The Future of Gaming

Cracked. com talks about the next 25 years in the advancement of gaming in a fun and informative way. Gaming is going to advance to stages we can't even imagine. By the year 2033, computers and games will be able to control and take over a lot of what we do today. Games will transform from the ablility to control characters with remote controls, to being completely submerged into the game, to control characters by just thinking, to the game being adjusting its content to our emotions and preferences. The game will know us and be able to manipulate our envrionment. The advancements in gaming will also lead to the discover of how to correct brain disabilities with the discovery of the affects implanting electrodes in the brain, and how these can control things outside the body. Not just characters but limbs. People are pretty sure that this day will come when computers are small enough to fit in out clothes and may actually become smarter than us because there are prototypes out there. The are just not quite ready to be tested on people yet.

I felt that the whole presentation experience was very interesting. I was able to learn more about gaming and with others presentations I was introduced to products that I look forward to being more dominant in the future.

Below is a video from youtube that shows a game in the advancement stages. More intense than video games we play today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mySER0p9F64

Liquid Battery

A storage option for solar power, is a kind of battery made with all-liquid active materials. Prototypes are saying that these cost less than a third of the amount of the best batteries today, and can last much longer. The electrodes in this battery are molten metals, and the electrolyte that conducts current between them is molten salt, resulting in a resilient device that can quickly absorbe large amounts of electricity. The first prototype has a container that's surrounded by insulating material. This container acts as a collector that delivers electrons from power supplies like solar panels, or carries them away to the electrical grid to supply electricity for homes and businesses. Inventor describes how battery works.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42529855001?bctid=10224990001

Paper Diagnostics

Harvard University professor George Whitesides, is combining advanced microfluidics with paper, resulting in a versatile, disposable test that can check any tiny amount of urine or blood for evidence of infections diseases or chronic conditions. This would be a great tool for poor parts of the world because its cheap and easy to use. These devices a paper squares about the size of stamps. The edge of the square can be dipped in urine or placed on top of blood. The liquid then moves through different channels into testing wells. Different chemical reactions happen in the wells, changing the paper either blue, red, yellow, or green. The is a reference key that helps determine the results. Paper based diagnostics already exist for pregnancy tests. The difference here is that Whitesides' devices can perform many reactions. George Whiteside explains invention. http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42529855001?bctid=13675758001

A look inside the lab. http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42529855001?bctid=13563143001

Racetrack Memory

Stuart Parkin, who studied the fundamental physics of magnetic material his entire career, developed a new way to store information. He developed a memory chip with the huge storage capacity of a magnetic hard drive, the durability of electronic flash memory, and speed greater than both. He calls this new technology racetrack memory. Magnetic disk drives and solid-state memory technologies are two-dimensional and are continuing to become smaller and smaller, but Parkin believes they will soon reach their size limit. So this racetrack memory is going off a different idea. It is three-dimensional.

The key to this is an arrangements of U-shaped magnetic nanowires that are arranged vertically like trees in a forest. The nanowires have regions of different magnetic polarities, and boundaries between them represent 1s or os, depending on the polarities. When a spin-polarized current passes through the nanowire, the magnetic pattern is pushed along like cars speeding down a racetrack. At the bottom of the U, the magnetic boundaries encounter a pair of tiny devices that read and write data.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42529855001?bctid=13568780001

$100 Genome

Bionanomatrix is pursuing a sequencing technology that can read a human genome. Its quick and doesn't cost a lot; only takes 8 hours and can cost $100 or less. This tool can make it so medical treatment can be tailored to person's destinct genetic profile. Han Cao, company founder, created a chip that uses nanofluidics and a series of branching, ever-narrowing channels to allow researchers to isolate and image long strands of individual DNA molecules. Video from Han Cao.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42529855001?bctid=13662171001

TR10-Intelligent Software Assistant

Cofounder of Silicon Valley startup Siri, Adam Cheyer, developed a new way for people to interact with services available on the internet. He terms it as a "do engine" rather than a search engine. This is a software that gives people a virtual personal assistant that can help people complete their tasks rather than get information. The software takes into account the user's context making it highly useful and flexible. Siri's orgins come from a military-funded artificial- intelligence project called CALO (cognitive assistant that learns and organizes). This personal assistant program improves by interacting with its users.

The initial version was to be released this year. It will be used for mobile devices where it will only do specific types of functions such as making restaurant reservations, checking flight status, or planning weekend activities. Below is a video that explains the personal assistant software.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42529855001?bctid=8893633001

3D Laptop for Gamers!!

Acer is coming out with a new laptop that is geared towards videogaming and movie enthusiasts. This laptop will be equipped with a 3D screen and glasses. It's called the AS5738 and it is designed to deliver 3D multimedia and can translate 2D media into the 3rd dimension. This laptop has this capability though TriDef 3D technology which focuses on bring 3D to mainstream media.

Computers have speed limit as unbreakable as the speed of light!

According to a pair of physicists, if processors continue to accelerate we will hit faster processing in about 75 years. Processor fabrication using new technologies such as imprint lithograph, graphene, and quantum computing continue to yield faster and smalled chips. However, these advance techniques stave off the absolute ceiling for speed, no matter how small the components get.

Brain-Computer Interface Communicates Between People

Southampton University as research that shows it is possible to communicate person to person through thought. Using electrodes, computers, and the internet, Dr. Christopher James is taking brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to new levels. His proof of concept is showing that brain-to-brain communication (B2B) is possible. The full concept has yet to be grasp but the B2B can be useful in helping people with severe dibilitating muscle wasting diseases, "locked-in" syndome, communicating, and gaming applicaions.

New type of excitonic computer!

Physicists at UC San Diego a year ago created an integrated circuted using excitons. They now have discovered that a technique that allows for these particles to operate at cold temperatures. This discovery is bring to reality a computer that operates at extremely fast speeds. When commercially available, this could speed up computing and communicating.

Retinal Implant

At MIT, a professor leds a team with 20 yrs of retinal implant research to a discovery of a prosthesis that can one day help bring back a useful level of vision to certain groups of blind people. This implant is design for individuals who have suffered from blindness due to either retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration. It electrically stimulates nerver cells that control visual imput from the retina to the brain. This prosthesis is different than those of other research groups because it attaches outside the eye and electrodes are implanted behind the retina. This surgical procedure is less than invasive than others and wont damage the eye.

Technology that promises and threatens to alter our lives!

Author of Neuroengineering the Future and Digital Design, Bruce F. Katz believes that there is a revolution in neuro science that will greatly reshape our views of perception, cognition, emotion and personal identity. Advancement in the study of neural systems and intersecting technologies is quickly changing from perceptual aids to technological devices that will enhance and speed up thought. According to Katz, this may free the mind from its bound state in the body to a platform independent existence.