Tuesday, May 19, 2015
RoboRoach Lets Kids Turn Real Cockroaches Into iPhone Controlled Cyborgs
Robots are pretty cool, but have you ever wanted to create your own iPhone controlled cyborg? Backyard Brains is banking that a lot of kids are interested in cyborg technology and neuroscience (ethical dilemmas be damned),
so after three years of R&D they’ve come up with the RoboRoach – a small electronic surgery kit that lets you turn a real-life cockroach, into an iPhone-controlled cyborg for a few minutes.
The kit comes with a backpack that contains a battery and receiver you superglue to the cockroach after sanding down a patch of shell. You have to jab a groundwire into the cockroaches thorax, and then after that you carefully trim the antenna so you can stick some small electrodes onto both of them and receive signals from your iPhone. Don’t worry, the iPhone app and the cockroaches come free with the $99 kit, so you don’t have to go hunting for some behind your supermarket’s dumpster.
Obviously the kit also comes with a lot of ethical dilemmas. A spokeswoman from the Humane Society University of Washington said they hate the idea of kids knipping off the limps of a creature, slapping a neuron controller on its back, and then taking over its freewill for a few minutes, regardless of whether its done in the holy name of science or not.
Brackyard Brains says that the cockroaches can still go off and have normal cockroach lives after they’ve been put through the ringer. They’ll still be able to eat and mate, and the surgery is supposed to be painless thanks to the ice bath you dunk them in before the operation.
One bioethicist told Science Now that the RoboRoach is as horrible as the Imperius Curse from Harry Potter. Of course, telling kids that they can now do the Imperius Curse IRL will just make them even more giddy to torturue experiment with cockroach neurons and then figure out how to do it on other bugs. I can already hear the guttural shrieks from moms everywhere as their kids raise their iPhones and say, “Look ma’ I’m a wizard!” while their RoboRoach minions march across the kitchen floor.
Origine source: backyardbrains
Friday, April 3, 2015
Intel Compute Stick Turns Any HDTV Into A Windows PC
Intel has presented at the CES this year with an interesting device that reduces a complete computer with Windows 8 operating system to a device that fits in the palm of your hand. The new Intel Compute Stick is a dongle type or stick team, which has a size slightly larger than the Chromecast of Google, and to be connected or plugged directly into any screen or TV with HDMI input when turning on a computer operating system Windows 8.1, 2 GB RAM, 32 GB of internal storage, micro SD slot and USB port cards. It is an interesting proposal for US multinational that can be very useful as computer access, as it appears that its price will be about 150 euros approximately, or as a new type of portable PC for professionals.
The Intel Compute Stick is a small device that provides all the functionality of a PC in a small stick with HDMI connector that can be plugged into any display that has this type of digital input, which are almost all TVs and displays currently available market. As mentioned above, the Compute Stick has a somewhat larger than the Google Chromecast dimensions, and knowing that the device Mountain View firm measures exactly 72 × 35 × 12 mm, can get an idea of the size of the new Intel Compute Stick .
Taking a look at our hero, in one side we find an entry for micro SD cards, while on the opposite side we find a micro-USB connector that will serve to feed the dispositive, as the HDMI port cannot supply power. On this side we also find a standard USB port and switch. The front is reserved to the standard HDMI connector to plug the Compute Stick to your TV or any screen. Inside an cpu Intel Atom Z3735F quad core is responsible for providing the processing power of the computer. The RAM is 2GB and internal storage capacity of 32 GB. We can easily expand the internal memory by inserting a micro SD card slot, and to add or remove files from your computer have standard USB port.
Apart from the physical connections already described, the Intel Compute Stick is equipped with a WiFi for wireless port course and also features Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, a feature almost essential to connect a keyboard and a mouse when using the Compute Stick. Finally, for the operating system Intel has resorted to version 8.1 Bing of Microsoft Windows. It is expected that the new Intel Compute Stick to hit the market this year, and approximate retail price should be about 150 euros.
Intel Compute Stick - Turns Any HDTV Into A Windows PC