atoms, but experiments proving this capability are still forthcoming. The most important advance, though, is the cost, which is much lower than prior technologies. Team lead David J. Bishop said that after using a bottom plate for experiments, they can “go get another clean one — for a dollar or two.”

That’s a huge step forward from the current industry standard, photolithography, which involves using light to essentially score a surface, then treating the surface to either eat it away or build it up in only those places affected by the light. (See: Seeing double: TSMC adopts new lithography technique to push Moore’s law to 20nm.) This requires that the target be immersed in liquid, along with all sorts of intermediate steps to increase the resolution of the beam, and it’s becoming prohibitively expensive for today’s smallest process nodes (28, 22, 14nm). This new technique is additive only, but drastically cuts both the time and money needed to lay down complex, nano-scale structures.

Studies at the atomic scale are increasingly important, as our computer chips approach that scale and we learn that even fundamental forces seem to act differently down there. It’s not just about the oft-cited weirdness of the quantum world, as certain properties of magnetism and the increasingly important area of superconductivity also seem to work differently. Understanding exactly how these work differently will be a key part of continuing advancement in semiconductors.

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Dance Dance Revolution iON Master Arcade Metal Dance Pad with Raised Buttons and Strong Handle Bar f

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FCC approves rules for AWS-2 spectrum, prepares for auction

As part of the The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, the FCC is mandated to auction several blocks of spectrum over the next few years in order to spur growth in the wireless industry and relieve the spectrum crunch. Because of this, it has been working to identify and release spectrum licenses for auction. As of late, the FCC has been working on the AWS-2, AWS-3, 600MHz, and 3.5GHz bands. The completion of the AWS-2 rules is a small step forward to completing its obligations under the 2012 law.

The AWS-2 band, unlike all other bands that the FCC is working on, has no current government users. That means that the band is ready for immediate auction once the rules have been worked out and the auction structure has been set up.

Because of the placement of AWS-2 (1915-1920 MHz for uplink and 1995-2000 MHz for downlink) along other bands, it is also referred to as the PCS H block, despite being classified under Part 27 (AWS) instead of Part 24 (PCS) rules. Normally, Part 27 rules are quite lax compared to Part 22 (Cellular 850) and Part 24 (PCS), but the potential for interference with PCS and AWS-4 forced the FCC to impose stricter interference prevention requirements. Some of the interference prevention requirements are:

More stringent out-of-band emission limits to prevent RF spillover to adjacent frequency bands on 1995-2000 MHz:43 + 10 log(PTX) dB normally (PTX represents power in watts for transmitter)70 + 10 log(PTX) dB when transmitting into AWS-4Limit to 25 dBm (300 mW) EIRP (effective isotropically radiated power, which is power emitted evenly throughout an antenna) across the entire block to prevent overload on adjacent PCS operations.Notification of deployment of service on PCS H block to PCS A block licensees:This was specifically needed because 2G GSM on PCS A block did not fare too well with the overload caused by PCS H operations at 1915-1920 MHz, though CDMA 1X, UMTS, and LTE handled it better. T-Mobile US wanted it to ensure it can adequately protect its GSM service from interference, since GSM operations may not be well-protected by the interference prevention requirements.The notification must be issued when the PCS H licensee is ready to sell service to customers, and not necessarily any earlier (definitely not any later).

Reliably useful coverage and service must be provided to 40% of the population of each license area within 4 yearsReliably useful coverage and service must then be extended to 75% of the population of each license area within 10 yearsIf a licensee fails to meet the former, the term for the latter is reduced by 2 yearsIf a licensee fails to meet the latter, then the license will be automatically terminated in each area the licensee failed to meet the coverage requirementsRadio frequency/spectrum block allocations in the USA.

These requirements are slightly stricter than the AWS-4 requirements, but the FCC expects the licenses to be quickly utilized for mobile broadband service. The FCC is also not permitting automatic renewal of the license after the 10-year license term is complete. Licensees must apply to the FCC and demonstrate that they have earned the renewal of their license to the spectrum. Licenses are divided up by Economic Areas, which are larger than traditional PCS Trading Areas and Cellular Market Areas, but smaller than Region licenses. The adjacent spectrum blocks (PCS G block and AWS-4) also use the same license divisions, making it very easy to combine them for larger spectral pipelines.

As for the auction, the FCC is following the same model it used for the AWS-1 auction in 2006: competitive bidding with credits for small businesses. The FCC will apply a 15% credit on the winning bid for licenses by companies whose gross revenues for the previous three years does not exceed $40 million. For those who make less than $15 million, the FCC will apply a 25% credit on their winning bids.

The FCC is trying very hard to make this auction attractive to a large number of players, but realistically only two companies will be willing to bid for this spectrum: Sprint and Dish. Sprint wants the spectrum so that it can extend its 5MHz LTE channel to 10MHz (which would double the total bandwidth and the number users that can be supported on the network) by slightly modifying Network Vision to add support for the extra spectrum. Dish wants the spectrum in order to be able to have a band that is more palatable for operators to partner with Dish in order to develop a wireless network on.

The AWS-4 spectrum has no ecosystem at all. No equipment has been developed, nor has Dish made any effort to get commitments from various infrastructure vendors and OEMs to produce equipment for the AWS-4 band. It is quite likely that Dish feels it would be easier to work through an expanded PCS band ecosystem rather than the fresh AWS-4 one. Whether this is a good approach or a misguided one is anyone’s guess, though.

In the end, this auction is not likely to result in any dramatic changes to the competitive landscape. The block of spectrum is small enough and specialized enough that only one or two companies can realistically bid and win licenses in. It is very likely that Sprint will acquire all the licenses, as it has plenty of incentive to do so.

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It’s dead, Jim! Sprint iDEN has finally been shut down

At 12:01am US/EDT yesterday, Sprint turned off the iDEN network nationally. With the iDEN network shut down, the next step for Sprint is to reuse the iDEN spectrum for 3G/4G services.

Sprint’s shutdown of iDEN service ends the eight-year period of Sprint owning and running Nextel’s iDEN network in the United States. The period began with mismanagement, culture clashes between Nextel and Sprint, and divestitures of international operations that helped iDEN grow in the Americas. It was complicated by Sprint’s work to determine its 3G upgrade path (which it wound up choosing CDMA2000 1X EvDO) and its efforts to consolidate and get out of the DSL business (which became Embarq, now part of CenturyLink).

By the end of 2010, Sprint’s reputation was in tatters, and it vowed to deliver on its promises of shutting down iDEN and using the spectrum for 3G and 4G service. Now, it can begin the fulfill that promise through its Network Vision program.

