BrainDriver: A Mind Controlled Car

Imagine you could drive your car using only your thoughts. German researchers have just made that possibleFollowing his recent interview on the Robots PodcastRaúl Rojas, an AI professor at the Freie Universität Berlin, and his team have demonstrated how a driver can use a brain interface to steer a vehicle. Here's what the researchers say about the project, which they call the BrainDriver: about autonomous vehicles,

After testing iPhone, iPad and an eye-tracking device as possible user interfaces to maneuver our research car, named "MadeInGermany," we now also use Brain Power. The "BrainDriver" application is of course a demonstration and not roadworthy yet, but in the long run human-machine interfaces like this could bear huge potential in combination with autonomous driving.

To record brain activity, the researchers use an Emotiv "neuroheadset," an electroencephalography, or EEG, sensor by San Francisco-based company Emotiv, which design it for gaming. After a few rounds of "mental training," the driver learns to move virtual objects only by thinking. Each action corresponds to a different brain activity pattern, and the BrainDriver software associates the patterns to specific commands -- turn left, turn right, accelerate etc. The researchers then feed these commands to the drive-by-wire system of the vehicle, a modified Volkswagen Passat Variant 3c. Now the driver's thoughts can control the engine, brakes, and steering.

To road test their brain-controlled car, the Germans headed out to the former airport in Berlin Tempelhof. The video below shows a driver thought-controlling the car, Yoda-style. "Don't try this at home," the narration says, only half-jokingly.

The researchers caution that the BrainDriver application is still a demonstration and is not ready for the road. But they say that future human-machine interfaces like this have huge potential to improve driving, especially in combination with autonomous vehicles. As an example, they mention an autonomous cab ride, where the passenger could decide, only by thinking, which route to take when more than one possibility exist.
This type of non-invasive brain interface could also allow disabled and paralyzed people to gain more mobility in the future, similarly to what is already happening in applications such as robotic exoskeletons and advanced prosthetics.
Rojas group's research is part of the MadeInGermany project and follows previous work on autonomous cars, including his AutoNOMOS Project.

Why would you develop an app for your iPad, iPhone and Android powered smart phone?

There are numerous reasons to list but I the most important reason is to target the people within your niche market. Image yourself targeting the underwater kickboxing market. You have your website build, back links made and you have created some authority within this market.
What you could do next is to launch another video tutorial or e-book or podcast but what would really be a bomb towards your competitors and way to stand out from is to have your own iPhone application.

Okay, now I hear you ask yourself: but I can't program, I don't have any idea what to do. Let's come back later on your first "problem" - I can't program. For now let's do some brainstorming what type of app (short for application, this term us a "geek" term and used all over the Internet, so why not use it also?).

(If you don't feel like reading on, jump directly to http://www.thesoftwaresystem.com and find out what it takes to get started with your app development.)

What kind of app should I create? 

Getting the right idea

It's a great question and could be one of the most difficult questions if you want to start developing apps for your iPhone or iPad. Let me help you%u2026 picture yourself as a client that is following you around in your niche market. He wants to know everything you do, have to say%u2026 at the moment he or she can do this only trough the website and channels you provide (Twitter, Facebook, etc). Here is the opportunity to open another communication channel towards your niche market. You could develop an application that displays your latest blog posts onto the iPhone, iPad or Android powered smart phone.

Or what you could do is create your own iPhone or iPad game like my friend Trey Smith did. He had an iPhone game developed and within the first day the game made him money. Trey explains in a 4 videos how he got started and what to do next, the only thing you have to do so far is listen what he has to say at his websitehttp://www.thesoftwaresystem.com.

You can have your own iPhone game 

Do you have the next big hit?

It's true, you can have your own iPhone game just like the makers of Angry Birds and with a good idea, marketing you could have the next best seller in hand even if you don't know anything about software development for the iPad, iPhone or Android.

What you could do is to outsource the development of the app or game or license something that is already made. What is the best option for you? It depends on your market, strategies that you want to apply and off course budget. Again my friend Trey will tell you which options are available on the market and what is the most price favorable solution for your budget. Take a look at his website http://www.thesoftwaresystem.com (could not he buy a better domain) and discover it yourself.

Forget Windows: Midori is coming

                                         

WINDOWS is a name that has ruled the whole computer world since its first launch in November 1985. Since then it is like a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

With many advanced versions of Windows available today such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, it is the most used operating system in the world. In 2010, Microsoft is going to launch WINDOWS 2007, but now here is time to experience a yet another technology of operating systems.

Yes, MICROSOFT is working on a new generation of operating systems called Cloud-Based Operating System and rumors are there that MIDORI will be their first such operating system, which will replace Windows fully from computer map.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE
MIDORI is an offshoot of Microsoft Research's Singularity operating system. In this the tools and libraries are completely managed code. MIDORI is designed to run directly on native hardware (x86, x64 and ARM), will be hosted on the Windows Hyper-V hypervisor, or even be hosted by a Windows process.

MIDORI can be also seen as MICROSOFT'S answer those competitors who are applying "Virtualization" as a mean to solving issues within contemporary computing.

