Can you upload a human mind into a computer? A neuroscientist ponders what’s possible

The human brain has 86 billion neurons that make trillions of connections. Grafissimo/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

Dobromir Rahnev, Georgia Institute of Technology

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

Is it possible to upload the consciousness of your mind into a computer? – Amreen, age 15, New Delhi, India

The concept, cool yet maybe a little creepy, is known as mind uploading. Think of it as a way to create a copy of your brain, a transmission of your mind and consciousness into a computer. There you would live digitally, perhaps forever. You’d have an awareness of yourself, you’d retain your memories and still feel like you. But you wouldn’t have a body.

Within that simulated environment, you could do anything you do in real life – eating, driving a car, playing sports. You could also do things impossible in the real world, like walking through walls, flying like a bird or traveling to other planets. The only limit is what science can realistically simulate.

Doable? Theoretically, mind uploading should be possible. Still, you may wonder how it could happen. After all, researchers have barely begun to understand the brain.

Yet science has a track record of turning theoretical possibilities into reality. Just because a concept seems terribly, unimaginably difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Consider that science took humankind to the Moon, sequenced the human genome and eradicated smallpox. Those things too were once considered unlikely.

As a brain scientist who studies perception, I fully expect mind uploading to one day be a reality. But as of today, we’re nowhere close.

Living in a laptop

The brain is often regarded as the most complex object in the known universe. Replicating all that complexity will be extraordinarily difficult.

One requirement: The uploaded brain needs the same inputs it always had. In other words, the external world must be available to it. Even cloistered inside a computer, you would still need a simulation of your senses, a reproduction of the ability to see, hear, smell, touch, feel – as well as move, blink, detect your heart rate, set your circadian rhythm and do thousands of other things.

But why is that? Couldn’t you just exist in a pure mental bubble, inside the computer without sensory input?

Depriving people of their senses, like putting them in total darkness, or in a room without sound, is known as sensory deprivation, and it’s regarded as a form of torture. People who have trouble sensing their bodily signals – thirst, hunger, pain, an itch – often have mental health challenges.

That’s why for mind uploading to work, the simulation of your senses and the digital environment you’re in must be exceptionally accurate. Even minor distortions could have serious mental consequences.

For now, researchers don’t have the computing power, much less the scientific knowledge, to perform such simulations.

New and updated scanning technology is a necessity.

Scanning billions of pinheads

The first task for a successful mind upload: Scanning, then mapping the complete 3D structure of the human brain. This requires the equivalent of an extraordinarily sophisticated MRI machine that could detail the brain in an advanced way. At the moment, scientists are only at the very early stages of brain mapping – which includes the entire brain of a fly and tiny portions of a mouse brain.

In a few decades, a complete map of the human brain may be possible. Yet even capturing the identities of all 86 billion neurons, all smaller than a pinhead, plus their trillions of connections, still isn’t enough. Uploading this information by itself into a computer won’t accomplish much. That’s because each neuron constantly adjusts its functioning, and that has to be modeled, too.

It’s hard to know how many levels down researchers must go to make the simulated brain work. Is it enough to stop at the molecular level? Right now, no one knows.

Technological immortality comes with significant ethical concerns.

2045? 2145? Or later?

Knowing how the brain computes things might provide a shortcut. That would let researchers simulate only the essential parts of the brain, and not all biological idiosyncrasies. It’s easier to manufacture a new car knowing how a car works, compared to attempting to scan and replicate an existing car without any knowledge of its inner workings.

However, this approach requires that scientists figure out how the brain creates thoughts – how collections of thousands to millions of neurons come together to perform the computations that make the human mind come alive. It’s hard to express how very far we are from this.

Here’s another way: Replace the 86 billion real neurons with artificial ones, one at a time. That approach would make mind uploading much easier. Right now, though, scientists can’t replace even a single real neuron with an artificial one.

But keep in mind the pace of technology is accelerating exponentially. It’s reasonable to expect spectacular improvements in computing power and artificial intelligence in the coming decades.

One other thing is certain: Mind uploading will certainly have no problem finding funding. Many billionaires appear glad to part with lots of their money for a shot at living forever.

Although the challenges are enormous and the path forward uncertain, I believe that one day, mind uploading will be a reality. The most optimistic forecasts pinpoint the year 2045, only 20 years from now. Others say the end of this century.

But in my mind, both of these predictions are probably too optimistic. I would be shocked if mind uploading works in the next 100 years. But it might happen in 200 – which means the first person to live forever could be born in your lifetime.

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Dobromir Rahnev, Associate Professor of Psychology, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Can you upload a human mind into a computer? A neuroscientist ponders what’s possible | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→September 16, 2026

Quantum computers are coming to break our codes faster than anyone expected

Craig Costello, Queensland University of Technology

Online data is generally pretty secure. Assuming everyone is careful with passwords and other protections, you can think of it as being locked in a vault so strong that even all the world’s supercomputers, working together for 10,000 years, could not crack it.

But last month, Google and others released results suggesting a new kind of computer – a quantum computer – might be able to open the vault with significantly less resources than previously thought.

The changes are coming on two fronts. On one, tech giants such as IBM and Google are racing to build ever-larger quantum computers: IBM hopes to achieve a genuine advantage over classical computers in some special cases this year, and an even more powerful “fault-tolerant” system by 2029.

On the other front, theorists are refining quantum algorithms: recent work shows the resources needed to break today’s cryptography may be far lower than earlier estimates.

The net result? The day quantum computers can break widely used cryptography – portentously dubbed “Q Day” – may be approaching faster than expected.

The quantum hardware race

Quantum computers are built from quantum bits, or qubits, which use the counterintuitive properties of very tiny objects to carry out computations in a different and sometimes far more efficient way from traditional computers.

So far the technology is in its infancy, with the major goal to increase the number of qubits that can be connected to work as a single computer. Bigger quantum computers should be much better at some things than their traditional counterparts – they will have a “quantum advantage”.

Late last year, IBM unveiled a 120-qubit chip which it hopes will demonstrate a quantum advantage for some tasks.

Google also recently announced it planned to speed up its move to adopt encryption techniques that should be safe against quantum computers, known as post-quantum cryptography.

Alongside these tech giants, newer approaches are also flourishing. PsiQuantum is using light-based qubits and traditional chip-manufacturing technology. Experimental platforms such as neutral-atom systems have demonstrated control over thousands of qubits in laboratory settings.

In response, standards bodies and national agencies are setting increasingly concrete timelines for moving away from common encryption systems that are vulnerable to quantum attack.

In the United States, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has proposed a transition away from quantum-vulnerable cryptography, with migration largely completed by 2035. In Australia, the Australian Signals Directorate has issued similar guidance, urging organisations to begin planning immediately and transition to post-quantum cryptography by 2030.