With the iDEN network being turned off, Sprint is now free to fully utilize the ESMR 800 spectrum for CDMA 1X and LTE service, which it gained approval for last year. Consequently, Sprint will become the third national operator with the ability to offer widespread rural 4G service. In most of Sprint’s current footprint, Sprint will be able to offer CDMA 1X and 5MHz LTE.

However, there are some complications with that. Because the United States is bordered by Canada and Mexico, Sprint has to be careful about interference Mike by Telus at the Canadian border and Nextel Mexico at the Mexican border.

Some of the direct border areas (like at the Great Lakes and Northwest Washington) will not permit more than CDMA 1X and 1.4MHz LTE to operate there. For the time being, I suspect these areas will only have CDMA 1X, since they are urban areas where Sprint’s PCS G block covers them with LTE quite well. Other border areas (like the Southwest border, stretching from California to Texas) will permit CDMA 1X and 3MHz LTE.

Borders are not the only problem areas, though. Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia are limited to 3MHz LTE because the ESMR band is further divided between Sprint and SouthernLinc (owned by Southern Company, an electric power utility company). SouthernLinc recently began offering 3G service through an indirect wholesale agreement with T-Mobile, and it is expected that it will transition iDEN to LTE in the future, though no plans have been announced yet.

Regardless of these issues, Sprint has been quietly working to prepare for the activation of CDMA 1X and LTE on ESMR. Virtually every Sprint subscriber using a phone released by Sprint in the last three years will support at least CDMA 1X on ESMR. New devices supporting LTE on ESMR are coming in a few months.

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Siri’s creator shows off Bright, a predictive assistant that reduces stress, increases productivity

SRI, the creators of Apple’s voice-controlled assistant Siri, is developing a new computerized assistant that watches and analyzes your actions in certain situations, and then helps you by predicting what you will do next. This assistant, called Bright, will overcome the physical bottleneck with human-machine interaction. As an example, Bright might know from experience that you like to watch cute cat videos on YouTube with your morning cup of coffee — and so when it sees you approaching your computer with a cup of coffee, it would automatically bring up YouTube. Less intrusively, it might instead make the Chrome/Firefox button your toolbar bigger and easier to click. The initial purpose of this assistant, dubbed Bright, is to cut down on the steadily increasing cognitive workload faced by workers in high-stress, computerized environments — but in the future, it’s easy to see how Bright might find its way to gadgets, PCs, and smartphones.

SRI International, originally the Stanford Research Institute, is a non-profit research institute and business incubator founded by Stanford University in 1946. Technologies developed at SRI have been spun-off to form such luminaries as Siri (which was acquired by Apple), Symantec, Verbatim, Nuance Communications, Vocera, and Intuitive Surgical. Much of the work at SRI is funded by various wings of the US government; Siri, for example, was developed as a result of DARPA’s CALO (Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes) project.

Bright is intended to overcome the bottleneck that is currently present with human-machine interactions — or last-meter bandwidth, as SRI calls it. In short, computers are capable of displaying and processing much more information than we can feasibly handle. Bright is essentially a piece of software that tracks every action that you take on a computer, and at the same time watches you with state-of-the-art sensors, including gaze-tracking cameras, touchscreens, and gesture detection. By correlating this information with what’s actually happening on the computer, Bright builds a cognitive model of how you behave in various situations. With enough learning, Bright can predict your behavior, and thus make decisions for you, or at least simplify the decision making process.

In the videos above, you can see that the technology is still in an early stage of development — and also that Bright is much more than just an assistant for high-stress computerized environments. As always with research institutes, the team behind Bright probably doesn’t know exactly how the technology will turn out, or who will try to commercialize it, and so a scatter-gun approach ensues. As it stands, with its huge tabletop display and multi-user support, Bright is being developed for cybersecurity and emergency response, where huge amounts of data need to be visualized and responded to rapidly. It seems the interface is the most complete part of Bright; now SRI needs to add the prediction and automation elements (the hard bit).

According to Bill Mark, SRI’s vice president of information and computing sciences, and one of CALO’s principle investigators, learning user behavior is a “small-data problem.” Whereas big-data problems might sift through millions of records to find patterns, a single human doesn’t generate that much data — and we tend to change our behavior regularly, too, which really upsets the machines. “We’re not putting in that much data. These machine-learning algorithms like to generalize over very large amounts of data,” Mark tells Technology Review.

Moving forward, once SRI’s researchers have worked out how to predict your next action, Bright could revolutionize how we use computers. In much the same way that Google Now learns where you work, and then displays the ETA when you’re about to leave home, Bright could learn how you react to incoming email, automatically scroll websites based on your reading speed, or mute everything except mission-critical applications when you have a deadline to make — and that’s just the beginning.

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KIT-1593P Box+PCB, Black ABS Plastic Box with Batt. Compartment, with PR1593P PCB, Box = 3.6 x 2.6 x 1.1 in

This kit is a black Hammond 1593PBK plastic enclosure packaged together with a matching ProtoBoard 2-hole per strip PCB.The hand-held electronic case has a battery compartment for 1xAA, 2xAA, 1 to 4 AAA, or 1x9V battery (battery holder not included). It has a long life "three snap" battery door, PCB standoffs, and a removable end panel. It has a recessed top for membrane overlay or keypad. Lap joint construction provides protection against dust accumulation and splashing water. The PR1593P prototyping circuit board (PCB) has the convenient 2-hole ProtoBoard pattern, which provides an easy way to connect parts while maximizing usable board area.

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Super-detailed CGI human skin could finally cross the uncanny valley, bring realistic faces to games and movies

Computer technology has grown ever more advanced in recent decades, but we reached an impasse a while back where technology collided with biology in an unexpected way. Trying to create digital versions of human faces usually resulted in something bizarre or downright disturbing. The phenomenon, known as the uncanny valley, is still vexing for the movie and game industries. However, a team led by Abhijeet Ghosh and Paul Debevec of the University of Southern California (USC) has developed a method to make artificial faces even more real, perhaps crossing the uncanny valley. It turns out the answers were only skin-deep.

The human brain is precisely tuned to understand what a face is supposed to look like. These subtle cues are deeply ingrained and when we find them missing, the response is often viscerally negative. It can be as simple as muscles around the eyes contracting oddly, or the way lips part during speech. Science is getting closer to nailing down the mechanical processes, but the USC team is tackling the most challenging aspect — skin.

It turns out modeling the reflection of light on skin is extremely complicated because skin itself is extremely complicated. It’s a patchwork of bumps, pores, blemishes, and tiny wrinkles that creep in as you approach middle age. When these details are missing, digital skin doesn’t look real and we venture into uncanny valley territory no matter how accurate the movements are. The technique being developed at USC more accurately simulates skin in a few ways, the first has to do with the lighting.

