Best Sci/Tech Video: 2008

Last month, Clay Shirky^L1 gave a presentation with the title “It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure^L2” at the Web 2.0 Expo^L3. ¹ Shirky admits up front at the start of the talk that the topic is something new that he is exploring, and as a result the ideas are not fully formed. (I get lost in how the last of his three examples applies to the topic at hand, for instance.) But his viewpoint is a refreshing way to look at the issue of “information overload” from a new perspective, and it is worth looking at even in this raw stage. For starters, he says that we’ve been facing information overload for the past 500 years — since the introduction of the Gutenburg movable type press gave readers more books than they could possibly read. What has changed in the last decade has been how past information “filters” are no longer effective.

Video of Clay Shirky’s talk at Web 2.0 Expo. 23 minutes, 51 seconds.

Shirky posits that the expense of printing a book made publishers both the creators of the object and filters for information printed in objects. The relatively high up-front costs of producing the book meant publishers in the position of selecting only the best information to print. Publishers were, in effect, a kind of filter of quality for the onslaught of information as a way of reducing their risks of printing content that no one would want to read. The internet has driven the cost of publishing to near zero, and as such the “pre-publication” filter that publishers provided is no longer in place. (He calls this “post-Gutenburg economics.) In Shirky’s words, “the filter for quality is way downstream from the site of production.”

Shirky points to some examples of filters and talks about their effectiveness. For inbound communication, the example is e-mail spam and how spam filters must be constantly tuned. This is a pretty clear example of what he is talking about — the cost of production is cheap and the assessment of quality is done by the reader, not the producer. The second example is one of outbound communication; Shirky tells the story of a colleague who attempted to use Facebook privacy settings to slowly disseminate the fact that she had broken up with her colleague. (That isn’t what happened. P.S.: Karen Schneider — your name pops up briefly in one of Clay’s screenshots!) The third example is that of a student that faced expulsion from a Canadian university because he started a Facebook homework group^L4. Shirky’s point with this example seems to be that a filter-of-inconvenience was removed through the use of technology — that a study group of 147 students wouldn’t actually occur in real life but was replicated on Facebook.

Some other quotes that caught my ear:

“Managing your privacy practices is an unnatural act… Privacy is a way of managing information flow… The big question we’re facing around privacy now is that were not moving from one engineered system to another engineered system with different characteristics. We’re moving from an evolved system to an engineered system.”
“The inefficiency of information flow wasn’t a bug, it was a feature. That’s what privacy was.”
“What the internet does is allows large systems that are free-rider tolerant rather than free-rider resistant.”
“It really is about rethinking the [higher education] institutional model. You have to have group conversation. You have to have individual effort. You have to design a system that accommodates both.”
“If you have the same problem for a long time, maybe it’s not a problem. Maybe it is a fact.” –Yitzhak Rabin

[Via dltj.org]

The REEM-B humanoid robot

Automaton reader Davide wrote to let us know that his team at Pal Technology has developed REEM-B, a humanoid robot designed to assist humans with everyday tasks. They recently presented a teleoperated prototype at an event in Abu Dhabi, where the company is based (though much of the development took place in Barcelona, Spain). This YouTube video shows a fancy introduction of the robot (and looks something like what I hope commercials for robots will look like one day on TV), but the following video is a little more informational about what REEM-B can do:

Davide tells us:

The robot has some unique features: its batteries last more than 2 hours (twice as much as Asimo). It has 41 degrees of freedom and it has object, face and voice recognition. It's the first biped robot implementing laser-based SLAM [Simultaneous Localization and Mapping] and it is probably the strongest humanoid in the world, since it can walk carrying up to 14 kg. The first robot (REEM-A) was created in just 1 year, and REEM-B in the following 2 years.

He also points out that his team is hiring.

Like Asimo, REEM-B still hasn't achieved full autonomy, requiring a human operator to tell it where to go and what to do. "Pour me a glass of Coke" isn't understood; specific tasks must be commanded on a lower level. However, the mapping capabilities, manipulation, and facial recognition are impressive. Plenty more videos are available here.

I would like to extend my generous offer to test out any prototypes in my home. I've got some dishes that need washing.

