Blog

Advances in brain-machine interfaces

400px-BrainGate Okay, technically your typing fingers are already brain-machine interfaces, but they’re rather clumsy ones, especially if you’re not a great typist. Wouldn’t it be easier to just think at your computer to get it to do what you want it to do? (Via ScienceDaily.)

Well, as this fascinating overview of the state of the art makes clear, it’s coming. The lede:

Neuroscientists have significantly advanced brain-machine interface (BMI) technology to the point where severely handicapped people who cannot contract even one leg or arm muscle now can independently compose and send e-mails and operate a TV in their homes. They are using only their thoughts to execute these actions.

Read, as they say, the whole thing. (Photo from Wikipedia.)

[tags]brain, computer, technology[/tags]

Blog

Sustainability pays for itself

1 Comment

Is it really good business to throw this all away?Fast Company have a great collection of 50 things companies are doing to ‘green’ their business. From Cheerios and Coors converting their waste food to biofuels to computer servers using their excess hot water to heat the buildings, a lot of big names are getting onto the trend. It’s easy to see why – reducing costs whilst increasing customer satisfaction is a rare combination. With the current way of business producing plenty of waste, it makes perfect sense to use unused food, silicon, heat and So long as the reductions don’t just lead to increased use, we should reward these companies applying the idea ‘work smart, not hard’ to their energy usage. Executives like Mike Brown are helping big companies to think more about every facet of their business. In time governments should implement a lot of these guidelines but its hard not to admire many of the businesses working ahead of the curve.

[via Treehugger, photo by Ayton]

Blog

Sending puppies to prison: rehabilitation through cute

Puppy in a cage Well, I’ve had a click around, and this seems to be genuine. Forget high-tech panopticons and increasingly arcane psychological regimes – the way to reform career criminals is to let them raise a dog in prison. The PuppiesBehindBars program does exactly that, giving inmates the chance to train and care for canines that go on to become guide dogs or bomb detectors. The heads-up post at Metafilter has a number of links to articles that suggest the scheme is incredibly effective, for both dogs and convicts alike. [Image by ngader]

[tags]prison, dogs, rehabilitation[/tags]
Blog

Bruce Sterling publishes new short story in Technology Review

sterling.jpgBruce Sterling has published his new short story Interoperation in the MIT Technology Review journal. Says Bruce on his Wired blog: “One of my better efforts lately, and a rare example of a science fiction work that belongs by its nature in TECHNOLOGY REVIEW.”

Yuri pulled his sons from school to watch the big robot wreck the motel. His wife had packed a tasty picnic lunch, but 11-year-old Tommy was a hard kid to please. “You said a giant robot would blow that place up,” Tommy said. “No, son, I told you a robot would ‘take it down,'” said Yuri. “Go shoot some pictures for your mom.” Tommy swung his little camera, hopped his bamboo bike, and took off. Yuri patiently pushed his younger son’s smaller bike across the sunlit tarmac. Nick, age seven, was learning to ride. His mother had dressed him for the ordeal, so Nick’s head, knees, feet, fists, and elbows were all lavishly padded with brightly colored foam. Nick had the lumpy plastic look of a Japanese action figure.

Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001