Each simulated light source is split into four rays — one that bounces off the epidermis, and three others that penetrate the skin to different depths before being scattered. The result is a more natural sheen with realistic shadows.

To make this technology really work, the team also cranked up the level of detail for CGI skin. Using a special scanner, Ghosh and Debevec took extremely high resolution images of human skin from volunteers’ cheeks, chins, and foreheads. Each pixel in the images contained an area only 10 micrometers across (that’s 0.00001 meters, by the way). At this level of detail, a single skin cell is only three pixels wide on average.

The scans were used to generate incredibly detailed 3D renders of skin. When combined with the new simulated lighting, the results are incredibly impressive. The CGI network of pores and bumps make the faces look almost real as the artificial light plays across them.

There has been intense interest from game developers and Hollywood as this project has proceeded. The CGI blockbuster Avatar used a rudimentary version of the USC technology to make the film’s blue-skinned aliens more realistic. Activision and Nvidia have been collaborating with USC in hopes of developing a software package that can generate photorealistic faces on consumer hardware like game consoles and PCs. The day might be fast approaching that your in-game avatar looks completely real in every way that matters.

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Microsoft Expression Studio 4 Ultimate opens up a new world of creative possibility. Its professional design tools give you the freedom to make your vision real—whether you’re designing for standards-based Web sites, rich desktop experiences, or Silverlight. Includes Expression Blend + SketchFlow, Expression Web, Expression Design and Expression Encoder. Design Tools for Silverlight & .NET Design compelling user interfaces for the Web and desktop using Microsoft Expression, tools purpose built to complement Visual Studio.

From Concept to Completion Prototype your ideas rapidly, engage and interact with your customers to get your projects off to a flying start, then save time and energy by reusing assets as you bring your prototypes to life in your production projects. Industry Standard Technologies Create standards-based Web sites with a tool that provides precision layout control, supports a broad range of technologies, and speeds cross-browser debugging with advanced visual diagnostics.

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Windows 8.1 multi-monitor Desktop hands-on review (video)

A week ago, Microsoft released Windows 8.1 Preview, an upgrade to Windows 8 that makes the new operating system a lot more usable for Desktop users, and users who prefer to use a mouse and keyboard. I’ve now been running the Preview for a week on a dual-monitor mouse-and-keyboard setup, and except for a couple of small bugs it’s a surprisingly large improvement over Windows 8.1.

If you’re a Desktop-oriented user who is thoroughly disappointed by the Windows 8 experience, or a Windows XP or 7 user who’s holding off on upgrading until the poor support for mouse-and-keyboard is resolved, watch the video below. In the video I walk you through all of the major Desktop-oriented features in Windows 8.1, including the Start button and the ersatz Start screen (All Apps view), and a few new Metro features as well. If there are details in the video that you can’t make out, there’s a gallery of Windows 8.1 screenshots below. If you can’t watch the video, see our complete list of Windows 8.1 changes and features, or our hands-on review of Windows 8.1 for Desktop users.

Overall, you can see that the multi-monitor experience in Windows 8.1 is significantly improved. From being able to disable the hot corners, to booting straight to Desktop, to fixing the Start screen to your main display, to being able to drag Metro apps to any display, Windows 8.1 goes a long way towards making the Desktop and Metro more usable for mouse and keyboard users. Power users and office dwellers should still avail themselves of some keyboard shortcuts, and you should certainly read through our entire list of Windows 8 tips and tricks, but in general, Windows 8.1 will leave a lot sweeter taste in your mouth than its predecessor.

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Netduino 1

Netduino is an open source electronics platform using the .NET Micro Framework. Featuring a 32-bit microcontroller and a rich development environment. Suitable for engineers and hobbyists alike. Input. Output. Interface with switches, sensors, LEDs, serial devices, and more. Netduino offers 20 GPIOs combined with SPI, I2C, 2 UARTs (1 RTS/CTS), 4 PWM channels and 6 ADC channels. Code. Debug. Repeat. NET Micro Framework combines the ease of high-level coding and the raw features of microcontrollers.

Enjoy event-based programming, multi-threading, line-by-line debugging, breakpoints and more. Very expandable. 3rd-party accessories offer pre-built functionality like GPS location, servo control and battery power. Netduino is also pin-compatible with Arduino shields. 3rd-party drivers are required for some Arduino shields. Design files included. Netduino is an open source electronics platform. All design files and source code are included. Learn from the designs. Remix. Enjoy the freedom of open source.

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Corning Willow Glass used to make flexible solar power roofing shingles, could lower the cost of solar power significantly

The US government’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has built flexible solar cells out of Corning’s Willow Glass. These new solar cells are strong enough that they could eventually replace roofing shingles, which would significantly shrink the biggest barrier to mass adoption of solar power: the cost of installation.

As you probably know, Corning is the manufacturer of Gorilla Glass, which furnishes the front of many smartphones, including the iPhone, and most HTC and Samsung devices. (See: Gorilla Glass coming to cars, making them more resilient and efficient.) Gorilla Glass is essentially a variety of alkali-aluminosilicate toughened glass that has been engineered for a combination of desirable factors (high strength and toughness, while remaining thin and light).

Willow Glass, on the other hand, is a flexible, transparent, thin (0.1mm) borosilicate glass that’s intended to be used as a substrate — a material on which other components, such as LCD or OLED electronics, can be laid down. Being a borosilicate glass, Willow Glass – just like Pyrex, which was developed by Corning in 1915 – is very heat resistant, which is useful when the creation of modern displays can involve temperatures measured in hundreds of degrees Celsius. Most importantly, though, Willow Glass is flexible enough to be rolled up and used in continuous roll-to-roll processes. It is this last point that is most exciting to display manufacturers, as it could significantly speed up production and reduce costs.

Willow Glass’s flexibility may lead to bendy or wraparound displays, but it’s important to note that you still need another layer to protect the Willow Glass (Corning recommends Gorilla Glass, of course). At just 100 micrometers thick, Willow Glass is flexible, but it isn’t strong like Gorilla Glass. If you’re waiting for a bendy device, devices that use plastic displays, such as LG’s plastic e-ink display, are probably a better bet. Willow Glass’s combination of flexibility, transparency, and heat resistance does make it a very good option for the creation of cadmium telluride solar cells, however.

