Called AutoFrost, the machine combines electronic sensors, computer programming, and precise mechanics with delicious gooey confections. Just doodle your design on a basic Microsoft Paint-like program, hit the button that says, “I’m ready to design an amazing cake,” and watch the frosting begin.
With the aid of supercomputers, we may soon have a new, extraordinary understanding of the human brain
Imagine a football stadium filled with 100,000 people on laptops, all networked together and working to solve the same computing problem. Now triple that number, and you’ll have the approximate computing power of some of the world’s most advanced supercomputers.
Machines like Jaguar and Kraken, both at the University of Tennessee, have a processing speed of about two petaflops, which means they can perform about 1015 calculations per second. Researchers are currently working towards exascale computing (that is, crunching over 1018 calculations per second), and some predict this may even be possible by the year 2020.
We all brush our teeth in the morning, but what if our toothpaste did more than just fight cavities?
Engineers at MIT’s Media Lab are working on a prototype toothpaste called “Tastes Like Rain” that will tell you what the weather is like outside. They came up with the idea while working on super-mechanicals, the process of taking a basic object, such as toothpaste, and giving it dynamic properties.
Even though the laser is now over 50 years old, its technology and applications continue to advance and grow. Now we can add a new item to the laser’s already impressive list of accomplishments: warding off pirates.
Over the past few years piracy has been on the rise, with 430 attacks reported in 2010. These attacks, which mostly happen between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, as well as off the coast of Somalia, cost the United States an estimated $13-$16 billion annually.
To combat the growing piracy threat, defense technology company BAE Systems has developed a system to help ships detect and deter potential attacks. A laser is mounted to the side of the vessel, allowing crew members to shine a three-foot-wide bright green beam over dangerous waters, temporarily blinding and disorienting pirates up to a mile away.
Think having a desk job would be boring? Think again.
A group of students and researchers at The Media Computing Group at RWTH Aachen University in Germany have designed a sleek desk/computer hybrid that could make your work days anything but dull.
The BendDesk, as it’s called, has a curved, ergonomic multi-touch interface that allows users to move and manipulate images and documents with ease, as well as play some pretty fun games.
