Intel’s Make It Wearable challenge takes on the future of communication

wearables

Wearable technology may be extending human intelligence into the next frontier of new media and intelligence. Whether we’re talking about makeup that controls drones, LED-enhanced dresses, or other wearable devices that push the boundaries of personal computing, the topic is both futuristic and vital right now. 

 

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Where does the Internet of Things stand?

The-Internet-of-Things

Like the Cloud in 2012, the Internet of Things is about to come on strong.

Google bought Nest for an incredible amount of money a few weeks ago. Do you know what Nest is or what they do? More specifically, do you have any idea what Nest is trying to do or what platform they are built upon? If the answer to all those questions is no, don’t worry, you’re not alone.

 

 

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6 key trends that are accelerating the adoption of technology in higher education

higher education

There is a shift from students as consumers to students as creators

On February 3, 2014, the NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition, officially launched. The report aims to examine emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching and learning within higher education settings.

 

 

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California proposes ‘kill switches’ on mobile phones

mobile device

California could be the first state to mandate a way for consumers to disable lost or stolen mobile phones.

Legislators in California are expected to outline a proposal requiring mobile devices sold in the state to come equipped with “kill switches” that would disable them if stolen or lost, beginning Jan. 1, 2015.

 

 

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Breakthrough prosthetic hand restores amputee’s sense of touch

Dennis Sørensen smiles confidently with his new robotic hand as he flexes his robotic fingers, and gingerly closes them around a disposable plastic cup. Sørensen is blindfolded but he instantly recognizes what he is touching. Round. Hard. Breakable. Lethargic sensory nerves, rusty and unused since an accident nine years ago, begin to stir.

 

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Futurist Ray Kurzweil’s radical plan to be the first man to achieve immortality

Ray Kurzweil, Google’s engineering director, is famous for the strides he has made in machine learning, speech recognition and music technology. But he would rather be known for achieving immortality.

 

 

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‘Natural cities’ emerge from location-based social media

Natural cities

A city is a large, permanent human settlement. But try and define it more carefully and you’ll soon run into trouble. A settlement that qualifies as a city in Sweden may not qualify in China, for example. And the reasons why one settlement is classified as a town while another as a city can sometimes seem almost arbitrary.

 

 

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Sugar battery could soon be powering your electronics

sugar biobatteries

A demonstration of two sugar biobatteries connected in a series to power a digital clock.

Almost all living cells break down sugar to produce energy. Researchers at Virginia Tech say they have developed a battery that can store the most energy for its weight using sugar as a fuel source by mimicking what plants and animals do naturally..

 

 

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Philip K. Dick theorizes The Matrix in 1977, says that we live in “a computer-programmed reality”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXeVgEs4sOo[/youtube]

The Hugo Award was given to Philip K. Dick in 1963 for his novel The Man in the High Castle. He beat out such sci-fi luminaries as Marion Zimmer Bradley and Arthur C. Clarke. The Guardian writes about this novel, “Nothing in the book is as it seems. Most characters are not what they say they are, most objects are fake.” The plot—an alternate history in which the Axis Powers have won World War II—turns on a popular but contraband novel called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. Written by the titular character, the book describes the world of an Allied victory, and—in the vein of his worlds-within-worlds thematic—Dick’s novel suggests that this book-within-a-book may in fact describe the “real” world of the novel, or one glimpsed through the novel’s reality as at least highly possible.

 

 

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