Cadmium telluride photovoltaic cells are the only thin-film photovoltaic technology that’s cheaper than crystalline silicon — but until now, there hasn’t been a transparent substrate that also has the thermal resistance to withstand manufacturing. The DoE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is reporting that it has built cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells on Corning’s Willow Glass (pictured right). For now, these are very small cells, but they could be used as roofing shingles. If production of these cells can be scaled up roll-to-roll processing, it would be possible to create very cheap solar power shingles that could be used instead of conventional asphalt, brick, or slate shingles.

When it comes to adopting solar power, the cost of installation is one of the most prohibitive factors. While solar panels themselves generally cost less than $1 per watt, the cost of installation can be five or 10 times that amount. Instead of paying a huge amount to have solar panels installed on your roof, it would be much cheaper if new houses were simply built with roofing made of solar panels. It would be rather exciting if each home produced the electricity that it required — in sunny climes, at any rate. (See: NASA’s cold fusion tech could put a nuclear reactor in every home, car, and plane.)

View the original article here

Netduino 2

Netduino is an open source electronics platform using the .NET Micro Framework. Featuring a 32-bit microcontroller and a rich development environment. Suitable for engineers and hobbyists alike. Input. Output. Interface with switches, sensors, LEDs, serial devices, and more. Netduino offers 22 GPIOs combined with SPI, I2C, 4 UARTs (1 RTS/CTS), 6 PWM channels and 6 ADC channels. Code. Debug. Repeat. .NET Micro Framework combines the ease of high-level coding and the raw features of microcontrollers.

 Enjoy event-based programming, multi-threading, line-by-line debugging, breakpoints and more. Very expandable. 3rd-party accessories offer pre-built functionality like GPS location, servo control and battery power. Netduino is also pin-compatible with Arduino shields. 3rd-party drivers are required for some Arduino shields. Design files included. Netduino is an open source electronics platform. All design files and source code are included. Learn from the designs. Remix. Enjoy the freedom of open source.

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The visionary who foresaw the modern internet and created the mouse, dies aged 88

Doug Engelbart, founder of the Augmented Research Center (ARC) at SRI and inventor of the computer mouse, has died at the age of 88. Engelbart was one of the first great computer visionaries, and perhaps the first to envision a future where computers, and more importantly networks of computers, augment human intellect. To this end, Engelbart and his fellow researchers at the ARC devised prototypes — in the 1960s! — that could be considered the forerunners of the World Wide Web, Skype, multiple on-screen windows, screen sharing, and the computer mouse.

In 1950, at the ripe old age of 25, Douglas C. Engelbart had an epiphany that high technology had the ability to expand and augment human intelligence. In 1962, after joining the Stanford Research Institute and founding the Augmented Research Center, this epiphany was crystallized into a treatise called Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework. In short, the treatise suggested that we would all be a lot more creative, productive, and intelligent if we had a shared intellectual space. In 1968, Engelbart and his fellow researchers realized this shared intellectual space by creating the NLS (oN-Line System).

Doug Engelbart, holding his original mouse. It used two wheels on the underside to measure the X-Y distance traveled. The ball mouse was also created around the same time, by a German company called Telefunken. On December 9, Engelbart and 17 researchers working with him at the ARC gave a 100-minute public demonstration of the NLS, which they had been working on since Engelbart’s original treatise was published in 1962. Around 1,000 computer professionals attended the presentation, which would turn out to be the first public debut of the computer mouse (pictured above), hypertext, and screen sharing with built-in video conferencing. This was in 1968, some 16 years before the mouse would be popularized by Apple and Microsoft, and decades before the arrival of the World Wide Web and Skype.

At this point, it’s better if you switch over to the video below, where Engalbert himself, on stage at the San Francisco Convention Center, demonstrates the NLS. If you don’t have time for the full 100-minute demonstration, you should probably skip forward to the 31-minute mark for a good overview of the NLS input devices (mouse and chord keyboard), and the 75-minute mark for the video conferencing and screen sharing/collaboration demo.

This demo, which left the attendees awe-struck, would later be referred to by Silicon Valley dwellers as “the mother of all demos.” In an age when computers were very much still room-sized devices intended for massive computation, NLS suggested that computers, aided by networks, could be used for real-time collaboration between researchers. Looking back, of course, sitting at our computers that are connected to billions of other people via the internet and the World Wide Web, we now know how scarily prescient Engelbart was.

The ARC was funded by DARPA, NASA, and the USAF — and you won’t be surprised, after watching Engelbart’s demo, to hear that the ARC later became one of first nodes of the ARPANET, the precursor of the internet. The first permanent ARPANET link was between the Interface Message Processor (one of the first packet-switched routers) at UCLA and the IMP at SRI. ARC, still headed by Engelbart, then became the first Network Information Center (NIC). (See: Changing the world: DARPA’s top inventions.)

Soon after the excitement of the NLS and ARPANET, however, Engelbart slipped into relative obscurity. Engelbart still firmly believed that networked collaboration was the future, while the rest of the world, including some of his fellow researchers at the ARC, were quickly shifting their towards personal computing. The ARC was eventually sold off a company called Tymshare, which was then acquired by McDonnell Douglas, and with each successive sale Engelbart’s influence waned. Disillusioned, Engelbart eventually retired from McDonnell Douglas in 1986, his vision of a networked intellectual space squeezed out by operational concerns and a lust for larger profits.

Sitting here in 2013, of course, we know that Engelbart’s epiphany wasn’t in vane. Thanks to the World Wide Web, invented in 1993 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, and continuing efforts in the realms of networking and interfaces, we finally have a network of computers and information that augments human intelligence beyond our wildest imaginations.

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Sony CDQ 80L3//T 700 MB 48x 80min CD-R, jewel case)

CD-R media delivers the mechanical precision needed to meet today's high-speed recording requirements. This 700MB/80 minute CD-R is ideal for demo music mastering, prototyping CD-ROM and limited edition CD production.

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FCC approves rules for AWS-2 spectrum, prepares for auction

Last week, the FCC completed the process in determining the rules for a new block of spectrum being set up for auction. The AWS-2 (or PCS H block) spectrum is set for auction later this year or early next year.

As part of the The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, the FCC is mandated to auction several blocks of spectrum over the next few years in order to spur growth in the wireless industry and relieve the spectrum crunch. Because of this, it has been working to identify and release spectrum licenses for auction. As of late, the FCC has been working on the AWS-2, AWS-3, 600MHz, and 3.5GHz bands. The completion of the AWS-2 rules is a small step forward to completing its obligations under the 2012 law.

The AWS-2 band, unlike all other bands that the FCC is working on, has no current government users. That means that the band is ready for immediate auction once the rules have been worked out and the auction structure has been set up.