Algorithms make the lock-picking faster

Hardware is only half the story. Equally important are advances in quantum algorithms – ways to use quantum computers to attack encryption.

Much interest in quantum computer development was spurred by Peter Shor’s 1994 discovery of an algorithm that showed how quantum computers could efficiently find the prime factors of very large numbers. This mathematical trick is precisely what you need to break the common RSA encryption method.

For decades, it was believed a quantum computer would need millions of physical qubits to pose a threat to real-world encryption. This is far bigger than current systems, so the threat felt comfortably distant.

That picture is now changing.

In March 2026, Google’s Quantum AI team released a detailed study showing that far fewer resources may be needed to attack a different kind of encryption which uses mathematical objects called elliptic curves. This is what systems including Bitcoin and Ethereum use – and the study shows how a quantum computer with fewer than half a million physical qubits may be able to crack it in minutes.

That’s still a long way beyond current quantum computers, but around ten times less than earlier estimates.

At the same time, a March 2026 preprint from a Caltech–Berkeley–Oratomic collaboration explores what might be possible using neutral-atom quantum computers. The researchers estimate that Shor’s algorithm could be implemented with as few as 10,000–20,000 atomic qubits. In one design they propose, a system with around 26,000 qubits could crack Bitcoin’s encryption in a few days, while tougher problems like the RSA method with a 2048-bit key would need more time and resources.

In plain terms: the codebreakers are becoming more efficient. Advances in algorithms and design are steadily lowering the bar for quantum attacks, even before large-scale hardware exists.

What now?

So what does this mean in practice?

First, there is no immediate catastrophe – today’s cryptography won’t be broken overnight. But the direction of travel is clear. Each improvement in hardware or algorithms reduces the gap between current capabilities and useful quantum cracking machines.

Second, viable defences already exist. NIST has standardised several post-quantum cryptographic algorithms which are believed to be resistant to quantum attacks.

Technology companies have begun deploying these in hybrid modes: Google Chrome and Cloudflare, for example, already support post-quantum protections in some protocols and services.

Systems that rely heavily on elliptic-curve cryptography – including cryptocurrencies and many secure communication protocols – will need particular attention. Google’s recent work explicitly highlights the need to migrate blockchain systems to post-quantum schemes.

Finally, this is a two-front race. It is not enough to track progress in quantum hardware alone. Advances in algorithms and error correction can be just as important, and recent results show these improvements can significantly reduce the estimated cost of attacks.

Every new headline about reduced qubit counts or faster quantum algorithms should be understood for what it is: another step toward a future where today’s cryptographic assumptions no longer hold.

The only reliable defence is to move – deliberately but decisively – toward quantum-safe cryptography.

Craig Costello, Professor, School of Computer Science, Queensland University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→April 10, 2026

Australia’s supercomputers are falling behind – and it’s hurting our ability to adapt to climate change

Christian Jakob, Monash University

As Earth continues to warm, Australia faces some important decisions.

For example, where should we place solar and wind energy infrastructure to reliably supply Australians with electricity? How can we secure our food production and freshwater supply? Should we invest in bigger dams to increase our resilience to drought, or better flood mitigation to manage more intense rainfall?

Deciding on the best path forward depends on having reliable and detailed information about about how wind, water and sunlight will behave in our future. This information is provided by climate models, large computer simulations of Earth that are based on the fundamental laws of physics and contain everything from the Sun’s radiation, the carbon cycle and clouds to the ocean circulation in mathematical equations.

Running these models requires the most powerful computers available – also known as supercomputers – as well as large amounts of space to store the model results for use by governments, businesses and scientists alike.

But right now, Australia’s supercomputers are falling behind the rest of the world – and this constitutes a serious risk to our ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

What is a supercomputer?

What makes a computer a supercomputer is its computing size and as a result, its ability to perform a huge number of calculations in a very short time.

Australia has two main national supercomputers for research: Gadi and Setonix.

Gadi, located at the National Computational Infrastructure at the Australian National University in Canberra, is the main machine used in climate computing in Australia. It contains a vast number of computer chips known as central processing units (CPUs) and graphical processing units (GPUs). It has more than 250,000 CPUs and 640 GPUs. It is the CPUs that have made Gadi the Australian climate computer of choice.

Compare this with my humble Macbook Pro M3, which effectively sports 11 CPUs and 12 GPUs, and you understand why Gadi is called a supercomputer.

There has always been a strong connection between supercomputing and climate modelling, with climate models steadily improving as scientists access bigger and better supercomputers.

The secret lies in being able to divide Earth into finer and finer pieces and adding more of the important processes that affect our weather and climate. Both enhance the reliability of the model results.

While most climate models divide Earth into a grid of squares roughly 100km in size, the most advanced global climate models today simulate the behaviour of Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, land and ice using a grid of only a few kilometres. It’s like going from a grainy black and white television to an ultra high-definition one.

Doing so requires the most advanced supercomputers. These include LUMI in Europe and the Frontier machine in the United States.

These big machines aren’t just tools for climate scientists. They also underpin the operational delivery of climate information to all sectors of society safeguarding property and lives in the process.

A kilometre-scale climate modelling system for societal applications has just been developed in the European Union. Known as the “Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin”, it represents a major leap forward in our understanding of how climate change will impact Earth – and our ability to respond to it.

How does Australia stack up globally?

So how does Australia stack up in the quest to have a supercomputer that can produce the best climate information possible to future-proof our nation?

The Gadi supercomputer is currently ranked 179th in the world. It was in 24th position in 2020, when it was introduced.

For comparison, the Frontier supercomputer is ranked 2nd. The LUMI supercomputer is ranked 9th. Topping the list is El Capitan supercomputer in the US.

In May 2025 the federal government announced A$55 million to renew Gadi.

This is roughly two-thirds of the funding it received for its previous upgrade in 2019, and will only lead to a moderate increase in our climate computing abilities – well behind the rest of the world.

A major disadvantage

This puts Australia at a major disadvantage when it comes to planning for the future.

But why can’t we just use the more advanced models and supercomputers developed elsewhere?

First, apart from our own ACCESS global model, all climate models are built in the Northern Hemisphere. This means they are calibrated to do well there, with limited attention paid to our region.

Second, making good decisions about Australia’s future requires us to be self-sufficient when it comes to simulating the climate system using scenarios defined by us and relevant to our region.

This has recently been brought into sharp focus with recent cuts to climate science in the US.

In short, good decisions on our future require self-sufficiency in climate modelling. We actually have the software (the ACCESS model itself) to this, but the current and planned supercomputing and data infrastructure to run it on is simply outdated.

An ambitious solution

Learning lessons from the international community, it is time to think big and integrate the power of existing climate modelling with the emerging abilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to build a “digital twin” of Australia.

With weather and climate at its heart, the digital twin can enable directly integrated new major features of Australia such as its ecosystems, cities and energy and transport systems.

