The secret to the new system: Nanoparticles are embedded in the transparent material. These tiny particles can be tuned to scatter only certain wavelengths, or colors, or light, while letting all the rest pass right through. That means the glass remains transparent enough to see colors and shapes clearly through it, while a single-color display is clearly visible on the glass.
via Seeing things: A new transparent display system could provide heads-up data – MIT News Office.
The tweaked version of TCP being honed by the MIT group and colleagues instead sends mathematical functions describing multiple packets so that a receiving device, such as a satellite terminal, can solve for missing ones without having to refetch them. “You transfer more packets than what you normally would, but you don’t have to retransmit,” Khan says.
via Boost Satellite Bandwidth and End Jittery Videos | MIT Technology Review.
This is a problem streaming in wifi networks with sketchy coverage as well. This is similar to a snippet I posted here on 10/25/2012 in reference to this article also from the MIT Technology Review A Bandwidth Breakthrough
Apparently they’re still working on this TCP retransmission problem.
In the team’s setup, low-intensity pulses of visible laser light scan an object of interest. The laser fires a pulse at a given location until a single reflected photon is recorded by a detector; each illuminated location corresponds to a pixel in the final image.
Variations in the time it takes for photons from the laser pulses to be reflected back from the object provides depth information about the body — a standard way of revealing three-dimensional structure. However, the algorithm developed by Kirmani and his colleagues provides that information using one-hundredth the number of photons required by existing light detection and ranging (LIDAR) techniques, which are commonly used in remote mapping or measuring forest biomass, for instance.
via Stealth camera takes pictures virtually in the dark : Nature News & Comment.
The mechanism of MIT’s new shapeshifting output device is remarkably simple. It is based on the well known pin screen devices that you can use to take a 3D impression of an object. A 2D plate of pins can be moved to create a surface.
I intend to examine the prospects of ultrasonics for wireless, local area communication. In other words, I will try to decide whether or not it might be feasable to create a system for objects in the same room to communicate with one another by sharing information through ultrasonic sound. To do this, I will work through issues such as the spectrum, transducers, beam width, transmission distance, bandwidth, and noise.
This work builds on the work done by Vadim Gerasimov, in the Things That Talk project, that transmits data by sound in the audible range. His site is a good starting point to visit before working through this information.
Their findings suggest that it’s possible to alter the electronic properties of a material — for example, changing it from a conductor to a semiconductor — just by changing the laser beam’s polarization. Normally, to produce such dramatic changes in a material’s properties, “you have to do something violent to it,” Gedik says. “But in this case, it may be possible to do this just by shining light on it. That actually modifies how electrons move in this system. And when we do this, the light does not even get absorbed.”
via Persuading light to mix it up with matter – MIT News Office.
It will take some time to assess possible applications, Gedik says. But, he suggests, this could be a way of engineering materials for specific functions. “Suppose you want a material to do something — to conduct electricity, or to be transparent, for example. We usually do this by chemical means. With this new method, it may be possible to do this by simply shining light on the materials.”
Remy is a computer program that figures out how computers can best cooperate to share a network.
Remy creates end-to-end congestion-control algorithms that plug into the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). These computer-generated algorithms can achieve higher performance and greater fairness than the most sophisticated human-designed schemes.
via TCP ex Machina.
MIT claims it’s afraid the release of Swartz’s file will identify the names of MIT people who helped the Secret Service and federal prosecutors pursue felony charges against Swartz for his bulk downloading of academic articles from MIT’s network in 2011.
MIT argues that those people might face threats and harassment if their names become public. But it’s worth noting that names of third parties are already redacted from documents produced under FOIA.
via MIT Moves to Intervene in Release of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File | Threat Level | Wired.com.
Every time a Wi-Fi signal is reflected off an object, the shape and makeup of that object affects the signal that comes back. But when Wi-Fi hits a wall, most of the signal gets reflected off the wall and only a faint bit of it reflects off the people on the other side.
To get around this, Wi-Vi transmits two Wi-Fi signals, one of which is the inverse of the other. When one signal hits a stationary object, the other cancels it out. But because of the way the signals are encoded, they don’t cancel each other out for moving objects. That makes the reflections from a moving person visible despite the wall between that person and the Wi-Vi device. Wi-Vi can translate those faint reflections into a real-time display of the person’s movements.
via MIT researchers can see through walls using ‘Wi-Vi’ | ITworld.
“Now is a time for everyone involved to reflect on their actions, and that includes all of us at MIT,” Reif said. “I have asked professor Hal Abelson to lead a thorough analysis of MIT’s involvement from the time that we first perceived unusual activity on our network in fall 2010 up to the present. I have asked that this analysis describe the options MIT had and the decisions MIT made, in order to understand and to learn from the actions MIT took. I will share the report with the MIT community when I receive it.”
via MIT to conduct internal probe in wake of Aaron Swartz’s suicide | Internet & Media – CNET News.