Because of the placement of AWS-2 (1915-1920 MHz for uplink and 1995-2000 MHz for downlink) along other bands, it is also referred to as the PCS H block, despite being classified under Part 27 (AWS) instead of Part 24 (PCS) rules. Normally, Part 27 rules are quite lax compared to Part 22 (Cellular 850) and Part 24 (PCS), but the potential for interference with PCS and AWS-4 forced the FCC to impose stricter interference prevention requirements. Some of the interference prevention requirements are:

More stringent out-of-band emission limits to prevent RF spillover to adjacent frequency bands on 1995-2000 MHz:43 + 10 log(PTX) dB normally (PTX represents power in watts for transmitter)70 + 10 log(PTX) dB when transmitting into AWS-4Limit to 25 dBm (300 mW) EIRP (effective isotropically radiated power, which is power emitted evenly throughout an antenna) across the entire block to prevent overload on adjacent PCS operations.Notification of deployment of service on PCS H block to PCS A block licensees:This was specifically needed because 2G GSM on PCS A block did not fare too well with the overload caused by PCS H operations at 1915-1920 MHz, though CDMA 1X, UMTS, and LTE handled it better. T-Mobile US wanted it to ensure it can adequately protect its GSM service from interference, since GSM operations may not be well-protected by the interference prevention requirements.The notification must be issued when the PCS H licensee is ready to sell service to customers, and not necessarily any earlier (definitely not any later).

Reliably useful coverage and service must be provided to 40% of the population of each license area within 4 yearsReliably useful coverage and service must then be extended to 75% of the population of each license area within 10 yearsIf a licensee fails to meet the former, the term for the latter is reduced by 2 yearsIf a licensee fails to meet the latter, then the license will be automatically terminated in each area the licensee failed to meet the coverage requirementsRadio frequency/spectrum block allocations in the USA

These requirements are slightly stricter than the AWS-4 requirements, but the FCC expects the licenses to be quickly utilized for mobile broadband service. The FCC is also not permitting automatic renewal of the license after the 10-year license term is complete. Licensees must apply to the FCC and demonstrate that they have earned the renewal of their license to the spectrum. Licenses are divided up by Economic Areas, which are larger than traditional PCS Trading Areas and Cellular Market Areas, but smaller than Region licenses. The adjacent spectrum blocks (PCS G block and AWS-4) also use the same license divisions, making it very easy to combine them for larger spectral pipelines.

As for the auction, the FCC is following the same model it used for the AWS-1 auction in 2006: competitive bidding with credits for small businesses. The FCC will apply a 15% credit on the winning bid for licenses by companies whose gross revenues for the previous three years does not exceed $40 million. For those who make less than $15 million, the FCC will apply a 25% credit on their winning bids.

The FCC is trying very hard to make this auction attractive to a large number of players, but realistically only two companies will be willing to bid for this spectrum: Sprint and Dish. Sprint wants the spectrum so that it can extend its 5MHz LTE channel to 10MHz (which would double the total bandwidth and the number users that can be supported on the network) by slightly modifying Network Vision to add support for the extra spectrum. Dish wants the spectrum in order to be able to have a band that is more palatable for operators to partner with Dish in order to develop a wireless network on.

The AWS-4 spectrum has no ecosystem at all. No equipment has been developed, nor has Dish made any effort to get commitments from various infrastructure vendors and OEMs to produce equipment for the AWS-4 band. It is quite likely that Dish feels it would be easier to work through an expanded PCS band ecosystem rather than the fresh AWS-4 one. Whether this is a good approach or a misguided one is anyone’s guess, though.

In the end, this auction is not likely to result in any dramatic changes to the competitive landscape. The block of spectrum is small enough and specialized enough that only one or two companies can realistically bid and win licenses in. It is very likely that Sprint will acquire all the licenses, as it has plenty of incentive to do so.

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Sony Electronics Products - CD-R Recordable Disc, 48X, 700MB/80 Minute, 50/Spindle - Sold as 1 PK - CD-R (CD-Recordable) offers a 700MB/80 minute capacity, a 48X write speed and branded surface. Ideal for demo music mastering, prototyping CD-ROMs and limited edition CD production runs. Delivers the mechanical precision needed to meet today's high-speed recording requirements. Compatible for playback on CD-ROM, audio CD players and photo CDs.

Netduino is an open source electronics platform using the .NET Micro Framework. Featuring a 32-bit microcontroller and a rich development environment. Suitable for engineers and hobbyists alike. Input. Output. Interface with switches, sensors, LEDs, serial devices, and more. Netduino offers 20 GPIOs combined with SPI, I2C, 2 UARTs (1 RTS/CTS), 4 PWM channels and 6 ADC channels. Code. Debug. Repeat. .NET Micro Framework combines the ease of high-level coding and the raw features of microcontrollers.

Enjoy event-based programming, multi-threading, line-by-line debugging, breakpoints and more. Very expandable. 3rd-party accessories offer pre-built functionality like GPS location, servo control and battery power. Netduino is also pin-compatible with Arduino shields. 3rd-party drivers are required for some Arduino shields. Design files included. Netduino is an open source electronics platform. All design files and source code are included. Learn from the designs. Remix. Enjoy the freedom of open source.

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Intel Bay Trail benchmark appears online, crushes fastest Snapdragon ARM SoC by 30%

The first benchmarks of Intel’s upcoming Bay Trail SoC have appeared online — and it’s good news for x86 fans, but terrible news for ARM: Bay Trail-T, clocked at just 1.1GHz, is around 30% faster than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 clocked at 2.3GHz, the fastest ARM chip on the market.

This data comes from an Antutu benchmark, which shows a device with the code name byt_t_ffrd10 — Bay Trail-T Form Factor Reference Device — racking up the magnificent score of 43,416. This is apparently at 1.1GHz, while running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean (it is probably the Android reference tablet that Intel showed off at Computex last month). By comparison, the latest Galaxy S4 with LTE-Advanced support, with the Snapdragon 800 SoC, scores just shy of 30,000. To round out the comparison, last year’s Exynos 4 (in the Galaxy S3) scores around 20,000, and Tegra 3 scores around 15,000. In short, the Bay Trail-T SoC is an absolute monster that’s 30% faster than the top competitor and three times the speed of Tegra 3.

Bay Trail-T is Intel’s upcoming 22nm tablet-oriented SoC with four Silvermont cores, due out sometime this year (probably fall). Silvermont is the first new Atom core in five years, and it’s safe to say that Intel has learned quite a few lessons in those intervening years. There’s out-of-order execution, more efficient branch processing and prediction, and faster recovery from pipeline collisions/crashes. Many hardware features were borrowed from Westmere (the die shrink of Nehalem). A massively improved FPU will boost performance dramatically. In short, Silvermont gets much more done per clock cycle (IPC), while using less power. The hardware hasn’t been properly benchmarked yet, but Intel is claiming that Silvermont is 3x faster than the Saltwell CPU core (Medfield/Clover Trail), while using 5x less power.

