A Look at the Internets... tubes... er...

Akamai Gives Free Peek at Internet

(AP) -- What does the Internet look like? A free new Web service from Akamai Technologies Inc. offers a peek, providing a sort of Internet weather report on global traffic tie-ups, cyberattacks and spikes in activity.

Akamai, which says it delivers 15 to 20 percent of Internet traffic on any given day, hopes its new Web site helps not only the techies it counts as clients, but also the general public.

If your Internet connection is slower than usual, Akamai's tool can show whether traffic is clogged overall in your city. (If not, your Internet service provider might be to blame.) Or you might just want a way to visualize the global ebb and flow of the Internet.

"We originally built this feature as a tool for our customers, but once it was built it seemed like a fun thing to put out there to the public," said Tom Leighton, Akamai's chief scientist.

The service - check out http://tinyurl.com/yooz96 - reveals some of the data that engineers at Akamai's Cambridge headquarters rely on to monitor and troubleshoot global server networks and ensure information flows over the most efficient paths.

The service features a real-time monitor measuring Internet traffic globally and by region. The tool shows the 10 cities with the slowest Web connections at a given moment, and ranks the regions facing the most network attacks. Other sections measure traffic on digital music, retail and news Web sites.

Still crave more insight into the world's data streams? Check out some other sites like http://www.internettrafficreport.com and http://www.internethealthreport.com .

superfluids

By utilizing ideas developed in disparate fields, from earthquake dynamics to random-field magnets, researchers at the University of Illinois have constructed a model that describes the avalanche-like, phase-slip cascades in the superflow of helium.

Just as superconductors have no electrical resistance, superfluids have no viscosity, and can flow freely. Like superconductors, which can be used to measure extremely tiny magnetic fields, superfluids could create a new class of ultra-sensitive rotation sensors for use in precision guidance systems and other applications.

But, before new sensors can be built, scientists and engineers must first acquire a better understanding of the odd quirks of superfluids arising in these devices.

In the April 23 issue of Physical Review Letters, U. of I. physicist Paul Goldbart, graduate student David Pekker and postdoctoral research associate Roman Barankov describe a model they developed to explain some of those quirks, which were found in recent experiments conducted by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.

In the Berkeley experiments, physicist Richard Packard and his students Yuki Sato and Emile Hoskinson explored the behavior of superfluid helium when forced to flow from one reservoir to another through an array of several thousand nano-apertures. Their intent was to amplify the feeble whistling sound of phase-slips associated with superfluid helium passing through a single nano-aperture by collecting the sound produced by all of the apertures acting in concert.

At low temperatures, this amplification turned out, however, to be surprisingly weak, because of an unanticipated loss of synchronicity among the apertures.

"Our model reproduces the key physical features of the Berkeley group's experiments, including a high-temperature synchronous regime, a low-temperature asynchronous regime, and a transition between the two," said Goldbart, who also is a researcher at the university's Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory.Read on...

The theoretical model developed by Pekker, Barankov and Goldbart balances a competition between interaction and disorder – two behaviors more commonly associated with magnetic materials and sliding tectonic plates.

The main components of the researchers' model are nano-apertures possessing different temperature-dependent critical flow velocities (the disorder), and inter-aperture coupling mediated by superflow in the reservoirs (the interactions).

For helium, the superfluid state begins at a temperature of 2.18 kelvins. Very close to that temperature, inter-pore coupling tends to cause neighbors of a nano-aperture that already has phase-slipped also to slip. This process may cascade, creating an avalanche of synchronously slipping phases that produces a loud whistle.

However, at roughly one-tenth of a kelvin colder, the differences between the nano-apertures dominate, and the phase-slips in the nano-apertures are asynchronous, yielding a non-avalanching regime. The loss of synchronized behavior weakens the whistle.

"In our model, competition between disorder in critical flow velocities and effective inter-aperture coupling leads to the emergence of rich collective dynamics, including a transition between avalanching and non-avalanching regimes of phase-slips," Goldbart said. "A key parameter is temperature. Small changes in temperature can lead to large changes in the number of phase-slipping nano-apertures involved in an avalanche."

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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But do they iron?

