The relentless advance of computing power over the past half-century has relied on constant miniaturization of field-effect transistors (FETS),
UCSB Banerjee suggests that potential applications for these new TFETS may include ultra-low-power electronics and computing,
By taking a more camera-like approach to radio frequency imaging, essentially treating microwaves like waves of light
in the same way that Microsoft latest Xbox Kinect sensor works. The time of flight camera sends out bursts of microwaves
which means that it may not be scalable down to cellphone size. Obviously, this is a disappointment for those of us who were looking forward to regularly misusing this kind of technology,
pediatricians explained how hardware and software specialized for genetic analysis can provide such fast and lifesaving information.
The key piece of technology: A processor from the company Edico Genome that designed to handle the big data of genetics.
Lead researcher Stephen Kingsmore, a pediatrician and genomics expert at Children Mercy Hospital in Kansas city, explains that doctors typically run targeted genetic tests for specific diseases
Using Edico Genome DRAGEN processor, the researchers got this step down from 15 hours to 40 minutes.
After that, Kingsmore team used in-house software to search through the mutations for those associated with a disease that matched the baby symptoms.
noting that Children Mercy is going to make its software packages available as freeware by the end of the year.
The DRAGEN processor delivered its critical speed gains to the hospital servers thanks to its architecture,
Its algorithms are tailor-made to identify genetic mutations, and while these identification processes are ticking along the data is constantly being compressed
He envisions the DRAGEN processor outputting its analysis directly into a patient electronic medical record, where actionable intelligence would be flagged for the physician.
These machines accelerate charged particles using either a pulse of radio frequency radiation or a wakefield (using high energy unchesof electrons to blast a tunnel through plasma;
his proof-of-principle terahertz linear accelerator demonstrates the potential for an all-optical acceleration scheme that can be integrated readily into small-scale laboratories providing users with electron beams that will enable new experiments in ultrafast electron diffraction and X-ray production
#Bright blue PHOLEDS Almost Ready for TV A new energy-efficient organic LED (OLED) that glows a deep blue is finally close to meeting the most stringent U s. video display brightness requirements,
OLEDS have enabled a new generation of bright, high-quality, low-cost, power-efficient, flexible, lightweight flat panel displays.
Each pixel in an OLED display typically consists of red, green, and blue OLEDS that shine with different brightnesses to produce any desired color.
Green and red PHOLEDS are used already in smartphones and TVS leading to longer battery lives and lower electricity bills,
but developing the kind of bright deep blue PHOLEDS needed for video displays has proven challenging.
work sponsored by Universal Display Corporation and the U s. Air force. The researchers added their new lights nearly meet the most stringent requirements of the National Television systems Committee (NTSC),
#Computer Count of Huge Crowds Now Possible Getting a headcount of crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands need not strain human eyes any longer.
New software has carried out the first automated crowd count on that scale ever by analyzing aerial photographs of a huge demonstration timesaving innovation that could eventually help save lives
The software, developed by University of Central Florida researchers, can drastically cut the time needed for crowd counts from a week to just half an hour.
and other dangers. utomated computer analysis of such large-scale and dense crowds has never been done before,
said Mubarak Shah, computer science professor and director of the Center for Research in Computer Vision at the University of Central Florida, in a press release.
Shah and his colleagues tested their software on aerial photographs of a demonstration involving thousands of people calling for the independence of the Catalonia province from Spain.
The software analyzed 67 aerial photographs taken of the demonstration in Barcelona and came up with a headcount within 30 minutes.
The images and software calculations were double checked by a team at the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain.
The timesaving software could also make accurate crowd counts a crucial new tool for managing large crowds.
For more, see the IEEE Spectrum article on how the Hajj crowds defy conventional computer simulations.
In what can be described as the Netscape moment for agriculture technology, the sector had a breakout year in 2014,
and a confluence of new hardware technologies that freed computation from the desktop and automated multivariate collection of big data.
Finally, a confluence of hardware and software technology advances are creating opportunities to address this market.
