Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Palm and Handspring, is now working to apply principles of Neuroscience to the development of intelligent computing platforms. In 2004, Hawkins co-authored a book, On Intelligence, which explains how a new model of the human brain will change how we design intelligent computers. Hawkins's new company, Numenta, seeks to employ the principles from his book to make advanced platforms for cognitive computing. The foremost of those principles is that of Heirarchical Temporal Memory (HTM), a model of the spacio-temporal character of the brain's Neocortex. Numenta recently released its first Platform for Intelligent Computing (NuPIC), targeted to "sophisticated developers for the purpose of education and experimentation."

Numenta: Has Artificial Intelligence Arrived?

Labels: Advanced Computing

Researchers at the Israeli Technion Institute of Technology have developed a way to produce electricity using helium balloons coated with solar cells. The techonlogy effeciently harnesses solar power by sending absorbtion panels further into the sky. A cable running from each balloon will send converted electricity to the ground while also sending helium into the balloon to keep at afloat.

According to the researchers, a home would require two balloons to supply ample power. The current cost is $700 for each cubic meter of cellular cell; but that price is expected to plummet should the balloons enter mass production.

Researchers harness energy from helium balloons

Labels: Advanced Energy

Science magazine recently reported on the successful manipulation of carbon-13 atoms in such a way that stable quantum mechanical memory can be created and then processed at room temperature.

This kind of discovery brings the futuristic technology of quantum computing closer to the real-world operating environments of today.

Single Spinnning Nuclei in Diamond offer a stable quantum computing building block

Labels: Advanced Computing

The Web, and subsequent ways to browse it, has become host to new and emergent technologies to improve the user experience. One of the latest, released to public in a free Beta download last month, is a 3-D browsing tool called Space Time.

Space Time allows for 3-D tabbed browsing, as well as 3-D eBay, Yahoo and Google searches. You can also search just for images on Flickr or YouTube for videos, allowing images to breeze by you one-by-one across the screen.

PC World recently reviewed the program, and noted that compared to other 3-D browsing tools, Space Time holds up nicely. The search function is particularly useful, allowing you to see whole Web pages instead of just the small snippets of text that Google or other search engines display. However, the reviewer also notes that functionality still has a ways to go - the browsing capability doesn't allow you to type a URL and directly navigate to one page, and the program also requires a pretty powerful system to function properly.

Space Time

Space Time Review (PC World)

Labels: Web Technologies, Wireless

Funding for nanotechnology has been limited in various countries, mostly because consumer knowledge, and subsequent demand, has been low and not forceful enough to increase government interest. However, as more and more innovation is being made in the field, companies and governments have started to take notice. Recently the Russian Duma voted to establish a government funded nanotechnology corporation, establishing links between policy, industry and experts in the field.

This moves comes shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted the need to fund crucial high-tech industries in Russia during his 2007 state of the nation address in April.

Russian State Duma Adopts Law on Nanotechnology Corporation

Labels: Advanced Computing

Charles Simonyi, billionaire and former chief software architect for Microsoft, is attempting to stage a revolution in software. Through his new company, Intentional Software Corporation, he hopes to fix what he calls the "software bottleneck". By this he means that hardware keeps becoming more advanced and capable (Intel founder Gordon Moore predicted that processor speed would double every 1 to 2 years), while software cannot keep up with the trend. Furthermore, huge amounts of resources and talent are devoted (wasted?) to the arduous process of creating and modifying software.

Through his new venture, he hopes to develop tools by which clients can modify their own software to meet their needs. The idea is that companies are going to have the best idea of what they want out of their software, and they will be most successful if they are given the tools to tailor software to their own needs.

Intentional Software
Intentional Software in MIT Technology Review

Labels: Web Technologies

One of the oldest and most widely-used forms of storing energy, the flywheel, is getting a much-needed update, making it more applicable to today's energy needs. The same tool that powers the pottery wheel and helps hybrid cars store spare energy could now help trains or buses get an extra boost.

A team of engineers at the University of Texas at Austin, under request from NASA (who wanted a more efficient way to help store electricity the International Space Station), have developed a carbon-composite prototype flywheel that reached more than 50,000 rotations per minute. Not only does it have energy-saving benefits for space travel and research, but it can also help alleviate stress on the electric power grid by supplying extra boosts of reserve energy when demand is high, therefore alleviating blackouts.

Meanwhile, a company called LaunchPoint Technologies, based in Goleta, Calif., is improving upon the flywheel design in order to the reduce the centrifugal stress while still maintaining power. Their more hollow design is said to reach a capability of at least 1 megawatt-hour, which is more than 6 times the Austin team's record.

Castelvecchi, David. "Spinning into Control." Science News. 171.20 (2007): 312-313.
University of Texas Flywheel Spins to a Milestone Record

Labels: Advanced Energy

IBM is expanding their information-on-demand strategy. In efforts to improve real-time information sharing, IBM has acquired DataMirror—the producer of real-time data integration software.

IBM Buys DataMirror For Integration Software
IBM Boosts Info On Demand

Labels: Web Technologies