The Antutu benchmark would appear to confirm that Silvermont is indeed very, very fast — and, unless it’s being misreported, this Bay Trail-T SoC is apparently running at just 1.1GHz. When it ships, Bay Trail-T is expected to clock at 2.1GHz. Will commercial tablets score almost 90,000 on the Antutu benchmark?

What remains to be seen, however, is how Silvermont performs in a smaller power envelope — namely, smartphones. Will Merrifield, which is a dual-core part that will probably be clocked slower than Bay Trail, be able to keep up with the latest SoCs from Qualcomm, Samsung, and Apple? I don’t think anyone doubts Intel’s potency when it comes to raw performance, but on the matter of performance-per-watt, the jury’s still very much out.

View the original article here

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Microsoft seeks to turn your smartphone into a mood ring

Your smartphone is already an extension of your body. It knows you — it understands you, right? But what if it knew how you were really feeling? Microsoft Research has built a prototype system that aims to detect the user’s mood. If the research pans out, phones in the future could add mood detection to the array of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and GPS chips that already customize the experience — emoticons could go the way of the dinosaurs.

Rather than go with a mood ring analog and develop some borderline pseudo-scientific physical sensor, Microsoft Research created a software package called MoodScope. This is a lightweight application that runs on a smartphone and uses context clues to infer how the user is feeling.

MoodScope measures a huge array of interactions with the phone including app usage, phone calls, emails, text messages, browsing history, and geographic location. This works out to thousands of data points each day. The team recruited 32 study participants and had them use the system for two months. During that time, they also completed self-assessments of their mood to see how close the software was getting to the truth.

The results of the preliminary study were shockingly (and maybe disconcertingly) accurate. Without any personal tuning, the app was able to guess at someone’s mood with 66% accuracy. That means anyone picking up the phone would see that level of exactness. When the software was “calibrated” for an individual user, the accuracy jumped as high as 93%.

MoodScope uses a two-axis scale to measure mood. On the X-axis is pleasure, and activeness is on the Y. This is an oversimplification of emotional states, but it can encompass general feelings like happiness, calm, and boredom. That’s probably all the detail you need to enhance a mobile experience, Microsoft says.

It is believed this technology could be used to improve interaction and recommendation online. A social network could automatically include your predicted mood, or a recommendation engine like Netflix could more accurately tailor itself to your state of mind at the time. If MoodScope proves to be a success, you might never again have to wonder if that text message you received was supposed to be sarcastic or serious.

The prototype build of MoodScope was developed for iOS and Android devices. Despite gathering and analyzing all that data, it only used a smidge of battery in the study — just 3.4 milliwatt-hours per day. That works out to 20 minutes of standby time on the average smartphone. It might be even less draining in practice as some devices running Android gather similar data for Google Now search. If MoodScope could plug into the vast stores of data Google already has, it might be even more effective. There are obvious privacy implications here, but we’ve adapted to worse.

MoodScope won’t be able to detect sudden swings in mood, or external factors that might cause stress. However, it may make your smartphone feel a little more personal. Work is continuing on the app in hopes it will be a real product someday.

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Catalyst Cover for Wii Remote with MotionPlus is a sleek cover made from carefully chosen materials that improve comfort and grip, designed with you and your living room in mind. No matter your hobby, you want your equipment wrapped with the most comfortable and best quality grips available. Function alone doesn’t give you the edge you need today. Added style in both equipment and wardrobe provide a heightened sense of confidence to excel in sports, life, and epic gaming battles. At CM4 we believe the objects that enhance your life should blend perfectly with your design aesthetic. Our premium Catalyst Covers for Wii Remote with MotionPlus do just that. Introducing Catalyst. Comfort. Grip. Style. Elevate your game.

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Seeing double: TSMC takes a new technique of lithography to push Moore's law in 20 Nm

As process nodes shrink, it’s become increasingly difficult for the major semiconductor foundries to offer compelling advantages at each new node. TSMC recently disclosed some additional information about how it intends to build 20nm chips using double patterning. The technique, while vital to constructing processors at this node, comes with some significant costs.

For nearly a decade, TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and Intel have collectively relied on argon-fluoride (ArF) lasers to etch microprocessor wafers. These lasers generate light at 193nm, deep in the ultraviolet range, and have been instrumental in driving the semiconductor industry from 90nm geometries down to 28nm. Unfortunately, 193nm light has reached its effective limit — transistor densities below 28nm are simply too small for 193nm light to etch.

In single-pattern lithography, a wafer is covered with a light-sensitive material, known as a photoresist. Light is then streamed through a patterned photomask (a template of the chip, essentially). The light strikes the photoresist and changes the chemical properties of the material. The wafer is then bathed in a chemical solution, which washes away the areas the light touched. This process is repeated multiple times, and the end result is (hopefully) a microprocessor.

When the silicon features become too small relative to the wavelength of light being used to etch them, however, the defect density skyrockets. Double patterning — using two photomasks, each with half of a pattern — can correct this, as shown below. There are multiple types of double patterning and it can be used in different ways, which is why you may have heard the term before. Intel adopted it for critical areas at 45nm, when the rest of the industry was pushing immersion lithography. Then, at 32nm, TSMC and GlobalFoundries began using some double patterning, while Intel went with immersion lithography. What’s changing for TSMC at 20nm is that the company is adopting what’s called double pattern/double etch (2P2E).

The big-picture takeaway from TSMC’s announcement is that while double patterning is already in use at 28nm, it’s going to be significantly more important at 20nm. Driving up the number of manufacturing steps per wafer slows down total production and increases cost, both in terms of wafers per hour and the additional tools required for the double patterning.

GlobalFoundries is also making greater use of double patterning at 20nm. Intel, meanwhile, uses the technique to a limited degree at 22nm, but has avoided the need to adopt it as widely. Chipzilla is expected to adopt double-patterning at 14nm, with TSMC and GF bringing FinFET to market sometime in 2016. Long term, everyone is hoping to get extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography off the ground, for reasons that this next graph makes obvious.

EUV’s wavelength, at 135nm, allows for single-patterning again — at least, for a little while. At 7nm, double-pattern EUV may be required, but that’s far enough ahead that Intel can afford to push it back. The biggest problem with double patterning, in the end, is that it’s very much an interim solution. We were never supposed to get stuck on 193nm for as long as we have; Intel was researching 157nm lithography when it began deploying 193nm back in 2003. Problems with scaling and production ultimately killed 157nm, EUV lithography faces serious ramp issues, and none of the alternative lithography approaches have proven commercially viable.