Inexpensive and infinitely configurable mobile devices (enabled by advances in wireless and energy storage) have liberated technology from the office desktop.
inexpensive but sophisticated hardware sensors have emerged to automate the collection of massive data sets. With these technology shifts, exciting technologies like drones, AI, satellite mapping, robotics,
It hardware/software solution enables farmers to analyze every drop of water on their property,
Founders Fund, Li-Kai Shing Horizons Ventures, Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Marc Benioff (Salesforce), and Eduardo Saverin (Facebook).
And even further out there, New york-based Modern Meadow is printing meat and leather products with 3d technology.
#Apple Patents Learning Computer Vision For Gesture Control Apple has a new patent (via Appleinsider) for 3d gesture control,
specifically describing the tech used to help a computer identify hand motions made by a user.
meaning it would make gesture interaction theoretically less painful for users, and therefore more likely to be used at all.
The key innovation Apple made with the iphone interaction model was based getting touch input right its capacitive screens
Some speculated at the time that Apple might be interested in using Primesense tech to add gesture-based input to Apple TV
#Square Brings Accountability To Email Marketing Square is in the process of building up a series of products and services that use its payments platform as a foundation.
is an email marketing tool gives physical businesses the same advantages of online stores. Square Marketing is a set of tools that lets brick
Email marketing has grown more sophisticated over the years, and the space is crowded with companies like Mailchimp, Marketo,
The tool allows users of Square payments services to click through an ngage your customerslink from their Insights dashboard,
They might bounce out to an email tool to craft a campaign and send it to a list of emails gathered via paper,
or by hand using clerks at the counter. A retail store I worked at used to gather them by requiring an email with every transaction
but that requirement can slow down transactions, and is really only practical if a user terminal was involved in the flow.
And half the time you end up with fake emails and unverifiable information. Square data is already easier to gather
and far more likely to be accurate because it tied directly to the customer payment accounts.
the Square flow asks them for an email for a receipt and because youe talking about money here people are more likely to give accurate info.
All of that leads to a Square business having a core list of emails for customers that is ready to act on.
Already youe far ahead of a dumb list of emails, which contain no such contextual data.
You can also add your own lists of emails gathered via conventional means. You can choose groups based on trends that youe seeing
show you delivery data as well as eadnotifications for your emails. But Square takes the next step here by allowing you to actually see
if those customers take action on your email with a visit and a purchase. It hard to overstate the importance of being able to directly track the return on your investment in this email marketing by equating it with dollars spent in your establishment.
Unless youe been in small business retail or sales and have tried to craft a marketing campaign
This is the kind of thing that has made marketers so hot and bothered about the possibilities of beacons small devices that track visitors via apps installed on their smartphones.
But square does it without any additional hardware by leveraging the fact that they own the payments stack.
The emails are affordable, if a bit pricier than similar levels in services like Mailchimp. You can pay $0. 10 per email on an s you gobasis or $15/mo for unlimited emails to 500 customers.
The cost isn quite analogous to any other service because of Square unique ability to track customer visits
It lets them cut down on the number of moving parts they have to keep track of to make their email marketing effective.
a CRM, an email service and tracking software to attempt to link those emails to return customers hey can just click a link in the insights dashboard of their Square account.
Square says that sellers using the service have seen open and redemption rates that are double the ndustry averageand that Square sellers generated almost $1m in sales tied to promo redemptions.
slick analytics tools and cleverly executed email marketing will lead to new business, not just retention and satisfaction.
The setup and execution of a campaign are so simple already that it makes sense to let those sellers using mobile devices primarily to collect campaigns to do it just as easy as those sitting at their desktops.
and they can do it right from their phones that a tectonic shift in that arena. The suite of tools Square is building out like Register
So whether that resonates with new users will be key i
#Apple Patents A System To Broadcast Your Availability For Calls Apple has a new patent,
location and cell network strength to automatically determine whether youe available for a call and display that information to friends.
The new Apple patent details a system that would use all relevant signals from a mobile phone,
with the user of the phone sending status able to specify which contacts specifically should be able to have access.
It would appear in contact cards on the iphone, with status polling happening on demand to ensure youe looking at current information.
and data analysis can more reliably predict what youe doing with your phone at any given time.