Via spectrum.ieee.org

Robot Bicycle Parking Lots in Tokyo are Commuters Heaven

To solve the bicycle parking problem in Tokyo, Robotic parking lots were create to park commuters bikes quickly, safely and efficiently. With the huge population in Tokyo, there is also a huge amount of commuters, traveling and rolling on their bicycles. There are thousands and thousands of individuals who ride their bicycle to work, to the train station or simply as a cheap, practical and efficient mean of transportation in Tokyo. Since there are so many bicycles on the streets, there is an increasing need for viable parking places for these bikes. This robot garage is a wonderful creation that easily aids with the bicycle parking dilemma.

For bicycle riders, this solution could not be much simpler. For approximately $18 a month, individuals have access to this bike parking garage for an entire month. As they arrive, they place their bicycle in the intended area, swipe their member’s magnetic card, and a robot comes to take your bicycle to storage for the day (or longer).

The robot hands come pick up the bike, tag it using RFID, and store it underground with the thousands of other bikes. It has been mentioned by regular users that it usually takes approximately 10 seconds to retrieve their bicycles when returning.

This is a wonderful creation that is extremely space efficient since it is underground. While providing a great solution for commuters, it does in fact help promote commuting by creating such a practical, cheap and easy solution.

Next parking challenges are for cars: make the smart car a reality and take great parallel parking tips from a robot to be installed in real vehicles.

Via: Treehugger

House building robot is bad news for Brickies

A new method of house construction is in the final stages of development and you could well be seeing signs stating “Beware Contour Crafting in progress” sometime soon.

Boffins at the University of South California have developed a robotic gantry that builds up walls to almost any shape and specification without any manual labour, plans are input into a computer and the concrete laying machine goes about its duty, able to finish an entire house within a day without a single tea break.

Behrokh Khoshnevis is the brainchild behind this building machine after looking into methods of rapid construction as a way to reconstruct areas devestated by natural disasters such as earthquakes which have plagued his native Iran.

Not only a labour saver of note but the machine is environmentally sound too as reports claim up to seven tonnes of waste are produced by convential house building and the machine would also negate the need for heavy vehicle usage too.

Khoshnevis has also had interest from NASA in his machine as a potential builder of a lunar habitat.

This Technology Will Blow Your Mind..

This Technology Will Blow Your Mind.. - Watch more amazing videos here

Mysterious-World - Search for Ancient Technology Strange-Archeology

Found Footage: iPhone clone demo video

If you are in the market for a non-iPhone cellphone that has the features/look of an iPhone, then look no further than this iPhone clone. Unlike the Instinct, this cellphone could very well be the real iPhone killer. According to Electronista, the device could be running a hacked version of Windows Mobile, however, it mimics most of the iPhone's features, right down to the music player. Either way, it's still fun to watch, and to see how long Apple takes to sue them.

[via Electronista]

Secret Science Anti Gravity Revealed Homemade

You can make this at home!

Secret Science Anti Gravity Revealed Homemade - These bloopers are hilarious

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Dan Rather Reports - Mind Science

Wind Turbine Concept Inspired by Jet Engines

YouTube: FloDesign Wind Turbine | More Videos

Benefits of FloDesign Turbines

The traditional prop acts as an obstruction to airflow, forcing air around it instead of through it. To compensate for this, props are built at huge sizes, with blades around 150 feet long. Their size makes them fragile, requiring low rotational speed, and large gearboxes. FloDesign’s wind turbine extracts 3-4 times as much energy from the wind, allowing much smaller and faster blades. Diffusers provide greater efficiency at the expense of weight and length, and they are prone to separation of flow and losses. FloDesign’s mixer duct is less effected by off-axis flow, or turbulence, and uses FloDesign’s mixer ejector uses axial vorticity.

It’s like an Archimedes screw for air. When the two flows meet from different angles, they create a rapid mixing vortex. FloDesign’s turbine can automatically align to the wind direction like a kite string, and does not need motorized alignment. Traditional blades are enormous, and require special infrastructure to manufacture and transport. The FloDesign turbine can be disassembled to fit in one truck. FloDesign’s smaller robust rotor spins effectively at lower winds, but can also sustain higher winds in which other turbines would stall or break.

