Wetwarehacker.com

Never far from my mind, after several years of focusing on other projects, Wetwarehacker.com is back! To kick us off, I have completely updated the main site with a new look and navigation. Please let me know what you think.

The decider

As a graduate student in the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems at Boston University, I expected to use my research training for a career in brain modeling, robot design, even biomedical engineering. However, I recently stumbled upon a more unexpected application of my PhD skills: winning $500,000 on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

The decider - The Boston Globe

Brain–computer interface offers paralyzed patients improved quality of life

Tuebingen, Germany. A brain–computer interface installed early enough in patients with neuron-destroying diseases can enable them to be taught to communicate through an electronic device and slow destruction of the nervous system.Fundamental theories regarding consciousness, emotion and quality of life in sufferers of paralysis from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, also known as 'Lou Gerhig's disease') are being challenged based on new research on brain-computer interaction. ALS is a progressive disease that destroys neurons affecting movement.

MTB Europe - Brain–computer interface offers paralyzed patients improved quality of life

Use your brain power to play Mindball

Who needs feet? You can control a ball with the power of your brain at the new Neurobotics exhibition at the Science Museum in London.The game is called Mindball - a neurofeedback game in which the most chilled-out brain wins. Mindball players sit at either end of a table, wearing a headband that scans their brains’ alpha and theta waves, measuring their state of relaxation and concentration.

Tech Digest: Use your brain power to play Mindball

ACE 2007 Game Conference Calls for Submissions

According to the organizers: "Recently, the field of computer entertainment technology has aroused great interest amongst researchers and developers in both academic and industrial fields as it is duly recognized to show high promise of bringing on exciting new forms of human computer interaction.""Now deemed to deserve both serious academic research, as well as major industry and business uptake, techniques used in computer entertainment are also seen to translate into advances in research ranging from industrial training, collaborative work, novel interfaces, novel multimedia, network computing, and ubiquitous computing."

Gamasutra - ACE 2007 Game Conference Calls for Submissions

Learn to use your initiative

As a coach in New York, Rock studied hundreds of coaching sessions and says the key to learning and changing is facilitating new connections in your brain. "It really is impossible to fix people in any way. You can only grow them in ways that reduce the problem." But in some ways the brain is working against us. At a recent book launch in Auckland, Rock said the brain is attracted to problems and attuned to always examine what is wrong with us.

Learn to use your initiative - 04 Nov 2006 - Employment

Trial Balloons

Many of MUSAC’s galleries felt like vast chill-out zones of a mega-club (with Trance music leaking throughout) or sophisticated ‘edutainment’ experiences. Truly to appreciate the abstract computer-generated videos by Katarina Löfström and Chris Rehberger, for example, seemed to require the zoned-out faculties of a chemical comedown. Then there were bright lights: Lang/Baumann’s Pocket Stadium (2005) and Gunda Förster’s 13-metre-long Tunnel (2002) throbbed with megawatt intensity. And participation: Shu-Min Lin’s digital pond of ‘holographic’ water-lilies and fish responded to the brainwaves of wired-up visitors

frieze

Electronic chip, interacting with the brain, modifies pathways for controlling movement

Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) are working on an implantable electronic chip that may help establish new nerve connections in the part of the brain that controls movement. Their most recent study, to be published in the Nov. 2, 2006, edition of Nature, showed such a device can induce brain changes in monkeys lasting more than a week. Strengthening of weak connections through this mechanism may have potential in the rehabilitation of patients with brain injuries, stroke, or paralysis.

Electronic chip, interacting with the brain, modifies pathways for controlling movement

Cisco's TelePresence: not yet virtual reality

Cisco has launched its upmarket videoconferencing system, TelePresence accompanied by claims that it is the only system that makes you feel as if you are in the same room with other people, even those on the other side of the world. But I've seen videoconferencing that's way in advance of this.

iTWire - Cisco's TelePresence: not yet virtual reality

Tame your brain to keep your cool

Niels Birbaumer and Ranganatha Sitaram from the University of Tübingen in Germany found that by showing healthy volunteers the activity levels of the insula, a brain region important in emotional processing, represented in real time as a thermometer bar on a screen, the volunteers could control their emotional responses.

Tame your brain to keep your cool - being-human - 28 October 2006 - New Scientist

Cross-train your brain

Science is showing evidence for what some have long felt are the benefits of cross-training your brain. Ask Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, why his undergraduate training in nuclear propulsion systems remains indispensable. "I'm not applying those exact skills every day, but it taught me ways to think through problems - visualizing, conceptualizing - that I do use every day," he told Fortune last year. "Your mind touches on these resources and you're not even conscious of it."