Apple could probably expect users to play along. Still, the system ultimately depends on the calling party respecting the message,
The Bluetooth-powered device can stick to your wall or you can put it on any surface.
said Han. he devices can be configured easily with just a smartphone app. The separation of the control plane from the power plane makes a foundation for fully configurable ecosystem.
-and-forget nature of the connection software. Each object connects to the controller app automatically with no pairing
a feature that will impress folks who have tried to connect to Bluetooth light bulbs in the past. The martphone-centricapproach lets the company add tools like the Control to the mix as well.
#Gaming Startup Code Kingdoms Exits Beta On A Quest To Get Kids Coding Changes to the computing curriculum in England,
which arrived last September requiring schools to teach bona fide programming skills to kids as young as five,
Its educational Javascript teaching software targets the six-to 13-year-old age-range and can be played either as a web app via the Code Kingdomssite,
or as an ios app. There are actually two versions of Code Kingdoms: one that free for schools to use,
which strips out the gameplay element entirely so it becomes purely a simplified educational tool for teaching Javascript;
and another version that kids can play at home in their spare time which is first and foremost a game,
and his cofounder spending time volunteering in schools teaching kids programming, as part of corporate social responsibility programs when they worked for Intel and ARM.
In schools they were using the MIT graphical programming language Scratch, but spotted what they saw as an opportunity to update Scratch approach
and teach a real programing language, rather than a pseudo-language. ost things out there are designed for teachers,
so they get excited about learning to code computer science, and then hopefully go on because theye excited to actually explore it as a career,
He argues that Scratch is no longer up to scratch for England schools as it does not teach a real programming language which is a requirement of the new curriculum.
having being built for an earlier, desktop computing world, rather than the modern mobile-focused space.
which involves both DIY hardware and learn to code software, and similarly offers a graphical interface to simplify programming.
But Targett argues Kano is a platform on which the Code Kingdoms product could happily sit.
So doesn seem them as like-for-like competition. He says Code Kingdoms is also working with various other learn to code outreach organisations, such as Code Club and Teach First,
Of course it is also possible to learn Java coding via making Minecraft mods but Targett reckons that uite a step upin terms of ability required. e want to bridge that gap,
So, while it giving its software to schools for free it aiming to monetize via the play at-home game version of the product using schools as its low-cost distribution mechanism to get in front of lots of kidseyeballs.
In future it plans to sell premium content for the non-schools version of its software to kidsparents,
says Targett. e see schools as a channel to acquire users, he notes. he kids will discover the product in their class
and playwe thought this was a really good way to acquire users very cheaply that are engaged very.
#Airware Launches Its Commercial Drone Operating system Drones could save businesses big money by doing dull, dirty,
Airware integrated hardware software, and cloud system lets enterprises customize drones to check on gas pipelines,
survey farm land, inspect cell towers, patrol property, or do search & rescue, Now wel see just how many businesses will pay a monthly subscription for Airware to power their drones for industrial inspections, agriculture management, anti-poaching, and more.
Consumer drone makers are growing fast as quadcopters become the hot new toy for kids and adults alike.
But long-term, theyl likely be commoditized as hardware makers around the globe clone and undercut each other on price.
Whatever companies makes the software that runs these drones would make serious profits for years to come.
the Ground Control Station that lets a single user operate a fleet of drones from a Windows laptop or tablet,
and then painstakingly dump the data back to your servers, Airware can handle the whole process.
enhance it with cloud widgets to customize their drone to the day use case, and the data flows back automatically.
and dig sites using flight plans generated Airware Ground Control Station. Users simply draw out a geofence for the drone to stay within
and give it parameters like required altitude. It wasn the flashiest demo wee ever seen with a drone after taking off
After several similar demos, Drone America CEO Mike Richards spoke about using his company larger drones with Airware software for missions outside of traditional industrial uses.
000 square acres rather than the 100 acres a quadcopter can handle. It was easily the most exciting flight of the day,
which lets customers create widgets for the Ground Control Station in the C# programming language. These widgets are actually the main reason Airware is sticking with Windows for its tablet app.
