Alchemy - Drawing but not as we know it

Alchemy is a cool open source drawing application which is aimed at exploring how we can sketch, draw, and create on computers in new ways.

Watch this video of Andrew Jones showing off its capabilities

iPad 3 concept video

Japanese robot that can be controlled using Kinect even if you're not in the same city!

Move over Kinect - Displair from Russia is kicking it!

FogScreen - laser touch system from SCREENRENTAL.EU on Vimeo.

Language localized in the brain

MIT researchers have found that there are parts of our brain dedicated only to language, a finding that marks a major advance in the search for brain regions specialized for sophisticated mental functions.

Functional specificity refers to the idea that discrete parts of the brain handle distinct tasks. Scientists have long known that functional specificity exists in certain domains: in the motor system, for example, there is one patch of neurons that controls the fingers of your left hand, and another that controls your tongue.

But what about more complex functions such as recognizing faces, using language or doing math? Are there special brain regions for those activities, or do they use general-purpose areas that serve whatever task is at hand?

To determine this, the researchers analyzed each subject individually using fMRI, making sure that patterns of activity in one brain would only ever be compared to patterns of activity from that same brain. The researchers spent the first 10 to 15 minutes of each fMRI scan having their subject do a fairly sophisticated language task while tracking brain activity. This way, they established where the language areas lie in that individual subject, so that later, when the subject performed other cognitive tasks, they could compare those activation patterns to the ones elicited by language.

After having their subjects perform the initial language task (a “functional localizer”), the researchers had each one do a subset of seven other experiments: one on exact arithmetic, two on working memory, three on cognitive control and one on music, since these are the functions most commonly argued “to share neural machinery with language.”

Out of the nine regions they analyzed — four in the left frontal lobe, including the region known as Broca’s area, and five further back in the left hemisphere — eight uniquely supported language, showing no significant activation for any of the seven other tasks. These findings indicate a “striking degree of functional specificity for language,” the researchers said.

The researchers said the results don’t imply that every cognitive function has its own dedicated piece of cortex. However, they said the results give hope to researchers looking to draw some distinctions within the human cortex.

'Anonymous’ plans to ‘destroy’ Facebook on Nov. 5

A user named “Anonymous” has issued a YouTube press release announcing a plan dubbed “Operation Facebook” to “destroy” Facebook on Nov. 5.

“Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause,” the press release reads. Facebook “knows more about you than your family, has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world,” the announcement says.

Nov. 5 is the date commemorating Guy Fawkes (of V for Vendetta fame) and his co-conspirators’ failed plot to blow up England’s House of Lords in 1605.

One-way sound transmission system allows for sound control, energy-harvesting

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created the first tunable acoustic diode — a device that allows acoustic information to travel only in one direction, at controllable frequencies.

The researchers used experiments, simulations, and analytical predictions to demonstrate one-way transmission of sound in an audible frequency range for the first time.

This new mechanism brings the idea of true soundproofing closer to reality, the researchers said. This enables someone in room A to hear sound coming from room B; however, it would block the same sound in room A from being heard in room B.

To obtain a sharp transition between transmitting and non-transmitting states, the team created a periodic system with a small defect that supports this kind of quick change from an “on” to an “off” transmission state. The system is very sensitive to small variations of operational conditions, like pressure and movement, making it useful in the development of ultrasensitive acoustic sensors to detect sound waves. The system can also operate at different frequencies of sound and is capable of downshifting, or reducing the frequency of the traveling signals, as needed.

The system is based on a simple assembly of elastic spheres — granular crystals that transmit the sound vibrations — that could be easily used in multiple settings, can be tuned easily, and can potentially be scaled to operate within a wide range of frequencies. Its application could reach far beyond soundproofing, the researchers said.

Potential uses include architectural acoustics for sound control within buildings, biomedical ultrasound devices, advanced noise control, and thermal materials aimed at temperature control.

“We propose to use these effects to improve energy-harvesting technologies,” she says. “For example, we may be able to scavenge sound energy from undesired structural vibrations in machinery by controlling the flow of sound waves away from the machinery and into a transducer. The transducer would then convert the sound waves into electricity.” Daraio says the technology can also shift the undesired frequencies to a range that enables a more efficient conversion to electricity.