Secrets of greatness:�Multiple hobbies improve performance - October 30, 2006

Virtual-Reality Helmet Gives 360-Degree View

It's designed to show images in a 360-degree view — synched with the motion of the wearer's head to deliver the illusion of being someplace else: a cityscape at night, for example, or outer space.

FOXNews.com - Virtual-Reality Helmet Gives 360-Degree View - Technology News | News On Technology

Brain Chip Tested in Monkeys May Help Humans With Movement Disorders

A new brain chip under development established new connections in the brains of monkeys in a region that controls movement. Scientists hope to eventually make a version that could help humans with movement disorders.

FOXNews.com - Brain Chip Tested in Monkeys May Help Humans With Movement Disorders - Science News | Current Articles

Haunted house frightens with virtual reality 'prison'

Bringing together the virtual and the real, the Purdue Memorial Union will change into a prison this weekend.Students can escape Halloween boredom at Purdue Student Union Board's "Escape from Union Prison" for a delightfully wicked creepy crawler fright. The Envision Center and PSUB will jointly sponsor this Halloween treat, which will offer virtual and real frights.The twisted house of horror has two sections. It begins with a classically frightening haunted house located in Union Station across from the cafeteria in the Purdue Memorial Union.Next, participants are led into a virtual reality haunted house, where it takes a twist that causes you to face your fears and ask if you can truly believe your eyes.

The Exponent - Purdue's Student Newspaper

Good Information? It's Not All About The Brain

Olaf Sporns, associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at IU Bloomington, and UT's Max Lungarella used real and simulated robots in Sporns' Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory to create this mathematical framework, which they consider the first step toward the development of an explicit quantitative framework that unifies neural and behavioral processes.

ScienceDaily: Good Information? It's Not All About The Brain

Bioelectromagnetic Therapies: Science Fiction or Reality?

Electromagnetic therapies have certainly been around for a while. The first pacemakers were developed in the 1950s and the first implantable pacemaker was introduced in 1960. For chronic pain, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) has been FDA approved since the 1970s and works by suppressing pain signals to the brain. Several trends have driven growth in these technologies including: 1. Growing regulatory approval and reimbursement acceptance 2. Increasing acceptance of alternative medicine 3. Improved technology (in particular the miniaturization of electrical devices and improved software-driven intelligence of these devices)

MidwestBusiness.com: Midwest Business & Technology News

U-city control center to begin trial runs in Incheon

Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority and a consortium of information-technology firms signed a memorandum of understanding Monday to begin trial runs of a "u-city control center."The consortium is composed of IBM Korea, LG CNS Co. and SK Telecom Co.U-city control center is a facility that integrates and controls traffic and telecommunications in urban spaces through the ubiquitous sensor network, or USN.U-city is a futuristic city that allows people to get networked anytime, anywhere through a ubiquitous computing network.The project calls for an estimated budget of 1.8 billion won to test the validity of a standardized platform - which, if approved, will be used for the control center until March 2007.

The Korea Herald : The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper

Fast ForWord(R) Products Produce Enduring Neurological Changes

Two longitudinal studies of Idaho students using Scientific Learning Corporation's (NASDAQ: SCIL) Fast ForWord® software intervention found that the students not only made significant and dramatic gains in reading achievement and learning, but also continued to improve their skills more than a year later.

PRESS RELEASE Longitudinal Research Demonstrates That Fast ForWord(R) Products Produce Enduring Neurological Changes

Tacx

Got a good old boring cycling machine collecting dust in the corner of your house? It’s time to dump that thing and get yourself a new iMagic Virtual Reality Trainer from Tacx. This virtual reality biking system allows you to set different configurations including wind force, wind direction, and types of terrain. You can even cycle against other riders’ times and courses from all over the world via the internet.

i-Magic Virtual Reality Trainer Keeps You Cycling - SlashGear

Study shows seniors can learn to multi-task

The good news is that multi-tasking can be re-learned. Researchers at McMaster University have found that seniors, who typically have more difficulty than younger people dividing attention between two or more tasks at a time, can overcome these difficulties with practice. In fact, with practice, seniors can learn to do two tasks at the same time just as well as they can do one of those tasks in isolation.

Mountain News

Virtual companionship

Engineers at some of the leading technology centers are feverishly working on the next generation of technological marvels to address our lonesome high-tech existence. The field is called ``affective computing" and the goal is to create technology that can express emotion, interpret and respond to the emotions of their human handlers, and even establish a sense of intimacy with their human companions.

Virtual companionship - The Boston Globe

GPS-Like System Designed To Lead Blind

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers may have found a new technology used to lead the blind. The equipment is compared to a Global Positioning System, only on a smaller, more intimate scale.The System for Wearable Audio Navigation, or SWAN is attached to a headband and is essentially a "wearable computer." The headband's sensors can show the vision-impaired their way around a street block or their own home.

