November 27, 2008 by sean.

Voice navigation takes a step forward with the new Google iPhone app:

Posted in software, augmented cognition, mobile computing | No Comments »

November 25, 2008 by sean.

The Bionic Brain slides from the DevLearn 2008 conference are now available on patternhunter.com.

Posted in work, pervasive computing, augmented cognition, collective intelligence, mobile computing | No Comments »

November 19, 2008 by sean.

More on “brain training” [via techradar]:

Researchers at the Universite de Montreal found that cognitive workouts for athletes can boost their reaction speeds by up to 53 per cent.

Professor Jocelyn Faubert put a dozen football, tennis and hockey players through multiple object-tracking exercises, then measured their ability to absorb and manage lots of information simultaneously.

Posted in games and simulations, science, neuroscience, bionics | No Comments »

November 18, 2008 by sean.

Posted in science, social networks | No Comments »

November 18, 2008 by sean.

Researchers use game theory to explain how natural selection can prevent individuals in a species from evolving toward a single optimum personality [via PhysOrg]:

“More generally, the question of ‘why personality variation evolves’ requires a more complex answer, which we’re only just starting to unravel as evolutionary biologists,” [Sasha Dall of the University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus] said. “The chances are that there isn’t just one reason, and which particular reason is relevant depends on the context.

So far, our social awareness reason is one of the few that has been proposed to explain variation in a cooperative context. Social awareness also appears to work in an aggressive context: individuals adopt consistent levels of aggression to avoid getting in real fights, since if someone can predict you’re going to be aggressive, they will avoid provoking you; individual differences arise via frequency dependence again, as the more aggression there is around you, the less you should bother fighting – this is the famous Hawk-Dove game outcome.”

Posted in games and simulations, science | No Comments »

November 16, 2008 by sean.

Scientists [and others] debate the value and results of “brain training” games [via Times Online]:

Susanne Jaeggi, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, may be able to help. She has devised a brain-training game that actually works. It’s a strange, complex game involving sequences of squares on a computer screen, and it definitely improves “fluid intelligence” — the part of your mind that deals directly with the raw newness of experience or, as defined by Jaeggi, “the ability to reason and to solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge”.

And there is some evidence that the games in MindFit (mindweavers.com ) do work. Baroness (Susan) Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, says it does. Short-term memory and basic reaction time are said to be improved by 20 minutes’ play three times a week.

The brain is not, as the brain trainers like to say, a muscle. It is a 1.3-kilogram crème caramel-like mix of fat, water and proteins driven by electricity and chemicals called neurotransmitters. As far as we know, it is, unless it belongs to Kerry Katona, the most complex thing in the universe. It’s made to last, at best, about 100 years. It shrinks and deteriorates with age. By the time you’re 30 you’re probably past your intellectual peak. This is a problem, as we’re living longer and longer, and the danger is that we’ll just get stupider and stupider.

…while others are asking, Is Google making us stupid? [via searchengineland]:

Remapping neural circuitry? Reprogramming the memory! One gets the picture of a gremlin armed with wire cutters and a chain saw, having their way with our cortex. But the fact is, “remapping” and “reprogramming” happens every day. If it didn’t, you’d never remember your phone number or where you lived. The forging of new neural connections and the pruning of old ones are the basic functions of our brains. It’s how our brain works.

But the UCLA findings might indicate something more permanent, something related to the recent discovery that neuroplasticity, once thought to only be present in the very young, is now known to be a property of our brains throughout our lives. By the way, Small’s other work does show a significant divide between the online skills of the young (Digital Natives) and older generations (Digital Immigrants).

First of all, let’s understand how we learn. Learning involves creating new neuronal firing paths. Basically, as we learn we increase the potential of neurons responsible for storing the new knowledge to fire together. Donald Hebbs called it “fire together, wire together”. Each time the network of neurons fires, the potential to fire again is increased. That’s why things get easier, the more we do them.

Speaking of Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and author of iBrain, he and his colleagues [via UCLA Newsroom]…

have found that for computer-savvy middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function…

“The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults,” said principal investigator Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA who holds UCLA’s Parlow-Solomon Chair on Aging. “Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function.”

And with all of this neuro-enhancement going on, others are learning more about how the brain sleeps [via Scientific American]:

If you’re too tired to think straight, it might be because parts of your brain are already asleep at the wheel. A team of neuroscientists from Washington State University is challenging the belief that a specific region of the brain makes the call to hit the sack. Instead, our brains power down in stages, the researchers say. If a certain group of cells in our brain gets fatigued, it simply shuts off. Surrounding areas respond in kind and also begin to doze. Once a critical mass of gray matter reaches this point, our brain calls it a day. The research will appear in the December issue of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

Posted in neuroscience, augmented cognition | No Comments »

November 14, 2008 by sean.