The cost of such a facility and the research and operational need to enable it is large. But the cost of poor decisions based on outdated information could be even higher.

Christian Jakob, Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for the Weather of the 21st Century, Monash University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→December 16, 2025

This Bracelet from Meta Translates Hand Movements into Computer Actions

Meta’s Neuromotor Interface – credit, Reality Labs, via Springer Press

A very sci-fi invention has been introduced by engineers from Facebook’s parent company that translates hand gestures into computer actions.

This includes fine motor movements like dotting a lowercase i, and translating handwriting into computer text is something the interface is particularly good at.

Designed inside Meta’s Reality Labs, it’s one of the first major offerings from the in-house moonshot department since the collapse of the company’s “Metaverse” concept which was once expected to “define the future of social connection” according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who renamed his company in its honor.

The Metaverse ended up being less of a future-defining technology and more like a damp squib, with the Reality Labs division of Meta losing $14 billion in 2022 and $15 billion in 2023.

Reality Labs was on the chopping block during Meta’s Year of Efficiency, with perhaps as many as 10,000 layoffs taking place in advance of a direction shift to what almost anyone would admit is a more exciting and marketable business direction: stuff that looks like it’s from Star Trek.

The device can translate the electrical signals generated by muscle movements at the wrist into computer commands without the need for personalized calibration or invasive procedures. The bracelet slips on and off as easily as, well, a bracelet.

Technical engineers Patrick Kaifosh and Thomas Reardon who oversaw its development then used deep learning to create generic decoding models that accurately interpret the muscle movements across different people without needing individual calibration, and the more participants who used it, the more accurate the deep learning decoding model became.

However, accuracy and performance was then further increased with personalization, offering a recipe for building high performance biosignal decoders for many applications.

The bracelet works on a Bluetooth connection, and among the various tasks it proved capable of carrying out, its translation of human handwriting movements into text could be done at a speed of 20.9 words per minute, around 16 fewer than the average mobile phone user’s speed.As to exactly who benefits most from the device, a variety of disabilities and paralysis situations immediately come to mind, as well as the obvious benefits for below-the-elbow amputees, or someone using multiple computers and/or monitors at the same time. This Bracelet from Meta Translates Hand Movements into Computer Actions

Read More........→August 04, 2025

Australian researchers use a quantum computer to simulate how real molecules behave

Ivan Kassal, University of Sydney and Tingrei Tan, University of Sydney

When a molecule absorbs light, it undergoes a whirlwind of quantum-mechanical transformations. Electrons jump between energy levels, atoms vibrate, and chemical bonds shift — all within millionths of a billionth of a second.

These processes underpin everything from photosynthesis in plants and DNA damage from sunlight, to the operation of solar cells and light-powered cancer therapies.

Yet despite their importance, chemical processes driven by light are difficult to simulate accurately. Traditional computers struggle, because it takes vast computational power to simulate this quantum behaviour.

Quantum computers, by contrast, are themselves quantum systems — so quantum behaviour comes naturally. This makes quantum computers natural candidates for simulating chemistry.

Until now, quantum devices have only been able to calculate unchanging things, such as the energies of molecules. Our study, published this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, demonstrates we can also model how those molecules change over time.

We experimentally simulated how specific real molecules behave after absorbing light.

Simulating reality with a single ion

We used what is called a trapped-ion quantum computer. This works by manipulating individual atoms in a vacuum chamber, held in place with electromagnetic fields.

Normally, quantum computers store information using quantum bits, or qubits. However, to simulate the behaviour of the molecules, we also used vibrations of the atoms in the computer called “bosonic modes”.

This technique is called mixed qudit-boson simulation. It dramatically reduces how big a quantum computer you need to simulate a molecule.

We simulated the behaviour of three molecules absorbing light: allene, butatriene, and pyrazine. Each molecule features complex electronic and vibrational interactions after absorbing light, making them ideal test cases.

Our simulation, which used a laser and a single atom in the quantum computer, slowed these processes down by a factor of 100 billion. In the real world, the interactions take femtoseconds, but our simulation of them played out in milliseconds – slow enough for us to see what happened.

A million times more efficient

What makes our experiment particularly significant is the size of the quantum computer we used.

Performing the same simulation with a traditional quantum computer (without using bosonic modes) would require 11 qubits, and to carry out roughly 300,000 “entangling” operations without errors. This is well beyond the reach of current technology.

By contrast, our approach accomplished the task by zapping a single trapped ion with a single laser pulse. We estimate our method is at least a million times more resource-efficient than standard quantum approaches.

We also simulated “open-system” dynamics, where the molecule interacts with its environment. This is typically a much harder problem for classical computers.

By injecting controlled noise into the ion’s environment, we replicated how real molecules lose energy. This showed environmental complexity can also be captured by quantum simulation.

What’s next?

This work is an important step forward for quantum chemistry. Even though current quantum computers are still limited in scale, our methods show that small, well-designed experiments can already tackle problems of real scientific interest.

Simulating the real-world behaviour of atoms and molecules is a key goal of quantum chemistry. It will make it easier to understand the properties of different materials, and may accelerate breakthroughs in medicine, materials and energy.

We believe that with a modest increase in scale — to perhaps 20 or 30 ions — quantum simulations could tackle chemical systems too complex for any classical supercomputer. That would open the door to rapid advances in drug development, clean energy, and our fundamental understanding of chemical processes that drive life itself.

Ivan Kassal, Professor of Chemical Physics, University of Sydney and Tingrei Tan, Research Fellow, Quantum Control Laboratory, University of Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→May 24, 2025

2025 will see huge advances in quantum computing. So what is a quantum chip and how does it work?

Muhammad Usman, CSIRO

In recent years, the field of quantum computing has been experiencing fast growth, with technological advances and large-scale investments regularly making the news.

The United Nations has designated 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

The stakes are high – having quantum computers would mean access to tremendous data processing power compared to what we have today. They won’t replace your normal computer, but having this kind of awesome computing power will provide advances in medicine, chemistry, materials science and other fields.

So it’s no surprise that quantum computing is rapidly becoming a global race, and private industry and governments around the world are rushing to build the world’s first full-scale quantum computer. To achieve this, first we need to have stable and scalable quantum processors, or chips.

What is a quantum chip?

Everyday computers – like your laptop – are classical computers. They store and process information in the form of binary numbers or bits. A single bit can represent either 0 or 1.

By contrast, the basic unit of a quantum chip is a qubit. A quantum chip is made up of many qubits. These are typically subatomic particles such as electrons or photons, controlled and manipulated by specially designed electric and magnetic fields (known as control signals).

Unlike a bit, a qubit can be placed in a state of 0, 1, or a combination of both, also known as a “superposition state”. This distinct property allows quantum processors to store and process extremely large data sets exponentially faster than even the most powerful classical computer.

There are different ways to make qubits – one can use superconducting devices, semiconductors, photonics (light) or other approaches. Each method has its advantages and drawbacks.