All Headline News - GPS-Like System Designed To Lead Blind - October 13, 2006

Analysis: Sci-Fi 'brain' restores motion

In a presentation at Wednesday's closing session of the 131st annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in Chicago, John Donoghue, director of the Brain Science Department at Brown University, Providence, R.I., said four people have been surgically implanted with electrodes in the brain."We are on a path that will allow patients to participate in their own rehabilitation and perhaps learn to operate an exo-skeleton that is neurally controlled," said Donoghue, founder of Cyperkinetics Inc., developers of the BrainGate device he demonstrated Wednesday.

United Press International - Health Business - Analysis: Sci-Fi 'brain' restores motion

Unselfish brain region discovered

Ever held back from taking that last piece of chocolate, offered your bus seat to a stranger or given a busker all your change? Scientists have located the region of your brain that made you do it, according to a new international study.

Unselfish brain region discovered | COSMOS magazine

Free your mind: a scientific approach to unleashing creativity

A neuroscientist claims he can unleash creativity by boosting low-frequency brainwaves - and he's tested the theory on 100 students at the Royal College of Music. Genevieve Roberts

How can musicians improve their performance skills without even picking up their instruments? It's not a trick question; in fact, neuroscience may have hit upon the answer. According to an exhibition at the Science Museum in London, the brain can be trained to slow itself down and, by doing so, lift musicians' performances by at least one grade.

Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology

Teenager plays Space Invaders with only his brain

While having a robotic assistant play video games for you might sound novel, it's certainly not as thrilling as interacting with the 1s and 0s yourself. A team of researchers, engineers, and students at Washington University in St. Louis have crafted a brain-computer interface system that allowed a 14-year old gamer suffering from epilepsy to cruise through the first two levels of Space Invaders using only his imagination.

Teenager plays Space Invaders with only his brain - Engadget

whitney music box

in this variation the dots trigger sine waves which are multiples of the fundamental frequency 20hzwhen multiple dots hit at the same time, they combine to form buzzier soundsmusic generated using my own syd synthesis softwareView this variation on a page by itself...

whitney music box var. 2 - harmonics of 20hz

Top IT companies embracing virtual reality

Among the space stations and vampire castles in the virtual world of Second Life, a new kind of development is emerging: IT expo. This week IBM, Intel and Sun separately staged events in the virtual world, which boasts a population of nearly 900,000.

Top IT companies embracing virtual reality - Network World

Neurofeedback Training

Salt Lake City, Utah (AHN) - A new study reveals that neurofeedback training may help normalize abnormal brain waves caused by some medical conditions.The study was published in the latest edition of Biofeedback a journal published by the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback.

All Headline News - Neurofeedback Training May Help Normalize Some Abnormal Brain Wave Patterns - October 13, 2006

The Art of the Brain

Co-curated with Giovanni Frazzetto, a Branco Weiss Fellow and molecular biologist, "Neuroculture" addressed three related themes: the landscape of the brain as mapped by imaging technology; conceptualized images of mind and consciousness; and pharmacological enhancement of the neurochemical self. Anker contributed to the exhibition a series of Rorschach inkblot tests made three-dimensional and distributed, seashell-like, among chunks of pyrite and other seemingly biological matter."Consciousness is layered by experience, education, and connoisseurship," said Anker, adding that these levels of awareness inform the way we look at images. "This is true of scientists looking at MRI scans as well as artists looking at a painting or a sculpture."

The Scientist : The Art of the Brain

USA: Researchers develops smart wearable computer pants

The researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have developed smart wearable computer pants that detect movement and let the computer know every move, press release stated here.Mark Jones, a computer scientist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg said, "We view electronic textiles as, sort of, where computing meets the fabric."

USA: Researchers develops smart wearable computer pants - Textile - Technology News - Textile News

Printed polymer electronics – the future of RFID

Polymer-based RFID tags are here to stay. But, as Brian Holliday explains, one company is aiming to manufacture the electronic components they require using high-volume printing techniques.A specialist company in the field of polymer electronics has introduced the world’s first fully functioning polymer-based eight-bit RFID tag that operates at the industry standard radio frequency of 13.56MHz.

Engineer Live!

Sensic's Virtual Reality System to Improve Vehicles, Road Safety

Sensic's piSightSensic's piSight, a 150-degree head-mounted virtual reality system, will be integrated into Renault's (manufacturer of environmentally-friendly vehicles worldwide) ULTIMATE driving simulator.The Renault ULTIMATE simulator is a driving simulation for industrial use that consists of a car cockpit, panoramic display, and driver-access systems with 15 databases of different road journeys.

Gearlog : Sensic's Virtual Reality System to Improve Vehicles, Road Safety

Microsoft Research Demos Some Technologies of the Future

REDMOND, Wash.—Microsoft Research demonstrated a number of cutting-edge technologies that are under development at an event here Sept. 26, including a transparent display that uses computer vision, technology that brings real-world aspects back into computing, and the use of spatial memory to navigate source code.

