University of Washington researchers have discovered they can detect atomic “breathing,” or the mechanical vibration between two layers of atoms, by observing the type of light those atoms emitted when stimulated by a laser. The sound of this atomic “breath” could help researchers encode and transmit quantum information.
The researchers also developed a device that could serve as a new type of building block for quantum technologies, which are widely anticipated to have many future applications in fields such as computing, communications and sensor development.
The researchers published these findings June 1 in Nature Nanotechnology.
Whether it’s baking a cake, building a house, or developing a quantum device, the quality of the end product significantly depends on its ingredients or base materials. Researchers working to improve the performance of superconducting qubits, the foundation of quantum computers, have been experimenting using different base materials in an effort to increase the coherent lifetimes of qubits.
The coherence time is a measure of how long a qubit retains quantum information, and thus a primary measure of performance. Recently, scientists discovered that using tantalum in superconducting qubits makes them perform better, but no one has been able to determine why—until now.
Scientists from the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), and Princeton University investigated the fundamental reasons that these qubits perform better by decoding the chemical profile of tantalum.
Mindfulness-based awareness training can help people learn to better control brain-computer interfaces. But a new study has found that a single guided mindfulness meditation exercise isn’t enough to boost performance. The findings, published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, suggest that a longer period of meditation is needed in order for people to experience observable improvements.
The authors of the research are interested in exploring the potential benefits of using mindfulness meditation as a training tool to improve the performance of brain-computer interfaces, which allow individuals to control machines or computers directly from their brain, bypassing the traditional neuromuscular pathway. These devices have the potential to greatly benefit people with conditions such as spinal cord injuries, stroke, and neurodegenerative diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Previous studies have shown that one of the most effective signals for brain-computer interface control is the sensorimotor rhythm produced in the primary sensorimotor areas during motor imagery. However, not everyone is able to effectively control brain-computer interfaces, with approximately 20% of the population being “BCI-inefficient” even with extensive training. Therefore, researchers are looking for ways to improve performance, and one potential method is through meditation.
When you’re putting together a computer workstation, what would you say is the cleanest setup? Wireless mouse and keyboard? Super-discrete cable management? How about no visible keeb, no visible mouse, and no obvious display?
That’s what [Basically Homeless] was going for. Utilizing a Flexispot E7 electronically raisable standing desk, an ASUS laptop, and some other off-the-shelf parts, this project is taking the idea of decluttering to the extreme, with no visible peripherals and no visible wires.
There was clearly a lot of learning and much painful experimentation involved, and the guy kind of glazed over how a keyboard was embedded in the desk surface. By forming a thin layer of resin in-plane with the desk surface, and mounting the keyboard just below, followed by lots of careful fettling of the openings meant the keys could be depressed. By not standing proud of the surface, the keys were practically invisible when painted. After all, you need that tactile feedback, and a projection keeb just isn’t right.
A team of security researchers at Georgia Tech, the University of Michigan and Ruhr University Bochum in Germany has reported a new form of side-channel attack that capitalizes on power and speed management methods used by graphics processing units and systems on a chip (SoCs).
The researchers demonstrated how they could steal personal information by targeting data released by the Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) mechanisms found on most modern chips.
As manufacturers race to develop thinner and more energy-efficient devices, they must train their sights on constructing SoCs that balance power consumption, heat generation and processing speed.
Ever feel like you need more time? That it’s just flying by you?
And, then, do you ever wish you could reverse it?
A study published in Scientific Reports by an international team of researchers has demonstrated that a time-reversal program on a quantum computer is possible.
Finding practical applications for quantum entanglement is a formidable endeavor to say the least, but a group of Chinese researchers overcame some of the fundamental challenges of open-air quantum teleportation by developing a highly accurate laser pointing and tracking system, as reported by Ars Technica. The team was able to teleport a qubit (a standard unit of data in quantum computing) 97 kilometers across a lake using a small set of photons without fiberoptic cables or other intermediaries.
The laser targeting device developed by Juan Yin and his team was necessary to counteract the minute seismic and atmosphere shifts that would otherwise break the link between the two remote locations. While the use of fiberoptic cables solves the point-to-point accuracy problems faced by open-air systems, using the cables to carry entangled photons — which in turn carry the data needed for quantum teleportation — can cause what’s known as “quantum decoherence,” or rather a corruption in the photon’s entanglement data.
In the grand spectrum of scientific achievement, Yin’s research is a small but crucial stepping stone on the path to a global quantum network, allowing for super-fast data transmission with high levels of encryption to take place. Yin and his team think that quantum repeater satellites could be used to build this network, but until scientists figure out a way to give qubits a few more microseconds of staying power, such a network is probably many years off.
Sightful, a startup based in Tel Aviv, is rolling out what it calls the world’s first augmented reality (AR) laptop following nearly three years of under-the-radar development.
Designed for the “work from anywhere” movement, the 13-inch Spacetop takes full advantage of AR to transform the area around users into 100 inches of virtual screen space.
Spacetop’s multi-monitor “Canvas” can display all open apps and windows, overlaid on the real world yet invisible to anyone except the user wearing the customized NReal AR glasses that come with the device. There are no gesture controls to learn, and no external hardware to integrate.
