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USC starts a web hub for DIY, open source virtual reality projects
For the sheer variety of virtual reality headsets available, there's been few resources available for those who want to craft their own devices. USC wants to save us the effort of searching around. Its MxR Lab has just launched a showcase of creations and modifications that DIY enthusiasts can build, including open source code for both the devices and integrating full-body motion control through Kinect for Windows or OpenNI. The most ambitious is Socket HMD, a complete 1,280 x 800 headset that involves a 3D-printed shell and custom-assembled electronics. If your own ambitions don't stretch that far, you can still build the VR2GO viewer, which uses iPhones and iPod touch players as the eyepieces, as well as mods for the Oculus Rift developer kit that add stereo cameras or increase the field of view. Yes, you'll need a 3D printer and a knack for programming to get most of these projects going, but you won't have to wait for someone to make them for you -- a big help when many ready-made VR displays are either in development or priced out of reach for the average person.
USC battery wields silicon nanowires to hold triple the energy, charge in 10 minutes
There's no shortage of attempts to build a better battery, usually with a few caveats. USC may have ticked all the right checkboxes with its latest discovery, however. Its use of porous, flexible silicon nanowires for the anodes in a lithium-ion battery delivers the high capacity, fast recharging and low costs that come with silicon, but without the fragility of earlier attempts relying on simpler silicon plates. In practice, the battery could deliver the best of all worlds. Triple the capacity of today's batteries? Full recharges in 10 minutes? More than 2,000 charging cycles? Check. It all sounds a bit fantastical, but USC does see real-world use on the horizon. Researchers estimate that there should be products with silicon-equipped lithium-ion packs inside of two to three years, which isn't long to wait if the invention saves us from constantly hunting for the nearest wall outlet.
Alt-week 10.6.12: supercomputers on the moon, hear the Earth sing and the future of sports commentary
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Normally we try to encourage you to join us around the warm alt-week campfire by teasing you about what diverse and exotic internet nuggets we have for you inside. Sadly, this week that's not the case. There's nothing for you here we're afraid. Not unless you like totally mind-blowing space videos, singing planets and AI / sports commentary-flavored cocktails, that is. Oh, you do? Well what do you know! Come on in... this is alt-week.
Video of protein movement within a neuron shows how our brains renew themselves
If, like us, you spend most of your time wondering exactly what's going on in other people's heads, then this video is for you. Okay, so it might not reveal the reason why that jerk cut you off at the junction, or why that co-worker didn't show up to your date exactly, rather, it's a little more literal than that. This is video footage of proteins moving within a single neuron. The USC researchers were able to capture this video by using bioluminescent proteins from a jellyfish to visually track their movement. Not only is this mind-boggling to the layperson (just think how small these things are) it's also mind-revealing. By that, we mean it gives scientists an opportunity to observe how these tiny, yet vital, cerebral elements restore themselves. Which, when you're constantly worried about the amount of grey matter you were blessed with in the first place, can only be a good thing.
Project Holodeck and Oculus Rift hope to kickstart every gamers' VR dream for $500 (video)
Star Trek: The Next Generation may be coming to your living rooms soon courtesy of some hot new Blu-ray pressing, but one of the most compelling pieces of the technology shown on that series still remains elusive: the holodeck. Don't get down, sunshine, because we might soon be making our first, tentative steps into a virtual courtesy of Project Holodeck. It's underway at USC's School of Cinematic Arts as well as the Viterbi School of Engineering and starts out with a pair of Project Oculus glasses. These glasses, which were shown off at E3 by none other than John Carmack, cram a 1,280 x 800 display into a pair of glasses that present a wide, truly immersive field of view. Pair that with a PlayStation Move for head tracking and a Razer Hydra controller and you have the beginnings of a proper virtual reality environment.An early concept of what the complete system might feel like can be found after the break, a couple of people acting out a sequence from Skies of Arcadia, which could be called a spiritual inspiration for the first game designed for Project Holodeck: Wild Skies. In it, two people "pilot a massive airship through a exotic world of floating islands" -- though whether they look as kawaii as their Dreamcast predecessors remains to be seen. When you might actually get your hands on the system is also unknown, but one piece of the puzzle, the Oculus Rift glasses, are said to be hitting Kickstarter any day now -- for an anticipated price of just $500. Bat'leth and copy of Workin' out with Worf not included.