New report on medical applications of brain-computer interfaces via eurekalerts]:

Scientists have shown for the first time that neuroprosthetic brain implants may be able to help stroke patients with partial paralysis.

Researchers found that implants known as brain-computer interfaces (BCI) may be able to detect activity on one side of the brain that is linked to hand and arm movements on the same side of the body. They hope to use these signals to guide motorized assistance mechanisms that restore mobility in partially paralyzed limbs.

Posted in neuroscience, bionics | No Comments »

November 12, 2008 by sean.

The future-predicting technology that drives the premise of the sci-fi blockbuster Minority Report is silly at best. And when the film hit theaters in 2002, the gadgets seemed pretty unrealistic, too. But eerily enough the slew of dreamed-up gizmos showed off throughout John Anderton’s daring escape are hardening into reality. [via wired]:

Posted in scifi, fun, pervasive computing | No Comments »

November 11, 2008 by sean.

One step closer to the bionic eye [via govtech]:

Engineers at the University of Washington have developed contact lenses with integrated circuitry. The lenses have the same properties as traditional contacts and were worn by lab rabbits for 20-minute stretches without displaying ill effects. A possible use for such lenses might be personal displays. Drivers could see vehicle information or wearers could access their own private video display and surf the Web or watch movies. The circuitry is made of metal strands less than 10 nanometers wide — thinner than a hair strand. Engineers are also working on integrating LEDs into the bionic lenses to enhance the lenses’ display capabilities.

Posted in science, bionics | No Comments »

November 9, 2008 by sean.

Right out of an early William Gibson cyberpunk novel, doctors are testing clectronic implants and electromagnetic pulses to address failures of psychoactive drugs to treat depression [via ieee spectrum]:

Depression is distressingly common, affecting more than 120 million people around the world and sucking tens of billions of dollars out of the global economy through the cost of care and lost productivity. It’s also deadly. Every year 850 000 people worldwide take their own lives, and 9 out of 10 of them are suffering from depression, another mental illness, or substance abuse. Statistics show that of those who had had treatment for depression just through visits to a doctor’s office, 2 percent ultimately committed suicide, as did 4 percent of those who had to be hospitalized for depression.

Twenty-five percent of people with depression have no access to any form of mental health care; of those who do have access to care, only a quarter seek treatment. Of those who consult doctors, some 80 percent find relief in the form of drugs or some kind of talk therapy, such as cognitive therapy… But some of these methods [for electrically manipulating specific portions of the brain with implanted electrodes, electric current, or magnetic fields] are already showing great promise for treating such other mental maladies as bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and bulimia…

[V]agus nerve stimulation [is a] pacemakerlike device about the size of a pocket watch, implanted under the skin of the chest… that [uses] electric pulsing [that] completely quashes the symptoms of depression [in about 16 percent of patients]. It was approved as a depression therapy, for use in conjunction with drugs, by government regulators in the European Union and Canada in 2001. Last June, it became the first psychiatric device to be reviewed and approved in the United States, which has more stringent requirements for medical devices. Nevertheless, a number of psychiatrists remain unconvinced that the therapy works in enough people to outweigh the risk and cost of surgery.

Posted in science, neuroscience | No Comments »

November 8, 2008 by sean.

When the recently deceased Michael Crichton wrote about cloning dead animals in 1991’s Jurassic Park it was still science fiction [via MailOnline]:

Scientists have created clones of a mouse that had been dead and frozen for 16 years.

It is the first time they have been able to clone a frozen animal.

The Japanese researchers say their work will benefit mankind - and could be used to bring back extinct animals such as the woolly mammoth or sabre tooth tiger.

Posted in scifi, science | No Comments »

November 2, 2008 by sean.

David Spark catalogs some great “Twitter moments” that demonstrate some unique advantages of microblogging [via mashable]:

Being a Twitter user (@dspark) for some time now, I like many others have become evangelical about the micro-blogging tool.

I believe what makes Twitter so valuable are these moments of connectivity that simply aren’t possible through any other communications tool. I’ve had these “Twitter moments” and I set out to discover “Twitter moments” from others as well. What all the following stories have in common is a Twitter user had a question or a concern, and someone (or many people) responded. Twitter was the connective tissue that made that moment happen in a time of need.

Speaking of Twitter trends, Bruno Peeters created the following graph…

based on the twitterers I found from Belgium (over 200), my home country. Each Belgian twitterer is indicated as an ellipse, all other twitterers (over 500) are represented as a dot.

There are twitterers from Belgium using their mother tongue (Dutch or French). Others however prefer to use English. These twitterers are far more often connected to other twitterers from all over the world. Interesting enough, there are quite a few twitterers who are not connected at all to other persons on the Twitter platform. If a graph is based on friends, these persons will be missed.

Posted in software, collective intelligence, mobile computing, social networks | No Comments »