Category: Social Sciences
September 12th, 2009
Neuroengineering to challenge what it means to be human
In a recent interview published on H+ Magazine, a new publication (online and print) that covers technologies that both “promise and threaten to radically alter our lives and our view of the world and ourselves,” AI expert Dr. Bruce Katz lays out a lofty vision for the emerging field of neuroengineering (a.k.a. neural engineering).
One of many cool images on H+ (Credit: H+ Magazine)
Katz, a lecturer, adjunct professor, and author of Neuroengineering the Future, and Digital Design, believes that, “We are on the cusp of a broad neuro-revolution, one that will radically reshape our views of perception, cognition, emotion and even personal identity.” He says that advancement in the study of neural systems and intersecting technologies is rapidly moving from perceptual aids such as cochlear implants to devices that will enhance and speed up thought. It may ultimately “free the mind from its bound state in the body to a platform independent existence,” he claims.
Technology that one day will allow for uploading of the human mind is highly controversial, helping to fuel the great singularity debate among pundits and skeptics.
September 6th, 2009
Brown University economists measure GDP growth from outer space
For many developing countries, the data for measuring economic growth is unreliable or incomplete. In response, a team of economists at Brown have suggested a new framework for estimating a country or region’s gross domestic product (GDP) by using satellite images of the area’s nighttime lights. GDP (gross domestic product), is the best known measure of macro-economic activity.
Credit: NOAA and USAF Weather Agency
In the image above, taken from space, you can see increased nighttime lighting which indicates economic growth in Poland and Eastern Europe between 1992 (left) and 2002 (right). Poland is in the top left quarter of each image.
Read the rest of this entry »
August 31st, 2009
Researchers bring the sounds of ancient instruments back to life
Ever heard or heard of a salpinx, barbiton, aulos, or syrinx? Well, neither has anyone else, for centuries (at least heard them). Until now.
Credit: Luca Petrella
These ancient instruments were common in civilizations past, but have long since been forgotten. To create and play them is a challenge as clues come in the form of archaeological data such as fragments from excavations, written descriptions, and pictures. But that’s enough for a team of researchers to reconstruct the sound or timbre of ancient instruments. The ASTRA (Ancient instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) project accomplishes this feat using physical modeling (computer synthesis) and grid technology.
June 21st, 2009
Futurist pinpoints world's top ten long-term challenges
With the growth of unpredictability comes forecasts that are harder to believe. But good leaders plan for a wide range of scenarios that are based on trends we see today.
In his recent commencement address to the 2009 graduating class at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Tory, NY, Peter Schwartz outlined ten top world challenges that the graduates should consider to make an impact. Schwartz is a business strategist, futurist, and author of The Art of the Long View.
Peter Schwartz is an internationally renowned futurist, business strategist, author, and co-founder and chairman of Global Business Network
He said that today’s number-one challenge—and opportunity—is to develop a long-term solution for our energy needs.
“That means it must be nonpolluting and inexhaustible,” he said. He believes the world of 2050 will be one of clean and sustainable energy production, transportation, and manufacturing. But to achieve a peaceful and prosperous world will require “monumental innovation, collaboration, and leadership.”
April 22nd, 2009
Distance Lab seeking couples to test drive 'intimacy' device
Cheap air travel and the Web undermine the impact of distance, but geographically separated couples could use a better alternative than technologies like text, email, and video chat when physical intimacy is not an option.
Enter Mutsugoto, a device designed to communicate intimacy by allowing for couples, who are separated by distance, to draw in light on each other’s bodies or beds.
April 3rd, 2009
How to make Government 2.0 a reality
Today was the final day of the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. This morning’s mixed bag of keynotes included a fireside talk with the founders of Threadless.com and a great demo of chartbeat, a new real-time website monitoring tool.
After the keynotes, I decided to let fate decide what I’d actually cover in this future-oriented blog and followed Tim O’Reilly-the founder of the media company co-producing the event-into one of several track sessions. I took my seat as Andrew McLaughlin, the Director of Global Public Policy for Google, was about to give his talk on how to make Government 2.0 a reality:
“So here you have a Bay Area nerd who goes to Washington D.C. and encounters some tenacious obstacles and learns some hard lessons, but comes back with a renewed sense of hope,” said McLaughlin, who in addition to working at Google is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.