Scientists Unveil Internet-Controlled Robots That Anyone Can Build

Qwerkbot a three-wheeled robot that can send images over the Internet is one of several robots that can be built with the Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK) a combination of a robot controller commonly available parts and assembly instructions (recipes) d ...
Qwerkbot, a three-wheeled robot that can send images over the Internet, is one of several robots that can be built with the Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK), a combination of a robot controller, commonly available parts and assembly instructions (recipes) developed by the CREATE Lab in Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. Photo credit: Ken Andreyo/CMU

Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new series of robots that are simple enough for almost anyone to build with off-the-shelf parts, but are sophisticated machines that wirelessly connect to the Internet.

The robots can take many forms, from a three-wheeled model with a mounted camera to a flower loaded with infrared sensors. They can be easily customized and their ability to wirelessly link to the Internet allows users to control and monitor their robots’ actions from any Internet-connected computer in the world.

The new tools that make this possible are a single piece of hardware and a set of "recipes" that people follow to build their ’bots. Both are part of the Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK) developed by Associate Professor of Robotics Illah Nourbakhsh and members of his Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) Lab. Their goal is to make highly capable robots accessible and affordable for college and pre-college students, as well as anyone interested in robots.

Unlike other educational robot kits on the market, TeRK is not sold as a complete set of parts. The CREATE Lab’s recipes allow for a variety of robots to be built with parts commonly available through hardware and hobbyist outlets.

At the heart of each TeRK robot is a unique controller called Qwerk that combines a computer with the software and electronics necessary to control the robot’s motors, cameras and other devices. Qwerk, developed by the CREATE Lab and Charmed Labs of Austin, Texas, also connects the robot automatically and wirelessly to the Internet so it can be controlled by any Internet-connected computer.

"The Internet connection means the robots are much more global," Nourbakhsh said. Not only can the robot be operated remotely at any location with a wireless Internet connection, but it can also send photos or video, respond to RSS feeds, or access the Internet to find information. That combination opens a wide range of possibilities. "We’re hoping people notice that the sky’s the limit," he added.

Among the TeRK recipes already available is a small, wheeled robot with a video camera that people might use to keep an eye on their home or pet while they are at work or school. Another recipe under development includes environmental sensors for air quality and sound pollution. A less conventional recipe will produce a robotic, six-petaled flower that can open and close based on moods or use its petals to play a game of catch.

"We want robots that don’t just subscribe to geeky notions of what robots should be," Nourbakhsh said. One recipe under development, for instance, can control a stuffed teddy bear.

"Once people have followed a recipe and become acquainted with robots, they can build on their experience," said Emily Hamner, a senior research associate in the CREATE Lab. "Not only can they customize the recipes to their liking, they can also design new robot types using the Qwerk controller."

Qwerk itself is a full-fledged computer with a Linux operating system that can use any computer language. It features a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to control motors, servos, cameras, amplifiers and other devices. It also accepts USB peripheral devices, such as Web cameras and GPS receivers. "We leveraged several low-cost, yet high-performance components that were originally developed for the consumer electronics industry when we designed Qwerk," said Rich LeGrand, president of Charmed Labs. "The result is a cost-effective robot controller with impressive capabilities."

Building such a capable robot only five years ago would have been all but impossible, Nourbakhsh said. Using the Internet to provide telepresence on a routine basis, he explained, is practical today because of widespread broadband Internet access and the ubiquity of wireless hotspots in both public and residential settings.

Recipes, software, technical support and other information are available free at the TeRK Web site, http://www.terk.ri.cmu.edu . The Qwerk controller is available for sale from Charmed Labs, http://www.charmedlabs.com/ .

Source: Carnegie Mellon University




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Device uses solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into fuel

Device uses solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into fuel

Device uses solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into fuel
Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have demonstrated the feasibility of exploiting sunlight to transform a greenhouse gas into a useful product.
Many Earth Week activities will draw attention to the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the resulting impact on global climate. Now Clifford Kubiak, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and his graduate student Aaron Sathrum have developed a prototype device that can capture energy from the sun, convert it to electrical energy and "split" carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen.

Because their device is not yet optimized, they still need to input additional energy for the process to work. However, they hope that their results, which they presented at last month's meeting of the American Chemical Society, will draw attention to the promise of the approach.