If EUV can’t be brought online in the near future, the major semiconductor manufacturers will be talking about quad-patterning by 14-16nm — and that’s enough of a cost increase that it could seriously damage the foundry model altogether. As the number of patterns increases, the chance of a mistake in mask-switching is higher, and with the space between transistors shrinking, even a tiny mistake will cause unsustainable defects.

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Siri’s creator shows off Bright, a predictive assistant that reduces stress, increases productivity

SRI, the creators of Apple’s voice-controlled assistant Siri, is developing a new computerized assistant that watches and analyzes your actions in certain situations, and then helps you by predicting what you will do next. This assistant, called Bright, will overcome the physical bottleneck with human-machine interaction. As an example, Bright might know from experience that you like to watch cute cat videos on YouTube with your morning cup of coffee — and so when it sees you approaching your computer with a cup of coffee, it would automatically bring up YouTube. Less intrusively, it might instead make the Chrome/Firefox button your toolbar bigger and easier to click. The initial purpose of this assistant, dubbed Bright, is to cut down on the steadily increasing cognitive workload faced by workers in high-stress, computerized environments — but in the future, it’s easy to see how Bright might find its way to gadgets, PCs, and smartphones.

SRI International, originally the Stanford Research Institute, is a non-profit research institute and business incubator founded by Stanford University in 1946. Technologies developed at SRI have been spun-off to form such luminaries as Siri (which was acquired by Apple), Symantec, Verbatim, Nuance Communications, Vocera, and Intuitive Surgical. Much of the work at SRI is funded by various wings of the US government; Siri, for example, was developed as a result of DARPA’s CALO (Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes) project.

Bright is intended to overcome the bottleneck that is currently present with human-machine interactions — or last-meter bandwidth, as SRI calls it. In short, computers are capable of displaying and processing much more information than we can feasibly handle. Bright is essentially a piece of software that tracks every action that you take on a computer, and at the same time watches you with state-of-the-art sensors, including gaze-tracking cameras, touchscreens, and gesture detection. By correlating this information with what’s actually happening on the computer, Bright builds a cognitive model of how you behave in various situations. With enough learning, Bright can predict your behavior, and thus make decisions for you, or at least simplify the decision making process.

In the videos above, you can see that the technology is still in an early stage of development — and also that Bright is much more than just an assistant for high-stress computerized environments. As always with research institutes, the team behind Bright probably doesn’t know exactly how the technology will turn out, or who will try to commercialize it, and so a scatter-gun approach ensues. As it stands, with its huge tabletop display and multi-user support, Bright is being developed for cybersecurity and emergency response, where huge amounts of data need to be visualized and responded to rapidly. It seems the interface is the most complete part of Bright; now SRI needs to add the prediction and automation elements (the hard bit).

According to Bill Mark, SRI’s vice president of information and computing sciences, and one of CALO’s principle investigators, learning user behavior is a “small-data problem.” Whereas big-data problems might sift through millions of records to find patterns, a single human doesn’t generate that much data — and we tend to change our behavior regularly, too, which really upsets the machines. “We’re not putting in that much data. These machine-learning algorithms like to generalize over very large amounts of data,” Mark tells Technology Review.

Moving forward, once SRI’s researchers have worked out how to predict your next action, Bright could revolutionize how we use computers. In much the same way that Google Now learns where you work, and then displays the ETA when you’re about to leave home, Bright could learn how you react to incoming email, automatically scroll websites based on your reading speed, or mute everything except mission-critical applications when you have a deadline to make — and that’s just the beginning.

View the original article here

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Will Apple abandon the iPhone 5S in favor of an iPhone 6 and iPhone Mini?

We’ve seen a number of supposed leaks for the next iPhone in the last month. Plastic backs, gold trim, and even a phablet-sized redesign have been bandied about, but we’re starting to see some interesting trends. Most recently, the idea of a cheap colorful iPhone has really taken off. At this point, it’s a pretty safe assumption that we’ll see at least one plastic iPhone launch this year.

Nowhere Else, a French tech blog, posted a few pictures of a supposedly leaked iPhone 5S shell last week. This lime-green monstrosity features an all plastic back with what looks like a metal framework on the inside. The introduction of whacky colors has been rumored for years, and it fits neatly in Apple’s modus operandi for product line expansion. After the iPod line saw so much success from the fashion-conscious, it was only a matter of time before the iPhone received similar options.

When you look at the supposed iPhone 5S logic board and these gold-trimmed buttons, it’s clear that the rumors are converging on the idea of a colorful iPhone 5S with a small footprint. Just last year, the iPod Touch line expanded to five different color options, and that is par for the course at Apple. Frankly, a line of colorful iPhones with matching trim is just the next logical step.

Last month, a picture leaked showing an iPhone with a curved plastic back. This was reportedly some kind of low-end iPhone or “iPhone Mini.” Even if this model was legitimately prototyped by Apple, it seems unlikely that it would come to market with a design so reminiscent of the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Regardless of a specific design, the rumor mill seems adamant that an iPhone Mini is on the horizon.

While most signs point to a small, cheap iPhone, some people aren’t giving up hope for a phablet from Apple. While it is certainly possible that Apple can simultaneously launch a cheap iPhone 5S (or iPhone Mini) while offering a bigger phablet-sized iPhone 6, it doesn’t seem likely. Apple is quite bullish on minimizing fragmentation, and a bump in screen size a single year after the introduction of the 4-inch iPhone 5 just seems too sloppy.

After putting all of these rumors together, I theorize that Apple will end up releasing two iPhones this year. I’m betting on the first model being a boring old iPhone 6 with a nice bump in specs, and the second model being a cheap plastic iPhone that can be sold for little or no money on contract. Needless to say, both versions will likely sport a 4-inch screen. Apple recently did away with the generational split for the iPod Touch line, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Cupertino drop the iPhone 5 and 4S completely going forward.

View the original article here

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The man behind the Xbox One, Don Mattrick, might be leaving Microsoft for Zynga

Don Mattrick, Microsoft’s President of Interactive Entertainment Business, has been the focus of a lot of backlash recently. The Xbox One has been a huge PR nightmare for Redmond, and it seems it’s taking a toll on the man heading up the Xbox team. Reports are now coming in that Don Mattrick plans on leaving Microsoft in favor of taking on an executive role at Zynga — the troubled casual gaming company.

