Technology
Do you want to live forever? Well, perhaps you can. Not literally, of course, but as an online presence that can comfort your loved ones after your death.
The United States is one step closer to a future where cars will communicate with each other to avoid accidents. The Department of Transportation announced on Monday it was moving forward with the steps necessary to one day mandate vehicle-to-vehicle — V2V — communication technology on light automobiles. The big deal here is that research — including a 3,000-vehicle test of the system in Ann Arbor, Mich. — finds that V2V technology has the potential to “help drivers avoid or mitigate 70 to 80 percent of vehicle crashes involving unimpaired drivers.”
Two weeks ago, the New York Times’ truth-humor strip on “The Home of the Future” came on the heels of Google’s purchase of ‘smart thermostat’ manufacturer Nest for $3.2 Billion. With power utility commissions such as California already stating their intention to “expand third-party access” to in-home data, the perfect storm is brewing for Google’s mission of making you their product – even in your own home.
Google recently filed a patent for a system that identifies when and where a “mob” event takes place and sends multimedia alerts to relevant parties. The patents are actually titled “Mob Source Phone Video Collaboration” and “Inferring Events Based On Mob Sourced Video“.
China’s first lunar rover successfully landed on the moon in December, but a malfunction is already jeopardizing its mission. China’s Jade Rabbit moon rover experienced a “mechanical control abnormality” according to state media said on Saturday, in what appears to be a setback for a landmark mission in the country’s ambitious space program
Facebook is like an infectious disease, experiencing a spike before its decline, according to US researchers who claim the social network will lose 80 percent of users by 2017.
Putting the “stalk” in stalker, a new facial recognition app for Smartphones will allow a user to scan a crowd and pinpoint people with profiles on online dating sites or social media sites. NameTag, designed for Android and iOS, scans a person in whom the user is interested and looks for that person on dating sites such as PlentyOfFish, OkCupid, and Match as well as social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Scientists have long known that common emotions can trigger sensations in our bodies — whether it’s butterflies in the stomach (anxiety) or hot cheeks (shame). And now a new study suggests that we all have the same bodily sensations associated with our feelings regardless of culture or language — because the mind-body connection is biological, and is linked to our very drive for survival.
A group of researchers at the University of Tokyo use sound waves to levitate various objects. Tiny little beads lift into the air and glide around in perfect formation. An iron screw spins gently in space. Pieces of plastic, broken match heads, and even droplets of water all defy gravity, all thanks to the precise application of ultrasonic sound waves.
