A small Photo Voltaic solar panel provides power for the micro controller, sensors, various valves, etc.
nozzles, and computer-controlled irrigation covering thousands of acres that conserve millions of gallons of water each day. s a brewer, we know that the area we can have the biggest impact in reducing water usage is within the agricultural supply chain,
#Battery-free Wifi devices that run on radio waves What if devices could pull enough power wirelessly from the air to run themselves
Mobile devices have become radically smaller and more powerful in the past 10 year. The list of#tech-related tasks that the mobile devices we all carry around has grown longer by the#year.
The next step in technology s great disappearing act? Absorption into our clothes, body, and environment.####The question of how best to power that next step,
Wearable and Internet-of-Things technologies need to be on all the time. In the former case, taking something on or off for recharginglike a health monitoring devicecauses data loss and increases the chances it won t be used as much as it should or at all.
And you don t want to wire or charge sensors embedded throughout#smart homes, offices, cities. But what if these devices could pull enough power wirelessly from the air to run themselves
Not so#according to a group of University of Washington engineers#who are building a communication system called Wifi backscatterthe system powers devices using radio waves
and connects them to laptops or smartphones over#Wifi networks. Previous research had shown it possible to run low-power devices off radio, TV,
said Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. We now have the ability to enable Wifi connectivity for devices
while consuming orders of magnitude less power than what Wifi typically requires. How does it work?
The team made a tag that listens for Wifi signals being sent from a local router to a laptop or smartphone and vice versa.
The tag s antenna encodes data#by selectively reflecting or absorbing the signals. This selective reflection makes tiny changes in signal strength that can be detected
#and decoded#by other devices. Using this method, more powerful central devices#like smartphones, tablets,
or laptops can communicate with a range of low-power devices and sensors within about two meters and at a rate of one kilobit per second.
A pair of smart socks could for example, relay data about your jog to a jogging app on your phone.
Or temperature sensors throughout your house could communicate with thermostats to maintain an optimal temperature inside.
and UW associate professor of computer science and engineering and electrical engineering, says that although the signals are tiny
Given the prevalence of Wifi, this provides a great way to get low-power Internet of things devices to communicate with a large swath of devices around us, Ranveer Chandra,
#a senior researcher in mobile computing at Microsoft Research,#told the#MIT Technology Review. Via Singularity Hub Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorati swfobject. embedswf (http://www. youtube. com/v/snzwgazqo2c&
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#Robobees will pollinate crops instead of real bees As soon as 10 years from now these Robobees could artificially pollinate a field of crops.
the project s website says. Harvard s Kevin Ma spoke to Business Insider about the team s progress in building the bee-size robot since publishing its Science paper last year.
Then there are a whole host of issues to work out dealing with wireless communications s
#Does internet privacy come at a premium? Would you pay for online privacy? Once we went online the concept of privacy changed.
What was once private personal information has now been twisted and altered by the digital age,
as users are starting to realize the consequences of freely givingtheir right to privacy. While we all seem to fear the NSA spying on us (a reasonable,
the Facebook mogul pointed out (on a conference call to investors) that privacy would be key to the company s growth.
This change in thinking was apparent with Facebook sacquisition of Whatsapp, to directly compete with another generally private sharing app, Snapchat.
Users are tired of seeing themselves hacked and exposed on the internet, and want to keep the curtain drawn.
The aforementioned apps fit this inevitable realization about what privacy means. Most recently, Facebook was under criticism again, this time for theautomatic uploadof private photos.
Frustrated users are ready to start paying for the privacy they could or should have maintained in the first place.
Does privacy come at apremium? In a certain sense, you can say that the industry of paying for internet privacy is already here,
says David Bakke ofmoney Crashers. Apps likeconfideandwickrprovide private messaging, yet are looking at pay plans for upper tier services.
Users are looking at ways to quietly and privately communicate online. As companies begin to
and surf the Internet in a secure fashion, or featuring ways to pay to eliminate such intrusions on our privacy,
And I think you ll see more and more internet users willing to pay for such services. That willingness is growing with every instance of our online privacy being abused.
Bothfacebookandokcupidhave run recent social experiments on their user base, creating animosity and frustration. However, there is an old adage that applies here:
The fallout from his brand of spying when it came to technology used for internet interactions was broad and irrational.
author Micheal Gurnow wrote about a momentary exodus from public browsing software, especially when it came to the threat of government intrusion.
