Researchers at UC Berkeley have figured out how to extract what you’re picturing inside your head, and they can play it back on video.

The way this works is very similar to the mind-reading technique that we covered earlier this month. A functional MRI (fMRI) machine watches the patterns that appear in people’s brains as they watch a movie, and then correlates those patterns with the image on the screen. With these data, a complex computer model was created to predict the relationships between a given brain pattern and a given … Read More → "Brain scanner can record your dreams on video"

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… Read More → "Harvest power-cells from dead laptop batteries for home electronics projects"

Microsoft is sponsoring a robotics design contest called Robotics @Home:

Here’s your chance to show us what you’ve got. Describe that cool idea to us in a PPT, PDF or Word Doc and submit it. If your concept is picked, you could be one of 10 finalists to receive a real robot that you can use to bring your concept to life. If you are chosen as one of the finalists, your second challenge … Read More → "Do you have a cool idea for an @Home robot?"

It’s been years since the idea of “trusted computing” was first mooted — a hardware layer for PCs that can verify that your OS matches the version the vendor created. At the time, TC advocates proposed that this would be most useful for thwarting malicious software, like rootkits, that compromise user privacy and security.

But from the start, civil liberties people have worried that there was a danger that TC could be used to lock hardware to specific vendors’ operating systems, and prevent you from, for example, tossing out Windows and installing GNU/Linux on your … Read More → "Anti-malware hardware has the potential to make it illegal and impossible to choose to run Linux"

You might soon be able to interact with both game and animation characters in 3D, thanks to RePro 3D, a technology developed by researchers from Keio University in Japan. The system uses a glasses-free 3D projector to display an image of a character floating in midair, while an infrared camera registers hand movements. Tactile feedback is provided by a wired device strapped on the user’s finger to enhance realism. You can refer to the below video to watch RePro 3D in action. Another version capable of rendering a larger projection for multiple users is also … Read More → "Researchers create touchable 3D technology"

The Click Dip Switch, Silver/Black ($169.99)
Image: Watchismo 

Click Watches have ingeniously re-appropriated these ‘retro-tronics’ into an entirely new way to show digital watch functions. Each mechanical switch activates a different function of the watch as seen in the diagrams in the product pages. Functions ranging from bar graph metered time display, 12 hour and 24 hour digital time display, month, date, day of week and backlight. Stainless steel … Read More → "Did you happen to see the nerdiest watch in the world?"

A group of psychologists working at HP’s Social Computing Research Group has found that humans are more likely to change their minds when fewer, rather than more, people disagree with them.

The team conducted an experiment asking several hundred people to choose between two pieces of furniture. After a varying amount of time, they were asked to choose again between the items, but told that a certain number of other people had preferred the opposite item.

< … Read More → "Humans are more likely to change their minds when fewer, rather than more, people disagree with them"

If you are into retrocomputing with the Commodore C64 or clone then you will be interested in reading CommodoreFree. This is a free online magazine which has been published since 2007 and is now in its 53 issue.

You can download all issues beginning with number 4 from the CommodoreFree website in PDF, text, Epub and other formats.

Click here for more info. Via Dangerous Prototypes.</ … Read More → "If you are into retrocomputing with the Commodore C64, then you should check out CommodoreFree magazine"

From Hack a Day: Although we’ve featured many chicken-related hacks here, this chicken coop features a solar-powered door to save one from having to open up the coop in the morning.  As [chrisatronics] puts it “keeping chickens has one major drawback: You have to get up with them in the early morning and open the door at the coop. Everyday. Including Sundays … Read More → "A solar-powered automatic chicken coop"

Put fresh water and salt water together along with some bacteria and what do you get? Perhaps the future of renewable energy. US researchers say they have demonstrated how cells fuelled by bacteria can be “self-powered” and produce a limitless supply of hydrogen.

The process is still fundamentally electrochemical. Sea water and fresh water are placed on opposite sides of a membrane that allows ions through, but prevents the passage of water molecules. The ions will move to the fresh water to balance osmotic forces, which will create a charge difference that can be harvested … Read More → "The future of renewable energy?"