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Computers

Self-Taught Einstein Bot Learns to Smile



In another step towards self-awareness, researchers at University of California, San Diego have developed a robot that teaches itself facial expressions. The realistic Einstein bot formerly required individually programmed facial movements, but through a trial-and-error technique UCSD has dubbed 'body babble,' the AI experiments with its mug until it achieves a real expression.

Linked to facial recognition software, each time robo-Einstein experimented with a position that was an actual expression, it received positive feedback. Next time it 'body babbled,' its motors had a bias towards already established emotional displays, and a type of experimental learning evolved through the bots random movements.

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Cameras, Visionaries

Seeing-Eye Fabric Developed By MIT Researchers

Those dang MIT brainiacs. When they're not cracking people up with their erudite pranks and kooky creations, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing something to make the rest of the world feel insignificant and, well, let's just say undereducated. Institute researchers, according to CNet, have created a fabric with intertwining fibers that act as a basic camera.

The fibers, which can discern between two different light frequencies, produce a signal that is then amplified and processed by a computer. In its first successful trial, the process culminated in a smiley face displayed on the fabric, itself. Yoel Fink, one of the researchers, asserted that the groundbreaking design is the first to employ fabric that "can collect images just like a camera but without a lens."

The researchers believe the technology could be instrumental in battlefield scenarios, giving soldiers a 360-degree view of their surroundings. With this new camera suit, we hope to see a thrilling fiber-optic race to create a working invisibility jumpsuit or a functional chameleon cloak. Should MIT win that race, Cal Tech students need to be very worried. [From: CNet, via Slashdot]

Web

Cheap and Easy: Online Therapy for Insomnia


Insomnia and the Internet seem to be good bedfellows; just ask anyone browsing the 'tubes at 3 a.m. But researchers at the University of Virginia Health System have decided to combine the restlessness of insomniacs and the accessibility of the Web, creating an online program that gives advice and plays games with people who have trouble sleeping.

Based on the assumption that cognitive therapy can help those with sleep disorders, Sleep Healthy Using the Internet (or, cleverly, SHUTi) helps users to keep a sleep diary and suggests specific bedtimes, trying to give specific instructions per sufferer. Co-author Frances Thorndike told Fox News, "This is a very interactive, tailored, personalized program." Out of the 45 individuals participating in a study of the program's efficacy, the 22 that used the program slept (and stayed sleeping, six months later) better than the 23 members of the control group.

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EPA May Have Suppressed Anti-Global Warming Study

Accusations are flying over leaked e-mails (warning: PDF) that the EPA suppressed an internal report that casts a skeptical light on using regulations to reign in carbon emissions and reduce global warming.

The 98-page report (warning, PDF), primarily authored by Alan Carlin, argues that there is no reason to regulate carbon dioxide in the U.S. since much of the science cited by the Environtmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its recent pro-regulation recommendation to President Obama is outdated. Carlin claims that recent studies show that long-held assumptions about hurricanes in the Atlantic, the shedding of ice sheets in Greenland, and the trend of rising temperatures worldwide may be misguided.

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Audio/Video

Why Do We Sound Different Through a Microphone?

You've spent hours writing quality comedic YouTube material and perfecting your delivery, but when you finally watch your masterpiece, your voice doesn't sound deep and smooth like you'd expected. Instead, you sound like a whiny, pubescent goob. What's the deal?

PopSci.com recently asked Vanderbilt University audiology professor why a person's recorded voice sounds different than what they hear when they speak. He attributes the perceived sound of a person's voice to throat, skin, and skull vibrations. Those vibrations mixed with sound waves (called bone conduction) create a "deeper, more dignified," lower frequency pitch than what others hear. Microphones and recorders don't convey those vibrations either, because they only register sound through air conduction.

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Visionaries

Chewing Robot Takes Bite Out of Denture Trouble-Shooting

Dental technology has made long strides since our first president chewed away at his corn pone and salt pork (or whatever) with his notorious set of wooden (or ivory?) chompers. Since then, dentists have learned to replace God's own teeth with materials ranging from gold to porcelain. Despite those advancements, though, scientists haven't been able to come up with a sure-fire way to reliably and thoroughly test denture designs and materials, save for sticking them in somebody's mouth and watching intently.

