Brain chip helps quadriplegics move robotic arms with their thoughts
posted by Laura Domela
A paralyzed patient equipped with an implanted brain chip has been able to use a robotic arm to reach for and pick up a bottle of coffee, bring it close enough to her face so she could drink from a straw, and then place the bottle back on the table.
The quadriplegic patient was outfitted with an electronic brain implant that can drive a robotic arm to reach and grasp objects (see video). A study published today in the journal Natureshows that people with the brain chips can use the devices to perform complex three-dimensional tasks that could be helpful in daily life. Furthermore, the implanted electrodes can record neuronal signals for as long as five years—longer than had been suspected. In previous studies, patients using brain implants have been able to move a cursor on a screen, but not perform complicated movements with objects in the real world.
via technology review
Turning an oscilloscope into a logic analyzer
posted by Laura Domela
Sooner or later, you’re going to need a logic analyzer. If you don’t have a Bus Pirate or Logic Sniffer lying around, [Joonas] has a great MacGyverism that turns an oscilloscope into the simplest logic analyzer ever.
The basic premise of the build is tying four digital lines to the analog input of an oscope. This is done with a 74HC126 buffer that provides a high impedance input for the logic probes and outputs the four-bit status of each logic channel. With a few resistors in an R-2R network, the state of four digital lines can be easily read.
via Hack a Day
Scientists make Wi-Fi twenty times faster
posted by Laura Domela
If you're never content with Wi-Fi speeds, rest assured that scientists are trying to help. In fact, a team of Japanese researchers has just broken the record for wireless data transmission in the terahertz range—with a data rate 20 times higher than most current Wi-Fi connections.
via Gizmodo
Controlling a 2012 robot with a 1983 notebook PC
posted by Laura Domela
Technology moves fast. Often, you’ll be hard-pressed to force devices that are just a few years apart to interface. Sometimes though, it’s surprisingly easy. Aliencurv accomplished quite the feat in that regard by modifying a 1983 TRS-80 with 20kb memory to control a 2012 Wall-E robot. Sure, it’s not quite modifying a telegraph key to tweet, but I’d argue this is somehow crazier.
via Geekosystem
Pro rugby club enlists IBM to predict when players will be injured
posted by Laura Domela
One of the world’s leading rugby teams is about to learn whether the sport, once described as “a ruffian’s game played by gentlemen,” can benefit from the genteel field of science.
The Leicester Tigers are the most successful English rugby union club of the past 25 years, winning the Premiership title a record nine times and twice capturing the European championship. Later this month, they’ll play in their eighth consecutive league final. In an effort to maintain that impressive success, the club is working with IBM to use statistical analysis software in assessing the likelihood of injury.
via ars technica
And the Privacy Invasion Award goes to …
posted by Laura Domela
Who’s playing fast and loose with your data? The Big Brother Awards, billed as the “Oscars for data leeches” by the hackers and privacy advocates who hand out the prizes, shine a high-intensity spotlight on companies and individuals with poor privacy track records. Since 1998, Privacy International and a host of affiliated organizations have singled out the worst privacy violators in various countries including the UK, Austria, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Japan, New Zealand and the U.S. The title evokes the totalitarian cult personality featured in George Orwell’s 1984, set in a dystopic world of mass surveillance.
In Germany, privacy advocates held their annual edition of the Big Brother Awards in April. The panel of judges was made up of representatives from privacy advocate FoeBuD and other organizations campaigning for data protection and human rights. Curious to know who made Germany’s list of privacy offenders? Here’s the rundown.
via Electronic Frontier Foundation
Man builds Tesla gun that can shoot 20,000 Volts of electricity
posted by Laura Domela
Add this to the increasing number of unusual weapons straight out of a sci-fi movie: A repurposed Nerf gun equipped with a Tesla coil that can shoot up to 20,000 volts of electricity. This electrifying gun created by Rob Flickenger was inspired by the fictional Tesla gun from the steampunk graphic novel The Five Fists of Science. It may not make as much fashion statement as this crazy-looking Tesla coil hat, but it sure looks dangerous.
via tecca
Home-built "Bio Computer" runs Linux, grows wheatgrass
posted by Laura Domela
We've seen the wacky homebrew projects of computer hardware hacker Mike Schropp before. Mindful Gizmag readers may recall his triple quad-core i7 LEGO PC housing that we looked at last July. But his latest project, the "Bio Computer," is rather more oddball, taking a turn distinctly towards the horticultural with a PC case adapted to ... grow wheatgrass.
via gizmag
Photo: Total Geekdom
NASA to train astronauts for asteroid landings
posted by Laura Domela
There's a lot of talk about what NASA's deep space manned missions will look like, and now a news article is giving us a sneak peek ahead of any official announcement: sending a crew of astronauts to land on a nearby asteroid, which would mean boldly going where no human has ever gone before.
While NASA isn't set to reveal details of a manned asteroid mission until later this month at a conference in Japan, early details a leaking out in a report by Richard Gray for the U.K.'s The Telegraph:
A team of astronauts are being trained to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth.
NASA, the U.S. space agency, is planning to send humans far further than they have ever been before to by making contact with an asteroid up to three million miles away by the end of the next decade.
via DVICE
Startup company raffles a ticket to space
posted by Laura Domela
A new startup company’s $10 space posters come with a chance to win a ride on a suborbital space vehicle.
Called ”I Dream of Space,” the company is selling 25,000 posters at $10 apiece, the proceeds of which should cover a $200,000 ride on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo or a $95,000 seat on XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx, plus some profit for the company’s founders.
No spaceflight company has yet made a commercial flight, and it could be years before they do, but that day is approaching.
via Wired
Image: I Dream of Space, Ltd.
