The Slashdot Supremacy
IEEE Spectrum MagazineFind out how a Michigan geek tamed the online masses.
Find out how a Michigan geek tamed the online masses.
Innovations like Google, TiVo, iTunes and GPS-equipped phones can be handy, but they also force users to forfeit some privacy, a University of Iowa professor warns in his new book, "iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era."
Tufts researchers are developing techniques that could allow computers to respond to users' thoughts of frustration or boredom by applying functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology, which uses light to monitor brain blood flow as a proxy for user workload stress. The researchers hope to gain real-time insight into the brain's emotional cues.
New research led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory physicist Matthias Bode provides a more thorough understanding of new mechanisms, which makes it possible to switch a magnetic nanoparticle without any magnetic field and may enable computers to more accurately write and store information.
A URI physics department staff member has done what many experts said was impossible -- he dramatically reduced the size of a DLM antenna while maintaining its efficiency and bandwidth. The technology recently received a patent and is being licensed by Lear Corp. for automotive uses.
A UIC computer science professor has developed a meta-search engine that checks some 1,800 news search engines in 200 countries and territories. The new Internet research tool casts a wide net for gathering breaking news stories at a faster pace than single search engines.
University of Maryland study shows that password protecting your wireless network is not enough. Maryland's Clark School of Engineering issues guidelines for fending off harm caused by unauthorized wireless access.
A new podcast series will place breaking medical information "in context" to help lay people understand how the latest medical announcements relate to them personally amid the overwhelming and often conflicting volumes of medical information at their fingertips.
Most of the newest computer hard drives that are market bound benefit from developments first sparked by earlier theoretical calculations. The breakthrough is being hailed as representing a new pattern in materials science, one by which theoretical research can play a leading role in discovering new materials with new capabilities.
New research at the Georgia Institute of Technology could soon make that tangle of wires under desks and in data centers a thing of the past.
Researchers taking an avid interest in computational resources are no longer limited to the physical sciences. Scholars in the biological sciences, social sciences or the humanities today also seek to expand their computational resources.
Cell phones and BlackBerry handhelds have become necessities that many Americans don't want to live without. But they may be rethinking those decisions after recent news reports of identity theft through wireless technology. Iowa State University faculty and staff experts are available to provide insightful commentary on all forms of identity theft.
The release of Apple's new iPhone, the summer's must-have gadget that combines the features of a video iPod with a Web-capable camera phone, has technology geeks and seekers of the newest status symbol vying to be the first on the block to have one. But is it a good idea to hold off a little while before making this big purchase and committing to a mandatory two-year service plan?
A prototype of what may be the next generation of personal computers has been developed by researchers in the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering. Capable of computing speeds 100 times faster than current desktops, the technology is based on parallel processing on a single chip.
A group of scholars centered at Syracuse University has published a plan to decentralize authority over the Internet domain name system (DNS) as it transitions to a new, more secure technology known as DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC).
Even in the digital world, people respond to the expression of a computerized face. New research suggests that the simulated emotions of digital characters on web sites might have a real impact on the potential customers that view and interact with them.
Researchers have received a National Science Foundation grant to perfect the methodology for creating computer-generated virtual persons that interact with humans in a life-like manner. The methodology may prove valuable for developing more user-friendly archiving and retrieval of information, and for computer games, among other uses.
Researchers at the University of Haifa, Israel and ITC-irst or Trento, Italy unveiled a handheld "smart" museum guide, which is enhanced by artificial intelligence, that will guide visitors, ask questions and supply information on each museum exhibit. By the end of a visit, the device will know which exhibits interested the visitor and which ones did not.
Scientists in Tomaso Poggio's laboratory at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT developed a computational model of how the brain processes visual information and applied it to a complex, real world task: recognizing the objects in a busy street scene. The researchers were pleasantly surprised at the power of this first application of a biologically inspired computer model for artificial vision, which has many potential practical applications.
Researchers have developed an innovative new technology that will help pediatric cardiac surgeons design and test a customized surgical procedure before they ever pick up a scalpel. With a better understanding of each child's unique heart defect, surgeons could greatly improve the likelihood that children with complex defects requiring multiple surgeries over a period of several years could have smoother recoveries and an improved quality of life after their operations.
Recharging your laptop computer -- and also your cell phone and a variety of other gadgets -- might one day be doable in the same convenient way many people now surf the Web: wirelessly. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology team will present research on the physics of electromagnetic fields, showing how wireless energy could power future gadgets.
None of our now-necessary devices, from the most fearsome research-computing arrays to run-of-the-mill office computers to cell-phones to iPods, can work without storage. That's why Richard Moore, director of Production Systems at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), smiles as he ponders the new IBM tape drives being added to the storage "silos" in the center's already crowded computer room.
Materials researchers develop a process for introducing semiconductor materials and metals into photonic crystal fibers, thereby opening the door to all optical communications.
We've all experienced the missing link: clicking from one Internet site to another and then another periodically leaves us lost in cyberspace. A Rowan University student and professor may have created a solution with new software technology that shows browsers where they have been and where they can go.