Companies like IBM, Google and QueRa all have roadmaps to drastically scale up quantum processors by 2030.

Industry players that use semiconductors are Intel and Australian companies like Diraq and SQC. Key photonic quantum computer developers include PsiQuantum and Xanadu.

Qubits: quality versus quantity

How many qubits a quantum chip has is actually less important than the quality of the qubits.

A quantum chip made up of thousands of low-quality qubits will be unable to perform any useful computational task.

So, what makes for a quality qubit?

Qubits are very sensitive to unwanted disturbances, also known as errors or noise. This noise can come from many sources, including imperfections in the manufacturing process, control signal issues, changes in temperature, or even just an interaction with the qubit’s environment.

Being prone to errors reduces the reliability of a qubit, known as fidelity. For a quantum chip to stay stable long enough to perform complex computational tasks, it needs high-fidelity qubits.

When researchers compare the performance of different quantum chips, qubit fidelity is one of the crucial parameters they use.

How do we correct the errors?

Fortunately, we don’t have to build perfect qubits.

Over the last 30 years, researchers have designed theoretical techniques which use many imperfect or low-fidelity qubits to encode an abstract “logical qubit”. A logical qubit is protected from errors and, therefore, has very high fidelity. A useful quantum processor will be based on many logical qubits.

Nearly all major quantum chip developers are now putting these theories into practice, shifting their focus from qubits to logical qubits.

In 2024, many quantum computing researchers and companies made great progress on quantum error corrections, including Google, QueRa, IBM and CSIRO.

Quantum chips consisting of over 100 qubits are already available. They are being used by many researchers around the world to evaluate how good the current generation of quantum computers are and how they can be made better in future generations.

For now, developers have only made single logical qubits. It will likely take a few years to figure out how to put several logical qubits together into a quantum chip that can work coherently and solve complex real-world problems.

What will quantum computers be useful for?

A fully functional quantum processor would be able to solve extremely complex problems. This could lead to revolutionary impact in many areas of research, technology and economy.

Quantum computers could help us discover new medicines and advance medical research by finding new connections in clinical trial data or genetics that current computers don’t have enough processing power for.

They could also greatly improve the safety of various systems that use artificial intelligence algorithms, such as banking, military targeting and autonomous vehicles, to name a few.

To achieve all this, we first need to reach a milestone known as quantum supremacy – where a quantum processor solves a problem that would take a classical computer an impractical amount of time to do.

Late last year, Google’s quantum chip Willow finally demonstrated quantum supremacy for a contrived task – a computational problem designed to be hard for classical supercomputers but easy for quantum processors due to their distinct way of working.

Although it didn’t solve a useful real-world problem, it’s still a remarkable achievement and an important step in the right direction that’s taken years of research and development. After all, to run, one must first learn to walk.

What’s on the horizon for 2025 and beyond?

In the next few years, quantum chips will continue to scale up. Importantly, the next generation of quantum processors will be underpinned by logical qubits, able to tackle increasingly useful tasks.

While quantum hardware (that is, processors) has been progressing at a rapid pace, we also can’t overlook an enormous amount of research and development in the field of quantum software and algorithms.

Using quantum simulations on normal computers, researchers have been developing and testing various quantum algorithms. This will make quantum computing ready for useful applications when the quantum hardware catches up.

Building a full-scale quantum computer is a daunting task. It will require simultaneous advancements on many fronts, such as scaling up the number of qubits on a chip, improving the fidelity of the qubits, better error correction, quantum software, quantum algorithms, and several other sub-fields of quantum computing.

After years of remarkable foundational work, we can expect 2025 to bring new breakthroughs in all of the above.

Muhammad Usman, Head of Quantum Systems and Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→March 11, 2025

DRDO’s young scientists complete testing of 6-qubit quantum processor

New Delhi, (IANS): Scientists from DRDO's Young Scientists Laboratory for Quantum Technologies (DYSL-QT) have completed end-to-end testing of a 6-qubit quantum processor, the Ministry of Defence said.

“The project executed at TIFR Mumbai’s Colaba campus is a three-way collaboration between DYSL-QT, TIFR and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The DYSL-QT scientists put together the control and measurement apparatus using a combination of commercial off-the-shelf electronics and custom-programmed development boards,” the ministry said.

It added that these qubits were designed and fabricated at TIFR and the quantum processor architecture is based on a novel ring-resonator design invented at TIFR. The cloud-based interface to the quantum hardware is developed by TCS.

“The scientists are now working on optimising various aspects of the system performance before it becomes ready for operation,” the ministry said.

The ministry added that plans are underway to provide wider access to this system for education, and research and eventually as a test bed for testing superconducting quantum devices for analysis.

“The next development target is to scale up the number of qubits and assess the scaling trends to technology challenges, development effort/time and monetary resources required for development, operations and commercialisation of various sizes of quantum computers,” it added.The ministry said that this will involve a holistic view from the quantum theory to engineering to business feasibility. DRDO’s young scientists complete testing of 6-qubit quantum processor | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→September 16, 2024

Musk plans largest-ever supercomputer for xAI startup: report

CALIFORNIA - Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk has told investors he plans to build a supercomputer dubbed "gigafactory of compute" to support the development of his artificial intelligence startup xAI, an industry news outlet reported on Saturday.

Musk wants the supercomputer -- which will string together 100,000 Nvidia chips -- operational by fall 2025, and "will hold himself personally responsible for delivering it on time," The Information said.

The planned supercomputer would be "at least four times the size of the biggest GPU clusters that exist today," such as those used by Meta to train its AI models, Musk was quoted as saying during a presentation to investors this month.

Since OpenAi's generative AI tool ChatGPT exploded on the scene in 2022, the technology has been an area of fierce competition between tech giants Microsoft and Google, as well as Meta and start-ups like Anthropic and Stability AI.

Musk is one of the world's few investors with deep enough pockets to compete with OpenAI, Google or Meta on AI.

xAI is developing a chatbot named Grok, which can access social media platform X, the former Twitter which is also owned by Musk, in real time.

Musk cofounded OpenAI in 2015 but left in 2018, later saying he was uncomfortable with the profit-driven direction the company was taking under the stewardship of CEO Sam Altman.

He filed a lawsuit against the company in March, accusing it of breaking its original non-profit mission to make AI research available to all.OpenAI argues that Musk's lawsuit, as well as his embrace of open source development, is little more than a case of sour grapes after leaving the company. Musk plans largest-ever supercomputer for xAI startup: report

Read More........→July 03, 2024

UK’s fastest supercomputer switched on

The computer is officially the most sustainable supercomputer in the UK

The UK’s fastest and most powerful supercomputer, known as Isambard-AI, has been switched on at the University of Bristol this week.