Google was replaced by search engines which allow users to surf the Internet anonymously. Likewise Google chrome and Microsoft Internet explorer were traded for proxy browsers Some found smartphone camera apps
which do not log a picture s GPS. Many reluctantly gave up Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and Pinterest.
The truly worried encrypted their home computers. Understanding what it means tobe private So now that we re ready to pay for privacy,
we have to understand our prior expectations of privacy and how we can change them.
People expect theirpersonal data to remain personal and private. This expectation is set at some point by the site they are entering their personal data into.
The thing is no one reads the terms of service contracts. When you click the little check box
and hit continue, you are agreeing to pages of legalese that pretty much state youdon thave any personal data
and you have absolutely no privacy on that site. They own it all. This isn t true for every site, of course,
but a good majority of them. So, can we just simply disappear from the internet?
The United states Supreme court is yet to do anything with the concept of the right to be forgotten.
Though, both the European union and the Argentinean court have decided that users do have a such right.
Yet, with online banking and email, can one really be forgotten if they wish to stay current?
Not to mention the countless variables with any laws surrounding internet privacy, mostly defining privacy. Some of those variables haveled the House of Lordsin the UK to deem theright to be forgotten ruling asunworkable, unreasonable and wrong in principle.
what isn t in the hands of search engine giants such as Google. Per their report they feel,
that it is wrong in principle to leave search engines themselves the task of deciding whether to delete information or not,
(or on Google) as concerning public figures should not be removed because it would serve the interests of the public to have active debate
or a right to be forgotten on the Internet. Does it suggest a level of paranoia to want to be forgotten on the internet?
Are we really revealing that much about ourselves that privacy has become something of an antiquated concept?
and social media has given us that platform to do just that, or at least try. Perhaps this is why paying for privacy is just the solution many of us are looking for.
We have proven that we need controls in social media, just like our children need parental controls on their digital devices.
is the inevitable evolution of social media sharing. Yet, who is to say that the company you are paying for privacy isn t turning around
When it comes to internet privacy, the bottom line istoonly put data on the internet that you are comfortable with being shared,
viewed or sold by people that are not you. In this era of social media and sharing, there are numerouscases of blatant ignorance.
We need to educate ourselves by reading those pesky terms of service contracts, noting which sites are sharing and
which ones aren need t. We to be vigilant as to what kind of personal data we re so eagerly sharing with the world.
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#Chemotherapy will be obsolete in 20 years as scientists launch DNA project Scientists launch a new landmark project to map the genetic causes of disease.
#Smartphones to replace room keys at Hilton hotels The new smartphone key feature will arrive in six hotels in 2015.
using their iphone or Android handset as a room key. The feature won t start arriving until 2015,
of which all the US-based hotels already allow for mobile#check in and check out. If all goes as planned,
the end of this summer will see that ability expanded to include choosing one s own room using a smartphone.
#Vision-correcting electronic display could free users from eyeglasses The idea is to anticipate how your eyes will naturally distort whatever's on screen.
or laptop screen clearly could ditch the eyeglasses. The technology uses algorithms to alter an image based on a person's glasses prescription together with a light filter set in front of the display.
The algorithm alters the light from each individual pixel so that, when fed through a tiny hole in the plastic filter,
rays of light reach the retina in a way that re-creates a sharp image. Researchers say the idea is to anticipate how your eyes will naturally distort whatever's on screen something glasses
Brian A. Barsky, a University of California, Berkeley, computer science professor and affiliate professor of optometry and vision science who coauthored the paper, says it's like undoing
The technology is being developed in collaboration with researchers at MIT and Microsoft. In addition to making it easier for people with simple vision problems to use all kinds of displays without glasses
the technique may help those with more serious vision problems caused by physical defects that can't be corrected with glasses or contacts,
and a detail of a Vincent Van gogh self-portrait and applied algorithms that warped the image by taking into account the specific eye condition it was told to account for.
whose display they had affixed an acrylic slab topped with a plastic screen pierced with thousands of tiny, evenly spaced holes.
Gordon Wetzstein, who coauthored the paper while a research scientist at MIT s Media Lab, says the screen allows a regular two-dimensional display to work as
what's known as alight field display. This means the screen controls the way individual light rays emanate from the display, leading to a sharper image without degrading contrast.
The researchers tested out their device by using a Canon DSLR camera with the focus set to simulate vision problems like farsightedness.
