Category Archives: Blog

Blog

Idoru! Augmented reality pet-person on sale later this year

1 Comment

Just in case you didn’t catch it over at Chairman Bruce’s pad, here’s the promo video for Cyber Figure Alice, an augmented reality game/pet/miniature girlfriend from Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc.:

Try to ignore the fact that the main selling point of this virtual girl appears to be that you can dress her up in a variety of outfits, look up her skirt and make her life a misery, and think of the somewhat more positive potentials of the same technology…

  • The Lonely Planet people could sell AR add-ons or replacements for their ubiquitous guidebooks; instead of be-backpacked Europeans stood around in the zocalo staring into a book, you might see them wandering around wearing funny sunglasses and staring into the palm of their hand, asking questions about the cheapest hostel within staggering distance of the bar district.
  • Home-schooled Christian kids could have a little desktop Moses to deliver moral guidance and lectures on why this or that particular website contains information that is not in accordance with Scripture.
  • The DVD extras on the latest Kamigata Punx! tour promo video could include miniature members of the band who could be bought virtual drinks in exchange for squeaky-toned tales of backstage debauchery.

That said, it’s probably fair (if a little depressing) to expect that the original guilt-free tormentable schoolgirl version will be the killer app for some time. Cyber Figure Alice apparently launches later this year, so expect the over-moneyed single geeks in your social circle to spend even more time at home than they do currently…

Blog

Cube a breakthrough in smart matter

darpa_origami2DARPA are still at it busily inventing the all the science-fictional goodness we expect and deserve. Now they’re going in for programmable matter, of a similar flavour to that found in Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, Accelerando by Charles Stross, and Dune: The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The goal of the project is to create matter that can “self-assemble or alter their shape, perform a function and then disassemble themselves.”:

One day, that could lead to “morphing aircraft and ground vehicles, uniforms that can alter themselves to be comfortable in any climate, and ’soft’ robots that flow like mercury through small openings to enter caves and bunker complexes.” A soldier could even reach into a can of unformed goop, and order up a custom-made tool or a “universal spare part.”

One team from Harvard is working on a kind of “generalized Rubik’s Cube” that can fold into all kinds of shapes. Another is trying to order large strands of synthetic DNA to bind together in a “molecular Velcro.” An MIT group is building “’self-folding origami’ machines that use specialized sheets of material with built-in actuators and data. These machines use cutting-edge mathematical theorems to fold themselves into virtually any three-dimensional object.

Very powerful and potentially gamechanging. Presumably if and when these become available to the general public they will have various restrictions built into them that will promptly be overcome and hacked origami-tools will become the ultimate criminal penknife.

On a more cheerful not this have wonderful applications in art and performance.

[from Danger Room]

Blog

The history of Islamic science

Islamic astrolabeThere are those who’d like us to believe that the Islam has brought nothing but violence and ignorance to the world, but they couldn’t be further from the truth. Indeed, while Christian Europe was wallowing in the so-called Dark Ages, Islamic scholars were refining the scientific method, developing the forerunners of modern medicine and making huge strides in mathematics.

Wired has a brief article mentioning just three Islamic inventions, but as a commenter there points out, there’s far more to be found in the Wikipedia article on the subject. I can also heartily recommend Ehsan Mahsood’s Science and Islam: a History, an accessible condensing of a recent BBC series on the subject that makes a great starting point from which to explore a fascinating and largely ignored chunk of world history. [image by austinevan]

Blog

Friday Free Fiction for 5th June

It’s June already; does that mean we can act like it’s summer? The weather in my neck of the woods is warm enough to suggest that yes, we can – but if it’s rainy where you are, why let that stop you?

So, here’s a bunch of free science fiction stories from the intertubes to aid whatever form of relaxations suggests itself to you… but don’t forget to take a look at this month’s Futurismic fiction first – “Awakening in Six Parts” by Karen M Roberts is a surreal near-future headtrip that deserves your attention!

***

Just the one from ManyBooks:

***

And one from FeedBooks:

***

New at Lone Star Stories:

Fiction:

Poetry:

***

The last pre-hiatus issue of Byzarium is up:

***

New from Clarkesworld:

***

From Subterranean Online:

This week’s fiction over at the Gardner Dozois-edited issue of Subterranean Online is a novelette by none other than hisownself, Joe R. Lansdale. Check out “Hide and Horns” for some rudeness, cussing, illicit grave digging, and other assorted wholesome fun.

***

Jason Stoddard‘s Eternal Franchise continues with chapter 8.3

***

This week’s Shadow Unit DVD Extra: “Tactics”

***

COSMOS Magazine presents: “The Noise Machine” by V G Kemerer

***

Free fiction from Jeff VanderMeer: “The Goat Variations Redux”

***

The brilliantly-monikered Angry Robot Books are offering a free PDF sample of their new title, Moxyland by Lauren Beukes

***

SF Signal are continuing their quest to make this weekly round-up redundant by posting daily round-ups through the week; maybe soon I’ll be able to regain five hours a week by quitting the Friday free fiction collections here? Also mentioned was the following:

Plots with Guns is running an all-sf issue of “crime stories set in the year 2509” called Plots with Rayguns, featuring fiction by Kyle Minor, Fred Zackel, Jimmy Callaway, Cameron Ashley, Pinckney Benedict, Garnett Elliott, Richie Narvaez, and Kieran Shea

***

And finally a couple of Friday Flash Fiction pieces for you:

***

There you go – that should keep you busy for a while. Our trained operators are waiting for your tip-offs and plugs all week round, so get in touch – but in the meantime, have a great weekend!

Blog

Biomimetics for universal radio

1 Comment

snailishResearchers at MIT have developed a software radio chip based on the operations of the cochlea (the seashell bit of the human ear):

The RF cochlea, embedded on a silicon chip measuring 1.5 mm by 3 mm, works as an analog spectrum analyzer, detecting the composition of any electromagnetic waves within its perception range. Electromagnetic waves travel through electronic inductors and capacitors (analogous to the biological cochlea’s fluid and membrane). Electronic transistors play the role of the cochlea’s hair cells.

Software radios are all kinds of awesome, and it’s interesting how biomimetics is being used in more and more contexts – no need to reinvent the wheel.

[via Technovelgy][image from POSITiv on flickr]