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| VGo Is A Robot That Goes To School Or Work For You [PICS] | |  NEW ORLEANS -- Soon your child may go to school with a robot. Meet VGo, a robotic telepresence being used in schools, healthcare, and business for videoconferencing from afar. Running on Verizon's 4G LTE network, VGo is already being used in a variety of situations -- including schools. Students who can't attend school due to an illness of handicap can instead virtually attend classes via VGo. Unlike other telepresence system where the camera is stationary, VGo is a robot on wheels allowing a student to adjust where the camera is pointed, talk to their teacher and classmates, and even hit the road for their next class. Since VGo is connected over LTE, it can maintain connectivity throughout an entire school building, without requiring the school to offer Wi-Fi throughout the every building and every classroom. Getting online every morning rather than on the school bus, VGo not only lets a student attend class but also lets him or her do things like interact with friends in the hall or experience demonstrations that might happen outside of a traditional classroom. Vgo can last for a full school day without needing to be recharged, and when it comes time to plug in the robot can be docked remotely by pressing a dock button on the interface. Outside of the classroom, VGo can also be used to allow doctors to remotely travel across the country to check on a patient, or visit a lab. Businesses can also use VGo to have executives virtually attend meetings, tour facilities, and manage virtual teams. We had a chance to check out VGo in person at CTIA in New Orleans. Check out the gallery below for some shots of VGo in action and let us know what you think about the robot in the comments. |
| Google Doodle Honors Archaeologist Howard Carter | |  Today's (barely recognizable) Google Doodle is filled with motifs from ancient Egypt in honor of archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter, best known for discovering the tomb of 14th-century BC pharaoh Tutankhamun. Carter was born on May 9, 1874 in London, to a family of artists. When he was seventeen he assisted Percy Newberry in the excavation and recording of Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan, starting a career path which in 1899 led him to become the first chief inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities Service (EAS). Carter was employed by Lord Carnarvon to supervise his excavations from 1907, and after many years of searching (interrupted by the first world war), in November 1922 Carter's excavation group found the Tutankhamun's tomb, one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever. Carter died of a natural cause (cancer) in 1939, which largely refuted the widely publicized idea that anyone who enters Tutankhamun's tomb would be placed under a curse. |
| Are Smartphones Spreading Faster than Any Technology in Human History? | | 4:50:09 AM | Technology Review |
|  Today's technology scene seems overheated to some. Apple is the most valuable company on earth. Software apps are reaching tens of millions of users within weeks. Major technology names like Research in Motion and Nokia are being undone by rapid changes to their markets. Underlying these developments: the unprecedented speed at which mobile computers are spreading. Presented below is the U.S. market penetration achieved by eight technologies since 1876, the year Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. Penetration rates have been organized to show three phases of a technology's spread: traction, maturity, and saturation. Those technologies with "last mile" problems—bringing electricity cables or telephone wire to individual homes—appear to spread more slowly. It took almost a century for landline phones to reach saturation—the point at which new demand falls off. Mobile phones, by contrast, achieved saturation in just 20 years. Smart phones are on track to halve that rate yet again, and tablets could move still faster, setting consecutive records for speed to market saturation in the United States. It is difficult to conclude categorically from the available data that smart phones are spreading faster than any previous technology. Statistics are not always available globally, and not every technology is easily tracked. Also, because smart phones have not yet reached market saturation, as electricity and television have, the results are still coming in. The Sudden Rise of the Smart Phone BellSouth launched the IBM Simon, with its rudimentary touch screen, back in 1993, but the era of the smart phone in America really began in 2002, when existing PDAs took on the ability to make phone calls. That year RIM shipped its first BlackBerry with phone features, Handspring launched its Palm-OS-powered Treo line, Microsoft shipped its Pocket PC Phone Edition, and mobile data technology such as GPRS became increasingly widespread. Four and a half years