Wetzstein says the next step is to build prototype displays that people can use in the real world something he expects could take a few years.
or that software tracks head movement and adjusts the image accordingly. Barsky expects this won t be much of a problem,
when we look at a display that doesn t look right, we tend to naturally move around to improve the focus.
says that if researchers used a display with a high enough resolution about double the 326 pixels per inch of the ipod Touch used in the paper the technology could be made to be used by more than one person at once.
#Baidu is developing a semi-autonomous car Baidu wants to keep the individual in control. Would you prefer to ride in a completely autonomous self-driving car, like Google s self-driving car,
or one like Chinese search engine Baidu s semi-autonomous car?##Instead of cars that have#no steering wheels, gas pedals,
or brake pedals for drivers to control, Baidu is thinking about cars with intelligent assistants who help you drive.##
##This is actually an intelligent assistant collecting data from road situations, Baidu s Kai Yu told The next Web.
He s deputy director of the company s#Institute of Deep Learning, a Chinese equivalent to#Google s X Labs. A team to turn the unthinkable to reality,
the Institute s website says. We don t call this a driverless car, he said, adding that a carshould be helping people, not replacing people,
so we call this a highly autonomous car. The first working versions are expected sometime next year.
In an irony that may not be lost on future cultural historians the search engine giant in the land of self-reliant independence is building a car that takes over completely.
And the search giant in the land with a history of huge collectives and mass thinking wants to keep the individual in control.
The Google vision, where there are no human drivers, is already becoming a reference point#either as a vision of a fun campus of the future,
whether Google s or Baidu s vision is more likely, it s hard to see how the next generation of Apple-,Android,
-and Windows-enhanced cars will not start tapping into the next generation of Siri s, Google Now s and Cortana s intelligence.
On the other hand even as hands-free parking has gained popularity, the idea of a completely driverless car is already being welcomed in some quarters.
which Google may already be left in the dust. There are now reports that Baidu, eager to gain the lead on its American competitor,
is developing#unmanned autonomous bicycles. Photo credit: Veooz Via Venture Beat Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorat e
#A rescue drone that finds survivors by tracking their mobile phone signals The drone can pick out the location of an individual phone within 30 feet.
A mobile phone can be the device that saves you in an emergency, even if you aren t able to make a call.
The swiss Federal Institute of technology in Lausanne have developed a drone that can pinpoint the location of a mobile phone by picking up its Wi-fi signal.
can pick out the location of an individual phone within 30 feet. It calculates location by picking up the signal from several spots,
This is not the first time phones have been used to pinpoint people. In 2006, an Oregon family was found based on text messages.
The drone could also be used to provide Wi-fi if infrastructure was knocked out by a disaster,
Companies like Facebook and Google are looking into using drones and satellites to provide internet connectivity to remote corners of the world where installing internet cables is especially difficult.
The same types of systems would be useful in disaster situations to get large areas back online quickly.
The EPFL team noted its work underscores confidentiality issues with drones as its aircraft can pull phones Wi-fi network names and MAC addresses.
But it also only works in a search and rescue situation if a phone s Wi-fi connections are unprotected.
#Why the Internet of things just became very interesting The Internet of things (Iot) computing phase is the next industrial revolution, according to experts.
Making S-E-N-s-E of the next mega-trend) with Google Trends data containing the phraseiot,
During the Q4 13 inflection point, Google Trends data traversed from a prolonged period of stagnation to rapid ascension.
we expect a similar ecosystem of software vendors to develop. Despite the limited public pure-play Iot options, firms are exhibiting their bullishness towards publicly available layers.
invest in the publicly available hardware layers, wait for public investable options, or venture into the private markets.
Former IBM engineer and noted futurist#Thomas Frey#addressed a gathering of business leaders, entrepreneurs and community members on an issue he says is increasingly impacting the labor force:
Teacherless classroom Frey says he was approached once by Google to collaborate on a project to deliver educational resources to Africa.
Once you can download a level app on your smartphone, suddenly you no longer have need a for that tool,
When a user downloads an app, a part of a job disappears. It s a tiny piece but it s a piece nonetheless
For example, in the wake of Facebook s purchase of Oculus Rift, the amount of job postings for virtual reality designers skyrocketed,
#Here s why automakers want 4g technology in cars Automakers are counting on the connected car.
Today s cars are trying to replicate the smartphone experience. Touchscreen interfaces are common. Dashboard designers take UI tips from iphones,
and#automakers want to build apps for cars. Large automakers like General motors are taking the next obvious step
and#integrating 4G LTE service into their cars starting this year. Drivers pay a monthly service fee for#in-car 4g#that s separate from their smartphones,
and use it for an array of services from movies for kids in the backseat to sophisticated#GPS-on-steroids solutions.
