Atom-scale brain sensors will show exactly how your mind works

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/21/graphene-brain-sensor/

Neural activity maps frequently present an incomplete picture of how a brain works; you can measure electrical activity, stimulate it or visualize the anatomy, but you can't do all three. DARPA and the University of Wisconsin might just pull off that seemingly impossible feat, however. They recently built a hybrid brain sensor that combines both electrical and optical techniques to present a vivid picture of what's happening inside the mind. The sensor is primarily made of ultra-thin graphene (just four atoms thick) that both conducts electricity and lets light through. By putting this device on top of neural tissue, you can simultaneously create brain activity and monitor virtually every aspect of it. Graphene is safe for your body, too, so you shouldn't face the same risks you see with metal alloys.

It's still early days for the project, so you won't be getting graphene-based implants in the near future. However, a finished version might do wonders for medicine. Doctors and scientists could see tighter correlations between activity in certain parts of the brain and related behavior, which could help them study and hopefully treat diseases that previously remained a mystery.

[Image credit: Science Photo Library - SCIEPRO/Getty Images]

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Source: DARPA

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Japanese-Designed Vertical House Is Built For Crowded City Living

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/mujis-vertical-house-for-crowded-cities-2014-10

As popular cities have become overrun with inhabitants, many are forced to give up the basic comfort of space to live in a cultural hub. 

But Muji, the Japanese retail company known for it's minimalistic products, has designed a spacious home specifically for urban dwellers living in tight spaces — by building up. The home employs many strategies for making a space looking bigger than it actually is: there are no internal walls or doors, a large open stairwell runs through the entire house, and it has plenty of bright windows that let in natural sunlight.  The prefabricated ‘Vertical House’ prototype is located in the notoriously overcrowded Tokyo. It occupies a small plot of land that is spread across three stories. The home has a “split-level system” where all functions and programs are placed side-by-side, so that the space has a more connected environment. The home has a simplistic style, and is minimally dec! orated w ith Muji products.

It will be available in Japan in seven different variations for about 20 million yen ($180,116), according to Quartz. 

SEE ALSO: This Design Studio Is Partnering With IKEA To Sell Prefab Homes For $86,500

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HP Is Going To Announce A Crazy New Computer That Can Scan Objects In 3D (HPQ)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/hp-sprout-computer-3d-2014-10

HP is preparing to release a new computer with a built-in projector and 3-D scanner, according to Re/code's Arik Hesseldahl.

The computer will be called Sprout, and HP is reportedly planning to unveil it at an event on Oct. 29. Based on Re/code's description, it doesn't seem like the Sprout will look like an ordinary laptop or desktop computer.

The Sprout is said to include three primary parts: a flat touch-enabled surface, a large flat screen display similar to HP's line of Pavilion desktops, and an overhead assembly that includes a 3D scanner and projector. It doesn't sound like the Sprout has a traditional keyboard. 

The projector would display images on the flat surface, which users would be able to interact with. Specifically, Re/code says users will be able to manipulate whatever is being shown on the touch surface with either their hands or a stylus. This includes resizing elements of the user interface and moving things around. 

What's potentially more interesting, however, is the Sprout's 3D scanner. Once and object is scanned, users will be able to place the 3D rendering of that object in whatever he or she is working on. 

The Sprout will run on Windows at launch, but could eventually support Google's Chrome OS, Re/code's sources said. HP is likely to market the Sprout to businesses, but it may also try to target high-end consumers that may need it for professional purposes. 

We expect to learn more about the Sprout next week. The news also comes after HP announced that it will be splitting its printer and personal computer segment from its corporate hardware and services business.

SEE ALSO: This Might Be The Real Reason Microsoft Chose Windows 10 Instead Of Windows 9

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How We're Making It Much Easier For Hackers To Steal Our Data

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/were-not-losing-the-war-on-hacking-2014-10

In light of recent, highly publicized hacks on Target, Home Depot, and celebrity iCloud accounts, people are wondering if hackers are evolving more quickly than our cybersecurity methods.

Not so, says cybersecurity expert Michael Ricotta of Blue Fountain Media Development. We're just bad at using the security measures already at our disposal to protect our data, he says. 

"Many of the hacks that are happening are the result of being too careless," Ricotta told Business Insider. "Hacking is not something that is done by some guy wearing a cloaked hoodie hiding in some corner who knows more than anyone else in the world … There are people who have an understanding of how computers work and are able to find where people who don't know how computers work are improperly handling their own system."

One way people make themselves vulnerable is by having a weak password. Some hacks are group-force attacks that use publicly available data to hit servers with different password possibilities. People who use obvious passwords are "basically leaving the key to their front door under the doormat," Ricotta said.

Hacks that target debit and credit card data look for other vulnerabilities.

In some cases, big companies provide access to their systems to third-party contractors who might not have the proper security systems in place. This could compromise customer data from that company.

That's what happened in the case of the Target hack. The retailer traced the hack back to network credentials stolen! from a third-party refrigeration, heating, and air conditioning subcontractor, according to security blogger Brian Krebs at KrebsonSecurity.com.

Once the Target hackers had the company's network credentials, they could access Target's payment system and upload software that would lift card information.

"[Companies] are providing access to their systems to unskilled employees who may not have the proper protocols and the proper security systems to actually secure their own environment," Ricotta said.

Sometimes, putting the right security protocols into place involves restructuring the way people do things within a company or organization. That could be costly and take time.

"The protocols are there. Are they being followed, are they sufficient? I would say they're sufficient and I would say they're not being followed," Ricotta said. "The difficulty is how do we straddle that dynamic and decide which way to go."

