April 5, 2013 at 11:31am 97 notes
dreamssciencetechcomputerssleep
Source: Los Angeles Times
Can dreams be decoded? Researchers in Japan are making progress toward the goal of deciphering dreams, announcing yesterday that they’ve been able to teach computers how to inspect the images produced by the brain during the initial moments of dreaming.Allowing research subjects to fall asleep, then waking them up after a few minutes to get them to recount what they had dreamed of - as groggy as they may have been, the computers were able to match the subject’s responses 60% of the time. So how did the computers actually figure out what had been going on in the initial dreams? The rest was a giant math problem. The scientists wrote a computer program to sort through the patterns of brain activity captured by the functional MRI in both waking and sleeping states; then the program looked for links between those brain activity patterns and specific images. Read more from reporter Geoffrey Mohan here. Photo: Richard Drew / Associated Press

Can dreams be decoded?

Researchers in Japan are making progress toward the goal of deciphering dreams, announcing yesterday that they’ve been able to teach computers how to inspect the images produced by the brain during the initial moments of dreaming.

Allowing research subjects to fall asleep, then waking them up after a few minutes to get them to recount what they had dreamed of - as groggy as they may have been, the computers were able to match the subject’s responses 60% of the time.

So how did the computers actually figure out what had been going on in the initial dreams?

The rest was a giant math problem. The scientists wrote a computer program to sort through the patterns of brain activity captured by the functional MRI in both waking and sleeping states; then the program looked for links between those brain activity patterns and specific images.

Read more from reporter Geoffrey Mohan here.

Photo: Richard Drew / Associated Press

February 20, 2013 at 1:57pm 33 notes
googletechnologyinternetgoogle glasscomputers
Source: Los Angeles Times

Want Google to put a computer on your face? The technology juggernaut is currently looking for “explorers” to test out it’s new Google Glass technology. Google’s grand hope is that one day, you’ll be just as comfortable wearing fancy glasses are you are looking down at your smartphone.

But until then, you’ll have to send over a brief application, and $1,5000, to Google.

Read more over at Tech Now.

February 19, 2013 at 12:15pm 24 notes
internetchinahackingcomputerstechnologyu.s.newsfacebookapplepoliticsprivacysecurity
Source: Los Angeles Times
The Red (computer) Scare: Is the Chinese military behind hundreds of hacking instances since 2006? One U.S. computer security firm believes so, fanning concerns that U.S. digital infrastructure, both private and governmental, isn’t up to snuff. From reporter Michael Muskall’s look at Mandiant’s findings: The hacking activity was likely part of the mandate of the Unit 61398 of China’s People’s Liberation Army, identified in the report as “one of the most persistent of China’s cyber threat actors.” The unit is based in the Pudong New Area, outside of Shanghai from where the computer attacks originate. Read the report for yourself here, and see if you agree that the recent hacking spree, which has targeted companies from Facebook and Apple to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, is being dictated by the Chinese government. Photo: Keith Bedford / Bloomberg

The Red (computer) Scare: Is the Chinese military behind hundreds of hacking instances since 2006? One U.S. computer security firm believes so, fanning concerns that U.S. digital infrastructure, both private and governmental, isn’t up to snuff. From reporter Michael Muskall’s look at Mandiant’s findings:

The hacking activity was likely part of the mandate of the Unit 61398 of China’s People’s Liberation Army, identified in the report as “one of the most persistent of China’s cyber threat actors.” The unit is based in the Pudong New Area, outside of Shanghai from where the computer attacks originate.

Read the report for yourself here, and see if you agree that the recent hacking spree, which has targeted companies from Facebook and Apple to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, is being dictated by the Chinese government.

Photo: Keith Bedford / Bloomberg