Moving from theory to reality, US researchers have unveiled the world’s first inexact computer chip (pictured). Error checking on the chip is only enforced for applications that require accuracy; other less fussy applications – such as video rendering – are processed with errors that are not discernible to the user. The benefit is a chip […]
A new European study into Facebook usage reports that women, but not men, feel less happy and less content with their lives the longer they spend on Facebook. The study, carried out by Leif Denti at the University of Gothenburg, also revealed that women spend much longer than men on Facebook. The new study adds […]
A computer program that analyzes eye movements is better at identifying deceitful people than expert human interrogators, say the University at Buffalo computer scientists who developed the software. Details of the work were presented at the 2011 IEEE Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition. “What we wanted to understand was whether there are signal […]
Using ordinary walls, doors or floors as reflective surfaces, MIT researchers have created a camera that produces recognizable 3-D images from outside the camera’s line of sight. Describing his team’s work in the journal Nature Communications, lead researcher Ramesh Raskar said the system uses a femtosecond laser, which emits bursts of light so short that […]
An intriguing new study in the journalPsychonomic Bulletin & Review shows there is a link between the meaning and interpretation of words and the letters they are composed of – a relationship the researchers have called the QWERTY effect. Cognitive scientists Kyle Jasmin of University College London and Daniel Casasanto of The New School for […]
A monitoring group in the UK has detected dozens of GPS jamming incidents as well as the first case of GPS spoofing technology being used to fool computer navigation systems. They warn of looming chaos in transportation systems and financial networks and predict a major incident involving ships in the English Channel over the next […]
Eavesdropping on the brain’s internal monologs or communicating with locked-in patients may one day be a reality, as scientists learn how to decode the brain’s electrical activity into audio signals. Reported in PLoS Biology, the technique reads electrical activity in a region of the human auditory system called the superior temporal gyrus (STG). By analyzing […]
The European developers of a luminous ceiling that mimics the lighting effects of passing clouds say that their artificial skyscape creates a more pleasant office environment for workers. Lead developer Dr. Matthias Bues, from the Fraunhofer Institute (Stuttgart), said the ceiling recreates the feeling of spaciousness and freedom that people experience outdoors. Bues’ luminous ceiling […]
Predicting the popularity of a pop song could be achieved by using state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, say University of Bristol (UK) computer scientists who have created software to interpret the various musical factors that make a song a hit. The research team, led by Dr Tijl de Bie, have created thehttp://scoreahit.com/ website which details their […]
Dartmouth College computer scientists have developed a program to automatically rank photographs based on the amount of retouching the picture has undergone. Use of the system by photo editors and advertisers would, the researchers say, help rein inskyrocketing rates of eating disorders and body dysmorphia. The researchers’ work, reported in theProceedings of the National Academy […]
