How To Build A Computer

Are you the kind of person who wants his computer a certain way. It can sometimes be hard to find a computer that suits you exactly the way you want it. The easiest solution to this is to build your own computer from scratch. When I was in 9th grade I assembled a computer. It looked really hard at first, but once I found this website it became a lot easier. For anyone who wants to try to build a computer I would recommend reading this website. It's kind of long, but it's worth it.  http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/how-to-tech/build-a-computer1.htm

Touch/Feel Screen

The major problem with touchscreens is that you can't feel the boutons that you are pushing. So as a result you have to always be looking at the screen when you're typing and it is easy to push a wrong bouton. This is very annoying if you are trying to multitask. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have realized this and have make their own touchscreen. This touchscreen is very unique because it can change it's shape to form boutons that you can push. This design is very simple and can only form certain limited bouton shapes.

Cloaking Device

Two teams have claimed that they have just invented a cloaking device. Unlike previous cloaking devices which used tiny cameras and projectors to make objects look invisible, this new device actually bends light around itself using mirrors and nano pillars. This concept of bending light has been used in the past to bend microwaves, but bending the waves that are seen with the human eye is a new achievement. Both teams' designs are almost exactly identical and it apparently took them both almost exactly the time to build it.

"Content Intelligence"

When people search something on the web using Google or other search engines, they usually come up with a list of documents with the word(s) they're searching in it. This is helpful, but not helpful enough according to researchers at Netbase Solutions. Netbase Solutions has come out with a new way to search for what you need on the internet. Typically if you search for something, such as a disease, you will come up with documents and websites related to that disease. But what this new search engine from netbase does is it takes all the important information from the documents and websites, and gives you just that. So if you search "Swine Flu", then you'll get a list of ailments, causes, etc- the important stuff. The searching software is called Content Intelligence.

New Motion Tracking Device

Researchers at MIT have invented a motion tracking device that is much cheaper and more efficient than normal motion tracking devices. The device is called Second Skin. Instead of using high speed cameras and special markers to track motion, Second Skin just uses a projector and photosensors. Traditional motion tracking devices cost hundreds of thousand of dollars and can only be used in specially lit settings. Second Skin only costs a couple thousand dollars and can be can be used in almost any setting. The way Second Skin works is the projector sends out infrared light which hits the photosensors worn by the object being recorded. The pattern of infrared that hits the photosensors is recorded and converted into binary code and then sent to a computer which calculates the motion. This technology is very useful in movie making.

Heatstroke Preventer

A new device has just come out that can warn football coaches if their players are getting close to getting heatstroke. The device, made by Hothead Technologies in Atlanta is imbedded inside the the football players helmet and sends a wireless signal to a PDA held by the coach on the sidelines. If the device (which is made up of sensors and a wireless transmitter) senses that the players body heat has risen above 39 degrees for more than 20 seconds then it will send out a warning to the coaches PDA. Hothead technologies is planning on making similar models for other activities such as military training and firefighting.

Super Efficient Laptop Battery

HP has just designed and created a laptop battery that lasts longer and charges faster than any other laptop battery available on the market. The battery is a lithium-ion battery. It recharges 50 percent faster that normal laptop batteries, and it can retain 80 percent of its charging capacity after 3 years (compared to the normal 50 percent over 1 year). HP is installing this laptop battery in 18 of its laptop models.

Nano Recording

The ability to make electrical recordings at the level of cells is a relatively resent scientific achievement achieved by researchers at Harvard. Their major achievement, in 2006, was that they found a way to use nanowire transistors to measure electrical signals at fifty points along a single neuron. Now that technology has been improved by the same researchers. They have made a recording system that can record the most precise, high quality electrical recordings ever made from heart cells. This is major advancement and could greatly aid doctors in saving the lives of neurological and heart disease patients.

New Microsoft Surface

Microsoft's Surface touch screen has just been improved. Microsoft realized that a touch screen can only operate software; but their are things in software in which it would be easier to use a controller of some kind. To solve this problem Microsoft built their new Surface with the ability to be controlled with certain controllers that are placed on the screen.

Blue Gene/P

As the small laptop computers and devices get faster and faster, so do the big super computers. IBM has found a way to make supercomputers faster by using stream computing. This kind of computing can crunch a realtime stream of data in microseconds. This is 21 times faster than normal supercomputers. IBM joined forces with TD Securities to make this amazing supercomputer which they call Blue Gene/P. 

The Wii Series

It's amazing how many different kinds of Wii controllers there are today. This is just a taste of all that's out there.

HP

Atomic Clock

3D Imaging Software

Researchers from Texes A&M University have developed a new software that could immensely help rescue teams find victims after a disaster. Before this software was created, rescue teams would have to first draw the wreckage site from hand onto paper. What this new software does is it creates a 3D image of the wreckage site so that rescue teams can see the situation their faced with from all angles. The software builds the 3D image from pictures taken from airplanes above. This system is much more fast, portable, and accurate than the traditional drawing. 

Graphene

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have just created the first ever full functional graphene. Graphene is a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in hexagons which can be used to make high radio frequency logic circuits, transparent electrodes (for flexible flat panel displays), and high surface area electrods (for ultra-capacitors). This is a big step for computer science because this new technology could make hard drives much faster and denser. The concept of graphene has been around, but it hasn't been of any interest because it wasn't thought to be possible. Andre Geim, a professor at the University of Manchester, said that this new technology is thrilling, because it's very simple.