Researchers at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry are pulling nanocrystals of cellulose out of natural materials and developing ways to use them to strengthen plastics. (VIDEO EMBEDDED)
A lightweight, portable seat belt that could save many of the hundreds of lives lost each year by Americans traveling abroad, has been created by a group of engineering undergraduates at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The inspiration for the portable seat belts was the tragic death of an American student traveling abroad ten years ago.
University of Washington researcher says we're doing a poor job of figuring out who's being left behind in the digital world.
A new technique sends secret messages under other people's noses so cleverly that it would impress James Bond--yet the procedure is so firmly rooted in the real world that it can be instantly used with existing equipment and infrastructure.
Expert available for comment on YouTube, MySpace, the evolution of personal digital media, and the social networking site phenomenon. Jeff Rutenbeck, Ph.D., dean of the Division of Communication and Creative Media at Champlain College, says that today's youth are "prosumers," not "consumers."
A new technique for creating vertical alignment among liquid crystal molecules could allow development of less costly flexible displays and lead to a better understanding of the factors that govern operation of the popular liquid crystal display systems.
Virginia Tech researchers are using System X, the university's supercomputer, to test a new search program that can tell the stories of life "“ the connections between gene sets, for instance, or the connections between discoveries reported in biomedical articles.
University of Arkansas students and researchers have found a way to map and model three-dimensional representations of a downtown area to address questions of growth and development. Their cutting-edge work attracted the attention of the search-engine giant Google and the company SketchUp, which currently are examining the way the students used the software to create such large data files.
A database of more than 10 million spam email messages collected at just one Internet "spam sinkhole" suggests that Internet service providers could better fight unwanted junk email by addressing it at the network level, rather than using currently available message content filters. The research, conducted by Georgia Tech, will be presented Sept. 14 at SIGCOMM 2006.
Cornell University researchers have demonstrated a new type of organic semiconductor device using ionic junctions which shows electroluminescence and acts as a photovoltaic cell. The idea could lead to displays on cloth or paper and very inexpensive solar cells.
Georgia Tech researchers are developing a wearable computing system called the System for Wearable Audio Navigation designed to help the visually impaired, firefighters and soldiers navigate their way in unknown territory.
Engineers have developed a system for taking anonymous cell-phone location information and turning it into an illuminated traffic map that identifies congestion in real time. The system takes advantage of the steady stream of positioning cues--untraced signals all cell phones produce, whether in use or not, as they seek towers with the strongest signals.
We all hate long lines in waiting rooms. But now, technology may eliminate long waits, at least in the graduate orthodontic clinic in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Manitoba. Patients can now let their orthodontists know they have arrived for their appointment by using a biometric scanner that reads fingerprints.
Recent studies found that the online social network MySpace.com is the country's most popular Web site, yet Americans have fewer close, personal friends than they used to. Another study found that handheld digital devices can be harmful to mental health. Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University, believes all these studies are interrelated.
By mimicking how insects see, a University of Adelaide researcher can now produce digital videos in which you can see every detail.
An upgrade to the Cray XT3 supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has increased the system's computing power to 54 teraflops, or 54 trillion mathematical calculations per second, making the Cray among the most powerful open scientific systems in the world.
A team of researchers from RPI has received $1.8 million in federal funding to improve the energy efficiency of green light-emitting diodes (LEDs). As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Solid-State Lighting Program, the team aims to close the "green gap" in LED technology by doubling or tripling the power output of green LEDs in three years.
Cornell researchers have shown that carbon fiber can be a durable, flexible material for micromechanical electromechanical systems (MEMS), with particular application to creating video displays.
In the Digital Age, there is an urgent need to preserve vital electronic records to capture our nation's history, which can vanish in an instant with the crash of a hard drive, or more gradually in migration to new and incompatible hardware and software.
IEEE Fellows take a hard-nosed look at what technologies will--and won't--impact our lives in the next 20 years.
Scientists have unveiled a new technology that could lead to video displays that faithfully reproduce a fuller range of colors than current models, giving a life-like viewing experience. The invention, based on fine-tuning light using microscopic artificial muscles, could turn into consumer products in eight years, the scientists say.
Biological engineering students at the University of Arkansas have developed a wireless biosensor that can accurately record and monitor a football player's body temperature in real time while the player is active. The prototype designed by students in the College of Engineering contributes to research into a commercial product that could prevent death due to heat stroke.
Researchers need a clear agenda to harness the rapidly evolving potential of the World Wide Web, according to an article in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal Science. Calling for the creation of an interdisciplinary "science of the Web," a group of computer scientists suggests the need for new approaches to tap the full richness of this powerful tool, while ensuring that it develops in a way that benefits society as a whole.
The U.S. Dept. of Energy's Argonne National Lab has teamed with industrial and academic partners under a DARPA Phase II research and development program to develop a new technology based on Ultrananocrystalline Diamondâ„¢ (UNCDâ„¢), a novel material developed at Argonne that will enable diamond resonators and oscillators to be directly integrated with microelectronics chips for next-generation telecommunication devices.
With five hybrid solar lighting systems already in place and another 20 scheduled to be installed in the next couple of months, the forecast is looking sunny for a technology developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Firefighters facing fast-spreading wildfires, especially in remote areas where communications and other resources are scarce, can now add "cyberinfrastructure" to their firefighting arsenals.