Eleven dimensions, parallel universes, and a world made out of strings? It's not science fiction, it's string theory. Bestselling author and physicist Brian Greene offers a tour of this seemingly strange world in "The Elegant Universe," a three-hour Peabody Award-winning miniseries.
Part 1, "Einstein's Dream," introduces string theory and shows how modern physics—composed of two theories that are ferociously incompatible—reached its schizophrenic impasse: One theory, general relativity, successfully describes big things like stars and galaxies, while another, quantum mechanics, is equally successful at explaining small things like atoms and subatomic particles. Albert Einstein, the inventor of general relativity, dreamed of finding a single theory that would embrace all of nature's laws. But in this quest for the so-called unified theory, Einstein came up empty-handed, and the conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics has stymied all who've followed. That is, until the discovery of string theory.
Joe Landolina: This gel can make you stop bleeding instantly
Forget stitches — there's a better way to close wounds. In this talk, TED Fellow Joe Landolina talks about his invention — a medical gel that can instantly stop traumatic bleeding without the need to apply pressure.
The drone game has changed. That may sound like hyperbole, but that was my first impression when experiencing the DJI Inspire One. This is a unit that anyone could pick up and learn to fly quickly, just as you could with the DJI Phantom. But it offers a ton of powerful new features that were previously only available in units too big, dangerous, and expensive for the average consumer to own.
Watching the Inspire One take off and land is exciting, because it transforms mid-flight, with the legs folding up after takeoff so you can shoot 360 degrees of unobstructed video. The unit also has a ground-facing camera that can track what's below and keep the unit stabilized, even when there is no GPS signal, making it much easier to fly indoors.
Meet the Experimental Skateboard of the Future -- a Hoverboard from Arx Pax
We take a ride on an experimental hoverboard from a startup that wants to use the same technology to keep buildings safe during earthquakes and floods.
Leia Display System - promo video HD short version
The Leia Display System is a patented screen enabling mid air image projection. This system, based on computer technologies and aerodynamic solutions, makes it possible to display random multimedia content on a thin, virtually invisible, mist-like surface. Furthermore, the Leia Display System actively responds to touch. This allows interaction with the projected images, using movement and gestures.
3D Object Manipulation in a Single Photograph using Stock 3D Models: Full Length Video
We present an approach that allows users to perform 3D manipulations, such as rotations, translations, scaling, deformation, and 3D copy-paste, to objects in photographs. Our approach seamlessly reveals hidden parts of objects in photographs, and produces plausible shadows and shading. To reveal hidden parts, we use publicly available 3D models to complete missing geometry and appearance. As input, the user provides a photograph, together with a 3D model obtained using a word search on a public repository, and an object-free background filled in using in-painting techniques. Using our approach, users can create artistic compositions, manipulate vintage photographs, and even create animations.
The world's cheapest and easiest refrigerator to make, it uses minimal resources and runs completely without electricity. It's called a zeer pot, or the pot-in-pot and was rebirthed by Mohammed Bah Abba, who put the laws of thermodynamics to work for mankind.
The zeer pot, is just two simple pots, one pot smaller than the other. The smaller pot is put inside the bigger pot, and we fill the space between with sand. We wet the sand twice a day and cover the top with a wet towell to keep warm air from entering the interior.
Things You'll Need: Two clay (terracotta) pots, one larger than the other Sand Water Cloth to cover the pots Clay, cork or other material to plug holes in the pots
A small, sleek bar that "sees" your hands, the Ractiv Touch+ (formerly Haptix) makes any surface multitouch and more! Touch+ is the first to let you control your computer from any surface and with simple hand gestures. From web browsing to designing, Touch+ makes interaction simple, practical, and powerful. Use your computer like no other!
