Electronic device could restore sight to millions

post from Ubergizmo on 16 August 2012 07:50:22 PM. © Ubergizmo

Dr. Sheila Nirenberg (right)

Millions of people who suffer from blindness or near-blindness have one more reason to hope. Dr. Sheila Nirenberg, a Neuroscientist has developed a technique that can use a camera and a processor to replace defective organic visual organs. She observed that the majority of such medical condition was induced by a damage to the retina which is the light-sensitive part of the eye, which captures light.

So far, she has been able to restore sight to mice that went from being completely blind to being able to visually track moving objects, and even distinguish a baby face, says nydailynews – although we’re not sure how the researchers measured that. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Brain Scan may help determine your exact age within a year, Audio/Visual Alerting Pillbox might make life easy for the forgetful,

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Brain Scan may help determine your exact age
within a year

post from Ubergizmo on 16 August 2012 07:41:37 PM. © Ubergizmo

Image via the University of California San Diego School of Medicine

A MRI(magnetic resonance imaging) may help determine whether there are any problems with your brain, but researchers at multiple universities have discovered a new use for the MRI that has less to do with your health and more to do with your age? Yep that’s right, Timothy Brown from UCSD(University of California, San Diego) and researchers from nine different universities have reported today in the journal Current Biology that their test results indicated that they were able to determine a patients exact age within year accurately using the MRI.

Brown explained the experiment in a press release today: “We have uncovered a ‘developmental clock’ of sorts within the brain — a biological signature of maturation that captures age differences quite well, regardless of other kinds of differences that exist across individuals.” They experimented on 885 people from age 3 to age 20 and by identifying 231 biomarkers in the brain, they were able to determine the patient’s age with 92% accuracy, the highest to date in determining age. By combining the 231 biomarkers instead of normally separating them, they were able to more accurately determine an age according to Brown.

We’ll have to see if the team continues to have such success as they progress into a wider range of ages as being off by a year or two is completely different when talking about a 3 year old or talking about an 80 year old. Nonetheless it is still a good step forward on research on how our brain reflects our age. Let us know what you think of the experiment in the comments section below.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Brain scans can tell if you?ll really quit smoking, Researchers try to determine if you?re a pro gamer with science,

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Google adds Smart App Updates to the Play Store

post from Ubergizmo on 16 August 2012 07:21:07 PM. © Ubergizmo

Google has been doing a lot of maintenance to its Play App Store recently. Just this morning, we found out that Google is in the process of adding gift card and wish list support to the Android Play App Store. Today, Google has enabled Smart App updates, which was initially revealed back at Google I/O.

Usually, when one wants to update an application on their Android smartphone, the whole application is downloaded by the Google Play Store, which can take quite a while with the larger apps and if you have a slow connection. Now, Smart Apps only downloads the difference between the two apps allowing both the Google Play Store and the user large amounts of data previously wasted.

For example, the new Instagram app only required me to download 3MB of the 13MB of the actual app. Very useful if you want to download an app update but don’t have access to Wi-Fi where you currently are and don’t want to use up a lot of your data plan. Let us know if you have received the Smart Apps Update feature in the Google Play store yet and what you think of it in the comments section below.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Play Store app updated to v3.5.15, Google Play Store app updated,

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Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS)
approved by the US Navy

post from Ubergizmo on 16 August 2012 06:54:58 PM. © Ubergizmo

The U.S Marines have a new precision weapon in its arsenal. With the APKWS acronym (Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System), the new system upgrades a normal Hydra 70mm rocket into a laser-guided smart weapon. You have probably seen this type of rockets in movies as they are often carried on the sides of Huey or Cobra helicopters.

The advantage of the APKWS system is two-fold: it does much less damage than a standard 500lbs or even “smaller” 250lbs smart bombs, which is great to avoid collateral damages. Also, the platform (plane, chopper…) carrying the APKWS may be able to carry more rockets (than bombs), which means that it could handle more target within a single mission. That said, a single APKWS remains extremely destructive, but less so than other laser-guided smart munitions.

As for the precision, the US Marines have reported that during tests on both static and moving targets, the APKWS has been able to hit with a 17″ precision from where the laser designator was aiming at. Needless to say that this is very accurate.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Infra-red invisibility cloak for tanks, Laser machine gun combo appeals to US Navy,

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oved-by-the-us-navy/

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Shark Kigurumi

post from Cool Shit You Can Buy - Find Cool Things To Buy on 16 August 2012 06:05:21 PM. © Cool Shit You Can Buy - Find Cool Things To Buy

I wish it could be Shark week every week. Until then get yourself a Shark Kigurumi to wear when you're feeling a bit down and missing the sharks. Made from top quality materials, one size fits all, wear it anywhere and everywhere.

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Xigmatek Gigas uATX Computer Enclosure

post from Benchmark Reviews: Performance Computer Hardware Tests on 16 August 2012 06:00:00 PM. © Benchmark Reviews: Performance Computer Hardware Tests

Mention the term Small Form Factor and most people think of a PC case that you can hold in one hand. The term came into use when PC giants HP, Compaq, and IBM were all trying to shrink the corporate desktop. The question that came to mind when Benchmark Reviews first saw the XIGMATEK Gigas was, Why this design? It's because consumers want sleek, fashionable components in their life, and big tower cases are past their expiration date, as industrial designs go. There's an increasing focus on svelte boxes that work with a mini-ITX or micro-ATX motherboard. The tiniest boxes give up some measure of performance in exchange for space, but mid-sized models like the Gigas can handle the most powerful components available. The combination of four 120mm fans and passive ventilation on the side panel supplies plenty of cool air for all the critical components inside. The ability to use virtually any 120mm CPU cooler also helps keep temps down. While not exactly commonplace, you can also run a SLI/CrossFire arrangement. The Gigas will handle full-sized graphics cards up to 320mm in length, and PSUs up to 300mm. Let's see if we can turn this piece of art into a Power Cube.

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Get Snapfish coupon to get 30% Off at
snapfish.com discount

post from New Gadget World Coupons on 16 August 2012 04:04:54 PM. © New Gadget World Coupons

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Get Perry Ellis coupon to get Save up to 60% at
perryellis.com discount

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Get Perry Ellis coupon to get 20% Off at
perryellis.com discount

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The FUNcube Dongle Pro

The FUNcube Dongle (FCD) is general-coverage VHF/UHF receiver with near continuous coverage from 67 MHz through 1700 MHz and is housed in a USB dongle thatnot much larger than a USB memory stick! (See photo A.) Although originally conceived as part of an educational outreach project, it now has a life of its own and [...]

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http://www.pulseontech.com/the-funcube-dongle-pro/

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