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So, when will the iPhone have this?
Using ultra-fast imaging and “echoes of light,” researchers have developed an innovative camera that takes pictures outside of traditional line of sight.
Short bursts of light that reflect off of different objects is key for researchers at MIT. They’ve named the process “Femto-Photography. It exploits the finite speed of light and it is part of what they call the “femtosecond transient imaging system.”
Applying a femtosecond laser, short pulses of light bounce around off of one object and on to another before reflecting back onto the original object where it is then captured by the camera. The bursts of light last for one quadrillionth of a second. Algorithms then reconstruct what is hidden.
According to MIT Professor Ramesh Raskar, the camera creates a “3D time-image” of the unseen image, by continuously gathering light and computing the time and distance that each pixel has traveled.
“It’s like having x-ray vision without the x-rays,” Raskar said. “We’re going around the problem rather than going through it.”
This Episode’s Executive Producer: David Montoya
Art By: Nick the Rat
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I live in Florida and this is absolutely incomprehensible to me.
Just his shirt, but that probably still means he was crotchily hand-checked.
I wonder how parents are going to deal with discussing with their kids improper touching by strangers. It used to be NO under any circumstances. Now NO, except if it’s a TSA agent. Does that mean pedophiles will now tell kids they are TSA agents so it’s OK? And don’t tell a cop because people at the airport who complain about groping get into real trouble.
Dozens of America’s wealthiest taxpayers — including hedge fund legend Michael Steinhardt, super trial lawyer Guy Saperstein, and Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s fame — have appealed to President Obama not to renew the Bush tax cuts for anyone earning more than $1 million a year. Calling themselves “Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength,” the 40-plus signers today launched a website and a campaign that they hope will draw support from others who agree that fiscal responsibility should begin with those who can best afford it — as their letter to Obama explains.
[…]
The Patriotic Millionaires campaign, pulled together quickly by the Agenda Project in New York City, just happens to appear on the same day as a new study from the Center for Responsive Politics revealing that half of the members of the House and the Senate are millionaires. That contrasts sharply with the general population, of whom fewer than 1 percent can claim millionaire status.
Some might see a correlation and potential conflict of interest in that last point. Obviously, irresponsible conspiracy theorists.
Not surprisingly, some of the super-rich declined to join the Patriotic Millionaires when the Agenda Project reached out to them. […]A Manhattan hedge fund billionaire said he believes the cuts should be extended and added that “the moneys should be used to pay down debt” — which sounds like the magical Republican plan to simultaneously cut taxes, wage war and drastically reduce the deficit. The same investor also complained that “anyone who has money is made to feel that they’re bad.”
Bad? Only if they’d rather force Grandma to eat cat food than pay their fair share.
A photography professor at New York University is going to have a camera implanted in the back of his head for his next project, according to reports.
Wafaa Bilal, an Iraqi-born assistant professor in the photography and imaging department of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, has plans to undergo surgery to implant the camera in the next few weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The camera would transmit a live stream of images to visitors of a new museum in Qatar. The camera will be programmed to take pictures at one-minute intervals for one year, the newspaper reported.
[…]
In 2008, Bilal created a computer-based work called Virtual Jihadi, a modified version of the game Quest for Bush, an already hacked version of the game Quest for Saddam. Bilal cast himself as a suicide-bomber in the game whose goal is to hunt then-U.S. president George W. Bush.
Jason Parham – blogs.villagevoice.com – Thu., Nov. 18 2010:
In this week’s cover story, writer Keegan Hamilton investigates the controversy surrounding ibogaine, the experimental hallucinogen drug that has helped kick meth and heroin addictions.
Ibogaine is illegal, even though its power to cure addicts has been proven. Hamilton’s story describes the many reasons the medical establishment and the government are wary of Ibogaine, despite its benefits, but one of them really stood out:
Because Ibogaine is an outright cure, drug companies want nothing to do with it.
Martin Kuehne, a chemist at the University of Vermont, is quoted in the story, saying, “Pharmaceutical companies don’t like cures. Really, they don’t — that’s the sad thing. They like treatment. Something for cholesterol or high blood pressure that you take for years and years, every day. That’s where the profit is.”
When we read that, a light went on. The worst thing for a drug company is a pill you take that completely cures you of your ailment with one dose, right? Where’s the money in that?
