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Category: mobile phones – Page 140

What has been shaping the human mind throughout the history of mankind? What is the difference between mind and consciousness? What links quantum physics to consciousness? What gives rise to our subjective experience? What drives our accelerating evolution?

If you’re eager to familiarize with probably the most advanced ontological framework to date or if you’re already familiar with the Syntellect Hypothesis which, with this series, is now presented to you as the full-fledged Cybernetic Theory of Mind, you should get this book two of the series which corresponds to Part II of The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution. This volume two contains some newly-introduced and updated material if compared with the originally published version and can be read as a stand-alone book. At the same time, it is highly recommended to obtain The Syntellect Hypothesis as the original coherent version of the same theoretical framework instead of waiting for all five books to come out and if you don’t need extra detailing.

Over the course of human history, from the first bonfire to today’s smartphones and hyperloops, we have designed tools, and tools designed us back by shaping our minds. Technology isn’t just something outside ourselves, it’s an innate part of human nature, like sex, sleeping or eating, and it has been a major driving force in evolution. Tool using, along with language, bipedalism, and cooking (quite literally) is essentially what has made us human.

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For years, researchers have aimed to learn more about a group of metal oxides that show promise as key materials for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries because of their mysterious ability to store significantly more energy than should be possible. An international research team, co-led by The University of Texas at Austin, has cracked the code of this scientific anomaly, knocking down a barrier to building ultra-fast battery energy storage systems.

The team found that these possess unique ways to store energy beyond classic electrochemical mechanisms. The research, published in Nature Materials, found several types of compounds with up to three times the energy storage capability compared with materials common in today’s commercially available lithium-ion batteries.

By decoding this mystery, the researchers are helping unlock batteries with greater energy capacity. That could mean smaller, more powerful batteries able to rapidly deliver charges for everything from smartphones to electric vehicles.

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Qualcomm Technologies announced Monday that it conducted the first successful extended range 5G data call over mmWave.

Range has been a key obstacle for cellphone carriers as they move to mmWave technology to take advantage of faster 5G speeds. Qualcomm’s breakthrough could speed up deployment of 5G smartphones.

Qualcomm reported that it conducted a 5G call over a 2.36 mile distance, double the distance that it had projected when it unveiled its new antenna system last year. Qualcomm worked with Casa Systems, an ultra-broadband provider, and Ericsson, the multinational telecommunications company, on the project.

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Dye-sensitized solar cells used in low-light conditions could perform more consistently thanks to improved understanding of the role additives play in optimizing electrolytes.

Laptops and mobile phones, among other devices, could be charged or powered indoors, away from direct sunlight, using dye-sensitized solar (DSCs), which have achieved efficiencies of up to 34% at 1000 lux from a fluorescent lamp.

Copper-based electrolytes containing various combinations of additives have been used to achieve these efficiencies, with varying results to date.

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Keyed locks are relatively easy to pick if you’ve spent enough time mastering the skill. But researchers at the National University of Singapore have just made it even easier. If you can use a smartphone to record a sound, you can capture all the information you need to create a working duplicate of a key.

The newfound vulnerability – although it’s more a case of modern technology compromising an outdated technology – was discovered by cyberphysical systems researcher Soundarya Ramesh and a team at the National University of Singapore. The attack, called SpiKey, works on what are known as pin tumbler locks that are opened using a key with a unique ridge pattern on its edge. As the key slides into the lock, the ridges push six metal spring-backed pins to different heights which, when all are properly aligned, allow a tumbler to turn and a lock to be opened. They’re one of the most common types of locks out there, used in everything from doors to padlocks, which makes this attack especially concerning.

To open a pin tumbler lock without the key, a locksmith (or lock pick) uses a specialised set of tools to manually adjust the height of each pin, one by one, until they figure out the unique arrangement needed for the tumbler to turn. The SpiKey technique is magnitudes easier, and requires little to no special skills, aside from the ins and outs of operating a 3D printer.

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While Photoshop can do a pretty good job at removing shadows from faces, there’s a fair amount of legwork involved. One scientist has shown that neural networks and artificial intelligence can produce some very impressive results, suggesting that it will soon be a part of how we edit our photos.

Károly Zsolnai-Fehér of Two Minute Papers and the Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna University of Technology, Austria, just released a video demonstrating how he has taught a neural network using large data sets to recognize and eliminate shadows from a face in a photograph. As detailed in the video, the neural network was taught by giving it photographs of faces to which shadows had been added artificially.

Given its effectiveness and the quality of the results, it seems only a matter of time before smartphones give you the option to remove shadows. In theory, you might even be able to switch on shadow removal while taking the photograph.

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