All Things D is reporting that Mattrick will be leaving Microsoft, and joining the ranks of Zynga. Perhaps, Mattrick could even be named the new CEO of Zynga since its current CEO Mark Pincus has failed to set the world on fire after the company’s initial public offering. While his departure might not necessarily be consensual, leaving Microsoft for Zynga seems like going from the frying pan into the fire for Mattrick in terms of negative PR.

Long before the Xbox One was officially revealed, the “next Xbox will suck” narrative was going very strong for months. Microsoft didn’t nip the always-on rumors in the bud, and the negative feelings towards Microsoft snowballed. After the unveiling, Microsoft employees continued to put their feet in their mouths about the plans for restrictive DRM. It wasn’t until Microsoft decided to do an about-face and completely reverse its strategy that much of anything positive has been said about Microsoft in the press.

Now that Don Mattrick is supposedly leaving, certain things can be inferred about the Xbox team. In one scenario, Mattrick was so passionate about the always-online future that the Xbox One promised, he didn’t want to be a part of a team willing to abandon that core idea. In another, the unfortunate mishandling of the PR kerfuffle cost Mattrick his job. There are still many questions that need to be answered before we have the whole picture, but it’s fair to say that this probably wouldn’t be happening if the Xbox One’s unveiling didn’t cause so much heartburn for Microsoft.

The future of the Xbox team and Zynga are completely uncertain at this point, but the stock market seems to be favoring Zynga and punishing Microsoft. If Mattrick sincerely holds strong beliefs about online requirements, it seems he’ll be a perfect fit for the oft-criticized Facebook and mobile game company. The tech and gaming press love to complain about both Mattrick and Zynga, so it seems like a match made in heaven.

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The Smithsonian Commons prototype

 This is urgent and important work. Difficult work! And work that requires that we find new ways to collaborate, form partnerships, engaging the public and develop our global network of ideas, resources and expertise. This job requires something new. The centerpiece of the Smithsonians Web and new media strategy is the creation of the Smithsonian Commons – a new part of our digital presence dedicated to stimulating learning, creation and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities.

This project is just beginning, and depending on who you are and how much you follow digital culture, the idea of a digital commons, let alone an institutional approach based on building a, can be difficult to understand. What is the commons? What will it look like and do? How will it help us to achieve our goals? What needs to change in order to do this?

To understand and deal with these issues we decided to build a prototype in the form of four animated vignettes — four stories to show the attributes and benefits of the Smithsonian Commons as seen through the eyes of our users. We built a prototype through a rapid process of research and development in winter, and in the months since then I have been meeting with colleagues inside and outside the Smithsonian Institution to understand what Commons does to people and how to move it forward.

We think there are four things that, together, will make the Smithsonian Commons a unique and powerful tool. The Smithsonian Commons becomes large, more searchable, shareable, and free.

Large

Anyone in the world can get access to the entire Smithsonian, including access to deep collections and vitality, curiosity and creativity of our staff, visitors, partners and our extended global society. The Smithsonian appears in the middle of an amazing network of ideas, collections and people.

Go to find

Vast and findability go hand in hand. Vastness of the Smithsonian can be detected because the search, navigation, and overall user experience design allows people to find the content they are interested in, as they expect to find it, including recommendations and comments of staff and visitors, external websites and social networks.

Divisible

Sharing is the basis for collaboration and learning. Smithsonian effect can be strengthened greatly if what we have and what we do is easy to share. The Smithsonian Commons will encourage use and re-use for work and pleasure, in social networks, on mobile devices and in the classroom, workshop and laboratory.

Free

The Smithsonian is based on the idea that the tools of discovery and knowledge creation should be available to all. The Smithsonian's lower House will be built on the premise that free, high-quality resources will spread further and create more opportunities for discovery and creation than those who are restricted by unnecessary fees and licenses. Free does not necessarily mean unprofitable: a popular and thriving Smithsonian Commons, built with revenue generation in mind, will open new business opportunities and drive increased traffic to our core e-commerce and membership offerings.

From the feedback we have received so far, it appears to "large, more searchable, shareable, and free" resonates with people's expectations for the Smithsonian in the digital age. Commons concept seems also successfully embodies many of the same goals and values articulated in the Smithsonian's Web and new media strategy:

the importance of Search, findability and citizenship over the institution's Smithsonian websitesthe huge thirst for trusted content and expertisethe benefits to gain by balancing expert opinion with crowdsourcing and user generated contentthe potential of the Smithsonian as a platform for knowledge creation, innovation and learning

At this point in the process, we would love to get more feedback from outside the Department to verify or adjust our assumptions, figuring out what we've been missing, and learn what you want to emphasize. Do you want to see the Smithsonian build a commons? What would you find there? What should we do first? How the Smithsonian Commons help you succeed in your business, for pleasure, or in your lifelong learning journey?

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Shot Spotter

It may sound like an urban legend, but every year people are killed by stray bullets falling from the sky — usually from celebratory shots fired into the air on New Years or the 4th of July. A series of well-publicized deaths has led many states to toughen the penalties for such antics, but until the advent of the clever ShotSpotter system they had few tools for enforcement. ShotSpotter works by deploying an array of listening devices around a city. Loud noises are recorded, analyzed and triangulated by computer, with help from humans. Police can then quickly respond, continuing to get updates on any additional shots from a graphical interface in their patrol cars.

ShotSpotter’s main target is criminal violence. It can report the street address, as well as number of shots, type of weapon used, and even the speed and direction the shooter is moving. All this happens even if no one has called 911 — allowing police to more effectively respond to both reported and unreported incidents. This is more important than you might think, since less than 20% of all gunshots in cities are reported. Even when shots are reported, the caller is often uncertain of exactly where or when they occurred. SST — the venture-backed company that sells ShotSpotter — reports crime decreases of up to 40% in cities where its system is in use.

ShotSpotter is particularly useful on holidays, both because of the increased incidence of gunfire and the use of illegal fireworks. The hundreds of shots of celebratory gunfire are far out numbered by the thousands of incidents of illegal fireworks use.

SST keeps many of the details of its system proprietary, but some of the basics are known. The ShotSpotter system uses 10 to 12 audio sensors per square mile, with each being able to detect gunshots as far as two miles away. That means over a dozen sensors will have some reading from each gunshot. GPS units built into the sensors are also a critical part of the process. The system relies on the highly accurate GPS-provided clock signal to synchronize the gunshot reports from multiple sensors. From there, triangulation narrows down the possible origin of the shot to a circle about 25 meters in diameter — close enough to indicate a street address in most cases. Noise signatures are compared against a database of known weapons, often allowing the specific model firearm to be identified.

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