"For every mention of CO2 splitting, there are more than 100 articles on splitting water to produce hydrogen, yet CO2 splitting uses up more of what you want to put a dent into," explained Kubiak. "It also produces CO, an important industrial chemical, which is normally produced from natural gas. So with CO2 splitting you can save fuel, produce a useful chemical and reduce a greenhouse gas."

Wired for sound

: How the brain senses visual illusions

Wired for sound: How the brain senses visual illusions
In a study that could help reveal how illusions are produced in the brain's visual cortex, researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine have found new evidence of rapid integration of auditory and visual sensations in the brain. Their findings, which provide new insight into neural mechanisms by which visual perception can be altered by concurrent auditory events, will be published online in the April 12 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
When subjects were shown a single flash of light interposed between two brief sounds, many subjects reported seeing two distinct flashes of light. Investigating the timing and location of the brain processes that underlie this illusory effect – the illusion of seeing two flashes in the presence of two auditory signals, when only one flash actually occurs – can reveal how information from different senses are integrated in the brain.

The study of 34 subjects was carried out in the laboratory of Steven A. Hillyard, Ph.D., UCSD professor of neurosciences. "This type of perceptual illusion has been described before," said first author Jyoti Mishra, graduate student in the Hillyard lab. "The surprising finding we made is that the illusion depends on a rapidly timed sequence of interactions between the auditory and visual cortical areas."

"This is part of a set of new findings by scientists in the field that show how integration of multiple sensations can happen much more rapidly than we thought before," said Mishra. "We show physiological evidence that visual and auditory stimulation might not be processed separately, then merged together, as previously assumed, but that an almost-simultaneous integration of the sensations may actually take place in the brain."

The UCSD scientists measured event-related potentials (ERPs), brain responses that are directly related to the perceptual experiences induced by sensory stimuli, using an electrophysiological or EEG recording procedure that measures electrical activity of the brain through the skull.

"In subjects who reported seeing a second flash, the ERP measurements showed a boost of activity within the visual cortex of the brain immediately after hearing the second sound," said Mishra, adding that the second sound amplified the brain activity stimulated by the first sound. Perception of the second illusory flash was also marked by a rapid enhancement of processing in the auditory cortex of the brain. By observing the auditory boost, the researchers could predict when subjects would report seeing the visual illusion of a second flash.

"Our results provide evidence that perception of the illusory second flash is based on a very rapid and dynamic interplay between the auditory and visual cortices of the brain – on a time scale less than one tenth the blink of an eye." Mishra said. Interestingly, the pattern was very different between individuals who did or didn't see the second flash, indicating that the brain's wiring and the strength of integration between the different sensory cortices may differ between individuals, or even vary over time. "It suggests that there are consistent differences in the neural connectivity that are possibly shaped during one's development and through experience," she said.

Next, the researchers plan to look at whether or not attention affects these illusory sensations. These studies could shed light on how people deprived of one sensation often compensate by developing another – for instance, blind people with a more acute sense of hearing.

Source: University of California - San Diego

Weekend Project: Make your own hood ornament - Lifehacker

Weekend Project: Make your own hood ornament - Lifehacker

I'll Take 160G, Please, And Can I Get Bluetooth with That?

KurzweilAI.net

The Memory Hacker

Popular Science, April 2007

USC's Center for Neural Engineering researchers have developed a chip that can communicate with brain cells, a first step toward an implantable machine that could restore memories in people with brain damage or help them make new ones.
The chip can receive analog signals from live brain tissue, convert them to digital signals, and then reconvert them to an analog signal relayed to healthy neurons on the other side.
Later this year, colleagues at Wake Forest will hook up a more complex version of the chip to live lab rats whose memories have been temporarily disabled by drugs. If the animals' brains react to the computer-supplied signals with the same regularity as the slice of rat brain in Wet Lab 412C does, it will, Berger says, be a "monumental" moment. "We'll prove we can replace a central part of the brain that has lost a higher cognitive function, such as memory, with a microchip," he says.
Within four years, the team aims to wire a chip beneath the skulls of monkeys, whose brains are even closer to humans. Berger predicts that human trials of a prosthetic device that can actually replace impaired memory cells are less than 15 years away.