MIT Student Turns Lamp into a Thinking, Robotic Assistant

The MIT Media Lab never ceases to amaze us – its latest invention is from Natan Linder, and at first glance could be taken as a quirky looking desktop lamp. Oh, but LuminAR is so much more than a light source. It’s a personal computer, desktop helper robot and research assistant all in one!

When plugged into a robotic arm, the LuminAR will search out an uncluttered space on your desktop to project on using a teeny tiny pico projector, and you can also point it in a certain direction or pre-program it to open your e-mail on the left and your website on the right. Or you can unscrew the bulb from the robotic arm and screw it into a standard desk lamp or portable light socket and bring the LuminAR wherever you please.

“This is a new form factor for a computer,” Linder says. “Most computers that we know of today are prison cells for pixels -this robotic interface releases the pixels from the screen.” And the LuminAR is smart, put a can of Coke under its watchful eye and it will pull up the Coca-Cola webpage. And this doesn’t work only with Coke cans – LuminAR recognizes a lot of things.

This nifty piece of technology — and it really is little, measuring just a bit larger than a regular light bulb — could revolutionize the way we compute

The power of google

You may not be using the full power of google simply because you did not know it was capable of so much. Here are some very handy google tips that i frequently use. The list is quite long so there is a quick reference menu below or you can scroll on your own. These are functions i use on a  daily basis.   

 

Google as a calculator

You can type basic arithmetic into google and will calculate answers very quickly. For e.g try typing into the search bar:

• 234 squared
• 124 + 76 - 199
• 1243*2

Google Measurement Conversions

Another great use is converting measurements. For try typing in one of the following:

• 2 cups to ml
• 236 minutes to secs
• 365 days to minutes

Currency conversions

• 100 USD to NZD (American to NZ)
• 300 NZD to AUD (NZ to Aussie)

World weather and times

• weather invercargill NZ (Probably raining)
• what time is it? (The time in your local area)
• time london (the time in london)

Dictionary Definitions

The first entry at the top of the page will be the dictionary definition

• define prestidigitation
• define philosophy

Public data

Perhaps you would like to know the population of a city, or the birth rate?

• population Erowal Bay Australia
• birth rate egypt

Map searches

You can bring up a map of (almost) any area on earth

• Newcastle Australia map
• London map

Number Ranges

Very useful when searching for a range of numbers or dates

best movies 2001..2007

Search Refinements 

Below are some very handy search refinements. Most times when searching a particular subject google returns millions of hits for you to wade through. We all know how difficult it can be to track down very specific data on the net by just typing in a few words. Here are some great tips.

Quotes.

If you want to search for an exact phrase, use quotes. ["swine flu victims"] will only find that exact phrase. [swine "flu victims] will find pages that contain the word swine and the exact phrase "flu victims".

Fill in the blank

If i want to know the date that Einstein was born, i could use the wildcard feature *. It will look for the exact phrase i ask for and fill in the wild card.

• " Einstein was born on the *"
• "A * by any other name" should return the wild card rose

Everything except

Imagine i am searching for the James Bond character "Pussy Galore". You can imagine which types of sites i will get back if i simply type in that name. So i can use the - operator to stop google including certain other words.

"pussy galore" -sex -porn -girls

Forget Windows: Midori is coming

WINDOWS is a name that has ruled the whole computer world since its first launch in November 1985. Since then it is like a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

With many advanced versions of Windows available today such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, it is the most used operating system in the world. In 2010, Microsoft is going to launch WINDOWS 2007, but now here is time to experience a yet another technology of operating systems.

Yes, MICROSOFT is working on a new generation of operating systems called Cloud-Based Operating System and rumors are there that MIDORI will be their first such operating system, which will replace Windows fully from computer map.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE

MIDORI is an offshoot of Microsoft Research's Singularity operating system. In this the tools and libraries are completely managed code. MIDORI is designed to run directly on native hardware (x86, x64 and ARM), will be hosted on the Windows Hyper-V hypervisor, or even be hosted by a Windows process.

MIDORI can be also seen as MICROSOFT'S answer those competitors who are applying "Virtualization" as a mean to solving issues within contemporary computing.

