Discovery News: Material World

Energy-Aware Plug

Electricity is invisible and we tend to forget about it until the bill comes. Now researchers are developing an intelligent plug that will monitor and quantify energy consumption. The scientists think that if consumers can see the electricity that household appliances use and then also be able to adjust that use, it might make folks less apathetic about leaving the lights on.

The Power Watch Plug, being developed by John Woods and Steve Fitz at Essex University in the UK, will look like any ol' standard cord coming out of the back of an appliance. But this one will contain a power meter, a microcontroller and a wireless transceiver. The device will monitor the power it is supplying from the outlet to the machine and send the information to a central computer (laptop, desktop, PDA, or mobile phone). There, software will organize the data in ways useful to the consumer. A homeowner will be able to see, for example, what appliances are on and off, which ones are on standby, how much energy they're using, and even be able to remotely power down any equipment unnecessarily running up the meter.

Prototype plugs will be manufactured by Ipswich-based Circad, and should be ready within six months.Once completed, they would be made available to manufacturers, who would attach the plugs to appliances in the factory. 

Clean Teeth Without the Toothpaste

Sometimes I wonder if the day will ever come when we'll be able to take a shower without using any water. Well, we're not there yet, but along those lines, we may be able to clean our teeth without using toothpaste. A solar-powered toothbrush (manufactured by Osaka, Japan-based Shiken Corporation and being distributed in North America by Soladey USA) uses natural light, not Crest, to get rid of plaque.

The Soladey-2 has titanium dioxide in the handle just below the bristles. When natural light (not fluorescent) shines on the titanium dioxide, it causes a chemical reaction that releases negatively charged electrons. Inside the mouth, the negatively charged electrons stick like magnets to positively charged ions in dental plaque acid. The bound neutralizes the acid, decomposing the plaque.See this graphic and the story in the NY Times.

Computer Converts Thoughts into Speech and Motion

There's a lot of work going on in brain machine interfaces. That is, machines that can read a person's brain activity and translate that into movement. Most of these approaches require a person to wear an electrode cap. They also require very sophisticated algorithms that can discern the appropriate brain wave activity from other brain wave activity.

A new device called the Audeo, from Ambient (developed by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), does not use an electrode cap. It uses a collar that wraps around the neck. Electrodes there pick up neural activity that the brain is transmitting to the vocal chords. The machines then translates those neural signals into computer speech or to drive a wheelchair. So basically, you just think "My name is Tracy" and the computer outputs a synthesized version of that. Or you think, "Turn right" and the computer turns your wheelchair to the right. Very cool. Check out the video.

You Can Use Gmail to Launder Your Other E-mail Account

The last time I visited my folks, my mom opened up her Outlook Express with great reluctance. It was filled with so much spam that the server choked a bit while chewing through it. I was amazed. I almost never get spam. In fact, when people complain about spam, I feel the way I do when they complain about gas prices. I don’t have a car.

What I do have is Gmail.

I called up Google’s spam czar, Brad Taylor, and asked him why Gmail was so darn good. He wouldn’t/couldn’t give me a lot of details (nor will Google entertain any questions about why it still has “beta,” under the logo, even though an older version of the app exists) about how the filter works. But he did say that it depends heavily on user feedback.

“What’s fairly unique from other filters is that it only defines spam as what users say is spam,” said Taylor. “Our system is very dependent on the ‘report spam’ button.”

Here’s Taylor giving a little shpeel about Gmail.

For those of you who aren’t Gmailers, the ‘report spam’ button is something you click after you have highlighted the insidious spam message that has infiltrated your inbox. Once you click it, not only does the message disappear, never to be seen again, but others like it are blocked, too.

And likewise, if Gmail accidentally puts a non-spam message into the spam box, you can select that message and click “not spam.”

Gmail’s spam filter also keeps up with the lasted tricks spammers like to treat us with. For example, embedding images that are really ads. Or attaching MP3 files that are audio ads.

“A couple of weeks ago there was an exploit in PDF. Not only was it spam, but it was infecting your PC with malware,” said Taylor. (Malware is malicious software, which is a virus or some other program designed to damage or disrupt your computer).

Taylor also confirmed that you can use Gmail to filter spam out of your other email account.

You will need a Gmail account. Under Mail Settings, select “Forwarding and POP/IMAP.” Here, you can forward incoming emails to your non-Gmail email address. Presumably, if you have a forwarding function on your non-Gmail account, you could forward from there through Gmail and then back again…or is that just crazy talk?

If you’ve tried this, let me know how it works.

Buy a Laptop, Get a Laptop

They say it's about giving, not receiving. But from now through November 26, if you buy an XO laptop (left) for a child in need, your own child will get one, too. The offer comes from One Laptop per Child, the non-profit association founded on computer technology developed by Nicholas Negroponte at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. See the 4 minute video below by NY Times' David Pogue, which explains what the laptop can do.

In the short term, One Laptop Per Child wants to get the machine into the hands of some of the poorest children in the world. In the long run, organization hopes that their technology (and the education enabled by it) helps eliminate poverty.

I think it's a really great idea. And if getting a free tax-deductible laptop isn't enough to convince you, the purchase also comes with one year of complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot locations (a $350 value).

I Talk to My GPS Device, Even Though it Doesn’t Talk Back

His name is Tim. He has a British accent. And unlike many men I have known in my life, he knows where he’s going. Unfortunately, he’s not a person. He’s the voice of a GPS device.

“Aftah two hundred yahds, turn roight,” Tim says.
“What would I do without you, Tim?” I ask.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t, like the guy in this commercial, have a crush on a GPS device.