Robot with tactile sensor is better at identifying materials than you are (but only wants to help)
Researchers at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering have developed a robot capable of identifying materials, thanks to a tactile sensor. The so-called BioTac sensor mimics the human finger, with flexible robot skin layered over a liquid filling -- and the skin even has fingerprints to increase the robot's sensitivity to vibration. Researchers trained the robot to recognize 117 common materials, and by making "exploratory movements" to feel out textures it was able to correctly identify materials 95 percent of the time -- a higher accuracy rate than humans achieve. Still, though the robot is an ace at understanding textures, it doesn't possess the ability to decide which materials are preferable to humans. For this reason, the USC team says it will focus more on applications such as human prostheses and consumer product testing. Relax: your fingers are still worth something -- for now.
USC develops printable liquid solar cells for flexible, low-cost panels
Solar cells are becoming more viable sources of energy -- and as they become more efficient, they're only getting smaller and cheaper to produce. Liquid nanocrystal cells are traditionally inefficient at converting sunlight into electricity, but by adding a synthetic ligand to help transmit currents, researchers at USC have improved their effectiveness. The advantage of these liquid solar cells? They're cheaper than single-crystal silicon wafer solutions, and they're also a shockingly minuscule four nanometers in size, meaning more than 250 billion could fit on the head of a pin. Moreover, they can be printed onto surfaces -- even plastic -- without melting. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to pave the way for ultra-flexible solar panels. However, the scientists are still experimenting with materials for constructing the nanocrystals, since the semiconductor cadmium selenide they've used thus far is too toxic for commercial use.
Flawed diamonds are perfect ingredients for quantum computing, just add time travel
Ready to suspend your brain cells in a superposition of disbelief? Good, because the latest news published in Nature is that diamonds are a quantum computer's best friend -- particularly if they're flawed. An international team of scientists sought out sub-atomic impurities in a 1mm-thick fragment of over-priced carbon and used these as qubits to perform successful calculations. A "rogue" nitrogen nucleus provided one qubit, while a free electron became a second. Unlike previous attempts at solid-state quantum computing, this new effort used an extra technique to protect the system from decoherence errors: microwave pulses were fired at the electron qubit to "time-reverse" inconsistencies in its spinning motion. Don't fully get it? Us neither. In any case, it probably won't stop jewellers tut-tutting to themselves.
US Cellular intros first LTE devices: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G and Galaxy S Aviator 4G
US Cellular's had its LTE network in the oven for quite some time, and we knew it was going to be showing up sometime next month. The missing part of the equation, however, was which devices would ring in the celebration. The carrier finally answered the mystery question: the first tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G, will be the inaugural device and is expected to arrive in March, while the Galaxy S Aviator 4G should be gracing store shelves sometime in April. We don't expect to see any surprises with the Galaxy Tab, but the Aviator definitely has us curious. At first glance, it appears to be the same design as the Droid Charge, and will offer a 4.3-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display, run on Android 2.3.6 and come with a 8MP rear camera, front-facing cam and HDMI port. We're hoping to get more specs for your enjoyment, but enjoy the press release in the meantime.
Electrified bacteria army kills uranium, gives Captain Planet a run for his money
A certain type of "hairy" bacteria may just be the answer to cleaning up radioactive spills. Scientists at the University of Southern California found that under certain circumstances, Geobacter sulfurreducens could make metals like uranium less soluble -- essentially turning the metal into hard droplets rather than being absorbed. Researchers discovered that by lowering the bacteria's temperature, it caused hair-like pili to extend, which enveloped the poison uranium and ultimately reduced it through long-range electron transfer. The breakthrough could help deplete sources of uranium or other radioactive isotopes where bacteria normally can't survive -- like from the Fukushima nuclear plant that devastated Japan earlier this year. Scientists believe they've only scratched the surface with this development and are optimistic about the future of bacteria "electromicrobiology," which we can only guess grew in popularity after this '80s classic hit the airwaves (video after the break).