later, in late 2006, the quarter before Apple announced its now-iconic iPhone, only 715,000 smart phones were sold, representing just 6 percent of U.S. mobile-phone sales by volume. Up to that point, the smart phone was spreading not much faster than personal computers had in the preceding decades, and more slowly than radio decades before. That changed when Apple's iPhone sold 1.12 million units in its first full quarter of availability, despite prices starting at $399. Year over year, the market share of smart phones almost doubled, to 11 percent of U.S. mobile-phone sales. Now Nielsen reports that smart phones represent more than two-thirds of all U.S. mobile-phone sales. Nielsen also reports that 50 percent of all U.S. mobile-phone users—which equates to about 40 percent of the U.S. population—now use smart phones. These figures show that smart phones, after a relatively fast start, have also outpaced nearly any comparable technology in the leap to mainstream use. It took landline telephones about 45 years to get from 5 percent to 50 percent penetration among U.S. households, and mobile phones took around seven years to reach a similar proportion of consumers. Smart phones have gone from 5 percent to 40 percent in about four years, despite a recession. In the comparison shown, the only technology that moved as quickly to the U.S. mainstream was television between 1950 and 1953. The Mobile Phone Was Truly Global How rapid is the spread of smart phones globally? For the rest of the world, historical adoption rates of technologies such as TV, radio, and the Internet aren't as generally available. Further, in many regions, like Africa, smart phones are a recent phenomenon. That makes comparisons difficult. However, the unprecedented spread of simpler "feature" models of mobile phones in the developing world appears to put smart phones on a global fast track. In 1982, there were 4.6 billion people in the world, and not a single mobile-phone subscriber. Today, there are seven billion people in the world—and six billion mobile cellular-phone subscriptions. As with many technologies, the explosion began in the world's most developed countries. Historically, a technology that reaches saturation in rich countries still spreads through the developing world only in correlation to each country's state of development. In 1963, researchers famously mapped the GDP of nations against their "teledensity," the prevalence of landline telephones. The data showed just this effect, which is known as the Jipp Curve. The mobile phone, however, is a landmark: over the last decade, the correlation between wealth and teledensity has been completely transformed. According to the International Telecommunications Union, in 2001 the developed world had six times as many mobile subscriptions per capita as the developing world. By 2011, that gap had collapsed to just 50 percent more phones per capita, and it continues to narrow substantially. Of the world's six billion mobile-phone subscriptions, 73 percent are now in the developing world, even though those countries account for just 20 percent of the world's GDP. Today, 136 years after Bell received his U.S. patent for an "improvement in telegraphy," only 17 countries have as many as one telephone line for every two people. Less than 30 years after Ameritech phoned Bell's grandson in America's first commercial cellular call, an astounding 158 out of 200 countries the World Bank monitors have passed that threshold with mobile phones—including countries such as Senegal, where the average income is only $5 per day. The Smart Phone Will Be Global, Too Although the large majority of mobile phones in the world aren't yet smart phones, the "dumb phones" have established the infrastructure, payment and distribution systems, and networks that are increasingly utilized by smart phones. The ITU claims that 90 percent of the world's population is already covered by 2G networks, many of which can provide data services like Internet access via slower "2.5G" technologies such as EDGE and GPRS. The more modern 3G networks that have catalyzed the current smart-phone boom by providing richer, quicker mobile experiences have been expanding rapidly and now cover 45 percent of the world's population, more than three billion people. The cost of a smart phone and a service plan clearly remains an important barrier in poor nations, but it is a shrinking one. ARM Holdings' Cortex A7 mobile CPU, expected in phones next year, is touted as a way to get smart phones to "the next billion people," with a price-to-performance ratio five times that of 2010 models. Meanwhile, the Chinese firm Spreadtrum has already released a chip platform targeting sub-$50 Android smart phones. Despite plummeting device prices, accessible mobile data pricing will be critical as well. The inevitable trend is already clearly visible. According to IDC, smart phones accounted for 36 percent of global mobile-phone shipments in the first quarter of 2012, up from 25 percent a year earlier. If smart phones continue to gain at even this pace, "feature phones" will be largely a memory in another five years. It remains to be seen whether networks the world over can support such a rapid conversion to smart phones. The Next Boom and Beyond Arriving in the wake of smart phones, tablets appear poised for even swifter adoption. After years of false starts, the tablet market sprang to life with the launch of Apple's iPad in April 2010. Only 18 months later, tablet penetration among U.S. households had already hit 11 percent, according to a Google/Ipsos study. No other technology in this comparison has had such a fast start. Since that date, Amazon's (essentially U.S.