This is a metal ball. It levitates. It midair. You can move it around however you want and then let go of it, and it’ll just stick there, defying both gravity and common sense. The MIT Media Lab has worked this into an interface that lets both you and a computer communicate through the manipulation of physical objects. Flying objects!
via DVICE

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Ot from the Dutch technology activist group Bits of Freedom writes, “Good news from The Netherlands: on 8 May 2012 The Netherlands adopted crucial legislation to safeguard an open and secure internet. It is the first country in Europe to implement net neutrality in the law. In addition, it adopted provisions protecting users against disconnection and wiretapping by providers.
via Boing Boing

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Last month, we broke the news that DARPA had decided to award the contract to produce a standard simulation environment for its Humanoid Challenge to the Open Source Robotics Foundation, which nobody had really ever heard of. Notably, we’re just getting a press release today that the OSRF has been … Read More → "Open source robotics foundation officially announced"

From Earth’s perspective, on June 5 and 6, Venus will pass across the face of the Sun. By observing the tiny fraction of sunlight that passes through Venus’s atmosphere using the Hubble Space Telescope, it is hoped that the planet’s atmospheric makeup can be determined. Though we already know the nature of Venus’s atmosphere, it is hoped the event will help astronomers hone … Read More → "Hubble to use Moon as giant mirror to observe Venus transit"

Microsoft has shown off an augmented reality system that allows users at different locations to work together on tabletop activities, sharing objects which they can both handle.

The MirageTable was demonstrated at a conference in Austin, Texas and is outlined on the firm’s research site.

Researchers said it could “fool” the eye to suggest both parties were using a “seamless 3D shared task space”.

The team admitted more work was needed before the system could be marketed.
via Read More → "An augmented reality device shows how two users could share objects on a tabletop while based at different locations"

Today’s technology scene seems overheated to some. Apple is the most valuable company on earth. Software apps are reaching tens of millions of users within weeks. Major technology names like Research in Motion and Nokia are being undone by rapid changes to their markets. Underlying these developments: the unprecedented speed at which mobile computers are spreading.
via technology review

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The best looks that we’ve been able to get at exoplanets are when they pass in front of or behind their parent stars. When that happens, sometimes, if we’re lucky, we can get a brief hint atmosphere. For the first time, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has managed to observe a “super-Earth” </ … Read More → "NASA spots the glow of a hot water world for the first time ever"

There are five Microsoft Kinects set up all around the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development, but they’re not for playing games (or any of the other stuff the Kinect can do with an Xbox). They’re monitoring the students, looking for signs of unusual behavior that might indicate a potential autism spectrum disorder.
via Popular Science

… Read More → "Using the Microsoft Kinect to detect autism"

You won’t be driving away in this by the end of 2012, but you can expect it to smoke the EV competition. Shawn Lawless and his Rocket drag bike managed to hit just over 200 miles per hour. We could eke out a few more words about the 14.2-kWh battery, but we’d prefer to let the video do the talking.
via Engadget

… Read More → "One-man Rocket EV hits over 200 mph in under 7 seconds"

Many IT professionals find migrating corporate applications to the cloud a difficult, time-consuming and altogether painful task, according to the results of a new survey from Cisco.

The 2012 Cisco Global Cloud Networking Survey queried more than 1,300 people on their feelings and experiences with moving to a cloud computing model, and the findings paint a somewhat confusing picture (perhaps due in part to the questions asked). While the majority of respondents expressed relative comfort with the state of their cloud migrations, some took rather extreme negative positions.
via Read More → "Survey: Cloud’s hard, insecure and my boss made me do it"