It s a win-win for automakers the dealers who sell the 4g add-ons, and carriers like AT&T. But is it a win for consumers?##
##Audi, the first major automaker to introduce 4g connectivity, debuted the option in their 2015 A3 car.
GM is adding 4g capability to nearly all of their 2015 Buick models, and 4g is also rolling out to Chevrolet and Dodge within the year.
While some luxury cars have come with built in 3g in the past, there are two major game changers here:
Both GM and Audi are aggressively targeting middle-market consumers, and 4g viewers tend to consume a whole lot of bandwidth-intensive video content which generates expensive data fees.
Phil Abram, GM s chief infotainment officer (a job title which does actually exist) is the man responsible for rolling out interactive content and delivery systems for Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac,
and other brands. When Co. Labs held a video chat with Abram earlier this month,
he said that the 2015 Buick Lesabre, the first GM model with 4g, debuted in June
and the company will add 4g to 30 more models by the end of the year.
New#car buyers#would be given a 3 gigabyte trial and data plans would be set up by AT&T The cheapest $5 plan offers 250 megabytes usable in a 24-hour period;
monthly plans range from $5 for 200 megabytes to $50 for 5 gigabytes a month.
These fees piggyback on top of existing Onstar telematics packages, which start at $20 a month. We looked closely at other device pricing plans, Abram added.
The use case of cars is different than phones. In promotional materials, Audi and GM both emphasize 4G LTE service as a mechanism for users to get in-car entertainment, rather than for navigation or safety monitoring.
Buick boasts they cankeep everyone happy with streamed movies, music, and games, while Audi emphasizesfaster downloads and high-definition video streaming for up to eight devices used by passengers over the in-vehicle#Wi-fi#hotspot.
Smartphone and#car convergence#has been happening for quite some time and in-car 4g allows automakers to solve the vexing customer issue of answering demand to integrate smartphones without sacrificing safety or usability,
while simultaneously pushing a#lucrative car option#to market. Audi is offering drivers their a new and data-intensive navigation system,
which feeds the dashboard with information on#nearby gas stations, restaurants, and all sorts of Google earth overlays.
GM, meanwhile, is revamping their previously 2g Onstar system to take advantage of the new data possibilities.
And then, naturally, there are the auto dealerships.##In-car 4g hotspots#are potentially lucrative businessespecially
when there s a $50 monthly fee attached. It s a safe bet to assume dealers will give the hard sell to families with young children in the backseat
or businesspeople who constantly travel by car. Beyond the obvious use cases of Netflix and#data-heavy navigation systems, 4G LTE service also means drivers can send#SMS#text messages by voice dictation,
can have their seatmates shop on Amazon while they drive, and take advantage of a whole set of use cases.
While drivers and passengers might not necessarily need#high-speed Internet#in their cars it s arrived on the market
##and it s a safe bet to say we ll see it in most new cars sooner rather than later.
Video)# The Makerbot printers, which range from a compact $1, 375 model to a high-end $2,
Home depot s online merchant for tools, told Huffpost by phone. It s really about bringing about new innovation to customers. 3-D printers can whip up everything from#vagina selfies#to#handguns,
but Home depot envisions its customers using the Makerbots for decidedly more practical applications. Imagine a world where you can 3-D print replacement parts
said Pettis of the current fleet of Makerbot printers, You can t use it as a hammer.
Downey said customers typically use the printers for personalization projects, like a Chicago father who Downey said purchased a Makerbot to print custom furniture for his daughter s dollhouse.
The current generation of 3-D printers are still relatively slow#printing an item the size of a Lego brick can take roughly half an hour
Ten years from now, it will be quite common for people to have 3-D printers in their homes
In addition to Home depot, companies like#Amazon, Staples and Dell have joined the ranks of 3-D printer retailers.
an Indian startup, is going to start selling its Bluetooth enabled Lechal shoes for more than $100 a pair in September.
