Georgia Tech
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Georgia Tech researchers develop environmentally-powered nanogenerators
While the school of the Ramblin' Wreck may be best known for its barrage of engineering graduates, the university has been on quite the medical trip of late, as researchers have reportedly developed a nanometer-scale generator after already cranking out nanowires that monitor your blood pressure. The aptly-named nanogenerators can produce "continuous direct-current electricity by harvesting mechanical energy from such environmental sources as ultrasonic waves, mechanical vibration or blood flow," which translates into easy energy for implanted and worn medical gadgetry of the future. Interestingly, the project was funded by the likes of the National Science Foundation and our pals at DARPA, and while this invention may not quite match up with wireless charging (hey, we're scared of hospitals), the concept is novel nonetheless. So if you were hoping that dreams of implanted analysis of your vitals would suddenly cease, things aren't looking up for you.[Via MedGadget]
Living Game Worlds III: The Game Mechanics of Reality
Is the games industry burdened by its reliance on game mechanics? Speaking at the Living Games World Conference at Georgia Tech in Atlanta last week, Tracy Fullerton, a game design theorist and assistant professor at the University of Southern California Interactive Media Division, plead her case that the commonly used game mechanics are in a way impeding our ability to expand into new content themes.Fullerton began by defining the root terminology. "We've talked a lot about serious games ... but I thought I might be nice to back up and bit and really kind of question what is that a game is," she said. "One of the things that I like to do is break things down and build them up again."
Living Game Worlds III: Playing with Controversy: The Case of Super Columbine Massacre
At the Living Game Worlds III Conference last week at Georgia Tech, Director of the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker Competition Sam Roberts lent his feet to the fire to explain his company's decisions in the aftermath of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG pullout, to which he lamented that "I don't think we handled this very well ... this was poorly execution, from start to finish, how we dealt with this."Also on the panel, entitled Playing with Controversy, was GT Assistant Professor and founder of Persuasive Games Ian Bogost and USC Assistant Professor Tracy Fullerton, whose Interactive Media Division withdrew sponsorship following Slamdance's decision. GT Assistant Professor and game theorist Celia Pearce served as moderator. Portion of the SCMRPG trailer was shown to begin the discussion. In it, video of the game is shown over audio tracks showcasing the mainstream media's reaction to the game. The choice quote, from unknown source: "I see no way that you could, in any way, create the mindset that this was anything other than a really bad attempt to make money." The game was created by aspiring filmmaker Danny LeDonne using RPG Maker and was released his website for users to download free of charge.
Georgia Tech researchers design nanowires to monitor blood pressure
If you see yourself taking an unwanted trip to the ER anytime in the next decade or so, there's a fairly decent chance you'll end up with at least one or two creepy creatures perusing some aspect of your innards. As if mechanical beings cruising through your intestines wasn't eerie enough, a team of Georgia Tech researchers have proposed a new way to constantly monitor one's blood pressure. The aptly-dubbed nanowires take advantage of the "piezoelectric effect in semiconducting zinc oxide" in order to detect minute forces as tiny "as a few piconewtones," or about the same amount needed to unzip a strand of DNA. The specially designed sensors will purportedly enable robotic nurses to continually monitor your blood pressure to take action before things get too out of hand, and of course, the "biocompatible "system would beam results wirelessly to devices in hospitals or even wrist-mounted readers so you'd know when to pop a proverbial chill pill. This should definitely suffice as a "second opinion," eh?
Plaster Georgia Tech / MIT's unmanned spacecraft with logos, text
If there's anything left to accomplish after creating autonomous UAVs and cramming optical circuitry on a silicon chip, it's allowing tax paying citizens to pen their thoughts on an unmanned spacecraft. In a joint initiative between Georgia Tech and MIT, the Your Name Into Space project aims to launch a small research satellite in 2010 into Earth's orbit, and the technology on board will purportedly "help pave the way for humankind to explore our solar system." Folks who throw their name, slogan, logo, or snarky catchphrases onto the craft can expect photographs of their adornment "with the Earth in the background" while it's orbiting space, and if your piece of textual glory lands on a segment that will be returning to Earth, it's all yours upon landing. So if you're looking to splurge a little this year on a bit of tax deductible fun, you can put nearly anything on this forthcoming machine for $35 to $250 per square centimeter, depending on location.[Via MAKE]
UK report predicts rights for robots; your AIBO wants a tax break
If you've got someone who loves you, holds down a steady job, helps you out, reads your mail to you, takes care of you, and even gives birth, it's only fair that they enjoy the same rights and liberties as everyone else, right? What if that individual is powered by an Intel processor? Concerns over the status of robots in our society around 2056 have emerged from "one of 270 forward-looking papers sponsored by Sir David King," the UK government's chief scientist. Essentially, folks in favor of robotic rights suggest that if conscience bots are made to interact with humans, they should share a certain level of rights. Currently, the machines we know and love (and fear) are classed as "inanimate objects without rights or duties," but if rights were passed, somehow these creations would be forced to obey traffic lights and potentially pay taxes. Of course, a large concern is ethics towards these creatures, but some say that if robots in society are "correctly managed," it could lead to increased labor output and "greater prosperity." Although this stuff may seem pretty far-fetched right now, the logic behind it could actually grow legs in the (somewhat) distant future, but until there's a robotic candidate on the presidential ballot, we'll just keep on keepin' on.[Thanks, Fred R. and Laura O.]
Prototype device detects, disables digital cameras
Proving once again that "outdated technology" still has its place among today's high-tech products, old-school film cameras may soon be the only shooters not rendered ineffective in the face of a new device that promises to identify and disable their digital counterparts in secure environments. Currently still in the prototype phase, the device developed by researchers at the Georgia Tech College of Computing's Interactive and Intelligent Computing Division uses its own set of digital cameras along with a scanning laser to inspect a given area for telltale signs of CCD imagers (shape, size, reflectivity), and subsequently shoots out concentrated beams of light to overwhelm the sensors of offending gadgets. Although the device is still unable to accurately detect camcorders whose CCDs are set farther back from the lens than regular still cameras, once that obstacle is overcome, this technology is expected to be deployed by governments and businesses as an anti-espionage technique or in movie theaters as a way of combating piracy. See, you thought you were ahead of the game with your ten megapixel cameraphone, but it's actually the spies and pirates equipped with those old medium-format Pentaxes who will soon rise to the top of their respective professions.[Via Dvorak Uncensored]
