Scientists Demonstrate Mind-Controlled Robot

Associated Press
(04/24/12) Frank Jordans

Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have developed a system that enables paralyzed patients to control a robot using only their thoughts. The system features a cap that transmits the electrical signals emitted by the brain, when a user imagines performing a task, to a computer, where the signal is almost instantly decoded. However, background noise has emerged as a major challenge in brain-computer interface research, says Lausanne's Jose Millan. The researchers solved this problem by programming the system to work in a way similar to the brain's subconscious. Once a command such as "walk forward" has been sent, the computer will execute it until it receives a command to stop or the robot encounters an obstacle. This allows the user to focus on other things instead of always having to focus on telling the robot to walk forward. The Lausanne team's research appears to mark an advance in the field, says University of Washington professor Rajesh Rao, “especially if the system can be used by the paraplegic person outside the laboratory.”

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/24/scientists-demonstrate-mind-controlled-robot/

Innovative Nanosat Will Test Space Software

European Space Agency
(04/20/12)

The European Space Agency (ESA) has developed the Operations Satellite (Ops-Sat), which is designed to allow controlled testing and validation of critical onboard and ground software. Software used in satellites typically does not run state-of-the-art operating systems, languages, or interfaces. "Space software is generally older because it is selected for its proven, rock-solid reliability, rather than its use of the latest and newest programming technologies," notes ESA researcher Dave Evans. He says one of the major hurdles to providing updated software for use in space is the lack of opportunities to test new tools, systems, and procedures. It is difficult and expensive to replicate in-orbit conditions using an Earth-bound simulator. "The secret behind the Ops-Sat design is that the satellite is easily recoverable from the effects of ‘buggy’ software and we use commercial, off-the-shelf processors to provide increased computing power compared to normal spacecraft," Evans says. Ops-Sat software could be ready to launch by early 2015, says ESA researcher Mario Merri.

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http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEMMMEKWZ0H_0.html

A New Breed of Heterogeneous Computing

HPC Wire
(04/18/12) Michael Feldman

The foundation of high-performance computing (HPC) is undergoing a revolution, with the introduction of add-on accelerators such as graphic processing units, Intel's MIC chip, and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), writes Michael Feldman. However, he says an emerging variant of this heterogeneous computing approach could replace the current accelerator model in the near future. ARM recently announced its big.LITTLE design, a chip architecture that integrates large, performant ARM cores with small, power-efficient ones. This approach aims to minimize the power draw in order to extend the battery life of mobile devices. The big core/little core model was developed by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and Hewlett-Packard Labs in 2003. "The key insight was that even if you map an application to a little core, it's not going to perform much worse than running it on a big core," says UCSD researcher Rakesh Kumar. The big/little model has both types of cores on the same die and it consolidates on a homogeneous instruction set. Feldman says assigning tasks to cores would be more static for HPC, because maximizing throughput is the overall goal. The most likely architectures to adopt the big/little model are x86 and ARM.

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http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2012-04-18/a_new_breed_of_heterogeneous_computing.html

New Research Could Mean Cellphones That Can See Through Walls

From ACM TechNews:
New Research Could Mean Cellphones That Can See Through Walls
UT Dallas News
(04/18/12) LaKisha Ladson

University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) researchers have developed an imager chip that enables mobile phones to see through walls, wood, plastics, paper, and other objects. One aspect of the technology involves tapping into an unused range in the electromagnetic spectrum, while the other aspect is a new microchip technology. "We’ve created approaches that open a previously untapped portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for consumer use and life-saving medical applications," says UTD professor Kenneth O. The technology enables images to be created with signals operating in the terahertz range without having to use several lenses inside a device. The new UTD microchip is based on complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, which the researchers note is common in many electronic devices. "The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and receiver on the back of a cell phone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects," O says. He notes consumer applications for the technology could include finding studs in walls and authenticating documents. "There are all kinds of things you could be able to do that we just haven’t yet thought about," O says.

