ARCHIVED NEWS
Will Smartphones be Replaced with AR Glasses?
Facebook's leader Mark Zuckerberg believes that someday soon, smartphones will be replaced with Augmented Reality (AR) glasses. Seems logical, because smart glasses can easily help create the equivalent of a huge screen in front of each eye. They seem to be the ideal solution when it comes to overlapping virtually anything onto the world around you: street names, directions, sports results, etc.
According to Facebook's CTO Mike Schroepfer, the company is working at a brain sensor which will allow people to type using their mind power. We are talking about a non-invasive brain sensor, of course, and one that allows regular people to "type" up to 100 words per minute, more than most high-speed computer typists.
Intel's Next-Gen SSD is Ready
Intel and Micron have been working on a new-generation memory technology for more than five years now, and it looks like their first 3D XPoint-based product is VERY, VERY fast. Due to the use of 3D XPoint memory (rather that typical NAND flash memory) the resulting SSD can deliver much faster speeds and has much lower latencies.
According to Anandtech, Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X has a typical latency of less than 10uS for both read and write operations, and an impressive mean time between failures (MTBF) of over two million hours.
China Utilizes Facial Recognition Technologies to Build Intelligent Toilet Paper Dispensers
No, this is not a joke! The National Tourism Administration has already invested close to $3.6 billion in a program that aims to construct 34,000 new public bathrooms and renovate 23,000 of the existing ones. To save costs and keep the bathrooms clean, a facial recognition system will dispense a generous, 2-foot section of toilet paper every nine minutes, following a face scan.
The system will be implemented with a higher priority in the bathrooms that can be found at various tourist sites, which have gained an unwanted fame for their primitive conditions. To give you an idea, the largest amusement park in Beijing – Happy Valley – is visited by four million people each year, while only having 18 bathrooms.
China Tries to Control the Weather ahead of the Beijing Olympics
This summer, China has tested a strange project, which involves shooting salt and minerals up in the sky, with the goal of triggering rain. It's not their first attempt; back in 2008, China announced that it has cleared the sky for their previous Beijing Olympics event.
Before judging them, you should be aware of the fact that more than 50 countries, including the United States, utilize weather modification programs. But to these methods actually work? And what is their impact on the environment? Let's find out!
New Technology Converts Sea Water into Drinking Water
In less developed countries, which lack the needed funds and technologies, water filtration can be a serious problem. So, to succeed in these countries, the utilized technologies need to be inexpensive.
Fortunately, a group of researchers at Alexandria University in Egypt have come up with an invention that uses pervaporation, a modern desalination technique. By utilizing synthetic membranes, large salt particles and impurities are filtered; the remains can then be evaporated and condensed into clean water.