Instead of requiring customers to build their own app with the exact drone interface needed, building on Windows will allow them to download the same app to each tablet
but provide different interfaces by simply checking off which widgets should be available to different workers in the field on the cloud backend.
Michini was excited also to talk about the App Core which will provide a full-on Linux computer for developers to work with in addition to the standard Flight Core autopilot and Ground Control Station integration.
When it rolls out to select Airware partners this summer, this new system will let customers take advantage of more advanced sensor
and image processing tools without sacrificing an interface that actually usable for operators in the field.
It just added investment from Intel capital to the money from GE, A16z, Kleiner, First Round, Google Ventures,
monitor farm land, and survey big tracts of land. Planes and helicopters can be terribly expensive for collecting this overhead video and measurement data, though.
#Researchers Create The Ultimate Smartphone Ultra Zoom To See And Measure Strands Of DNA Researchers at the University of California,
Los angeles, have created a smartphone ultra-zoom solution that allows scientists in the field to image and size DNA.
and Windows smart application running on the same smart phone. The scanned information is sent then to a remote server in Ozcan laboratory
which measures the length of the DNA molecules. Assuming you have a reliable data connection,
Considering current methods require non-portable heavy machinery and computers, this seems like a godsend for researchers in the field.
Eyewire executive director, Amy Robinson, tells me its users are igh school students, grandmothers, tugboat drivers, animators, everything.
To remind users that they are indeed playing a game, Eyewire provides a typical gaming experience.
000 users. he top players are actually online for 30,40, 50 hours a week, Robinson adds.
a company that develops interactive 3d software and media with a medical focus, to develop an Oculus Rift version of the game.
Eyewire sent us about 650gb of the research data generated by their users. Individual neurons were identified
(which lets a user fly toward a particular area simply by looking where they want to go).
which appear as virtual billboards hovering in front of the user. This was one of the coolest experiences
The game was launched just recently on the Oculus download page, which can be found here.
and allowing them to submit them to a social computing server. A sample app can be found here.
It consists of a barebones web app that can be used as the nucleus of new game designs or alternative applications.
Although Eyewire is continuously making revolutionary strides in the gamification of scientific research, it certainly not the only one doing it.
is a 3d puzzle game that challenges users to fold proteins into the best possible molecular structure.
Instead of scouring the surface of Mars, Tomnod users crowdsource observations about the Earth surface. When Malaysia Airlines flight 370 went missing,
Tomnod directed its users to help search for the missing aircraft. In fact the site couldn keep up with the traffic due to an influx of users looking to help. hrough games,
though building better computer vision AI and thus automating big neurodata analysis our collective, collaborative,
even gamified competitive brainpower will be the key to figuring complex problems out, Robinson concludes e
but often force users to choose between effectiveness and convenience, which has made adoption extremely difficult.
or a high level of pressure provided by the user the latter which is especially challenging for children.
Screen Shot 2015-05-04 at 7. 29.15 AM To create the nanofiber thin membrane that could be produced at scale,
Screen Shot 2015-05-04 at 7. 24.11 AM This filtration membrane is highly flexible and durable
Screen Shot 2015-05-04 at 7. 24.34 AM Liquidity tech has been verified third-party by Biovir Laboratories, a microbiological testing facility, that it meets the EPA standard of 99.9999
As of today, you can pre-order the Naked Filter bottle on their website; it ships this summer.
#Nikola Labs Launches iphone 6 Case Which Harvests Electricity From The Air Nikola Tesla pioneered the transmission of electricity over wires.
and the audience as the Wild Card choice from Startup Alley launched a device that converts radio frequencies into DC power,
a case for an iphone 6. It converts the wasted 90 percent of energy the phone produces trying to pump out a cellphone signal,
and puts it back into the phone, thus powering it for up to 30 percent longer.
Essentially it is harvesting back the ambient RF energy already being produced by the phone. They aim to bring the product to market within one year, in partnership with Ohio State university,
An algorithm will detect suspicious activity, like if someone is watching videos related to terrorism, and then record everything you do online.
The only problem is that nobody will see this algorithm source code and know what happening, except a new institution in charge of the technical control of intelligence systems.