The smartshoes sync up with a smartphone#app#that uses Google maps and vibrate to tell users
when and where to turn to reach their destination.####Just tell your phone where you want to go
and then you can leave it in your pocket because the buzzing in your left
and not have to stop to check their phones as they move because the buzzing in their shoes will let them know when to turn.
but it has been held back by the difficulties in printing materials that are strong, flexible and can encourage the regrowth of healthy bone in the same way as current methods,
Now, researchers in the U s. have developed a new way of printing in calcium phosphate that can be done at relatively low temperatures which results in a scaffold that is mechanically strong
Inkjet printing of collagen solutions with high resolution has not been utilized previously in 3d printing of calcium phosphates
Ellie is an early iteration computer simulated psychologist, a bit of complicated software designed to identify signals of depression
and other mental health problems through an assortment of real-time sensors (she was developed to help treat PTSD in soldiers
a Microsoft Kinect movement sensor to track gestures and jerks, and a microphone to capture inflection and tone.
"And we know that the body displays things that sometimes people try to keep contained.
"The mere belief that participants were interacting with only a computer made them more open and honest, researchers found,
when they thought only pixels were present. The reason for this success is pretty straightforward.
no great stretch because all we re really talking about is access to a huge database of psychological data combined with ultra-accurate pattern recognition, two already possible developments.
The Department of labor released new data that suggests that raising the minimum wage in some states might have spurred job growth,
The data run counter to a Congressional Budget Office report in February#that said raising the minimum wage to $10. 10 an hour,
The state-by-state hiring data, released Friday by the Labor department, provides ammunition to the camp in favor of raising the minimum wage.
The job data isn t definitive he added, but is probably a reasonable first cut at
rechargeable batteries that can be printed cheaply on commonly used industrial screen printers. The California startup has been testing its ultrathin zinc-polymer batteries in wrist-worn devices
the batteries can deliver enough current for low-power wireless communications sensors, distinguishing them from other types of thin batteries.
as well as AME Cloud Ventures, the venture fund of Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, to further develop its proprietary chemistry and finance the batteries commercial launch.
where she collaborated with a researcher in Japan to produce microscopic zinc batteries using a 3-D printer.
The batteries that power most laptops and smartphones contain lithium which is highly reactive and has to be protected in ways that add size and bulk.
and one is displays, says Steven Holmes, vice president of the New Devices Group and general manager of the Smart Device Innovation team at Intel.
Despite demand for flexible batteries, Ho says no standard has been developed for measuring their flexibility, frustrating customers who want to compare chemistries.
but these printers costs range from $75, 000 up to over $1 million. Most individuals, and even a lot of businesses end up having to sit on the sidelines only dreaming that one day these prices will fall.
I saw some 3d printed objects that were unlike those on display by other companies. When I picked them up,
I found that this 3d printer did not fit into the same category as those other machines on the display floor.
That printer was the#Mcor IRIS, created by a company called Mcor Technologies. Mcor is a relative newcomer on the 3d printing scene.
a water-based adhesive, inkjet printer ink, and your standard A4 business paper. That s right, no expensive polymers, resins,
and the full-color IRIS printer which was released in 2012. Both printers utilize a technology called Selective Deposition Lamination (SDL.
In SDL, standard sheets of paper, like you currently use with your desktop printer, are fed into the machine.
The initial sheet is bonded to the build plate, then the printer deposits an adhesive and follows by stacking another sheet of paper on top.
This occurs until the printer is ready to begin the actual cutting and printing of the object.
It begins to stack the paper using a process that selectively deposits a water-based adhesive to each individual sheet of paper,
based on instructions received by computer CAD and slicing software. This occurs until a completed object has been printed.
there is an additional step involved where each piece of paper is colored using a modified 2-dimensional inkjet printer,
This allows for the printing of objects that can look extremely realistic. As you can imagine,
Mcor s Director of Marketing tells 3dprint. com. Staples, Gunma Internet, Vincennes University, WH Williams/Williams 3d,
and then 3d print their faces in full color with the Mcor IRIS. The resulting facial 3d prints were on display in a gallery in Europe.
a price that is pennies in comparison to some of the other industrial level printers on the market today.
due to the fact that many of them are only obtainable through the manufacturer themselves, Mcor printers use simple A4 business paper.
once the printing of an object is complete. If you don t like how an object turns out,
allowing their printers to print objects that look extremely realistic. This means that photographers, engineers and designers can all take photographs
and create CAD files, and then print 3d objects with enhanced color precision. Typically when 3d printers are fed color data,
they translate it into machine-specific colors, rather than maintaining the original ICC. This means that traditionally colors are not as realistic and precise as intended.
Likewise, a company s logo will be the same colour on the computer screen as on a model 3d printed by the Mcor IRIS because of our ICC profile.
More details on Mcor can be found on their#website where they have made available a free#White paper,
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