Abstract. Time travel has captured the public imagination for much of the past century, but little has been done to actually search for time travelers. Here, three implementations of Internet searches for time travelers are described, all seeking a prescient mention of information not previously available. The first search covered prescient content placed on the Internet, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific terms in tweets on
Twitter.The second search examined prescient inquiries submitted to a search engine, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific search terms submitted to a popular astronomy web site. The third search involved a request for a direct Internet communication, either by email or tweet, pre-dating to the time of the inquiry. Given practical verifiability concerns, only time travelers from the future were investigated. No time travelers were discovered. Although these negative results do not disprove time travel, given the great reach of the Internet, this search is perhaps the most comprehensive to date.
Tag Archives: interesting research
inForm Dynamic Shape Output
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.
Georgia Tech develops inkjet-based circuits at fraction of time and cost
Recent advances in chemically bonding metal particles allowed the researchers to use silver nanoparticle ink to print the circuits and avoid thermal bonding, or sintering, a time-consuming and potentially damaging technique due to the heat. Printing the circuits on resin-coated paper, PET film and glossy photo paper worked best. Researchers also made a list of materials to avoid, such as canvas cloths and magnet sheets.
via Georgia Tech develops inkjet-based circuits at fraction of time and cost.
From: Ink-Jet Printing Custom-Designed Micro Circuits
Initial reports of the technique, which the team demonstrated at a meeting of the Association for Computing Machinery in Zurich Sept. 10, described the result as a “paper computer,” though the best researchers could do was print a WiFi antenna, circuits for an LED and a 3D-printed flashlight. They also produced circuits containing microprocessors and memory-chip connectors that could potentially become components of an actual device, but the printing, ink and materials are still far too basic to allow that, according to Matt Johnson of conductive-ink manufacturer Bare Conductive, who was quoted in a New Scientist story about the demonstration.
Sensor Fusion: High Speed Robots
In this research we develop a janken (rock-paper-scissors) robot with 100% winning rate as one example of human-machine cooperation systems. Human being plays one of rock, paper and scissors at the timing of one, two, three. According to the timing, the robot hand plays one of three kinds so as to beat the human being.
Recognition of human hand can be performed at 1ms with a high-speed vision, and the position and the shape of the human hand are recognized. The wrist joint angle of the robot hand is controlled based on the position of the human hand. The vision recognizes one of rock, paper and scissors based on the shape of the human hand. After that, the robot hand plays one of rock, paper and scissors so as to beat the human being in 1ms.
New device stores electricity on silicon chips
When the researchers tested the coated material they found that it had chemically stabilized the silicon surface. When they used it to make supercapacitors, they found that the graphene coating improved energy densities by over two orders of magnitude compared to those made from uncoated porous silicon and significantly better than commercial supercapacitors.
via New device stores electricity on silicon chips | Research News @ Vanderbilt | Vanderbilt University.
Matchstick-sized sensor can record your private chats
Conventional microphones work when sound waves make a diaphragm move, creating an electrical signal. Microflown’s sensor has no moving parts. It consists of two parallel platinum strips, each just 200 nanometres deep, that are heated to 200 °C. Air molecules flowing across the strips cause temperature differences between the pair. Microflown’s software counts the air molecules that pass through the gap between the strips to gauge sound intensity: the more air molecules in a sound wave, the louder the sound. At the same time, it analyses the temperature change in the strips to work out the movement of the air and calculate the coordinates of whatever generated the sound.
via Matchstick-sized sensor can record your private chats – 26 September 2013 – New Scientist.
Acoustic Vector Sensors
In acoustics this movement of air is called particle velocity. The Microflown sensor is based upon MEMS technology, and uses the temperature difference in the corss section of two extremely sensitivy platinum wires that are heated up to 200°C in order to determine Acoustic Particle Velocity. When air flows across the wires, the first wire cools down a little and due to heat transfer the air picks up some heat. Hence, the second wire is cooled down with the heated air and cools down less than the first wire. A temperature difference occurs in the wires, which alters their electrical resistance. This generates a voltage difference that is proportional to the Particle velocity and the effect is directional: when the direction of the airflow reverses, the temperature difference will reverse too.
“Synthetic Tracking” Set to Revolutionise Near-Earth Asteroid Discovery
By contrast, they say that with a 5 metres telescope, synthetic tracking should spot about 80 of these objects each night. That’s “almost 1000 times higher than the discovery rate of these small objects over the last 5 years,” they say.
But there are other uses for this data. NASA is hoping to send a crewed mission to a near Earth asteroid in the not-too-distant future and has started a program called the Asteroid Grand Challenge to identify potential targets.
Paper on this subject here.
Devices Connect with Borrowed TV Signals, and Need No Power Source
“In that demonstration, the LEDs, touch sensors, microcontrollers, and the wireless communication are all powered by those ambient TV signals,” says Gollakota.
via Devices Connect with Borrowed TV Signals, and Need No Power Source | MIT Technology Review.
Simple technique puts graphene capacitors on par with lead-acid battery
The resulting material displays all the electrical properties associated with a capacitor, meaning that it can charge and discharge its full capacity almost instantly. But it has a storage density that’s right at the low-end of the range seen in lead-acid batteries. It’s also stable over multiple charge/discharge cycles and holds on to 90 percent of its capacity even after being charged for 300 hours straight.
via Simple technique puts graphene capacitors on par with lead-acid battery | Ars Technica.