The Isambard-AI supercomputer was first announced by the government last March alongside a £225 million investment. The facility has been built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and contains over 5,000 NVIDIA superchips, allowing it to complete 200 quadrillion calculations per second.

Officially named the AI Research Resource (AIRR), the facility is ten times more powerful than the previous leading supercomputer in the UK. Researchers will use the facility to support critical work on the development of AI technology, working closely alongside the UK’s AI Safety Institute.

The facility includes thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs) and will be used to train the large language models. as Additional focus areas include climate research and accelerating automated drug discovery.

“The Isambard-AI cluster will be one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, and will help industry experts and researchers harness the game-changing potential of AI, including through the mission-critical work of our Frontier AI Taskforce,” said Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan in a press release.

“This will equip the UK with the means to drive the next wave of scientific breakthroughs and positions Bristol as a vital cog in global technological discovery that will improve people’s lives,” added University of Bristol’s Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Evelyn Welch. The UK is on a mission to become a global AI superpower. Last October, the government announced that taxpayer spending on AI chips and supercomputers is set to increase to £400 million. Additionally, in this year’s Spring Budget, chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged £100 million in funding to The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute for data science and AI. UK’s fastest supercomputer switched on

Read More........→May 23, 2024

IBM developing world's smallest computer

Credit: IBM Research

Most people are familiar with Moore's Law, but few have heard of Bell's Law – a related phenomenon coined by U.S. engineer Gordon Bell. This describes how a new class of computing devices tends to emerge about every decade or so, each 100 times smaller than the last. The shrinking volume of machines becomes obvious when you look back at the history of technology.

The 1960s, for example, were characterised by large mainframes that often filled entire rooms. The 1970s saw the adoption of "minicomputers" that were cheaper and smaller. Personal computing emerged in the early 1980s and laptops became popular in the 1990s. This was followed by mobile phones from the 2000s onwards, which themselves became ever thinner and more compact with each passing year, along with tablets and e-readers. More recently there has been rapid growth in wireless sensor networks that is giving birth to the Internet of Things (IoT).

The new computer announced by IBM is just 1mm x 1mm across, making it the smallest machine of its kind to ever be developed. It will feature as many as a million transistors, a solar cell and communications module. The company predicts these devices will be in widespread use within five years, embedded in all manner of everyday objects. So-called "cryptographic anchors" and blockchain technology will ensure a product's authenticity – from its point of origin to the hands of the customer. These high-tech, miniature watermarks will (for example) verify that products have originated from the factory the distributor claims they are from, and are not counterfeits mixed in with genuine items.

In some countries, nearly 70 percent of certain life-saving pharmaceuticals are counterfeit and the overall cost of fraud to the global economy is more than $600bn every year. This new generation of tiny computers will monitor, analyse, communicate and even act on data.

"These [crypto-anchor] technologies pave the way for new solutions that tackle food safety, authenticity of manufactured components, genetically modified products, identification of counterfeit objects and provenance of luxury goods," says IBM research chief, Arvind Krishna.

Looking further into the future – if Bell's Law continues – devices are likely to be small enough to fit inside blood cells within a few decades. The potential applications then will become like science fiction: could we see a merger between humans and machines?

Source: https://www.futuretimeline.net/

Read More........→April 10, 2018

Computer program learns to replicate human handwriting

Researchers at University College London have devised a software algorithm able to scan and replicate almost anyone's handwriting

In a world increasingly dominated by the QWERTY keyboard, computer scientists at University College London (UCL) have developed software which may spark the comeback of the handwritten word, by analysing the handwriting of any individual and accurately replicating it. The scientists have created "My Text in Your Handwriting" – a programme which semi-automatically examines a sample of a person's handwriting that can be as little as one paragraph, and generates new text saying whatever the user wishes, as if the author had handwritten it themselves. "Our software has lots of valuable applications," says lead author, Dr Tom Haines. "Stroke victims, for example, may be able to formulate letters without the concern of illegibility, or someone sending flowers as a gift could include a handwritten note without even going into the florist. It could also be used in comic books where a piece of handwritten text can be translated into different languages without losing the author's original style." Published in ACM Transactions on Graphics, the machine learning algorithm is built around glyphs – a specific instance of a character. Authors produce different glyphs to represent the same element of writing – the way one individual writes an "a" will usually be different to the way others write an "a". Although an individual's writing has slight variations, every author has a recognisable style that manifests in their glyphs and spacing. The software learns what is consistent across an individual's style and reproduces this.

To generate an individual's handwriting, the software analyses and replicates the author's specific character choices, pen-line texture, colour and the inter-character ligatures (the joining-up between letters), as well as vertical and horizontal spacing. Co-author, Dr Oisin Mac Aodha (UCL Computer Science), said: "Up until now, the only way to produce computer-generated text that resembles a specific person's handwriting would be to use a relevant font. The problem with such fonts is that it is often clear that the text has not been penned by hand, which loses the character and personal touch of a handwritten piece of text. What we've developed removes this problem and so could be used in a wide variety of commercial and personal circumstances." The system is flexible enough that samples from historical documents can be used with little extra effort. Thus far, the scientists have analysed and replicated the handwriting of such figures as Abraham Lincoln, Frida Kahlo and Arthur Conan Doyle. Infamously, Conan Doyle never actually wrote Sherlock Holmes as saying, "Elementary my dear Watson" but the team have produced evidence to make you think otherwise. To test the effectiveness of their software, the research team asked people to distinguish between handwritten envelopes and ones
created by their automatic software.  People were tricked by the computer-generated writing up to 40% of the time. Given how convincing it can be, some may believe this method could help in forging documents – but the team explained it works both ways and could actually help in detecting forgeries. "Forgery and forensic handwriting analysis are still almost entirely manual processes – but by taking the novel approach of viewing handwriting as texture-synthesis, we can use our software to characterise handwriting to quantify the odds that something was forged," explained Dr Gabriel Brostow, senior author. "For example, we could calculate what ratio of people start their 'o's' at the bottom versus the top and this kind of detailed analysis could reduce the forensics service's reliance on heuristics."Computer program learns to replicate human handwriting

Read More........→August 24, 2016

A New Reality Materializing: Humans Can Be the New Supercomputer

Illustration: Colourbox

Today, people of all backgrounds can contribute to solving serious scientific problems by playing computer games. A Danish research group has extended the limits of quantum physics calculations and simultaneously blurred the boundaries between man and mac. The Danish research team, CODER, has found out, that the human brain can beat the calculating powers of a computer, when it comes to solving quantum-problems. The saying of philosopher René Descartes of what makes humans unique is beginning to sound hollow. 'I think -- therefore soon I am obsolete' seems more appropriate. When a computer routinely beats us at chess and we can barely navigate without the help of a GPS, have we outlived our place in the world? Not quite. Welcome to the front line of research in cognitive skills, quantum computers and gaming. Today there is an on-going battle between man and machine. While genuine machine consciousness is still years into the future, we are beginning to see computers make choices that previously demanded a human's input. Recently, the world held its breath as Google's algorithm AlphaGo beat a professional player in the game Go--an achievement demonstrating the explosive speed of development in machine capabilities. A screenshot of one of the many games that are available. In this case the task is to shoot spiders in the "Quantum-Shooter" but there are many other