-only) Kindle Fire was introduced and sold at least five million units. In the last two quarters, Apple has also sold approximately 10 million more iPads in the U.S. market. As a result, the number of consumers in the U.S. who own a tablet computer now exceeds 13 percent just two years into the market's existence. According to Gartner, there are now at least 1.4 billion PCs in use worldwide. It remains to be seen whether tablets can maintain their record-setting pace. Mobile phones, on the other hand, are already selling more than 1.4 billion units every single year. One thing seems certain: squeezed between tablets and ever-smarter phones, the PC is seeing its reign as the world's "personal" computer draw to a close. |
| Paralyzed Woman in Bionic Suit Runs Marathon | |  It is tough to complete a marathon even if you aren't paralyzed. But what if you had a bionic suit on your side? That changes everything, as a 32-year-old English woman just proved. It may have taken 16 days, but Claire Lomas did finish the London Marathon this week. She became the first person in world history to accomplish complete a full marathon using a bionic suit. But the married mom won't appear in the race's official results or be able to receive a medal -- because she didn't complete the race on the same day it started, The Telegraph reports. Lomas was paralyzed from the chest down after a horse riding accident in 2007, according to The Telegraph. Her quest to complete the marathon was part of an awareness and fundraising push that has so far generated more than $125,000 for research into paralysis treatment. So how exactly was a woman paralyzed from the chest down able to finish a 26.2-mile race? Enter the ReWalk (see photo), a bionic suit invented by Israeli entrepreneur Amit Goffer. The suit functions as an exoskeleton of sorts and allows paraplegics to stand, walk and even climb stairs. SEE ALSO: How a British Marathoner's Death Inspired Over $825,000 in Online Donations Wearers strap the suit to their legs and waist, use crutches for balance and don a four-pound backpack battery that powers the ReWalk. Buttons on the suit's wrist straps allow the wearer to indicate whether they plan to stand, walk or climb stairs. Then motion sensors and an in-suit computer system combine to detect movements and weight shifts. The weight shift are used to indicate what the wearer is trying to do, and tiny motors in the exoskeleton-like device move the wearer's lower limbs as needed. (The suit was demonstrated in action in a 2010 episode of Glee.) It's not quite that simple, however. While the ReWalk site doesn't publish pricing information, a number of reports have a new suit topping $65,000. Check out the video below for a demonstration of how the ReWalk works. What are some other amazing examples you've seen of technology opening up new possibilities for the disabled? Let us know in the comments. |
| How Kinect Cameras Are Being Used to Help Detect Autism in Children | |  Detecting autism in children can be a difficult, expensive, and time-consuming process that requires the trained eye of a medical professional. But researchers Guillermo Sapiro and Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos believe that the Microsoft Kinect gaming sensor could assist in that task.As part of an experiment at the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development, Sapiro and Papanikolopoulos set up a series of five Microsoft Kinect sensors in the playroom of a school. There, the motion-detecting cameras recorded the movements of the children, aged 3 to 5, and sent the collected data to a series of PCs. The computers then calculated what children were most at risk for autism based on their hand movements and activity levels. Children whose activity levels differed greatly from their peers were flagged for further study by medical professionals.Researchers admit the cameras are no substitute for the opinion of a real doctor, but say they could still help determine which children require closer examination for signs of autism. "The same way a good teacher flags a problem child, the system will do automatic flagging and say, 'Hey, this kid needs to see an expert,'" says Shapiro.Results of the trial will be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation later this month. Researchers