A team at Microsoft has developed a smartphone app that allows users to create 3D images in a virtual space. The user simply takes several photographs of an object at different viewpoints. Then, the photos are sent to a cloud server for processing. Afterwards, the app downloads a photo-realistic model of the object, which can then be viewed from any angle 360 degrees around.

For example, creating a 3D car requires the user to take 40 car photographs. The team also created a web browser plug-in that enables viewing on the Internet.

"You could be selling an item online, taking a picture of a friend for fun, or recording something for insurance purposes...These 3-D scans take up less bandwidth than a video because they are based on only a few images, and are also interactive."

Japanese rocket engineers hope to outfit their launchers with an artificial intelligence capable of controlling its own body and launch. Current modern rockets are automated, but don't feature many decision-making algorithms.

Modern rockets have some degree of automation, as well as onboard sensors that inform engineers on the ground about trajectory, malfunctions and so on. But the setup is rather like a "check engine" light in a car that alerts the driver to an unspecified problem and neither offers nor implements a solution.

While the recent earthquake and tsunami might delay implementation, the new AI rockets, dubbed Epsilon, are slated for a 2013 maiden launch.

An AI-controlled rocket contains many obvious benefits, notably efficiency and cost. Once launched, modern rockets are usually controlled by a Mission Control Room staffed by dozens of people. If anything unusual happens, there's often a delay in the decision making process, and then ...

read more

Few people are aware that Google allows its engineers to dedicate 1 day a week to any projects that interest them. As it so happens, one of the most crucial tools to come out of that is the new Person Finder.

The natural disaster network was created by a Google engineer named Prem Ramaswami who felt the need to create the tool after the Haiti earthquake in 2010.  You may read a full account of how Person Finder came into existence at the CNN article linked above.

Engineers at Michigan State University led by Norbert Mueller have unveiled a "Wave Disk Generator" that could eventually replace the internal combustion engine. The new design boasts an up to 90% reduction in auto emissions in addition to being 400% more fuel efficient. 

A typical car engine only uses 15% of the gas it consumes to move.  In contrast, the new engine will use 60%.  The new model contains no pistons, valves, crankshafts or transmission system...making the generator far cheaper to maintain over years. The invention also benefits from potentially being able to use gas alternatives such as hydrogen. 

Naturally, this engine technology could revolutionize pretty much the entire world and its logistical systems. Everything would become much cheaper in transportation, requiring drastically less fuel and maintenance. Professor Mueller hopes that his engine model might reach the streets in 3 years.

In a bid to allow parents some control over whether a baby inherits an incurable disease or not, Britain is assessing the feasibility of fetuses born from the DNA of 3 parents, after British scientists declared the ability to do so using cloning technology.

The process includes removing defective genes and replacing them with healthy ones.

It involves intervening in the fertilisation process to remove malfunctioning mitochondrial DNA, which can lead to a range of conditions including fatal heart problems, liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular weakness...

Within a day of uniting egg and sperm using IVF, nuclear DNA is removed from the embryo and implanted into a donor egg, whose own nucleus has been removed and discarded.

The resulting embryo inherits nuclear DNA, or genes, from both its parents, but mitochondrial DNA from a second "mother" who donated the healthy egg.

Working with the Department of Energy, Berkeley Lab has developed a new way to store hydrogen using nano-particles of magnesium metal to absorb and release the gas in a controlled fashion.

Hydrogen is seen as one of the most promising energy alternatives to fossil fuels. When you burn it, the only byproduct is water. However, as the most volatile element in the universe, safely transporting it and storing it under high density is a huge obstacle that must be overcome. No one wants to drive the new GM Hydrogen Exploding Car model.

Now with this major breakthrough, they've brought a hydrogen-based economy one step closer to reality. 

I've been trying to save Kinect hack updates for Saturday, since its usually a difficult day to find good sci-tech news. But, these were too cool, so I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on them.

I'm sure there will be more. You may always view the latest Kinect hacks at KinectHacks.net and Kinect-Hacks.com.

1) Chris O'Shea allows Kinect users to swap bodies with the previous Kinect users.

2) Evoluce demos their incredible Kinect computer interface with Windows 7.

3) Synaptic Robots develops Kinect control of an ABB industrial robot.