Credit: CODER/AU

kinds of games. But we are not beaten yet -- human skills are still superior in some areas. This is one of the conclusions of a recent study by Danish physicist Jacob Sherson, published in the prestigious science journal Nature. "It may sound dramatic, but we are currently in a race with technology -- and steadily being overtaken in many areas. Features that used to be uniquely human are fully captured by contemporary algorithms. Our results are here to demonstrate that there is still a difference between the abilities of a man and a machine," explains Jacob Sherson. What are quantum computers and how goes playing games help physicist in cutting edge research?Get a few answers in this video about ScienceAtHome. At the interface between quantum physics and computer games, Sherson and his

research group at Aarhus University have identified one of the abilities that still makes us unique compared to a computer's enormous processing power: our skill in approaching problems heuristically and solving them intuitively. The discovery was made at the AU Ideas Centre CODER, where an interdisciplinary team of researchers work to transfer some human traits to the way computer algorithms work. ? Quantum physics holds the promise of immense technological advances in areas ranging from computing to high-precision measurements. However, the problems that need to be solved to get there are so complex that even the most powerful supercomputers struggle with them. This is where the core idea behind CODER--combining the processing power of computers with human ingenuity -- becomes clear. ? Our common intuition: Like Columbus in QuantumLand, the CODER research group mapped out how the human brain is able to make decisions based on intuition and accumulated experience. This is done using the online game "Quantum Moves". Over 10,000 people have played the game that allows everyone contribute to basic research in quantum physics. "The map we created gives us insight into the strategies formed by the human brain. We behave intuitively when we need to solve an unknown problem, whereas for a computer this is incomprehensible. A computer churns through enormous amounts of information, but we can choose not to do this by basing our decision on experience or intuition. It is these intuitive insights that we discovered by analysing the Quantum Moves player solutions," explains Jacob Sherson. ? This is how the "Mind Atlas" looks. Based on 500.000 completed games the group has been able to visualize our ability to solve problems. Each peak on the 'map' represents a good idea, and the area with the most peaks - marked by red rings - are where the human intuition has hit a solution. A computer can then learn to focus on these areas, and in that way 'learn'

Credit: CODER/AU

about the cognitive functions of a human.  The laws of quantum physics dictate an upper speed limit for data manipulation, which in turn sets the ultimate limit to the processing power of quantum computers -- the Quantum Speed ??Limit. Until now a computer algorithm has been used to identify this limit. It turns out that with human input researchers can find much better solutions than the algorithm. "The players solve a very complex problem by creating simple strategies. Where a computer goes through all available options, players automatically search for a solution that intuitively feels right. Through our analysis we found that there are common features in the players' solutions, providing a glimpse into the shared intuition of humanity. If we can teach computers to recognise these good solutions, calculations will be much faster. In a sense we are downloading our common intuition to the computer" says Jacob Sherson. And it works. The group has shown that we can break the Quantum Speed Limit by combining the cerebral cortex and computer chips. This is the new powerful tool in the development of quantum computers and other quantum technologies. We are the new supercomputer: Science is often perceived as something distant and exclusive, conducted behind closed doors. To enter you have to go through years of education, and preferably have a doctorate or two. Now a completely different reality is materializing? In recent years, a new phenomenon has appeared--citizen science breaks down the walls of the laboratory and invites in everyone who wants to contribute. The team at Aarhus University uses games to engage people in voluntary science research. Every week people around the world spend 3 billion hours playing games. Games are entering almost all areas of our daily life and have the potential to become an invaluable resource for science. "Who needs a supercomputer if we can access even a small fraction of this computing power? By turning science into games, anyone can do research in quantum physics. We have shown that games break down the barriers between quantum physicists and people of all backgrounds, providing phenomenal insights into state-of-the-art research. Our project combines the best of both worlds and helps challenge established paradigms in computational research," explains Jacob Sherson. The difference between the machine and us, figuratively speaking, is that we intuitively reach for the needle in a haystack without knowing exactly where it is. We 'guess' based on experience and thereby skip a whole series of bad options. For Quantum Moves, intuitive human actions have been shown to be compatible with the best computer solutions. In the future it will be exciting to explore many other problems with the aid of human intuition. "We are at the borderline of what we as humans can understand when faced with the problems of quantum physics. With the problem underlying Quantum Moves we give the computer every chance to beat us. Yet, over and over again we see that players are more efficient than machines at solving the problem. While Hollywood blockbusters on artificial intelligence are starting to seem increasingly realistic, our results demonstrate that the comparison between man and machine still sometimes favours us. We are very far from computers with human-type cognition," says Jacob Sherson and continues: "Our work is first and foremost a big step towards the understanding of quantum physical challenges. We do not know if this can be transferred to other challenging problems, but it is definitely something that we will work hard to resolve in the coming years."

• Contacts and sources: Jacob Sherson, Aarhus University, 
• Citation: " Exploring the quantum speed limit with computer games" Authors: Jens Jakob W. H. Sørensen, Mads Kock Pedersen, Michael Munch, Pinja Haikka, Jesper Halkjær Jensen, Tilo Planke, Morten Ginnerup Andreasen, Miroslav Gajdacz, Klaus Mølmer, Andreas Lieberoth & Jacob F. Sherson Nature 532, 210–213 (14 April 2016) doi:10.1038/nature17620 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature17620A, Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/

Read More........→April 14, 2016

Fastest ever brain-computer interface for spelling

Researchers in China have achieved high-speed spelling with a noninvasive brain-computer interface.