USC computer scientist makes geo-immersion maps, leaves other maps feeling inferior
Google's Maps and Earth services provide us with 3D maps, the means to track St. Nick, and even tools to help us train to wear the maillot jaune. Real-time views of the world are not among Street View's many powers, however. That's why the director of USC's Integrated Media Systems Center, Cyrus Shahabi, has one-upped El Goog by rendering the real world virtually using the concept of geo-immersion -- which integrates real-time information and videos with digital maps. In one application, users can see the energy usage and floor plans of university buildings along with the current location of campus transit buses. Another uses live video feeds from security cameras and facial recognition technology to track ne'er-do-wells in a three dimensional model of a city. Itching to see what happens when real and virtual worlds collide? Check out the cutting-edge cartography in action after the break.
Scientists restore memory of drugged rats, hope to do the same with people
Is there anything we can't learn from drugged up rats? Researchers at Wake Forest University and the University of Southern California used a group of medicated rodents to demonstrate a method by which memory can be restored with the flick of a switch. The rats were outfitted with tiny, rat-sized electrodes and exposed to pharmacological substances, which caused them to forget the connection between pushing a lever and getting water. By turning the electronic switch on, the scientists restored the rats' memory of the task -- turning it off made them forget again. The next step in the process is testing the experiment out on primates and perhaps some day utilizing the research to benefit victims of strokes, Alzheimer's, or injury-induced memory loss.
Researchers build synthetic synapse circuit, prosthetic brains still decades away
Building a franken-brain has long been a holy grail of sorts for scientists, but now a team of engineering researchers have made what they claim to be a significant breakthrough towards that goal. Alice Parker and Chongwu Zhou of USC used carbon nanotubes to create synthetic synapse circuits that mimic neurons, the basic building blocks of the brain. This could be invaluable to AI research, though the team still hasn't tackled the problem of scope -- our brains are home to 100 billion neurons, each of which has 10,000 synapses. Moreover, these nanotubes are critically lacking in plasticity -- they can't form new connections, produce new neurons, or adapt with age. All told, the scientists say, we're decades away from having fake brains -- or even sections of it -- but if the technology advances as they hope it will, people might one day be able to recover from devastating brain injuries and drive cars smart enough to avert deadly accidents.
Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect (video)
It had to happen. When Google showed off a new and revolutionary Gmail Motion control scheme yesterday, it failed to fool most people, but it didn't fail to catch the attention of some motion control geeks with Kinect cameras on hand. Yep, the FAAST crew that's already brought us a Kinect keyboard emulator for World of Warcraft has taken Google to task and actually cooked up the software to make Gmail Motion work. All your favorite gestures are here: opening an email as if it were an envelope, replying by throwing a thumb back and, of course, "licking the stamp" to send your response on its way. Marvelous stuff! Jump past the break to see it working, for real this time.
USC Smart Fences use spatio-temporal sensor patterns to create a DRADIS for airports
How do you send an automated alert to a security guard whenever anyone tries to climb a fence, but ignore anyone simply leaning on said chain link? How can a sensor pick up the presence of a Jeep but ignore a steady flow of gigantic airliners? Damned if we know, we're just bloggers, but a team at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering figured it out, creating what's called the Smart Fence. It's a series of sensors plus some associated circuitry that easily handle the situations described above and do so with amazing accuracy. How amazing? Here are the results of one test: A perfect (100%) identification of unexpected intrusion events, and an average of less than two false positives per week and zero false negatives for recognition of human footsteps. In addition, no false positives or false negatives were reported by the installed fence sensors for a duration of 45 days of unattended operation, which included several days of seasonal storms. Yeah, pretty good. The system is being developed for use around airports and military bases and is currently being funded largely by Navy grants. Now, if only they could create a system to prevent "laser events" and airport blizzards we might be able to travel safely again.
