Photo: Jim Campbell/Boston Properties Salesforce Tower, the new skyscraper dominating San Francisco’s skyline, lit up for the first time in April. That first show was just a test, but now, every night starting at dusk, silhouettes of dancers and other images move against a bright background across the façade of the top six floors of… Continue reading Jim Campbell, Electrical Engineer Turned Artist, Lights Up San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower
Author: IEEE_Spectrum
Synthetic Biology Behemoth Aims to Police Its Own Industry
Photo: Ginkgo Bioworks Try as a nefarious actor might, it would be near impossible to order the ingredients for making a deadly virus such as smallpox from scratch—at least not from any reputable company. That’s because the world’s leading gene-synthesis firms all routinely screen customer requests against DNA sequences from hazardous viruses, bacteria, toxins and… Continue reading Synthetic Biology Behemoth Aims to Police Its Own Industry
Chip Hall of Fame: RCA CDP 1802
Photo: Paul Rautakorpi/Wikipedia CDP 1802 Manufacturer: RCA Category: Processors Year: 1976 If the RCA Corp. had made different decisions in the 1970s, the name Joe Weisbecker could be as revered as Steve Wozniak’s is today. Weisbecker was the architect of the RCA CDP 1802 microprocessor, also known as the Cosmac. Part of what made the 1802 special… Continue reading Chip Hall of Fame: RCA CDP 1802
Social Home Robots: 35 Years of Progress
Photo: Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/Getty ImagesTopo, a consumer and educational robot released in 1983 by Androbot. This Saturday, the Robot Film Festival is taking place in Portland, Ore. This is the 8th year of the festival, and after bouncing around between San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles, the festival has (at least temporarily) settled on the greatest… Continue reading Social Home Robots: 35 Years of Progress
Microbots Deliver Stem Cells in the Body
Image: University of Hong Kong/Science RoboticsMicrorobots designed to carry stem cells (fluorescent green) throughout the body are shown here on a cell culture plate. The astonishing thing about stem cells is that they can be coaxed, in the laboratory, into becoming nearly any kind of cell—from bone marrow to heart muscle. That remarkable capability has for… Continue reading Microbots Deliver Stem Cells in the Body
The Future of Cybersecurity Is the Quantum Random Number Generator
Illustration: Greg Mably In 1882, a banker in Sacramento, Calif., named Frank Miller developed an absolutely unbreakable encryption method. Nearly 140 years later, cryptographers have yet to come up with something better. Miller had learned about cryptography while serving as a military investigator during the U.S. Civil War. Sometime later, he grew interested in telegraphy and… Continue reading The Future of Cybersecurity Is the Quantum Random Number Generator
Popcorn-Driven Robotic Actuators
Photo: Cornell University It’s not that often I can steal the title of a paper and use it for a blog article that people will actually read, but I think “Popcorn-Driven Robotic Actuators” totally works, so credit for that to Steven Ceron at Cornell University, who’s the first author on this paper, presented at the IEEE International… Continue reading Popcorn-Driven Robotic Actuators
Low-Cost SBCs are Ideal for Industrial and Medical Applications
Industrial embedded computer system maker WinSystems has introduced a new series of single board computers (SBCs) in a NANO-ITX form factor. While measuring just 4.27 inches (120 mm) square, these ITX-N-3800 industrial SBCs offer robust I/O and expansion options, an extended operating temperature range, and abundant functionality for IIoT applications. The series is ideal for… Continue reading Low-Cost SBCs are Ideal for Industrial and Medical Applications
Chip Hall of Fame: Philips TDA7000 FM Receiver
Image: Harm van Rumpt TDA7000 FM Receiver Manufacturer: Philips Category: Wireless Year: 1977 FM radio is now a standard feature in a staggering number of gadgets, including alarm clocks, wristwatches, and music players. But before the early 1980s, conventional radio functions were costly and time consuming to build. Manufacturers typically had to make 10 to 14… Continue reading Chip Hall of Fame: Philips TDA7000 FM Receiver
Asimo Still Improving Its Hopping and Jogging Skills
Image: Honda Research We learned last week that Honda is putting Asimo out to pasture, so to speak, which is a little sad, but not too sad: Honda is doing this because they want to instead focus on the other, more useful humanoid robots that they’ve been working on recently, like E2-DR. Honda learned a… Continue reading Asimo Still Improving Its Hopping and Jogging Skills