Brain–computer interfaces (BCI) are a relatively new and emerging technology allowing direct communication between the brain and an external device. They are used for assisting, augmenting, or repairing cognitive or sensory-motor functions. Research on BCIs began in the 1970s and the first neuroprosthetic devices implanted in humans appeared in the mid-1990s. The past 20 years have seen major progress in BCIs. However, they are still limited by low communication rates, caused by interference from spontaneous electroencephalography (EEG) signals. Now, a team of researchers from Tsinghua University in China, State Key Laboratory Integrated Optoelectronics, Institute of Semiconductors (IOS), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a greatly improved system. Their EEG-based BCI speller can achieve information transfer rates (ITRs) of 60 characters (∼12 words) per minute, by far the highest ever reported in BCI spellers for either noninvasive or invasive methods. In some of the tests, they reached up to 5.32 bits per second. For comparison, most other

systems in recent years have been at 1 or 2 ITRs. According to the researchers, they achieved this via an extremely high consistency of frequency and phase between the visual flickering signals and the elicited single-trial steady-state visual evoked potentials. Specifically, they developed a new joint frequency-phase modulation (JFPM) method to tag 40 characters with 0.5-seconds-long flickering signals, and created a user-specific target identification algorithm using individual calibration data. A paper describing this breakthrough appears in the 3rd November edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In the not-too-distant future, this kind of technology could be applied to other uses, besides medicine. For example, it could be incorporated into smartphones and other consumer electronics to allow texting, typing or other on-screen actions by thought power alone. A partnership between the Japanese government and private sector aims to achieve this by 2020. With continued progress in the speed of BCIs, a new form of "virtual telepathy" could emerge Source: Article

Read More........→November 25, 2015

Research helping build computers from DNA

Scientists have found a way to "switch" the structure of DNA using copper salts and EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) -- an agent commonly found in shampoo and other household products. IMAGE: Credit: University of East Anglia

New research from the University of East Anglia could one day help build computers from DNA. Scientists have found a way to 'switch' the structure of DNA using copper salts and EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) - an agent commonly found in shampoo and other household products. It was previously known that the structure of a piece of DNA could be changed using acid, which causes it to fold up into what is known as an 'i-motif'. But new research published on Tuesday 18 August in the journal Chemical Communications reveals that the structure can be switched a second time into a hair-pin structure using positively-charged copper (copper cations). This change can also be reversed using EDTA. The applications for this discovery include nanotechnology - where DNA is used to make tiny machines, and in DNA-based computing - where computers are built from DNA rather than silicon. It could also be used for detecting the presence of copper cations, which are highly toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms, in water. Lead researcher Dr Zoë Waller, from UEA's school of Pharmacy, said: "Our research shows how the structure of our genetic material - DNA - can be changed and used in a way we didn't realise. "A single switch was possible before - but we show for the first time how the structure can be switched twice. "A potential application of this finding could be to create logic gates for DNA based computing. Logic gates are an elementary building block of digital circuits - used in computers and other electronic equipment. They are traditionally made using diodes or transistors which act as electronic switches. "This research expands how DNA could be used as a switching mechanism for a logic gate in DNA-based computing or in nano-technology." Source: Article

Read More........→September 06, 2015

Windows 10 may be selling well, how Microsoft are still not satisfied?

Strong demand for Windows 10 surface (also to be the ultimate test of the market) is more the result of its error correction again in the traditional PC market and the value of compromise, rather than a manifestation of the true value, while the market and users for its functionin the mobile space indifference, but also seems to presage Windows 10 in the mobile market than previous Windows 8 will not have too much outstanding performance. Microsoft has been hailed as the mobile market to reverse the decline and transition heavyweight upcoming Windows 10 operating system market. So Windwos 10 can receive favorable for the market, the relationship with Microsoft's future prospects in the mobile market, and "Mobile led the cloud-first" strategy proposed CEO can be implemented. Recently, the results of a recent survey of IT professionals for research institutions Spiceworks released, Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system abnormalities strong potential demand. That plan to install Windows 10 system users in two years the ratio reached 73%, of which about 40% of users plan to install Windows 10 systems within a year. From that perspective, the demand for Windows 10 system is indeed strong, at least compared with its predecessor Windows 8 system is this. It stands to reason such a high market and customer needs, for Microsoft, should be fond of fishes, but in this report we read carefully the user to upgrade or install Windows 10, the main driver ── Strong demand for Microsoft Windows 10 may not be all good, and even worries: In Spiceworks report, Windows 10 system, most attention is the traditional start button return, 64% of respondents believe that, Windows 10 system, the traditional start button back, is one of its most popular feature; secondly, Microsoft for Windows 10 available to Windows 7 andWindows 8 users a free upgrade, got 55 percent of respondents supported, to become the second most popular properties; 51% of respondents believe that the safety performance enhancements, Windows 10 system is the third most popular properties . I do not know the industry see the three main drivers feel? First, from the first drivers to see, so much innovative Windows 10, as it was for the previous generation of Windows 8 errors corrected. Industry know, Windows 8 due to the cancellation of the traditional PC user habits start button and much industry criticism, and become one of the main Windows 8 market performance incompetence. Followed by the so-called free upgrades factors caused. Because smart phones and tablets to the traditional PC and PC impact of highly sophisticated applications, the traditional PC users fromWindows 8 since it has lost the power system upgrade for Windows, so Microsoft on Windows 10 had to take a free market strategy stimulate users to upgrade, so that 55 percent of respondents approved of Microsoft Windows for free, from another perspective, it could be for Windows 10 value (s) of a negative 10. Finally, security.As we all know, security has been paying more attention to the aspects of the Windows system, after all, the majority of enterprises in the current IT system (including PC) running Windows system, so security is a matter of course to do Windows. The above Windows10 upgrade or install three drivers, we believe strong demand for Windows 10 behind, is not a positive driving force for innovation itself due to Windows 10, but for Windows systems prior to correction and change to depreciate the value (from Pay to free) is a market rebound, which is the market and users before the upgrade or install Windows because of its innovative value due to different. It is worth noting that in some innovative features on Windows10 conference was Microsoft deliberately emphasized, such as Cortana, the Edge browser and Continuum drew etc., did not attract the attention of the respondents, that these so-called innovations did not become market and users to upgrade and install Windows 10, the main driving force. Also, I wonder if there is no set term or for other reasons survey, Windows 10 support feature iOS and Android applications, and does not appear in the user is therefore welcomed and select Windows 10, and possession of what proportion of the survey. Perhaps the user does not care about Windows 10 support iOS and Android applications. So the question is, to support iOS and Android applications are Windows10 in the mobile market, the biggest selling point, but gradually marginalized in the PC era, one of the main objectives developed by Microsoft Windows10 is hoping to win the smartphone market, and, ultimately, Microsoft cross-platform, cross-device, unified experience "mobile first" strategy. Industry support for Windows10 iOS and Android applications veiled criticism: First, there will be a "lowest common denominator phenomenon" in the software migration (the most banal metaphor popular product), namely those who are most desirable to use a low-cost means to port software to the people on other platforms, but also the most reluctant in every on a platform that will be the most sophisticated user experience people. The implication is that Windows for iOS and Android compatibility and portability, you can not attract the iOS and Android platforms best software. In addition, compatible Android and iOS versions of software Windows 10, mobile application developers have no reason to think more specially developed Windows versions, which only makes the fragile ecosystems more vulnerable Windows Phone Moreover, if the market and users are more like Android or iOS platform application, then why Windows platform through experience? It seems the market and users do not care for Windows10 compatible Android and iOS applications, or do not become a reason to choose Windows 10 is not unfounded, and this is bound to affect the value and performance of Windows 10 in the mobile market. The above analysis is not difficult to see that the strong demand for Windows10 surface (also to be the ultimate test of the market) is more a result of its error correction again in the traditional PC market and the value of compromise, rather than a manifestation of the true value. While the market and users for their indifference in the mobile space capabilities, but also seems to presage Windows10 have too outstanding performance in the mobile market more compared to the previous Windows 8 will not. It might get higher than the Windows 8 upgrade or install Microsoft is happy to see the amount, but the overall value of Windows and Microsoft cross-platform, cross-device, unified experience "mobile first" strategy from the perspective of Windows 10 in the PC market , it is likely to worry. Because, as may be the last Windows version, in this version of the life cycle of these strategies will be difficult to achieve. Source: Article

