from h+ Magazine:
As human neural networks and electronic digital networks converge there is some debate over how to best move data from neural to digital formats.
Since the human brain is equipped with high-resolution sensory organs, there are many obvious routes for digital-to-neural input, but organic systems lack sufficient neural outputs for porting thoughts, memories, and dreams directly to digital memory.
from University of Southampton via alphagalileo.org:
Computer scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a system of computerised agents which can manage energy use and storage in homes.
Having already developed agents that can trade on the stock market and manage crisis communications, a team of researchers, led by Dr Alex Rogers and Professor Nick Jennings at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science, have now developed an agent-based micro-storage management technique that allows homes to adapt their energy use to match market conditions.
The ultimate aim of this system is to optimise individual electricity usage and storage, in order to improve efficiency of the electricity grid and to reduce emissions.
from ITC Results:
Researchers from Israel and six EU countries have carried out pioneering work on self-healing software capable of automatically and autonomously detecting, identifying and fixing errors in the copious lines of code that make up complex systems.
The results of their research are already being used internally by several companies and could feed into commercial products in the near future.
An international research team from Japan and Michigan Technological University have demonstrated a molecular circuit that can evolve continuously to solve complex problems that challenge today’s supercomputers.
The massively parallel circuit contains a layer of molecular switches (monolayer) that simultaneously interact in a manner similar to the information processing performed by the neurons in the human brain. That is, they can evolve to tackle complex problems. That’s because information processing circuits in digital computers are static, and operate serially.
When we first saw GM’s EN-V (Electronic Networked Vehicles), they looked like yet another far-fetched design concept, but now the company’s rolled out a video that shows the prototypes in action.
An optical fiber backbone (red) provides broadband connections between the central offices and antenna base stations.
Then, the base stations wirelessly transmit 5-mm-wave (60 GHz) signals to customers. Within buildings and homes, the short-range wireless signals can provide high-speed connectivity (faster than 1 Gb/s) for a variety of wireless, high-bandwidth communication devices.
from Perdue Newsroom:
Purdue University researchers have developed a miniature device capable of converting ultrafast laser pulses into bursts of radio-frequency signals, a step toward making wires obsolete for communications in the homes and offices of the future.
Such an advance could enable all communications, from high-definition television broadcasts to secure computer connections, to be transmitted from a single base station.