#Google Launches Cloud Bigtable, A Highly Scalable And Performant Nosql Database With Cloud Bigtable, Google is launching a new Nosql database offering today that,
but with the added twist that it compatible with the Apache HBASE API which itself is based on Google Bigtable project.
Bigtable powers the likes of Gmail, Google search and Google analytics, so this is definitely a battle-tested service Google promises that Cloud Bigtable will offer single-digit millisecond latency
and 2x the performance per dollar when compared to the likes of HBASE and Cassandra. Because it supports the HBASE API
but it also supports Google Cloud Dataflow. Setting up a Cloud Bigtable cluster should only take a few seconds,
and the storage automatically scales according to the user needs. It worth noting that this is not Google first cloud-based Nosql database product.
With Cloud Datastore, Google already offers a high-availability Nosql datastore for developers on its App Engine platform.
That service, too, is based on Bigtable. Cory Oonnor, a Google Cloud platform product manager, tells me Cloud Datastore focuses on read-heavy workload for web apps
and mobile apps. loud Bigtable is much the opposite is designed for larger companies and enterprises where extensive data processing is required,
#Voxiebox Displays 3d Images Just Like R2d2's Message From Princess Leia Voxon, chosen out of the Hardware Alley to do the ildcardpitch during Techcrunch Disrupt NY, demonstrated a truly amazing
Its unique combination of hardware and software, developed over 30 years of tinkering in a New york garage, literally rints lightin three dimensions,
thus tricking the human eye into thinking it seeing a 3d image, thanks to their proprietary algorithm.
meaning it extremely user friendly. Because you can display any image (moving or still), you can thus move
As recently reported, Mastercard is launching a facial recognition payment service based on elfiestaken on a smartphone.
but soon a elfiefrom a smartphone will be enough to close transactions. This program is to be tested initially on 500 card users in the coming months.
Mastercard stated that it also is working on a payment program based on voice recognition. Mastercard imminent transition to biometrics was preceded by Apple Pay launching in October 2014 of a biometric payment technology based on fingerprint ID. The newest iphone models are equipped with Apple Touch
ID fingerprint reader. And then there is Paypal, which has boosted security on its mobile app by using fingerprint sensors that are installed on some Samsung Electronics devices.
All in all the stage seems to be set for the large-scale adoption of biometric technology. While the payments industry is currently working full steam on various forms of biometric technology aimed at thwarting ever-increasing security breaches in payments technologies,
and patented the first algorithms for iris scanning and recognition. The iris is known to display a network of random patterns which are unique to each individual.
The newfound availability of biometric technology for mobile and cloud-based platforms raises the security bar further.
The notorious hacking group called the Chaos Computer Club even replicated the fingerprint of the German Defense Minister.
Qualcomm Technologies recently announced the development of the first comprehensive mobile biometric solution based on ultrasonic technology.
Imagine a world in which there is no need to remember a slew of passwords and PINS for various sites.
The mobile cloud, banking and payments industries must prepare themselves for the shift from traditional authentication methods to the new biometric systems.
It also allows for multi-user interaction one designer can sketch some furniture while another can move it around.
e use a Butterfly-net analogy to explain how the cursor selects objects in space the users simply sweep the 3d cursors through,
the users can use gestures and movements such as pinching and orientation. The cursor is in fact being demonstrated within the researchershyve-3d design system,
a full scale immersive 3d environment that enables users to create drawings on hand-held tablets, which can then be manipulated on the tablets to create a 3d design within the space.
As the designers are immersed in their work, for example designing a living room, they can test different furniture options according to the scale
and a dome mirror projecting the image onto the screen. Specialized techniques render the 3d scene onto a spherical projection in real-time In other words,
the tablets act as 3d cursors. Your finger can slide through various objects and select them or you can draw right into the scene.
For now, it not connected to any kinds of software. However the team thinks there are long-term possibilities to build an Internet-of-Things model that could tell consumers how much water
and energy theye using or later down the line, a smart water heater. So far though, the startup has focused on getting an initial version right by modeling droplet sizes
and at Google and Apple campuses. Theye racked up some impressive investors including Tim cook and Eric Schmidt.
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