Creative New

Exploiting social and mobile ad hoc networking to achieve ubiquitous connectivity.

Via developer.symbian

Via brockport.edu

This essay examines a particular example of what is known as a ‘Mobile Ad hoc Network’ (MANET) involving smartphones. This MANET would address the following problem:

‘A million and a half people annually ride the New York City subway system, which comprises 468 stations to form the largest subway complex in the world. The diverse human conglomerate of cultures and lifestyles that inhabit NYC’s subway though, share at least one common trend: a lack of mobile coverage - a rather serious, both economical and social, issue. Thus, a daily influx of 5,042,263 potential customers is practically lost for mobile companies. Not to mention the irritating circumstance that in a world of otherwise global communications one is forced to spend significant periods of time without a connection signal.’

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Via cnn

The “semantic Web” does not sound like it’s fun and easy to use, but it could make surfing Web 3.0 a more rewarding and interactive experience. Some believe it could even lead to a new form of artificial intelligence.

The idea behind the semantic Web, very broadly, is that things on the Internet will be described with descriptor languages so that computers can “understand” what they are.

An object might be a marked as a car part or a person, for instance. If objects were thus identified, an enormous network of linked data would emerge and machines, with their vast processing speeds, could suggest surprising and useful links that the human mind could never come up with, posing the possibility of a new sort of artificial intelligence.

The semantic Web is considered a key part of the upcoming “Web 3.0.” It’s starting to occur here and there, but widespread adoption is still a long way off.

A pair of German researchers have created an experimental kiosk that lets you easily use semantic Web capabilities — even if you have no idea what they are. All that is needed is an iPhone and a finger with which to drag icons around on the kiosk’s touch screen.

The kiosk takes advantage of the fact that MP3 files are “things” that have already been described in ways that machines can understand. That’s because they have ID3 tags, which supply information on the artist and album.

see also : Microsoft surface computer

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Canon EOS 5D MKII

Via blog.vincentlaforet

I’ve had a chance to get a hold of the 5D MKII on several occasions - seven to be specific (2 of those nights were spent shooting the first film, Reverie.)   I’ve felt compelled to try to create something with it each time I’ve had the camera in my hands.    And I will admit this camera has brought me back the closest to the feeling I had at the age of 15 when I had my first camera and a few rolls of Tri-X to burn through.   Simply put - it’s so much fun and pure.

You’ll see some footage shot with Tilt-shift lenses from the air - my first time with video - as well as one of the last shots of the series that was shot with a full motion picture Steadicam rig.   All of the footage was shot with several different prototypes of theCanon EOS 5D MKII that I was allowed to borrow at different intervals - cut in Final Cut Studio, and graded in Color.  I’m still in the middle of post-productions with almost every one of these shoots - busier shooting than editing to be honest.  But I thought I’d share some of this footage as most of your are likely to receive your production 5DMKIIs sometime this week (those that put their names down first of course.)

vincentlaforet Hi-Def video

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The chip is the smallest in size with the lowest cost so far

Via taiwannews

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – National Taiwan University announced their latest invention System on a Chip (SOC) yesterday, the smallest such product at the lowest cost and consuming the least electricity. The NTU research team claims that the transmission speed of the chip is 100 times as fast as WiFi and 350 times as fast as a 3.5G cell phone.

Jri Lee (李致毅), professor of the NTU Graduate Institute of Electronics Engineering, demonstrated their latest invention in the presentation held by the prestigious university yesterday. The SOC successfully combines RF Front-End Circuits and an antenna array to reach the highest transmission speed. A patent application is under way.

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Via technologyreview

The next big stage in the evolution of the Internet, according to many experts and luminaries, will be the advent of the Semantic Web–that is, technologies that let computers process the meaning of Web pages instead of simply downloading or serving them up blindly. Microsoft’s acquisition of the semantic search enginePowerset earlier this year shows faith in this vision. But thus far, little Semantic Web technology has been available to the general public. That’s why many eyes will be on Twine, a Web organizer based on semantic technology that launches publicly today.

Developed by Radar Networks, based in San Francisco, Twine is part bookmarking tool, part social network, and part recommendation engine, helping users collect, manage, and share online information related to any area of interest. For the novice, it can be tricky figuring out exactly where to start. But for experienced users, Twine can be a powerful way to research a subject collaboratively or find people with common interests, with the usual features of a bookmarking site augmented by Twine’s underlying semantic technology.

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Via computerworld.com

It may sound like something out of a James Bond movie, but the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is putting out the call for researchers to come up with a design for a submersible aircraft.

Yup, you read it right. DARPA, a research branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, is looking for someone to prove that a vehicle can be built that will fly, as well as maneuver underwater.

The call for research went out earlier this month, and initial proposals are due by 4 p.m. EST on Dec. 1.

PICTURES: Northrop’s UAV demonstrator#1

Via flightglobal

Northrop was awarded the six-year, $636 million UCAS-D contract in August 2007 after its X-47B was selected over Boeing’s X-45N. The first of two demonstrators is scheduled to fly in November 2009, and the first carrier landing is planned for 2011.

The demonstrator has bays for sensors and weapons, each of the latter sized to carry a 900kg (2,000lb) Joint Direct Attack Munition or six 150kg Small Diameter Bombs. That would give an operational N-UCAS, with its 12-14h unrefuelled endurance, the capability to attack 12 different targets on a single mission, says Beard.

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The FanWing experimental aircraft opens up a new area of aerodynamics

Via fanwing

Designs to establish a means of integral lift and thrust using a horizontal-axis wing rotor are recorded back as far as the late 19th century. Some of the experiments started to take off but did not sustain flight. The FanWing new blown-wing solution offers both basic proof of concept and a steady trajectory of improved and controlled flight performance.

The aircraft has a cross-flow fan along the span of each wing. The fan pulls the air in at the front and then expels  it over the wing’s trailing edge. In transferring the work of the engine to the rotor, which spans the whole wing, the FanWing accelerates a large volume of air and achieves unusually high lift-efficiency.

The FanWing showed proof of concept in the form of actual flights before theoretical validation, academic research or explanation. The FanWing is an invention by trial and error and though certainly employing a methodology with good precedent in the history of innovation it is in no way within the normal paradigm of academic and conventional aircraft development. There is nevertheless a steady accumulation of tests and supporting documentation.

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The Antikythera mechanism

Via newscientist

INSCRIPTIONS on a mysterious 2000-year-old clockwork device suggest that the artefact was inspired by earlier devices made by the great Greek mathematician Archimedes.

The so-called “Antikythera mechanism” has puzzled historians since it was salvaged from an ancient shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901. It dates back to about 100 BC, and consists of more than 30 bronze gear wheels and pointers, enclosed in a wooden case.

The device is by far the most advanced scientific instrument to survive from antiquity - nothing else close to its complexity shows up in archaeological records for more than 1200 years, when mechanical clocks appeared in medieval Europe.

The Antikythera mechanism is thought to be a mechanical computer, which used sophisticated algorithms to calculate the motions of celestial bodies. A dial on the front showed the position of the sun, moon and probably the planets in the zodiac, while the back displayed a 19-year lunisolar calendar, as well as the timing of eclipses (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature05357; Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, vol 32, p 27).

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