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Computers

Toyota Developing a Mind-Controlled Wheelchair


It seems, after decades of ridiculous television and sci-fi predictions, that we're rapidly moving toward becoming a race of 6 million dollar men and bionic women that can manipulate technology simply using mind control. Finally. Recent innovations, including implanted microelectrodes and "learning" neural implants, allow disabled men and women to control prosthetic limbs using brain waves.

Toyota Motor Corp. now claims to have developed a wheelchair that users can move and steer without physically moving a muscle, reports USA Today. A brain wave-reading transmits signals from the rider to an electroencephalograph (EEG) located on the chair. A computer program analyzes those signals and transmits corresponding commands to the wheelchair, moving the user forward, left, or right almost instantly. Prior technology could read such brain wave commands over several seconds, but Toyota contends that its technology can decipher the brain signals within milliseconds.

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Art Student Creates 3-D Models of Unborn Children

Brazilian student Jorge Lopes has brought a stunning and creepy new medical technology to the world. Using MRIs, ultrasounds, and 3-D printers often used for prototyping parts and designs in plastic, Lopes has created life-sized models of unborn children. And it all began life as part of his PhD project at the Royal College of Art (RCA).

Here's how he does it: 3-D computer images of a pregnant woman's womb are generated using normal ultrasounds and MRIs. Lopes then feeds these renderings to a 3-D printer, which constructs actual sized models of the child out of plastic powder. Lopes' models are currently on display at an art exhibit at the RCA and, according to the Daily Mail, the medical community is taking a great interest in his technique.

A clinic in Rio de Janeiro is already testing the fetus modeling technology. It could be a way to help mothers-to-be build an emotional bond with their unborn child; particularly blind mothers, for whom an ultra-sound is useless.

It's an interesting idea, with some practical applications, but we can't help but be freaked out by some of the models -- especially the skeletal twins. Shudder. [From: Daily Mail]

Visionaries

World's Deepest Laboratory Being Built in South Dakota


It's straight out of a movie: an underground lab that runs as deep as six Empire State Buildings, designed to study particles called dark matter. (We can just picture James Bond shooting villains down there.) The location is the only part that has us confused (007 in South Dakota?), but, according to The Straits Times, the location deep within the Black Hills is perfect; it is protected from cosmic rays and is also the former site of Nobel Prize-winning physics experiments.

Monday, scientists and officials broke ground on one lab, about 4,900 feet below the surface, where today some geology and hydrology experiments are already underway. If federal funding comes through, there are plans to build two still deeper labs. An old gold mine with tunnels that go as deep as 8,000 feet, however, the site would have to be stabilized before any other labs could be built.

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Computers

Duo Build Flame Throwing Bot for Science Fair

Duo Build Flame Throwing Bot for Science Fair
It's no secret. We here at Switched are a bunch of major nerds. If you knew any of us in grammar school, you probably beat us up for our lunch money. For a few short hours, though, every year, we were kings (and queens) when it came time for the science fair. But, even we couldn't have come up with a science fair project as cool as this flame-throwing robot constructed by a couple of aspiring engineers.

Few details are known about the project, but a reader of TechEBlog submitted a video of the bad-ass bot in action, torching a cardboard house (head to TechEBlog to see the video). It's based on a VEX Robotics kit, and uses a can of WD-40 to fuel its flame thrower.

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9/11 Search Dog Cloned... Five Times


Former Nova Scotian police officer James Symington (pictured) had quite the attachment to his German shepherd, Trakr. Not only was Trakr man's best friend, but he was also instrumental in the search and rescue effort following 9/11. The dog, according to CBS, found the last survivor in the rubble of the World Trade Center. So, when Symington heard of California company BioArts's contest to clone an 'exceptional' dog, he wanted to immortalize his heroic pet, because, he reasoned, none were more exceptional than his life-saving pet.