would like to eventually merge this study with another, which utilizes computers to help identify other behavioral markers on the Autism Observation Scale for Infants.This study is not the first time a Microsoft Kinect motion gaming accessory has been used to do some pretty amazing things beyond "just playing video games." The Kinect is being used for just about everything from self-guided shopping carts at Whole Foods to playing a 140-year-old pipe organ using nothing but hand gestures. Meanwhile, the U.S. government is using a system similar to the Kinect to help diagnose depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers. Source This article originally appeared on Tecca › More from Tecca: 32 awesome Kinect hacks Virtual Therapists: The army's new weapon in the war against depression Research: Teenage depression can be diagnosed via blood test Kinect-enabled carts coming to a Whole Foods near you? Robotic seeing-eye dog created with the help of Kinect Image courtesy of iStockphoto, bowdenimages |
| 14 Incredible 3D Printing Creations | | Tuesday, May 08, 2012 11:42 PM | Stephanie Buck |
|  3D printing has been boggling minds the world over for years now, but recently the technology has become even more accessible. An object is printed in three dimensions from a digital file by layering solid materials in specific patterns. Companies like Shapeways are helping to make 3D printing consumer-friendly, putting not only the printers but the printed items themselves into the hands of everyday people. Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen invited Mashable to curate some of our favorite 3D-printed items from its online shop. So, take a look through the above gallery for some of our favorite gadgets, accessories and art. SEE ALSO: Stunning 3D-Printed Guitars Will Blow You Away/a> What would you 3D-print, given the chance? Let us know what you think about the technology in the comments below. |
| Toyota's Latest Vehicle: An All-Electric SUV [VIDEO] | | Tuesday, May 08, 2012 11:22 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  In the market for a new SUV and live in California? Toyota announced the launch of an all-electric SUV at the 26th annual Electric Vehicle Symposium in Los Angeles on Monday. It's basically the RAV-4 in appearance, but runs on battery power with a six-hour charge time and a 100-mile driving distance. "It's all about blending the best of two worlds," Toyota Motor Sales Executive Bob Carter told Phys.org. "The all-new RAV4 EV marries the efficiency of an EV with the versatility of a small SUV -- in fact, it is the only all-electric SUV on the market." This actually isn't the first RAV-4 EV the Prius maker has put on the market. The company released a RAV-4 EV from 1997-2003, but now the EV market seems primed for more vehicles and Toyota's latest version takes electric to a new level. This latest EV can reach a top speed of 100 m.p.h. and will be priced at $49,800. Toyota aims to sell around 2,600 of them during the next three years. The car will be for sale this summer in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. Carter also told Phys.org that the vehicle will target a niche sector of the population who are interested in green technology. "It's designed for consumers who prioritize the environment and appreciate performance," Carter said. Who you buy this RAV-4 EV? Which EVs currently on the market would you be interested in purchasing? Tell us in the comments. |
| Great Science Education Starts With Inspired Teachers | | Tuesday, May 08, 2012 3:02 PM | Sally Ride |
|  Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, is president and CEO of Sally Ride Science. Each summer her organization hosts the Sally Ride Science Academy Brought to you by ExxonMobil, a teacher development program to strengthen STEM education in the United States. Follow her @SallyRideSci. Thank you, Dr. Mommaerts. If you hadn't taken a personal interest in me in high school, who knows what career path I might have followed. Dr. Mommaerts was the teacher most responsible for me becoming a scientist and an astronaut. She challenged me to be curious, ask questions, and think for myself. But more importantly, she helped me build self-confidence and believe that I could go on to do anything in science. Believe me, I needed some convincing! Each year, millions of students are encouraged and inspired by their own personal Dr. Mommaerts. As we approach the end of another school year, I'd like to take a moment and thank the hundreds of thousands of dedicated educators for their hard work, and the inspiration they bring to the classroom. They're making a difference in the lives of their students. Many teachers are so committed to their profession that they take time during their well-earned summer breaks to enhance their skills. This summer, for example, more than 250 teachers will attend the Sally Ride Science Academy to learn new ways to get young people excited about potential careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). As