Scientists at Northwestern University have successfully transported entangled particles of light through a fiber optic cable without losing the entangled information.  

Entanglement is simply a term that describes an unexplainable phenomena between quantum particles. No matter how far apart two entangled particles are, they will always share the same physical state. Current day physics cannot explain how this instantaneous transfer of data happens. Einstein called entanglement, "The ghost in the machine."

Nonetheless, we don't have to understand any physical phenomena completely in order to exploit it. Who wouldn't want instantaneous communication?

Readers who remember basic high school computer science know that computer software is built on a vast foundation of 1's and 0's...binary code.

The attraction of quantum data, the basic unit being the qubit, is that it can simultaneously be 1 and 0, in addition to being 1 or 0. In addition, qubits contain ...

read more

Geek.com has a nice full article about Epic Games' upcoming game engine. The video demo below represents the next generation of Unreal. The engine is so advanced that you can't run it on any gaming systems available on the market today. Instead, the new Unreal engine is intended for the next generation of computer hardware...the Xbox 720, the PS4 and next generation PC graphics cards.

The Geek article ponders that unless Microsoft and Sony release a new console within 4-5 years, there may be a resurgence in PC gaming, since PC's will have 2 generations of advancement ahead of the consoles.

Anycase, check out the video. This is true beauty in computer graphics, soon available on your standard PC within a few years. Use the full-screen, HD option or go to YouTube itself to watch.

The European Aerospace and Defense Group (EADS) has unveiled the world’s first “printed” bicycle using a 3D printing process. Made of nylon strong enough to replace steel, the bicycle requires no assembly or maintenance.

Technically, they call their process Additive Layer Manufacturing, but in essence is the same as the 3D printing process. Powdered metal (such as titanium, steel or aluminum) is sintered by laser, layer by layer, to form a solid mass until the product is finished.

Compared to a traditional, machined part, those produced by ALM are up to 65% lighter but still as strong…ALM also offers a glimpse of wider potential benefits. The process itself uses about one-tenth of the material required in traditional manufacturing and reduces waste. On a global scale, ALM offers potential for products to be produced quickly and cheaply on ‘printers’ located in offices, shops and houses. It would allow replacement ...

read more

Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina have developed a prototype replacement disc by printing an organ scaffold and seeding it with living cells.  Their new spinal implant disc closely mimics the basic structure of a real spinal disc.

Currently, the only options for someone suffering chronic back pain from damaged discs would be 1) infuse the bones, which limit movement and risk damaging other discs, or 2) implant a metal or plastic disc which risks infection and has no shock absorption.

Either way, people who suffer chronic back pain injuries may soon find permanent relief in the coming years.

“Compared to the metal and plastic implants used today, an artificial scaffold swathed in living tissue could repair itself…Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina, led by Xuejun Wen, professor of bioengineering and regenerative medicine at Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina, tried to ...

read more

An international team led by engineers from the University of Queensland in Australia have overcome a key hurdle to the real-life applications of quantum computing. In essence, using current technology, engineers have no way of efficiently measuring the behavior of qubits. Like computer bits, "qubits" are the smallest measure of quantum information. According to the article, just an 8-qubit quantum computer would require over a billion measurements. The measuring tasks increase exponentially with the number of qubits.

Dr. Alessandro Fedrizzi, co-author of this study published in Physical Review Letters states:

“Imagine that you're building a car but you can't test-drive it.This is the situation that quantum engineers are facing at the moment.”

The team developed a "compressive sensing algorithm" that for the first time allowed drastic simplification for measuring quantum processes.

Quantum computing is the holy grail of computer technology. We've covered quantum technology developments a ...

read more

Check out the picture down below. See the guy on the right? He's not a guy. His name is Geminoid DK, the third of a series of androids created by professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University and his team at Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute.

Geminoid DK was constructed to resemble Henrik Scharfe, an associate professor of Aalborg University in Denmark.

Ishiguro maintains that the group's purpose for the Geminoid is to further understand the "emotional affordances" in human-robot interaction.

Oh Japan, is there no end to the robotic awesome you produce?

I'm not sure "stillborn" is the correct term, but that was the headline at News.com.au today.

