Technology & AI

Discover, November 22 2010.

To mark the 20th anniversary of his “Kryptos” sculpture, and its lingering mystery, sculptor Jim Sanborn has released a clue to deciphering the message engraved on the statue.

“Our work is about discovery — discovering secrets,” said Toni Hiley, director of the C.I.A. Museum. “And this sculpture is full of them, and it still hasn’t given up the last of its secrets.”

In 1999 three of the sculpture’s four sections were confirmed solved by computer scientist and amateur code-breaker James Gillogly. They contain historical references and cryptic sayings. Twenty years later, the remaining section, 97 characters long, is still unsolved. Read More >

Discover, November 19 2010.

A new camera being developed at MIT has the ability to see around corners–without the use of periscopes or mirrors. The camera works by bouncing ultra-short bursts of laser light off a solid surface (like a floor or an open door). Most of the light is reflected back to the camera, but some scatters in every direction, a small portion of which then hits and bounces off the object to be visualized (and other parts of the scene). Some of that scattered light then bounces back off the door or floor, and finally make its way back to the camera.

“It’s like having x-ray vision without the x-rays,” said Professor Ramesh Raskar, head of the Camera Culture group at the MIT Media Lab and one of the team behind the system. “But we’re going around the problem rather than going through it.” Read More >

Discover, November 12 2010.

If America’s Got Talent, then the Arab World’s Got Science–that’s if you believe the messages in reality shows, anyway. The Arab reality show Stars of Science, currently in its second season, takes young (18-30) inventors from around the Arab world and pits them against each other, American Idol style. The show, presented by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, hopes to encourage entrepreneurship and creativity in both the contestants and the show’s viewers, Abdulla Al-Thani told AME info:

“The aim is to showcase the whole process of innovation — from inspiration, to the elaboration of a concept, its development and finally, its application,” said Dr. Abdulla Al-Thani, Vice President, Education of Qatar Foundation. “Science and technology will now be given an entertaining twist through the very popular reality TV show format, making the topic accessible to all. We hope ‘Stars of Science’ will promote the innovative spirit of young people in the Arab world.” Read More >

Discover, November 11 2010.

A team at Georgia Tech is looking to replace your sponge bath nurse with this sexy beast to the right. No, not the girl. The sponge bath robot next to her, named Cody. He’s the one that wants to wipe you down with his delicate towel hands.

The robot was developed by researcher Charles Kemp’s team at the Healthcare Robotics Lab, and was described in a presentation and accompanying paper (pdf) at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. The robot uses cameras and lasers to evaluate the human’s body, identifying dirty spots, then gently wipes with its towel hands, making sure not to apply too much or too little pressure. It has flexible arm joints with low levels of stiffness to make sure that it doesn’t push too hard. Study coauthor Chih-Hung (Aaron) King put himself in the tester’s spot for the robot’s first rubs. Read More >

Discover, November 10 2010.

Devices that use the wasted mechanical energy from clothing movements or even a heartbeat seem far out, if not just a bit creepy, but new advances in nanogenerators are making such energy-scavenging electronics possible.

Now researchers at Georgia Tech have made the first nanowire-based generators that can harvest sufficient mechanical energy to power small devices, including light-emitting diodes and a liquid-crystal display. Read More >