Researchers use Kinect to play WoW
Microsoft's Kinect motion addon for the Xbox 360 has been a huge success, not only in the retail world but in the hacker community as well. We've seen some awesome mods for the Kinect in the past few months of its release -- and finally, we've combined the Kinect world with WoW. The USC Institute for Creative Technologies has released a program called FAAST (Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit) that allows the Kinect to be used as a controller for off-the-shelf games. Check out the video of Kinect being used to control a World of Warcraft character. The software emulator acts as a layer over the keyboard, reading movement as key presses. Personally, I love that the depth sensors of the Kinect can be used to move backwards and forwards by leaning forward and back. So awesome.
Move around in your favorite MMO with Kinect
Isn't the Xbox Kinect only for crazy dancing games? No one would ever use that to play a real game like World of Warcraft, right? Well, the researchers at the Institute for Creative Technologies at USC have put an end to that notion. The university engineers have created a Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit or FAAST that associates keyboard events with body movements. This gives the Kinect device a new, wider range of possibilities because it can now be utilized on a standard PC. As Skip Rizzo of the Institute explains in a video presentation, "This opens up the doorway for building rehabilitation exercises after a stroke or traumatic brain injury and in a area that's getting a lot of attention: the area of childhood obesity and diabetes. This is a major area that people in the United States need to develop new ways to get kids up and moving around." Now instead of sitting around for six hours fighting the Horde, you can get up out of your seat and punch an orc in the face. Although the technology is just in its infancy, it is still very possible to play your favorite MMO games with your body movements. Check out the video after the break to see all the (literal) action, then head to ICT's site to see more.
Free Kinect keyboard emulator lets you WoW while AFK (video)
World of Warcraft is a lot of things to a lot of people, a whole lot of people, but it's never been much of an immersive gameplay experience -- casting Plague Strike doesn't seem all that unholy when it's triggered by frantically tapping a key on a keyboard. Moving an arm would be at least a bit more involving, and with the Flexible Action and Articulated Toolkit, or FAAST, from the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, that's just what you can do. It's basically a software layer over your Kinect, built over OpenNI, that recognizes a skeleton and enables about 20 different motions to be mapped to key presses. This means you can lean forward to walk, raise your right arm to perform an action, and then sit down to take a breather after all that exertion. It's currently versioned .03, so don't expect miracles, but it is available for free at the other end of the source link. It's also demonstrated below, but don't tarry too long: guild meeting starts in five. [Thanks, Tommy]
The fashion industry survives without copyright protection -- can the rest of us?
I really dig this TED talk from USC's Johanna Blakely about how the lack of copyright and patent protection for clothing design has accelerated the creative pace of the fashion industry, and I think she nails it when she points out that digital technologies have collapsed copyright law's traditional distinction between ideas and tangible expression. It's become so easy to create, copy, remix, and share that those definitions don't really apply anymore. On the other hand, I don't think simply doing away with IP protections entirely is the answer. (I'm a lawyer, after all.) While I'm not saying fashion is easy, I would argue that it's easier for fashion designers to iterate and differentiate, and that the harm done to Gucci by ripoff handbags is much less damaging than the harm done to an author or musician by someone who copies their work -- unlike the Gucci bag, the customers for original books and music often are the same people who buy the fakes, and not everyone will seek out the original. What's more, I often find that arguments against IP protections are often made very idealistically, where competition, remix, and creativity only produce happy results, but sometimes things get stolen simply because it's easy and cheap to make money that way, and IP laws provide protection against that sad reality. The real question, in my mind, is how best to balance those protections against creative freedoms, not whether we're protecting ideas or expressions. Anyway, it's a great presentation that everyone should watch -- check it after the break.
USC develops flexible, transparent TFT prototype for high-tech temporary tattoos
USC researchers have demonstrated a low-temperature (and therefore relatively inexpensive, apparently) process for printing transparent TFTs on flexible material able to bend up to 120 degrees which allows for embedding LED to build see-through displays. The prototype disc shown above is 5 inches in diameter and contains around 20,000 nanotube transistors. The researchers suggest the technology could be used for e-paper, smart tags, and artificial skin, as well as an affordable heads-up display that could be put into car windshields. Our suggestion? Couple it with transparent playing cards for the ultimate poker-cheating experience.[Via OLED-Display]
