Lifeboat Foundation

The leader of the payments business looks to the future and says Bitcoin is a good idea — but not yet actually a currency. Tap-to-pay, meanwhile, is a dud.

By Stephanie Pappas, Senior Writer

Picture the scene: It’s a few days before Christmas. Your fridge is stocked with ingredients for a feast — and it knows exactly when you bought each item so you don’t use anything past its expiration date.

Your Aunt Edna flies in today and will reach your house before you’re home from work, so you use your smartphone to tell your garage door to open to let her in. Oops, you forgot to program the thermostat to heat the house up early, but no worries. Motion sensors embedded in your home will cue your heating system to start cranking when she enters.

Continue reading “Incredible Tech: How Life Will Change With Smart Homes” »

Tim Parker, Benzinga Staff Writer

Before scientists create something that has mainstream uses, it often starts as science fiction.

A new technology deep within IBM’s (NYSE: IBM [FREE Stock Trend Analysis]) Singapore research facility isn’t quite ready for the mainstream but when it is, the implications for those who suffer from fungal infections and later, other infections, could have a new ally in their fight but this ally is completely different than current treatments.

If you’re a fan of Star Trek, you’ve seen nanotechnology. These are microscopic machines that get inside machines or in this case, the body, to identify and fix problems.

Continue reading “IBM Creates Nanotechnology to Battle Fungal Infections” »

By Danielle Elliot CBS News

German postal carrier Deutsche Post DHL is testing a drone delivery service that could deliver medical and food supplies to areas with minimal road access.

Continue reading “DHL testing delivery drones” »

Mike Isaac

Facebook is diving headlong into AI.

The company plans to launch expand its research laboratory dedicated entirely to artificial intelligence, and has hired New York University professor Yann LeCun to spearhead the effort.

The goal, according to LeCun, is long-term: To bring about major advances in the field, while doubling down in a research partnership with NYU to intensely study machine learning, data science and artificial intelligence.

Continue reading “Facebook Steps Up Artificial-Intelligence Efforts With New Research Lab” »

By David Meyer

Summary:

The incident, which was probably a case of the French finance ministry going overboard in its efforts to monitor employee activities, provides a timely reminder of how certificates are the weak point in online security.

Google appears to have caught the French finance ministry spying on its workers’ internet traffic by spoofing Google security certificates, judging from an episode that took place last week.

Continue reading “Google catches French finance ministry pretending to be Google” »

By Shane Taylor On Mon, December 9, 2013 ·

By Barry Eitel

Well, maybe Star Trek isn’t really that far away. An announcement a few months ago from physicist Harold White surprised many in the space community. White claimed that he and a NASA team were working on developing faster than light warp drive.

White spoke to website io9 last month to explain the project, which combines Einstein’s theory of relativity, the latest in science and a touch of science fiction.

Continue reading “NASA Working on Faster-Than-Light Space Travel” »

By John Hewitt

Simple tasks, like plucking the stem off a cherry, are still monumental challenges for artificial hands. With a bill of materials perhaps a few hundred components long, it is not surprising that their functionality is low compared with one assembled from trillions of components. A new prosthetic bionic hand, designed and built by researchers at Case Western University is now capable of using measurements from 20 sensor points to control the grip force of its digits. Incredibly, the sensor data is linked directly to the sensory nerves in the patient’s forearm. The control for the grip closure is then extracted myoelectrically from the normal biological return loop to the muscles in the forearm.

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