Traditional turbines require wide spacing, while FloDesign’s turbines can be placed closer together, optimizing land. While traditional turbines use fragile cantilevered beams, FloDesign’s shorter, stronger rotor benefits from a hoop. Traditional turbines require placement away from people and buildings. FloDesign turbines are inherently safer, adopting methods from the engineering of jet engines.

Source: alternative-energy-news

Human Computation

Google TechTalks July 26, 2006 Luis von Ahn is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where he also received his Ph.D. in 2005. Previously, Luis obtained a B.S. in mathematics from Duke University in 2000. He is the recipient of a Microsoft Research Fellowship. ABSTRACT Tasks like image recognition are trivial for humans, but continue to challenge even the most sophisticated computer programs. This talk introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve. Traditional approaches to solving such problems focus on improving software. I advocate a novel approach: constructively channel human brainpower using computer games. For example, the ESP Game, described in this talk, is an enjoyable online game -- many people play over 40 hours a week -- and when people play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords. These keywords can be used to significantly improve the accuracy of image search. People play the game not because they want to help, but because they enjoy it. I describe other examples of "games with a purpose": Peekaboom, which helps determine the location of objects in images, and Verbosity, which collects common-sense knowledge. I also explain a general approach for constructing games with a purpose.

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Free Energy Steven Mark Solid State Generator

Amazing video footage of Steven Mark's solid state free energy generator. This is video 4 out of 5. Really amazing technology a definite must see. Also see overunity.com for more information on this device.

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Robot Round-Up

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How Does Your Memory Work?

Best offer for you: Site build and host

You might think that your memory is there to help you remember facts, such as birthdays or shopping lists. If so, you would be very wrong. The ability to travel back in time in your mind is, perhaps, your most remarkable ability, and develops over your lifespan. Horizon takes viewers on an extraordinary journey into the human memory. From the woman who is having her most traumatic memories wiped by a pill, to the man with no memory, this film reveals how these remarkable human stories are transforming our understanding of this unique human ability. The findings reveal the startling truth that everyone is little more than their own memory.

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Mind Uploading and the Singularity

A BBC special on the coming technological revolution that will merge man and machine

A neuroscience blogger recently uncovered this BBC special on the prospects of brain-machine mergers, and what it means for the future.

The video special itself isn't brand new, but, since it's all about what's going to happen in a few decades, the ideas are still fresh, and the comments and insights from leading minds like Miguel Nicolelis of Johns Hopkins, MIT's Seth Lloyd and, of course, AI pioneer Ray Kurzweil, are fascinating. The piece, which inter-cuts short profiles of these leading thinkers with strange, dreamy scenes of little kids in a forest, is centered on the merger of man with machine, and how it might affect our world in a few generations time. (Apparently, we'll still have trees. And jump ropes.) One of the experts says, "I believe that my children's children will be able to . . . download their thoughts, store their memories, interface with machines." Another believes they will be caught up in a technologically-driven war, "and they may even be destroyed by it."

Don't worry, though, there's good news, too. And while the video is much longer than your standard YouTube clip, it's worth the watch.

Via Direct Neural Interface

Link of the day: Need to make an extra $5000 per month? Google PayDay software makes it so easy! Free download!

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Ten Times the Turbine

Best Sci/Tech Video

Microsoft Surface Technology Parody

Clay Shirky on the Need for Better Information Filters

The REEM-B humanoid robot

Robot Bicycle Parking Lots in Tokyo are Commuters Heaven

House building robot is bad news for Brickies

This Technology Will Blow Your Mind..

Mysterious-World - Search for Ancient Technology Strange-Archeology

Found Footage: iPhone clone demo video

Secret Science Anti Gravity Revealed Homemade

Dan Rather Reports - Mind Science

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Benefits of FloDesign Turbines

Human Computation

Free Energy Steven Mark Solid State Generator

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Mind Uploading and the Singularity

Discovering The Human Brain: New Pathways To Neuroscience

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Alternative Fuel Sources For Vehicles

Nanotechnology - Age of Convergence

FRESNEL SOLAR STIRLING ENGINE SUN POWER ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

Dutch Robot walks like humans

The World’s Fastest Growing Energy Source

Super Computer

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