British doctors are using an advanced method to save the lives of critically ill newborn babies. In this recent case, an infant named Ella had the mother's placenta rupture during the labor process, which starved the baby's brain of oxygen to the point of severe brain damage. Doctors had to work 25 minutes before reviving the heart beat.

However, using a new procedure, they froze the baby's body for 3 days. The news article doesn't explain how it works. The video does a better job. Basically, by slowing the metabolism of the brain, it gives the organ the ability to bring itself back from the shock of oxygen deprivation. After 8 days, Ella was able to return home happy and health.

read more

The New York Times has a great article summarizing current trends in AI spreading throughout the economy. Computer AI has become so advanced that it's now starting to replace and automate higher-level jobs. Case in point, back in 1978 a lawsuit against CBS forced the company to spend $2.2 million to hire a team of lawyers and paralegals to sift through 6 million documents for several months.

Fast-forward to today.  In January 2011, a company called Blackstone Discovery in Palo Alto, helped analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000 and, of course, taking FAR less time.

Some law bloggers have noted the difficulty for recent law graduates to find jobs, noting that perhaps the trend is due to the bursting of a higher education bubble combined with the current economy. That probably is also the case, but this truly cost-cutting technology probably foreshadows that those ...

read more

This summer the Department of Homeland Security will receive a prototype DNA scanner from Network Biosystems, that promises to map out human DNA in one hour. The company hopes to become a leading provider of rapid DNA analysis. Once perfected, fast DNA mapping technology promises to revolutionize several law enforcement and criminal forensics fields.

Homeland Security wants to give agents these scanners to use on asylum seekers and immigrants wishing to relocate into the U.S. In the latter case, the scanners will be aimed at reducing VISA fraud by verifying genetic kinship to the immigrant's sponsor. Also, Homeland Security wants to use the devices to reduce child trafficking and illegal adoptions.

Following the public uproar over their highly invasive and demeaning airport security practices, TSA felt obligated to make a pre-emptive public announcement that they had no plans to use the DNA scanners for airport security.

Naturally, some ...

read more

We knew amazing things would be coming out of TED this year, the only question was "How amazing?" Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine produced a fresh kidney on stage at the TED conference.

"It's like baking a cake," Atala said.

Atala uses 3D scanners to capture an image of the kidney that needs replacing.  Then, using a tissue sample for the patient the size of a postage stamp, the organ "printer" builds a replacement kidney layer-by-layer.

A college student at TED named Luke Massella, received one of Atala's "printed" kidneys when he was only 10 years-old.

"This surgery saved my life and made me who I am today."

As many techno-philes are aware, the TED conference is currently underway this week in Long Beach, California. While we're awaiting the latest batch of inspiring TED videos, Google has given attendees a treat...the opportunity to ride in a self-driving Prius.  

Google declared back in the October 2010 that their stated goal was to free up human productivity by eliminating their need to drive. In addition, they hope to take crucial steps towards a fully-implemented automated driving system that would increase safety by leaps and bounds. Obviously, being a drunk matters not at all if your car does the driving all by itself.

One of the unique aspects of Google's automated car project is that it isn't funded or incentivized by DARPA or any other agency.  This is Google acting on its own. 

Here are some of the latest videos released.  In the video, Google emphasizes that ...

read more

The World Future Society is carrying a great article about the near future of 3D printing. For those still unfamiliar with the idea, 3D printers basically turn your private home into a mini-factory, allowing you to "print" any objects you wish, as long as you have the design and basic materials.

3D printing has been available over the last decade, but recently new 3D can now work with metals, not just plastics anymore.  In Europe, they already "print" airplane parts by fusing titanium powder with lasers.  Dentists now have the ability to "print" a crown custom fitted to each patient. 

Literally, anything can be made.  MIT's Peter Schmitt has even printed a grandfather clock that actually works.  3D printers are estimated to drop in costs 80% in the next five years.  If I remember currently, they debuted at $50,000, now you can find them today at $10,000 ...

read more

Guger Technologies, a company based in Austria has developed a computer interface controlled by human thought. While it isn't the most elegant way to type, each letter requiring about 40 seconds of concentration, the new technology promises to give a voice to disabled patients who may have no other way to communicate.

The company has recently announced that they've reduced response time to about 1 second.