We present a new type of augmented mechanical keyboard, capable of sensing rich and expressive motion gestures performed both on and directly above the device. Our hardware comprises of low-resolution matrix of infrared (IR) proximity sensors interspersed between the keys of a regular mechanical keyboard. This results in coarse but high frame-rate motion data. We extend a machine learning algorithm, traditionally used for static classification only, to robustly support dynamic, temporal gestures. We propose the use of motion signatures a technique that utilizes pairs of motion history images and a random forest based classifier to robustly recognize a large set of motion gestures on and directly above the keyboard. Our technique achieves a mean per-frame classification accuracy of 75.6% in leave-one-subject-out and 89.9% in half-test/half-training cross-validation. We detail our hardware and gesture recognition algorithm, provide performance and accuracy numbers, and demonstrate a large set of gestures designed to be performed with our device. We conclude with qualitative feedback from users, discussion of limitations and areas for future work.
1 1/4 Cup Cherry Tomatoes 1 Yellow Nectarine 1 to 2 stalks Celery 3 Mini Bell Peppers Fresh Chives Fresh Basil I added a handful Chinese Mahogany leaves AKA Chinese Toon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_...
This beautiful American contra luz opal stone weighs approximately 119.0 carats and measures 46.0 x 44.0 x 10.1mm (1.81 x 1.73 x 0.39 in). It was found in Opal Butte, Oregon. What makes this piece really unique is the brown nebula-like cluster formed inside it. Contra luz opals are similar to crystal opals, which means they are transparent, but have this ability to also create color flash when light passes through from the opposite side.
Ultra-fast, the robotic arm catches objects on the fly
A robot developed by EPFL researchers is capable of reacting on the spot and grasping objects with complex shapes and trajectories in less than five hundredths of a second.
Manu Prakash: A 50-cent Microscope That Folds Like Origami
Perhaps you've punched out a paper doll or folded an origami swan? TED Fellow Manu Prakash and his team have created a microscope made of paper that's just as easy to fold and use. A sparkling demo that shows how this invention could revolutionize healthcare in developing countries … and turn almost anything into a fun, hands-on science experiment.
Exclusive demo: The new Photosynth lets you swoop through 3D panoramas
In this talk from TEDGlobal 2013, Blaise Agüera y Arcas of Microsoft introduces us to the new Photosynth, a set of tools which lets the everyday photographer create swooping, movement-filled 3-dimensional panoramas of spaces that look like they were created by special effects masters.
Yoichi Ochiai / 落合陽一(The University of Tokyo / 東京大学) Takayuki Hoshi / 星貴之(Nagoya Institute of Technology / 名古屋工業大学) Jun Rekimoto / 暦本純一 (The University of Tokyo / Sony CSL)
The essence of levitation technology is the countervailing of gravity. It is known that an ultrasound standing wave is capable of suspending small particles at its sound pressure nodes and, so far, this method has been used to levitate lightweight particles, small creatures, and water droplets. The acoustic axis of the ultrasound beam in these previous studies was parallel to the gravitational force, and the levitated objects were manipulated along the fixed axis (i.e. one-dimensionally) by controlling the phases or frequencies of bolted Langevin-type transducers. In the present study, we considered extended acoustic manipulation whereby millimetre-sized particles were levitated and moved three-dimensionally by localised ultrasonic standing waves, which were generated by ultrasonic phased arrays. Our manipulation system has two original features. One is the direction of the ultrasound beam, which is arbitrary because the force acting toward its centre is also utilised. The other is the manipulation principle by which a localised standing wave is generated at an arbitrary position and moved three-dimensionally by opposed and ultrasonic phased arrays. We experimentally confirmed that various materials could be manipulated by our proposed method.
Yoichi Ochiai, Takayuki Hoshi, Jun Rekimoto: Three-dimensional Mid-air Acoustic Manipulation by Ultrasonic Phased Arrays arXiv:1312.4006 [physics.class-ph] http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.4006
@ARTICLE{2013arXiv1312.4006O, author = {{Ochiai}, Y. and {Hoshi}, T. and {Rekimoto}, J.}, title = "{Three-dimensional Mid-air Acoustic Manipulation by Ultrasonic Phased Arrays}", journal = {ArXiv e-prints}, archivePrefix = "arXiv", eprint = {1312.4006}, primaryClass = "physics.class-ph", keywords = {Physics - Classical Physics, H.5.2}, year = 2013, month = dec, adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013arX...}, adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System} }