December 25th, 2008
Sexy objects stimulate our brain
According to researchers at the University of California at San Diego, visual areas of our brain respond more to valuable objects than other ones. In other words, our brain has stronger reactions when we see a diamond ring than we look at junk. Similarly, our brain vision areas are more excited by a Ferrari than, say, a Tata new Nano car. In this holiday season, I’m sure you’ve received gifts that excited your brain — and others that you already want to resell on an auction site. …
You can see above hot spots showing the brain’s neural activity when a person is looking for a particular object. (Credit: John Serences, UC San Diego) Here is a link to a larger version of this illustration which was published in “Looking for something? Surprising number of neurons help find it, research shows” (University of California at Irvine news release, July 18, 2007). Please read it for additional details.
This study was conducted by John Serences, assistant professor of psychology and head of the Perception and Cognition Lab at UC San Diego.
So how did Serences find that we’re ‘rewarding’ valuable objects?
December 9th, 2008
Men are red, women are green
My monthly award for the best news release title goes to Brown University. It says that two of its researchers have discovered a difference in skin tone associated with gender. ‘They determined that men tend to have more reddish skin and greenish skin is more common for women.’ And don’t think it’s just another exotic research project. According to the research team, this ‘information has a number of potential industry or consumer applications in areas such as facial recognition technology, advertising, and studies of how and why women apply makeup.’ Interesting, but read more…
You can see on the left some results of this project. “Test subjects tended to confirm subtle color differences associated with gender. Even when viewing pixelated or distorted images, subjects identified redder images as male and greener images as female. Top left: gender-ambiguous face; top-right: random noise over the ambiguous face; bottom-left: reconstructed male face; bottom-right: reconstructed female face.” (Credit: Michael Tarr, Brown University)
This research project has been conducted by Michael Tarr, Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences in his TarrLab. For this particular work, he was helped by Graduate Student Adrian Nestor.
Here is a description of the “Structure and color in face recognition” project (Source: the TarrLab research page). “Face recognition is sensitive to the featural and configural properties of human faces. We examine this sensitivity to structure for both human and automatic recognition in a variety of tasks and with a variety of methods. One aspect of structure less investigated is the variation of color, specifically hue, over face surfaces. Its diagnosticity for categorization, e.g. gender discrimination, and identification is examined and compared with other types of structural information.”
Now, let’s look at the Brown University news release to see how the study was done.
December 5th, 2008
Virtual characters express their emotions
Spanish researchers have developed a computer model able to generate virtual faces which display emotions and moods according to personality traits. The team leader explains: ‘The aim of this work has been to design a model that reveals a person’s moods and displays them on a virtual face. In the same 3-D space we have integrated personality, emotions and moods, which had previously been dealt with separately.’ This model could be applied in both educational environments (virtual tutors and presenters with personality traits) and in video game characters. But read more…
You can see above a virtual character showing various universal emotions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise. (Credit: Diana Arellano, UIB). Here is a link to a larger version of this picture. You’ll find more facial expressions on the research project website, Creación y Animación de Expresiones Faciales where you’ll be greeted by Alice, the natural language processing chatterbot (Credit: Wikipedia). If Alice speaks only in English, the website is written in Spanish. It is focused on AFE (Affective Facial Expressions) or the creation of facial expressions to simulate emotions and personality traits.
This research project has been conducted at the Computer Graphics and Vision Group (UIB), a research unit of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department (site in Spanish) at the University of Balearic Islands. This research project has been led by Diana Arellano, a PhD student, under the supervision of two UIB professors, Xavier Varona and Francisco J. Perales.
What were the scientific basis for this project?
September 26th, 2008
Photo prize for virtual autopsies
Anders Persson, a Swedish radiologist, will receive the 10th Lennart Nilsson Award, one the world’s most prestigious award in scientific and medical photography, on October 28, 2008 . Persson received this prize for his innovative techniques for capturing 3-D images inside the human body. ‘These new techniques have proven particularly useful for post-mortem imaging, providing invaluable information for forensic investigation.’ Read more for a selection of scary and spectacular pictures…
Here is a first example of one Anders Persson photo. (Credit for all pictures in this post: Anders Persson) Persson is “Director of the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV) at Linköping University and the University Hospital in Linköping, Sweden, where he has developed 3-D imaging technology with considerable success.”
You can see above a second photo from Persson.
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