Not just one, but five clones were created from Trakr's DNA. Symington received all five at his Los Angeles home at the right time, since Trakr passed away two months ago. He told CBS, "Trakr was so much a part of my life, and, you know, he was more than just my partner....Seeing and having his legacy live on in these puppies is a tremendous gift." Hopefully, a heroic sense of smell is hereditary. [From: CBS.com]

Visionaries

Scientists Rethink Just How Fingerprint Friction Works

The line between science and science-fiction continues to blur. When we were young, functional prosthetic limbs blew our minds. Now, college students can build them. Not only do these devices allow amputees more independence, but some promise to restore the sense of touch, at that. While these developments are amazing enough, a couple of British biomechanicists (that's right; it's a word) might have discovered a secret that could lead to even more advances, including allowing prosthetic hands to feel as well as natural hands do.

Roland Ennos and Peter Warman told ABC News their study shows that fingerprints reduce friction, which is a departure from the common belief that they increase grip. In their study, Ennos and Warman measured friction by sliding a weighted plastic sheet across the finger. The results showed that, as it does with most any substance, friction increased as more of the fingerprint's ridges of skin touched the plastic sheet. Accordingly, though, Ennos told ABC News that ink measurements taken during the study showed that fingerprints actually "reduce the contact area with the surface," and therefore actually reduce friction.

While this study does reveal a new truth about fingerprints, it does not limit or define the exact use of the creases and ridges on our fingers. To that end, Ennos did posit that fingerprints could decrease the likelihood of blisters by decreasing stress between the finger and rough surfaces. [From: ABC News]

German Boy Hit by Meteorite Lives to Tell About It

From time to time, kids have accidents on their way to school. Maybe they crash their bicycle and scrape their knee. Or, maybe they twist their ankle stepping off the sidewalk. Or, even worse, a car might hit them while they cross the street. Gerrit Blank, a 14-year-old German boy, has one of these stories, although it's a little less ordinary.

According to a report from the Telegraph, a meteorite entered Earth's atmosphere at 30,000 mph and struck Blank, who somehow walked away with only a three-inch cut on his hand (and a sweet new show-and-tell item).

Blank told the Telegraph that he saw a "huge ball of light," felt a pain in his hand, and heard "an enormous bang" that left his ears ringing like a pair of church bells. The meteorite's impact knocked the boy down and left a one-foot-wide crater in the ground. The Telegraph stated that the odds of surviving a blow from a meteorite are one in a million. If true, Blank basically won the lottery -- the prize being his life.

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Teen Diagnoses Self in Science Class

Paging Dr. House. The stomach pain, vomiting, and fever that Sammamish, Washington teen Jessica Terry had endured for the past eight years stupefied doctors, forcing the high school senior to regularly miss class. Then, last January, Jessica borrowed one of her intestinal slides from her pathologist, took it to her A.P. Biomedical Problems class, and looked at it under a microscope. The problem, to her eyes, was clear.

According to Seattle's KOMO News, Jessica spotted in her intestinal tissue what she believed to be a granuloma -- a cell with a dark center that indicates Crohn's disease. After consulting with her teacher, fact-checking online, and then e-mailing the slide to another pathologist, Jessica had confirmation, a mere 24 hours later, that her intuition had been correct. She'd been afflicted those eight long years by Crohn's disease -- an autoimmune disorder that attacks digestive cells.

Even though Crohn's gets progressively more difficult to manage as the sufferer ages, Jessica is relieved to know what she has. She starts nursing school in the Fall, and has just finished penning a children's book on living with Crohn's. If she's half as intuitive a writer as she is a scientist, it'll be a best seller. [From: CNN.com, via KomoNews.com]

Web

Holy Kryptonite: Fictional Elements We Wish Were Real


With the discovery of a new and unnamed element 112, German scientists are scrambling to come up with a title for the recent periodic addition. To inspire our Deustchland comrades, we've compiled a list of of our favorite fictional elements, which range from the sublimely silly to the ridiculously over-thought. Perhaps scanning the best in movie, television, and comic book alloys and materials will give the creatively stumped professors inspiration...