part of this program, they are given the tools to train their colleagues, who help in spreading the message that quality science education is fundamental to our nation's future. It is also important to the futures of all students -- not just those they think will go on to become rocket scientists. These teachers help break down the stereotypes around science and scientists that lead many students, particularly girls, to conclude science is "not for me." They also teach in a way that reminds students that science is not only rewarding, but actually fun. These teachers are on the front lines in our battle to remain competitive in the global economy. China and other emerging countries, such as India and South Korea, have made it a priority to provide their students a good science education, because they know that STEM careers are a major key to prosperity. As a result, their children are scoring significantly higher on global standardized science and math tests than their American counterparts. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment, U.S. students rank 17th in the world in science and 25th in math. Programs to provide teacher training in STEM can help reverse this trend. Of course, we don't need to look overseas to appreciate the importance of science and math education. The American workforce has changed dramatically in the past decade, and no other subjects are more important for students entering the workforce in the next several years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Projections Program, STEM-related jobs represent eight of the ten fastest-growing occupations through 2018 (the top two are biomedical engineers and network systems/data communications analysts). But we must start early with students. In fact, fourth through eighth grade is critical. This is the age where many students, particularly girls and minorities, begin to disengage from these subjects. They feel and internalize the influences of peer pressure, popular culture, and society's expectations. Science isn't cool, negative stereotypes persist about scientists, mathematicians and engineers, and studying hard is rarely celebrated on reality TV or in pop music. In fact, my organization targets teachers in this critical grade range for precisely these reasons. Today, women represent less than 25% of all STEM jobs -- in spite of holding nearly half of all jobs in the United States. Getting more students -- girls and minorities in particular -- excited about and engaged in STEM studies starts with inspirational teachers. When I was a girl, I had a teacher who realized that I had an affinity for science. She encouraged me and challenged me to pursue that interest, helping to give me the confidence to achieve and do the hard work required to become a scientist and an astronaut. My hope is that each of the teachers trained at the Academy will create that spark in other children, helping them to dream big and then have the courage and conviction to follow those dreams. As this week is national Teacher Appreciation Week, I ask you to join in the STEM dialogue on Facebook or Twitter (#TAW #STEM), in hopes of raising local and national awareness, encouraging more people to pursue STEM-related careers, and reminding our teachers how much we appreciate their continued commitment. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, LeggNet |
| T-Mobile's Network Will Be iPhone-Ready This Fall | | Tuesday, May 08, 2012 1:02 PM | Pete Pachal |
|  T-Mobile may have been dealt a setback when regulators forced AT&T to scuttle its proposed acquisition of the company, but judging from its announcements today, the company is clearly still very much in the wireless game. The country's fourth-largest carrier revealed a plan to upgrade its network to make it more iPhone-friendly, as well as a longer-term project to deploy high-speed LTE connectivity. When AT&T withdrew its bid for T-Mobile, it had to pay Deustche Telekom -- T-Mobile's parent -- a hefty sum of $4 billion in cash and assets, one of those assets being about $1 billion worth of wireless spectrum. Now T-Mobile has a plan to use it: The carrier plans to "refarm" some of its network frequencies, which will let iPhones run at 3G speeds. T-Mobile said it expects this to happen in "a large number of markets" by the end of the year. There are at least one million unlocked iPhones running on T-Mobile, according to reports, but they're currently limited to 2G, or the same connection speed that was on the first iPhone in 2007. The spectrum shift will allow other phones to run on T-Mobile as well -- essentially any phone that uses the 1900MHz band to connect to HSPA+ networks. That also means that, should T-Mobile decide to make a Sprint-like deal with Apple to start selling the iPhone directly, its network will be ready. Apple is widely expected to release its next iPhone in the fall, so this opens up the possibility of T-Mobile becoming a carrier partner for that launch. SEE ALSO: