Ever since Andy Rubin stepped down from his post as Google’s Android boss, questions arose about what would be his next job within the company. And now The New York Times has given us the answer: Rubin is still working with androids, albeit of the “small a” variety. According to the Times, Google has put Rubin in charge of a new “moonshot” initiative “to create a new generation of robots” that will be used for manufacturing and for retail delivery operations. The most realistic scenario, say the Times‘ sources, is that Google will make a fleet of robots for “automating portions of an existing supply chain that stretches from a factory floor to the companies that ship and deliver goods to a consumer’s doorstep.” More →
Google’s creepier tendencies have clearly made an impression on Motorola, which has now started filing patents for technologies you’d expect to see in Philip K. Dick stories. Engadget has spotted a new Motorola patent application for a kind of “smart tattoo” that basically involves tattooing a microphone to a user’s throat that will then send voice commands to their smartphones and tablets. The idea behind this terrifying creation is to have a microphone that will more easily pick up users’ voice commands and eliminate background noise that could make using voice functionality on your smartphone inconvenient. As weird as this all sounds, we have to admit that the smart tattoo idea is still less creepy than Google’s earlier proposal for password pills.
After days of speculation, Google’s mysterious barges were finally identified, and now Google is speaking out about the true purpose of the boats. TechCrunch received the following statement from a Google spokesperson on Wednesday: ”Google Barge … A floating data center? A wild party boat? A barge housing the last remaining dinosaur? Sadly, none of the above. Although it’s still early days and things may change, we’re exploring using the barge as an interactive space where people can learn about new technology.” More →
The use of unmanned drones has become a controversial topic lately, largely because governments like to use drones to either launch missiles or spy on their citizens. But what if drones were used to bring something kinder and gentler into our lives — like pizza? Bloomberg reports that venture capitalists have now started investing in “DroneDeploy, a startup that’s building software to direct unmanned aircraft on land mapping and the surveillance of agricultural fields.” VC Tim Draper tells Bloomberg that he’s investing in the company because he believes drones will soon be a much bigger part of our lives and will become fixtures in delivering goods and services. More →
We already use USB cords to charge smartphones and tablets but they could soon let us charge more high-powered devices as well. The Economist has written a lengthy report about the potential of USB cables to deliver an energy-efficient alternative to standard power cords once the new USB Power Delivery (PD) standard is ready for primetime next year. USB PD will give USB cables a major power boost of up to 100 watts and will let users power their laptops, low-voltage LED lightbulbs and even some desktop computers. More →
As we’ve noted before, Google engineering director Ray Kurzweil devotes a lot of his life to postponing death. Kurzweil, the brilliant 65-year-old inventor and futurist, is dead-set on living long enough to be immortal, although getting himself to that point has proven to be a lot of work in and of itself. In an interview with Maclean’s, Kurzweil reveals how he’s built himself a “bridge” to immortality by making sure his body holds together long enough for life-lengthening technology to really mature. More →
Google’s “moonshots” — that is, projects that the company pursues even if they seem far-fetched — are one of its defining features. Spiegel reports that Google’s Translate team has enormous ambitions to eventually eliminate language barriers with the development of a voice-enabled universal translation system. Although such a system is certainly a long way off, Google has already started working on a voice-enabled translator smartphone app that can translate roughly 24 different languages so far. More →
Tyler Cowen has seen the future and it involves Siri nagging you to brush your teeth. Cowen, a well-known economist at George Mason University, has been making the media rounds lately to promote his new book Average is Over, in which he predicts that technological progress will effectively end the American middle class and will instead produce a fabulously wealthy 15% of the population that thrives even as everyone else is relegated to a vast underclass. To help us understand this brave new world, Cowen takes to The New York Times to write what is essentially a list of winners and losers in the future economy. Although his whole article is worth reading, the most interesting group of people in his “winners” category is “people who listen to computers.” More →
There are a lot of valid reasons to not play too many video games, but the idea that they’ll rot your brain may no longer be one of them. The Wall Street Journal reports on a new study conducted by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco showing that “older adults improved cognitive controls such as multitasking and the ability to sustain attention by playing a specially designed video game.” In fact, the study even shows that certain video games can even produce long-lasting improvements in conditions such as attention-deficit disorder and depression. This doesn’t mean that all games are potentially helpful for mental illnesses, of course, and the scientists emphasize that it’s far too early to tell whether gaming is a net positive or negative for mental faculties.
The engineering minds at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scoff at the eight-core processors being used in the next-generation Xbox and PlayStation consoles. PCWorld reports that MIT scientists have designed an experimental processor that has a whopping 110 cores and that purportedly makes computing vastly faster and more power efficient. The engineers designed the chip’s 110 cores to essentially replace its entire cache with a “shared memory pool” that reduces the amount of traffic inside the chips. The new processor is still in its experimental stages, however, and MIT postgraduate student Mieszko Lis tells PCWorld that “it’s not the kind of thing you buy for Christmas.”
It’s just what you always wanted when you were a kid: A computer that tracks your every facial move and lets your teacher know when you’re struggling with a given assignment. Technology Review reports that researchers at North Carolina State University have been using computers’ cameras to watch students’ emotional states in an effort to help teachers understand when they’re having difficulty with a particular problem. NC State researcher Joseph Grafsgaard tells Technology Review that his goal with the project is to help struggling students “bolster their confidence and keep them motivated” so that they don’t fall behind their peers. The report also notes that this sort of research is part of a broader trend of “affective computing” projects that “measure skin conductance” or “assess voice tone or facial expressions” to record users’ emotional states.
Now we know why Windows Phones come in so many different colors. Techworld Australia reports that Microsoft Research Asia has been working on technology that gives your smartphone the ability to detect your mood and post it on your social networks in real-time. What, exactly, would be the benefit of having a smartphone that’s capable of telling the world how you’re feeling at every minute of the day? Microsoft’s researchers write that “privacy concerns aside, these moods would enhance social networks by allowing users to share mood states automatically,” which would help users “know better how and when to communicate with others.” For instance, the researchers say that “when text messaging an upset boss, a user could be cautious of speaking brashly,” which is certainly helpful for people who regularly send angry, profane messages to their employers.