But I do interact with it. I talk to it. Ask it questions. And make general commentaries, even though the machine cannot understand me or talk back.

Have I lost it?

I decided to pose that question to Clifford Nass professor of communication at Stanford University and codirector of the Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory. He’s an expert in interacting with technology, having written books like The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places (boy, that sounds like me) and Wired for Speech.

Nass said, in so many words, that I hadn’t lost it. My “problem” could be explained pretty simply: “Our brains are built so that when we hear a voice we automatically respond to it as if we were responding to a real person,” he said. “We assign it a gender and personality and emotion,” and, he said, “we want to speak back.”

It all goes back to those early days hundreds of thousands (millions?) of years ago when the only entities talking and listening were humans.

And apparently, we tend to get more attached to things that we talk to, as opposed to things that do all of the talking. This could explain why, when Tim was stolen, I felt almost as sad as I might had I lost a pet. (Son of Tim is now onboard.)

Knowing that people respond to voice technologies as they might respond to other human beings could have some important applications in user-friendly technology, said Nass.

For example, he and his team did a study with two GPS devices that talked in different tones: one spoke in an upbeat, happy manner, while the other spoke in flat, subdued way. Those drivers with the happy GPS device drove better and had fewer accidents than those drivers with the subdued GPS device. So manipulating voice emotion could lead to better driving, said Nass.

These were just experiments and so far, a cheery GPS device is not yet on the market. But it’s cool to think that one day Tim may not only get me to where I’m going, but could help me arrive safely and in a better mood. Maybe this is love.

IMers: Take a Number

I have about as much use for instant messaging as I do for scores of unannounced visitors rapping at my door every other hour. It’s an interruption that I can do without. And so for that reason, I have the IM feature turned off on my email. It probably sounds like a cranky-old-bat thing to do. But, really. Can’t IM be less annoying?

The answer is yes. A prototype software bot called IMBuddy (Download IMBuddy.pdf) works like an invisible personal assistant that peeks in on you to see if you’re busy and then communicates that to would-be messengers.

“Right now the only cues the IM clients have are “away,” “idle,” or “online.” But you can be online and be busy,” said PhD candidate Karen Tang of Carnegie Mellon University, who along with PhD candidate Gary Hsieh, spoke with me about their project.

The way it works is that people interested in sending you a message, first send a message to IM Buddy (his screen name is IMBuddy411). The person can ask where you are (information the software gets by recognizing the wireless signal in your home, school, office, or café), how busy you are (based on things like how many windows you have open and how much keyboard clicking you’re doing), and what applications you have open.

“You might be more or less interruptible when you’re working in Word than when you are surfing the Web,” said Hsieh.

An answer to the query comes back in a popup bubble with feedback showing if the person’s business is low or high.

It’s not perfect. I mean, sometimes my most intense concentration (and the need for silence) comes when I’m writing and thinking about writing. At those times, I’m not surfing the web or typing or doing anything but sitting there. But it’s a step in the right direction.

The researchers are going to be testing the service next in Facebook.

Imagine Not Waiting 5 Minutes for Your Computer to Boot Up

So maybe it's a minor inconvenience. You start up your computer in the morning and then go for a coffee or chit-chat with a coworker. After all, a computer is not a toaster or a microwave or a washing machine. It has lots of computer code that need to be initialized before you can use everything from your software programs to your keyboard, mouse, printer, and USB ports. You can't just push a button and have instant-on access.

But a new software platform from Milpitas, CA-based Phoenix Technologies could give you just that. Called HyperSpace, the operating system can run in parallel with Windows (others cannot) and will allow users immediate access to things like email, DVD movies, Web surfing, calendar, and more. So with HyperSpace, you could start your computer, and in less time than it takes to toast a muffin, you could go straight your email.

It's faster, said Gaurav Banga, Phoenix Technologies' chief technology officer, because instead of loading every piece of code you could ever possibly need, it just loads the essentials, like those for the CPU, memory, mouse, keyboard, screen graphics, and network.

In the meantime, Windows can be taking its good ol' time booting up and when you need to, you can click a button and toggle over to it.

"Our system is the first one that will let you run a small set of applications in Hyperspace and at the same time run Windows. This is completely new," Banga told me.

Phoenix Technologies is working with equipment manufacturers in Asia and expect HyperSpace to be available on PCs sometime next year.

You Can Help Fight Cancer By Just Sitting Around Doing Nothing

This week, the World Community Grid, the largest public computing grid, announced the Help Conquer Cancer project. The organization has teamed with the  Ontario Cancer Institute, Princess Margaret Hospital and University Health Network to improve analysis of 86 million images, an effort that could increase the understanding of cancer and its treatment. You can help out by donating your computer's processing time when you're not using it. So-called grid computing draws on, not just your computer's processing power, but on thousands of computers from around the world. The resulting computational power is more massive than a supercomputer. And because a huge body of research is distributed in tiny pieces to all of those PCs, the time it takes to produce results is cut down from decades to years, or from years to months. To sign up, first read the FAQs on the WCG website and then consider becoming a member.

A Mobile Phone That Does Your Taxes

Well, not yet. But today Google announced the Open Handset Alliance, a group of mobile phone technology companies, and Android, a free, open-source platform for mobile devices, that could help push cell phone innovation even beyond the iPhone. Normally I wouldn't mention consumer products in this blog, but I think the key ideas here are "free" and "open source," which could cut competitors off at the knees, while at the same time spark new and interesting uses for smart phones. Maybe make them cheaper. You should be able to get a phone late next year with the software.

The down side: It won't be available on your current phone. You'll have to buy a new one. And it could be just one more place for Google to sell and display advertising.