The main idea behind MIDORI is to develop a lightweight portable OS which can be mated easily to lots of various applications.


IMPORTANCE OF MIDORI
For knowing the importance of MIDORI you have to think about, how an operating system is loaded on a computer. Actually operating system is loaded onto a hard disk physically located on that machine. In this way, the operating system is tied very tightly to that hardware. As Windows is dependent on hardware, it might face opposition from contemporary ways of working because people are extremely mobile in using different devices in order get diverse information.

Due to this trend installing different applications on a single computer may led to different compatibility issues whenever the machine require updating. The new operating system will solve these problems by the concept of Virtualizing. This will solve problems such as widespread security vulnerabilities, unexpected interactions among different applications, failures caused by errant extensions, plug-ins, and drivers and many more.

ERIC RUDDER, Senior Vice President, Technical Strategy
The importance of this project for MICROSOFT can be understood by the fact that company choose Eric Rudder , former head of Microsoft's server and tools business and a key member of Chairman Bill Gates' faction of the company, to handle it.

WHEN WILL IT BE LAUNCHED
Just Wait and See. Microsoft has not declared any such date about launching of MIDORI, but there are rumors that this project is in incubation phase.

Pongal

– The Festival Celebrating Prosperity

India is a land whose primary occupation is agriculture. Changes in season thus play a very important role for Indian farmers. Their lifestyles and celebrations are thus exclusively linked to the seasonal landmarks in an year. There are many Indian festivals which are in tune with a farmers lifestyle and also with the seasonal

variations in an year. Pongal, the harvest festival of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu is one of them.

When is Pongal Celebrated?
This festival marks the beginning of the end of winter season and corresponds to the time when the sun is moving towards Uttarayanam (north) from Dakshinayanam (south). The period is referred to as Uttarayan Punyakalam and is considered auspicious. As per the Tamil calender, Pongal is celebrated four days from the last day of the month of Margazhi (December — January) to the third day of the month Thai (January — February). Thus, according to the Gregorian calender, Pongal is celebrated from 12 to 15 January of which Pongal day or the first day of Thai falls on 14 January.

Common Traditions and CustomsSome of the rituals which are a must on Pongal are cleaning the house and wearing new clothes. The young girls and women wear a lehanga and half sari respectively whereas the men are attired in lungi and angavastram on this occasion. During the Pongal season, people eat sugar canes and decorate the houses with kolam which is made using rice paste. Kolams are generally made of white colour but one may also come across kolams made up of different colours.

Another popular custom is exchanging gifts on Pongal. In villages, farm labourers get ‘Pongal Padi' or ‘Pongal Parisu’ as Pongal Gifts. This tradition has now moved on to other occupations as well, with employers giving gifts to their employees on the occasion of Pongal. This is an opportunity to present gifts to those among your family and friends as well. Some popular yet appropriate gift ideas on Pongal include Lord sun sculptures (on Surya Pongal), decoratives (on Bhogi Pongal), new kitchen vessels, wooden handicrafts and household goods.

The FestivitiesPongal is a festival that goes on for four days. The first day of festivities is known as the Bogi Pongal, wherein people worship the sun god and earth. The dish Pongal is made by boiling rice with milk. In fact the first paddy that is harvested is used to make Pongal. The second day is Surya Pongal or Perum Pongal. It is the most important day and people worship Surya, the Sun God and his consorts, Chaya and Samgnya. Old articles are thrown in the fire and people have an oil massage and wear new clothes on this day. On the third day of the festival, known as Mattu Pongal, the farm animals like cattles are worshipped. Cattles are bathed and dressed beautifully and served Pongal. The fourth day is Thiruvalluvar day or Kaanum Pongal. People visit family, friends and relatives, women of the house perform puja for the prosperity of their brothers. Many people leave cooked rice on banana leaves for birds on this day.

The Tamil FestivalOn this occasion farmers pay their respects to the rain, sun and the farm animals, all of which are essentials in any harvest. Also, since paddy and other crops depend on the availability of good rain and Tamil Nadu does not have many perennial water sources, rain and sun gods are invoked during this auspicious occasion. Pongal is also known as "Tamizhar Thirunal" (meaning "the festival of Tamils"). "Thai Pirandhal Vazhi Pirakkum" which means that "birth of the Thai month will pave way for new opportunities" is a common saying in reference to Pongal.

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greatest batsman ever :sachin or bradman .........?

 Iconic batsman sachin tendulkars's ability to adapt to the pressures of modern day cricket makes him better than Australian cricket legend Don Bradman, feels India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni ."I do not like comparisons between Sachin and Don because they played in different eras," said Dhoni. Tendulkar is the leading run maker in the history of Test cricket with 14,513 runs in 175 Tests. He recently completed 50 century in tests in the first Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion.

Bradman, who died in 2001 at the age of 92, holds the record of the best batting average of 99.94 in 52 Tests.

Dhoni said Tendulkar's presence is still an incentive for each of his team-mates.

"He's the kind of guy who get the best out of whoever he bats," said Dhoni.

"I was on the other side of the pitch when he earlier this year struck that 200 not out against South Africa in Gwalior in a one-day game," said the captain.

evolution

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