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Weirdest Techie Heists and Scams

    Elderly Amish Man Caught on Film With Prostitute, Blackmailed
    When a 75-year-old Amish widower slept with a prostitute, he -- we feel certain -- felt pretty bad about it the next morning. As if that guilt weren't enough for the old man, the prostitute and her boyfriend demanded $67,000 from him, claiming that they had filmed the scene with wall-mounted cameras and would upload the recording to the Internet. The pair was later arrested and, we can only imagine, the Amish man abhorred technology more than ever.

     

    Bank Robber Gets Away With the Help of Craiglist
    In October, a bank robber -- wearing a safety vest, blue shirt, face mask and goggles -- eluded police with the help of Craiglist. Just outside the bank, while the robbery was in progress, stood a group of men who were responding to a Craiglist day labor opportunity. As the advertisement required, they were all wearing safety vests, blue shirts, face masks and goggles.

     

    Nude New Zealander Arrested After Responding to Fake Sexy Text Message
    Late in 2007, a Wellington, New Zealand man received a racy text message from two anonymous "ladies," giving him only an address and a request that he show up naked. Well, he indeed showed up naked... at the home of one appalled, unsuspecting New Zealander. Both the nude Romeo and the sadistic texter were arrested, though neither were prosecuted.

     

    Fake Craiglist Ad Costs Man Most of What He Owns
    Last Spring, a post appeared on an Oregon Craigslist board stating that the owner of a specific house was leaving all of his worldly possessions (still in said house) to whoever wanted them. When homeowner Robert Salisbury rushed home -- on a tip from a woman suspicious about the offer of a free horse -- he found his house being ransacked by 30 strangers. We suggest he take that horse and collect some vengeance Clint Eastwood-style.

     

    17-Year-Old Jailed for Stealing Virtual 'Furniture'
    When a 17-year-old Dutch boy hacked into several accounts on the Second Life-style site 'Habbo' in 2007, the the law got involved. The boy was discovered to have stolen $5,800 worth of virtual furniture and knick-knacks. Apparently, crime -- whether actual or virtual -- does not pay.

     

    Phishers Going After Your Phones in New 'Vishing' Trend
    Over the past year, sneaky spammers have begun to forsake the worn-out territory of e-mail in favor of cell phones' fertile frontier. The result? "Vishing." Get it? Voice mail phishing. It might be more ominous if it didn't sound like a James Bond villain saying, "Wishing."

     

    Burglars Break Into Restaurant, Steal HDTV, Leave Money / Food Behind
    Around Halloween of last year, a truckload of thieves drove into -- that's right, into -- a Pennsylvania Mexican restaurant, where they -- apparently uninterested in the cash register -- stole a mid-grade 47-inch HDTV and fled the scene. We've all heard about how this generation is lacking in ambition, but this generation's thieves, too?

     

Latest Reviews from CNET.com

CNET provides the latest tech news, unbiased reviews, videos, podcasts, software, and downloads, making tech products easy to find, understand and use.

Top Product Reviews

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    Incredibly well-featured 7.1-channel receiver; excellent sound quality; three HDMI inputs; converts analog video to HDMI output; upconverts analog video to 720p/1080i HD resolution; iPod and USB MP3 player connectivity; Internet radio and MP3/WMA streaming audio via built-in Ethernet port; XM Satellite Radio compatible; touch-screen remote; multizone, multisource operation; browser-based control via home network; accurate autocalibration routine. Full Review

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    KEF KHT3005 (black)
    The KEF KHT-3005 is one compact, beautifully designed speaker package with solid aluminum satellites that feature unique driver technology to produce incredible clarity. Meanwhile, the equally astounding dual 10-inch, 250-watt powered subwoofer delivers ultradeep bass. Full Review

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    The Turbo Charge Tc2 portable cell phone charger successfully delivers emergency power to your cell phone. It's easy to use and comes with a couple of surprising features. Full Review

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  • Desktop Reviews

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    Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz)
    A minor specification update results in some significant performance gains; graphics upgrade an option on this 24-inch model; sleek, polished design didn't receive an update, but we won't start clamoring for a new design until the current one is at least 12 months old. Full Review

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    One of the fastest PCs we've tested; a PCI Express RAID card helps media encoding performance; typically immaculate Velocity Micro assembly; strong, three-year warranty. Full Review

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