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http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2012/4/18-17231_New-Research-Could-Mean-Cellphones-That-Can-See-Th_article-wide.html?WT.mc_id=NewsHomePageCenterColumn

Motorola Xoom
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Bits of Reality

From ACM TechNews:
Bits of Reality
Science News
(04/07/12) Tom Siegfried

Information derived from quantum computing systems could reveal subtle insights about the intersection between mathematics and the physical world. "We hope to be able to verify that these extraordinary computational resources in quantum systems really are part of the way nature behaves," says California Institute of Technology physicist John Preskill. "We could do so by solving a problem that we think is hard classically ... with a quantum computer, where we can easily verify with a classical computer that the quantum computer got the right answer." To solve certain hard problems that standard supercomputers cannot accommodate, such as finding the prime factors of very large numbers, quantum computers must process bits of quantum information. Quantum machines would only be workable for problems that could be posed as an algorithm amenable to the way quantum weirdness can eliminate wrong answers, allowing only the right answer to prevail. In 2011, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics' Giulio Chiribella and colleagues demonstrated how to derive quantum mechanics from a set of five axioms plus one postulate, all rooted in information theory terms. The foundation of their system is axioms such as causality, the notion that signals from the future cannot impact the present.

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http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/339342/title/Bits_of_Reality

Server Backup Procedures

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Flexible Displays Bend What's Possible for Computers

From ACM TechNews:
Flexible Displays Bend What's Possible for Computers
USA Today
(04/05/12) Jon Swartz

Although the latest flexible display technologies are likely to take the form of personal devices, they also could find their way into larger surface displays, such as furniture and wallpaper. In addition, other emerging technologies, such as wearable computers, embedded devices, and mini-projectors also could be used as applications for flexible displays, says Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps. For example, Hewlett-Packard is developing wristband prototypes that could have applications for the U.S. Army and the National Football League (NFL). The Army could use the small display as a combination global positioning system, shortwave radio, and field manual for vehicle repairs. The NFL could use the wristband to replace helmet microphones. Microsoft's home of the future has many digital displays, including the kitchen counter, which shows graphics beamed down by an overhead projector. NanoLumens is developing large, energy-efficient light-emitting diode displays, including a flexible display that is 112 inches diagonal, one inch thick, and weighs 80 pounds. Meanwhile, LG recently announced the mass production of its electronic paper display product with a planned launch in Europe next month.

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http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-04-05/flexible-displays-computing-screens/54064128/1

UMass Amherst Computer Scientist Leads the Way to the Next Revolution in Artificial Intelligence

From ACM TechNews:
UMass Amherst Computer Scientist Leads the Way to the Next Revolution in Artificial Intelligence
University of Massachusetts Amherst
(04/02/12) Janet Lathrop

University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers are translating the "Super-Turing" computation into an adaptable computational system that learns and evolves, using input from the environment the same way human brains do. The model "is a mathematical formulation of the brain’s neural networks with their adaptive abilities," says Amherst computer scientist Hava Siegelmann. When the model is installed in a new environment, the new Super-Turing model results in an exponentially greater set of behaviors than the classical computer or the original Turing model. The researchers say the new Super-Turing machine will be flexible, adaptable, and economical. "The Super-Turing framework allows a stimulus to actually change the computer at each computational step, behaving in a way much closer to that of the constantly adapting and evolving brain," Siegelmann says.

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http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/newsreleases/articles/149986.php

Google Launches Go Programming Language 1.0

From ACM TechNews:
Google Launches Go Programming Language 1.0
eWeek
(03/28/12) Darryl K. Taft

Google has released version 1.0 of its Go programming language, which was initially introduced as an experimental language in 2009. Google has described Go as an attempt to combine the development speed of working in a dynamic language such as Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language such as C or C++. "We're announcing Go version 1, or Go 1 for short, which defines a language and a set of core libraries to provide a stable foundation for creating reliable products, projects, and publications," says Google's Andrew Gerrand. He notes that Go 1 is the first release of Go that is available in supported binary distribution, identifying Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Windows. Stability for users was the driving motivation for Go 1, and much of the work needed to bring programs up to the Go 1 standard can be automated with the go fix tool. A complete list of changes to the language and the standard library, documented in the Go 1 release notes, will be an essential reference for programmers who are migrating code from earlier versions of Go. There also is a new release of the Google App Engine SDK.

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http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Google-Launches-Go-Programming-Language-10-160585/