Read More........→July 13, 2015

Nearly half of US jobs could be at risk of computerisation within 20 years

A study by the Oxford Martin School shows that nearly half of US jobs could be at risk of computerisation within 20 years. Transport, logistics and office roles are most likely to come under threat. The new study, a collaboration between Dr Carl Benedikt Frey (Oxford Martin School) and Dr Michael A. Osborne (Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford), found that jobs in transportation, logistics, as well as office and administrative support, are at "high risk" of automation. More surprisingly, occupations within the service industry are also highly susceptible, despite recent job growth in this sector. "We identified several key bottlenecks currently preventing occupations being automated," says Dr. Osborne. "As big data helps to overcome these obstacles, a great number of jobs will be put at risk." The study examined over 700 detailed occupation types, noting the types of tasks workers perform and the skills required. By weighting these factors, as well as the engineering obstacles currently preventing computerisation, the researchers assessed the degree to which these occupations may be automated in

the coming decades. "Our findings imply that as technology races ahead, low-skilled workers will move to tasks that are not susceptible to computerisation – i.e., tasks that require creative and social intelligence," the paper states. "For workers to win the race, however, they will have to acquire creative and social skills." "While computerisation has been historically confined to routine tasks involving explicit rule-based activities, algorithms for big data are now rapidly entering domains reliant upon pattern recognition and can readily substitute for labour in a wide range of non-routine cognitive tasks. In addition, advanced robots are gaining enhanced senses and dexterity, allowing them to perform a broader scope of manual tasks. This is likely to change the nature of work across industries and occupations." The low susceptibility of engineering and science occupations to computerisation, on the other hand, is largely due to the high degree of creative intelligence they require. However, even these occupations could be taken over by computers in the longer term. Dr Frey said the United Kingdom is expected to face a similar challenge to the US. "While our analysis was based on detailed datasets relating to US occupations, the implications are likely to extend to employment in the UK and other developed countries," he said. Full version of the paper: http://www.futuretech.ox.ac.uk/files/The_Future_of_Employment_OMS_Working_Paper_1.pdfSource: Article

Read More........→March 13, 2014

Mind Reading Computer Could Communicate With Coma Patients

Western researchers have used neuroimaging to read human thought via brain activity when they are conveying specific ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. Their findings were published in The Journal of Neuroscience in a study titled, The Brain's Silent Messenger: Using Selective Attention to Decode Human Thought for Brain-Based Communication. According to lead researcher Lorina Naci, the interpretation of human thought from brain activity – without depending on speech or action – is one of the most provoking and challenging frontiers of modern neuroscience. Specifically, patients who are fully conscious and awake, yet, due to brain damage, are unable to show any behavioral responsivity, expose the limits of the neuromuscular system and the necessity for alternate forms of communication. Participants were asked to concentrate on a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response to questions like “Are you married?” or “Do you have brothers and sisters?” and only think their response, not speak it. “This novel method allowed healthy individuals to answers questions asked in the scanner, simply by paying attention to the word they wanted to convey. By looking at their brain activity we were able to correctly decode the correct answers for each individual,” said Naci, a postdoctoral fellow at Western's Brain and Mind Institute. “The majority of volunteers conveyed their answers within three minutes of scanning, a time window that is well-suited for communication with brain-computer interfaces.” Naci and her Western colleagues Rhodri Cusack, Vivian Z. Jia and Adrian Owen are now utilizing this method to communicate with behaviorally non-responsive patients, who may be misdiagnosed as being in a vegetative state. “The strengths of this technique, especially its ease of use, robustness, and rapid detection, may maximize the chances that any such patient will be able to achieve brain-based communication,” Naci said. Contacts and sources: University of Western Ontario, Source: Nanopatents And Innovations, Reference-Image: flickr.com

Read More........→June 03, 2013

Projectors to double brightness with polarisation breakthrough

Liquid crystal (LC) based projectors could become almost twice as energy efficient and much cheaper as researchers from North Carolina State University in the USA and ImagineOptix Corporation reveal a revolutionary polarising technology. The breakthrough means projectors that rely on batteries will be able to run for almost twice as long and all LC projectors can be made twice as bright.

All LC projectors utilise polarised light. However, researchers say that efficient light sources, such as LEDs, produce unpolarised light. As a result, the light generated by LEDs has to be converted into polarised light before it can be used. According to NC State researchers, the most common method of polarising light involves passing the unpolarised light through a polarizing filter. They claim that this process wastes more than 50% of the originally generated light, with the bulk of the "lost" light being turned into heat. This is a major reason that projectors get hot and have noisy cooling fans. The new technology, demonstrated in a small pico projector and developed at NC State, allows approximately 90 percent of the unpolarised light to be polarised and, therefore, used by the projector "This technology, which we call a polarisation grating-polarisation conversion system (PGPCS), will significantly improve the energy efficiency of LC projectors," said Dr. Michael Escuti, co-author of a paper describing the research and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State. "The commercial implications are broad reaching. Projectors that rely on batteries will be able to run for almost twice as long. And LC projectors of all kinds can be made twice as bright but use the same amount of power that they do now." Because only approximately 10 percent of the unpolarised light is converted into heat – as opposed to the more than 50 percent light loss that stems from using conventional polarisation filters – the new technology will also reduce the need for loud cooling fans and enable more compact designs. The technology is a small single-unit assembly composed of four immobile parts. A beam of unpolarised light first passes through an array of lenses, which focus the light into a grid of spots. The light then passes through a polarisation grating, which consists of a thin layer of liquid crystal material on a glass plate. The polarisation grating separates the spots of light into pairs, which have opposite polarisations. The light then passes through a louvered wave plate, which is a collection of clear, patterned plates that gives the beams of light the same polarisation. Finally, a second array of lenses focuses the spots of light back into a single, uniform beam of light.The paper, "Efficient and monolithic polarization conversion system based on a polarization grating," was published July 10 in Applied Optics. The paper was co-authored by Drs. Jihwan Kim and Ravi Komanduri, postdoctoral researchers at NC State; Kristopher Lawler, a research associate at NC State; Jason Kekas, of ImagineOptix Corp.; and Escuti. The research was funded by ImagineOptix, a start-up company co-founded by Escuti and Kekas. Source: InAVate

Read More........→May 14, 2013