Microsoft Research Demos Some Technologies of the Future

Virtual Heroes' CTO Randy Brown to speak at Games for Health Annual Conference

Brown will speak as part of the Brain-based Biofeedback & Games for Health Session, demonstrating how biofeedback can be integrated as an assessment tool into projects dealing with medical team training and adaptive thinking & leadership. For this discussion, he will relate experience from his current role at Virtual Heroes and nearly two decades of experience directing scientific, graphics library, visualization, training, education, simulation, and gaming content for a wide range of commercial, government, and private organizations.

Virtual Heroes' CTO Randy Brown to speak at Games for Health Annual Conference - published in CarolinaNewswire.com. - Stay on top of the day's business & technology news.

Wearable Computers

The company has a new wearable computer coming in October called the WT4000. The devices are typically used in warehouses for loading and picking operations. Building on Symbol's 14 years in the wearable computer business, the WT4000 can be worn on the arm or the hip and be operated by text or speech. Brian Viscount, VP at Symbol's mobile computing division, adds that the device has a larger display and offers better battery life.

Unstrung - Symbol's Dunkin' Devices - Wireless Networking News Analysis

The body electric

When she’s asleep, a doctor will press a button and for a fraction of a second, an electrical stimulus will pass into her brain.Yes, electroconvulsive therapy or ECT — formerly known as electroshock — does still exist. About 100,000 patients will have these treatments in the United States this year, including more than 385 in South Carolina.

The State | 09/28/2006 | The body electric

MIT's Media Lab To Get $120 Million New Building

MIT's well-known Media Lab will get a new $120 million research facility with groundbreaking to take place in the spring, according to an announcement from the university.The 163,000-square-foot, six-story building will feature an open architecture designed to foster the Media Lab's collaborative research approach. The building was designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki.

MIT's Media Lab To Get $120 Million New Building - News by InformationWeek

Tomorrow's hot tech gear today

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Dancing robots, underwater "dolphin" vehicles and a solar panel car that can run in below-freezing temperatures may be technologies for tomorrow, but they're being talked about today.These and other products were just some of the gadgets on display at WIRED NextFest, a showcase of tech gear for the future that opened Friday and runs through Sunday in New York. The show drew visitors ranging from techies to school children.

Tomorrow's tech gear, gadgets debut at WIRED NextFest - Sep. 29, 2006

A step in the right direction

Five years ago, when the World Trade Centre fell, the shockwave rolled around the world. It ruined many lives, and sank a few companies. But who could have known that it would hit Sir Trevor Baylis's business so hard? Baylis, the British inventor best known for the wind-up radio, was developing a shoe that would charge your mobile phone battery as you walked. The shoe, complete with a slot for the battery, captured some of the energy discharged in the average human step, roughly eight watts, and used it to charge a phone over thousands of strides. Baylis had even walked 100 miles across the Namibian desert to raise money for the idea. But his idea collapsed along with the twin towers."After 9/11, anyone wearing electric shoes would look like a bomber. That's what you have to watch with any electric kit that you carry nowadays," muses Bailey.

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | A step in the right direction

HP researchers patent foot activated user interface

Nevermind those fancy thought-based biometric systems and brain controlled computers, as a clever group of inventors have patented a foot-activated user interface that can bring mousing abilities to those without hands / arms (or a suitable amount of dexterity). Three blokes working for HP's UK operation have developed a prototype in which humans can use their feet in order to mimic cursor movements more traditionally handled by the keyboard's right-hand man.

HP researchers patent foot activated user interface - Engadget

Browsing in the rain

Takashi Matsumoto, a doctoral student in the media design programme at Keio University in Tokyo, and undergraduates Sho Hashimoto and Shingo Iwata, are the inventors of the Pileus umbrella photo browser.The wi-fi connected umbrella with a built-in camera takes pictures and uploads them on to the photo-sharing website Flickr.com

The Engineer Online - [News: engineering news, engineering info, latest technology, manufacturing news, manufacturing info, automotive news, aerospace news, materials news, research & development]

Williams Syndrome, The Brain And Music

Children with Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, just love music and will spend hours listening to or making music. Despite averaging an IQ score of 60, many possess a great memory for songs, an uncanny sense of rhythm, and the kind of auditory acuity, than can discern differences between different vacuum cleaner brands.A study by a multi-institutional collaboration of scientists, published in a forthcoming issue of NeuroImage, identified structural abnormalities in a certain brain area of people afflicted with Williams syndrome. This might explain their heightened interest in music and, in some cases, savant-like musical skill.

Brain & Nervous System > Williams Syndrome, The Brain And Music