Japan’s newest singing sensation is a… Hologram. No, that’s not a typo! It’s amazing where technology is headed these days! Over in Japan Cryton Future Media is actually starting projector concerts using a actual live band to compliment their virtual vocaloid idols like Hatsune Miku. Regardless of being a Hatsune Miku fan or not, just seeing what technology can accomplish is just amazing. While this technically isn’t a ‘true’ hologram (one where light actually takes up volumetric space rather than just a planar surface) like the one we’ve all seen of in Star Wars, it is still nevertheless quite impressive how real this appears!
According to SingularityHub, Hatsune Miku is a based off of the singing synthesizer application developed by Crypton Future Media. Miku’s voice comes from Yamaha’s Vocaloid synthesizing technology and is sampled off of a real person’s voice–Japanese actress (but not singer) Saki Fujita. Regular, technologically-inclined users (such as yourselves) can purchase the Vocaloid software with an avatar (such as Miku) for 15,750 yen (about $190), and create their own songs to share with others. The software is reportedly rather in-depth and allows users to connect vocals note-by-note.
Found by Nick the Rat.
Amazing!
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin submitted its proposal today for the next phase of Space Fence, a program that will revamp the way the U.S. Air Force identifies and tracks objects in space.
Space Fence will use S-band ground-based radars to provide the Air Force with uncued detection, tracking and accurate measurement of space objects, primarily in low-earth orbit. The geographic separation and the higher wave frequency of the new Space Fence radars will allow for the detection of much smaller microsatellites and debris than current systems. Additionally, Lockheed Martin’s Space Fence design will significantly improve the timeliness with which operators can detect space events which could present potential threats to GPS satellites or the International Space Station.
gizmag
Those looking forward to quieter city streets as a result of near-silent electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids replacing internal combustion engine vehicles on our roads may have to think again. To ensure that cyclists and pedestrians, including the visually impaired, are aware of stealthy oncoming vehicles, researchers have been looking at different noises that can be applied to EVs. Toyota has also already announced plans to sell an onboard audio alert system for its Prius but it looks like such systems are set to become more widespread with the Infiniti M35h to be the world’s first hybrid to get an audible pedestrian warning system as standard.
I think the sound of the tires on the road makes enough noise… except at very low speeds.
With the help of babies and more than 5,000 of their diapers, Emory University researchers have developed an accurate, noninvasive method to determine estrogen levels in infants.
The method, previously used in nonhuman primates, will allow researchers to learn more about the association between estrogen levels in human infants and their long-term reproductive development as well as the development of sex-specific behaviors, such as toy preference or cognitive differences. What’s more, the method will also allow researchers to look at how early disruption of the endocrine system affects long-term maturation, a growing concern among researchers and physicians.
Surprisingly little is known about hormone levels during human infancy. Previous human research has focused on the measurement of hormones in blood, urine and saliva. The new data are the result of using fecal samples collected from cotton diapers. With this novel approach, the researchers successfully measured the fecal levels of estradiol, a type of estrogen…
“The development of an assay to measure estrogen from diapers might initially strike one as unnecessary or strange, but the need is real,” says Sara Berga, MD…
“These observations are the first report of human infant fecal estradiol levels and they provide a new tool for investigating early human development”, says Michelle Lampl, PhD, MD. “Because infant diapers are plentiful, fecal samples can be collected frequently and over a long period of time. Future longitudinal studies will allow the association between fecal levels of steroids and physiological measures to be assessed, and expand our understanding independent of serum measures.”
And moms will love you for taking the samples away.
This is bull! The real cause of car accidents is cars. If an engine disabler were installed in every car, imagine all the lives that would be saved!
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said using a cell phone while driving is so dangerous that devices may soon be installed in cars to forcibly stop drivers — and potentially anyone else in the vehicle — from using them.
“There’s a lot of technology out there now that can disable phones and we’re looking at that,” said LaHood on MSNBC. LaHood said the cellphone scramblers were one way, and also stressed the importance of “personal responsibility.”
The hosts of Morning Joe pushed the secretary about the possibility of requiring scrambling technology installed in vehicles.
“I think it will be done,” said LaHood. “I think the technology is there and I think you’re going to see the technology become adaptable in automobiles to disable these cell phones. We need to do a lot more if were going to save lives.”
The Telegraph
China “hijacked” 15 per cent of the world’s internet traffic earlier this year, according to a report to the US Congress, in what could be a new form of cyber-terrorism.
A state-run telecoms firm is accused of diverting traffic including data from US military and government websites, and some in Britain, via Chinese servers.
Experts fear that the authorities could have carried out “severe malicious activities” as a result of the 18-minute operation, even harvesting sensitive data such as the contents of email messages or implanting viruses in computers worldwide.
The report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission says it raises the prospect that China might use its powers to “assert some level of control over the internet”.
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