What people and companies should take from these recent high-profile hacks is that everyone should be diligent in protecting their personal information and the information of their customers. 

"You have to very much take into account the same sort of mantra, which is I am responsible for myself and the information I provide the world," Ricotta said. "We really have become a society where dating is done online, your groceries are done online, everything is done online. You're releasing more information out there and there are more vulnerabilities."

SEE ALSO: All The Different Ways That 'iCloud' Naked Celebrity Photo Leak Might Have Happened

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Google Is Leading A $542 Million Investment In Magic Leap, A Crazy-Sounding Stealth Startup Working On A New Way To See The World

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/magic-leap-google-investment-2014-10

Google has led a $542 million investment in Magic Leap, a technology startup based in Florida, the company announced Tuesday morning.

Magic Leap is a stealth company that describes itself as being a "developer of novel human computing interfaces and software." It just closed a $50 million-plus Series A round in February. The company is working on a new kind of augmented reality — which it calls cinematic reality — that it believes will provide a more realistic 3D experience than anything else that's out there today. 

Google, not Google Ventures, nor Google Capital, is making this investment for Google. As such, Sundar Pichai, who runs Android, is joining the board of Magic Leap. Other investors in the round include Andreessen Horowitz, chip-maker Qualcomm, movie company Legendary Pictures, Ev Williams' investment group Obvious, KKR, Kleiner Perkins, and Paul Allen's Vulcan.

Not much is known about Magic Leap. The company is being intentionally vague about what it is building. However, the loose idea is that instead of creating an immersive virtual world separate from the real world, as with the Rift headset from Oculus VR (which Facebook bought for $2 billion earlier this year), Magic Leap will weave "3-D light sculptures" into the world around us, using a combination of proprietary hardware, software, and firmware. 

Thomas Tull, CEO of Legendary, tells Fast Company: "It's so badass you can't believe it. It's one of the few things I've ever experienced in my life where I came out and said, 'This changes everything. This is a marker of the future.'"

You can get an idea of the company's vision on its website, where you see a video of a little elephant that looks as if it's hovering in someone's hands:

The company's founder and CEO Rony Abovitz told the South Florida Business Journal that he wanted Magic Leap's technology to be disassociated with current ideas of what virtual reality or augmented reality was like.

"It is a new way for humans to interact with computers," he says. 

Magic Leap's technology will project high-resolution images into the world in front of you, most likely through a pair of glasses, according to details in a recent New York Times article. Abovitz says he envisions Magic Leap's technology being used in people's day-to-day lives, not just for gaming. 

Based on its website, the company also has educational ambitions:

"The space program had Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, and we're in our Apollo phase," Abovitz tells Fast Company. "We know that space travel is possible. We're in the middl! e of ful l-blown product development and commercialization."

Abovitz says there's no specific date for it to come out, but: "It's very near term. But although we're trying to deliver on certain date, we're also trying to achieve an, 'Oh my god, I feel like I'm a kid again' experience." 

Magic Leap has a partnership with Weta Workshop, the special effects team behind movies like "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit." The two companies are working on multiple projects together, and a Magic Leap team is even embedded with Weta in New Zealand. Weta's founder, Richard Taylor, is on Magic Leap's board. You can feel the pull toward the mystical on Magic Leap's site:

One of the things Weta and Magic Leap worked on together was an app called "Hour Blue," which let users interact with an augmented reality "speakbot." Abovitz has since called that app "more of a red herring" in regard to what the company is working on now.

Before Abovitz founded Magic Leap, he cofounded a surgical robotics company called MAKO that sold for $1.65 billion. He describes that company now as "like bringing 'Star Wars' droids to life to help people in medicine." 

Magic Leap has a bunch of patents, including one for a tactile glove for human-computer interaction, an ultra-high-resolution scanning fiber display, a 3-D display that uses a "wave guide reflector array projector," a system that lets one or more people interact with the same augmented reality environments, and a head-mounted optical system (diagrammed below):

One of Magic Leap's central concepts is that its technology will feel more natural than anything else on the market. No bulky goggles here.  

"What is remarkable is how well the human body and mind respond when technology respects biology, so truly magical experiences become possible," Abovitz says. 

The company is currently based in Florida, and Abovitz says he plans to remain there despite the pulls of Silicon V! alley or Boston, eventually growing the business into an Apple-size company. Since it launched in 2011, Magic Leap has grown to over 100 employees, including well-known tech marketer Brian Wallace, who said that seeing Magic Leap's product in action was "one of the most profound moments I've ever had."  

We are a good home for wizards, ninjas, jedis, art punks, rebels, humans, robots, vegans, dreamweavers, genius misfits and pro-Gandalfians

— Magic Leap, Inc. (@magicleap) February 6, 2014

Another hire, games developer Graeme Devine, told Polygon that Magic Leap's technology blew him away when he first saw it:

"I went to the offices and I saw something that I did not think was possible. I like to think I know technology and I am not easily impressed. I worked at Apple, but when I saw what they were doing, I just said, immediately, 'How can I help?'"

Abovitz seems like a fascinating guy. In 2013, he gave a strange performance called The Synthesis of Imagination at TEDxSarasota:

In an eerie performance, Abovitz dressed as an astronaut and shared the stage with two furry creatures. 

 "A few awkward steps for me, a magic leap for mankind," he intones.  ! < /p>

The creatures, called "Shaggles," were created by Travis Boatright Design, and based off the company's comic series, called "Magic Leapers":

Watch the whole performance here:

SEE ALSO: Former Google CEO: Here's How To Build A $300 Billion Company

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