The main idea behind MIDORI is to develop a lightweight portable OS which can be mated easily to lots of various applications.

IMPORTANCE OF MIDORI

For knowing the importance of MIDORI you have to think about, how an operating system is loaded on a computer. Actually operating system is loaded onto a hard disk physically located on that machine. In this way, the operating system is tied very tightly to that hardware. As Windows is dependent on hardware, it might face opposition from contemporary ways of working because people are extremely mobile in using different devices in order get diverse information.

Due to this trend installing different applications on a single computer may led to different compatibility issues whenever the machine require updating. The new operating system will solve these problems by the concept of Virtualizing. This will solve problems such as widespread security vulnerabilities, unexpected interactions among different applications, failures caused by errant extensions, plug-ins, and drivers and many more.

ERIC RUDDER, Senior Vice President, Technical Strategy

The importance of this project for MICROSOFT can be understood by the fact that company choose Eric Rudder , former head of Microsoft's server and tools business and a key member of Chairman Bill Gates' faction of the company, to handle it.

WHEN WILL IT BE LAUNCHED

Just Wait and See. Microsoft has not declared any such date about launching of MIDORI, but there are rumors that this project is in incubation phase.

Vulture - Unmanned Aircraft

fense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of United States is working to develop an unmanned aircraft that is able to stay in air for a period of 5 years at a time. It is one of the most recent inventions of world.

Officials of DARPA has revealed that this aircraft will be known as VULTURE due to its Persistent Pseudo-Satellite Capability . It means that this aircraft will be able to fly over a single area, communicating or performing analysis for years at a time.

Major Obstacles in Project:

Even this project looks appealing to many of you, but there are some serious problems or you can say obstacles in achieving this project.

1) First challenge in front of designers is to figure out some Way to Supply Power to this aircraft during long missions.

2) Another problem is that this aircraft will carry a 1000 pound (450 kg) payload in winds at an altitude of 60,000 to 90,000 feet.

3) Designers have also to sort out the problems regarding Deterioration of Materials during their long-time exposure to stratospheric flight.
In addition to this there may be many challenges during designing of this aircraft.

Daniel Newman: The Man Behind VULTURE

Daniel Newman is the Project Manger of this ambitious project of NASA. In his words: "We want to completely change the paradigm of how we think of aircraft. Aviation has a perfect record - we've never left one up there. We will attempt to break that record". It looks that its time to get out of the traditional "launch - recover - maintain - launch cycle of aircrafts."

Concept Behind Vulture:

Basically Aircrafts operates just like satellites, but the major difference is that these are not regulated by orbital mechanics. You can understand Vulture as a Pseudo-Satellite, which operates in the stratosphere and not in the low Earth orbit. This would provide a 65 dB upgrading in communications capability and will increase onboard sensor resolution.

When Will it Become a Reality?

Well, right now NASA has not mentioned any time table when the aircraft will be ready. But for now NASA has worked on the probable design of Vulture (see picture).

Wireless power

A few years ago we saw a demonstration by a team at Fulton Innovation of a product called eCoupled. Using the principle of electromagnetic induction, by which an electrical charge can be stimulated in a wire coil by placing another one nearby, the crazy boffins were able to display wireless power transfer. 

 

Despite being high voltage, they said, it was safe, efficient and could be applied to any surface. The demo room consisted of a kitchen without plugs, but full of lights that could be stuck anywhere and a frying pan that heated up just by sitting it on the counter. Put a phone on the same counter and it began charging. Clearly, this was the future.

Fulton are still working on wireless power, but it's a different company that's beat it to the shops, Powermat – and its products are expensive for something that replaces a 50p mains plug.

The good news is that the Wireless Power Consortium are going to be finalising a standard for wireless power called Qi later this year, which should mean prices drop and manufacturers have the confidence to build the technology straight into devices, rather than requiring an adaptor.

If you think that's crazy, though, take a look at Airnergy by RCA. It's a tiny dongle that can turn Wi-Fi signals back into electricity for charging phone batteries and the like.