T-Mobile Spokeswoman Gets a New Look to Tout 4G Besides courting unlocked iPhones, T-Mobile also detailed its plans for LTE. The carrier says it's going to begin the "modernization" of its network this year, making it possible to deploy a nationwide LTE network sometime in 2013. When that happens, T-Mobile may have an edge over the other carriers, since its implementation will actually be "LTE-Advanced," a wireless technology that can achieve speeds even faster than the current flavors of LTE. However, its real-world performance will depend heavily on how T-Mobile builds the network, and how much spectrum the company dedicates to it. Also, the other carriers may deploy LTE-Advanced, too. What do you think of T-Mobile's plans? Does the fact that its network will soon be more iPhone-friendly mean much to you? What about LTE? Share your thoughts in the comments. Image courtesy of Flickr, hirnrinde |
| Maurice Sendak Had No Love for Ebooks, But They Would Love Him | | Tuesday, May 08, 2012 12:39 PM | Lance Ulanoff |
|  For those of us who grew up reading Where the Wild Things Are, which was first published in 1963, today is a dark day. Its author, the sometimes irascible Maurice Sendak, died at 83. He leaves this world without ever seeing his works on an Apple iPad, Kindle Fire or E Ink Kindle, and that's just the way he wanted it. In an interview earlier this year with Comedy Central Talk Show Host Stephen Colbert, Sendak offered his unvarnished opinion on ebooks. "F___k Them. I hate those ebooks. They cannot be the future. They may well be. I will be dead. I won't give a sh_t." Though the Colbert interview was played mostly for laughs, Sendak wasn't kidding. His books, including his newest, Bumble-Ardy, are not available on any digital platform. Sendak's distaste for ebooks was not a secret. In a Guardian interview he was no less adamant, "I hate them. It's like making believe there's another kind of sex. There isn't another kind of sex. There isn't another kind of book! A book is a book is a book." The author was not totally opposed to all things digital. There were multimedia CD-ROMs that served as companions to his books, including ones for Little Bear: "Little Bear Preschool Thinking Adventures." There was a Where the Wild Things Are Nintendo Wii game, though I suspect its existence was Sendak succumbing to pressure to help promote the misbegotten film version of his book. The 2009 film also spawned Facebook and iPhone apps. That there are no ebooks for Where the Wild Things Are, Night Kitchen or any of Sendak's other works makes me no less of a fan. My son and I read In the Night Kitchen every night for years. He would giggle at the prose and pictures (the book was often banned because it showed the boy's genitals). Still, I worry that with Sendak gone, his legacy may fade along with him unless future generations can access his fanciful tales via colorful ebooks. No, I would never suggest that Where the Wild Things Are belongs on an E Ink Kindle or Nook. Not only are all the images designed for a large-format, landscape page, but the lack of color would sap the life from the imaginative tale of a boy and his vivid imagination. SEE ALSO: How Steve Jobs Got Apple Into Trouble Over Ebooks Tablets are, obviously, another story. I think In the Night Kitchen would look fantastic on the latest Apple iPad's retina display. The detailed imagery could be a bit cramped on the 7-inch Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet or Amazon Kindle Fire, but I'm sure the interactive versions could be designed to guide young readers through the detailed imagery -- zooming in and out -- as they read along. I asked Sendak's publisher, HarperCollins, if Sendak had ordered his books never be published in ebook form -- even after his death. At press time, they were still checking. The author was, of course, not alone is his ebook hatred. The Corrections scribe Jonathan Franzen famously lauded print books' permanence over ebooks, which might not be readable on a device that's vulnerable to water. Books are really only semi-permanent things. You can find both a lot of new and used copies of Sendak's books on Amazon, but over time copies will become worn, unreadable and, eventually, disappear (especially as collectors start to hoard classic editions). Plus, Sendak's works are now competing for space with a steady stream of celebrity children's books (another trend Sendak hated). Parents raised on a steady drip of celeb-saturated TV and news may actually think these books are the new classics and never read Sendak's quirky-yet-beautiful works to their children. As I see it, an ebook version of Where the Wild Things Are is crucial to securing Sendak's legacy for future generations. It's not how Sendak would've wanted it, but it's how I, a true fan, believe it must be. Do you think it would honor or harm Sendak's legacy to publish Where the Wild Things Are as an ebook? Share your thoughts in the comments. |
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