NEWRON vol I issue X (4-20-07)

Edited by: Natan Davidovics

Retinal Implants May Be Significantly Enhanced With New Software

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070412113210.htm

Neural computation scientists at Bonn University will introduce a software system at the Hanover Fair that is hoped to change this: with the aid of this software, the visual prosthesis "learns" to generate exactly those signals, which are expected and can be interpreted by the brain.

DARPA to Build Star Wars Binoculars

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/04/soldierportable.html

The wild folks at DARPA have a plan to build some super-duper Star Wars binoculars that true to the original movie, would allow soldiers to see miles off into the distance, day or night, warning them of potential threats almost immediately. They've even dubbed the technology "Luke's Binoculars ," though the official name is the more staid " Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System."



Getting in Touch: Virtual Maps for the Blind

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=BDC29B20-E7F2-99DF-3C6EC4B5008F1FE9
Scientific American (04/07) Ross, Rachel

Researchers in Greece have developed a new system that converts video into virtual, touchable maps for the blind. The three-dimensional maps use force fields to represent walls and roads so the visually impaired can better understand the layout of buildings and cities.

NEWRON vol I issue IX (4-13-07)

Edited by: Natan Davidovics

Mixed Feelings

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/esp.html

See with your tongue. Navigate with your skin. Fly by the seat of your pants (literally). How researchers can tap the plasticity of the brain to hack our 5 senses — and build a few new ones.

In Our Messy, Reptilian Brains

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17888475/site/newsweek/

The brain is a "cobbled-together mess." Impressive in function, sure. But in its design the brain is "quirky, inefficient and bizarre ... a weird agglomeration of ad hoc solutions that have accumulated throughout millions of years of evolutionary history,"

*Hopkins professor of neuroscience, David Linden is quoted in this article

Easy on the eyes

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8954632

Thomas Serre and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have built a computer processing system that tries to work in this general way. Among the tasks that computers are bad at is recognising broad categories of images. Tell one to search for something specific, such as a rectangle or even a human face, and it can make a reasonable fist of the task. Ask it to find "animals" among photographs of dragonflies, trees, sharks, cars and monkeys, and it falls over.

Flexible electronics could find applications as sensors, artificial muscles

http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2007/news070402.html

Flexible electronic structures with the potential to bend, expand and manipulate electronic devices are being developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These flexible structures could find useful applications as sensors and as electronic devices that can be integrated into artificial muscles or biological tissues.