computers

According to Kwabena Boahen, a computer scientist at Stanford University, a robot with a processor as smart as the human brain would require at least 10 megawatts to operate. That's the amount of energy produced by a small hydroelectric plant. But a small group of computer scientists may have hit on a new neural supercomputer that could someday emulate the human brain's low energy requirements of just 20 watts--barely enough to run a dim light bulb.

[ Read Full Story ]

Pen and voice input for computers is so early-millennium. Now Microsoft has created a next-gen computer concept that includes touchless gestures and eye-tracking, and has taken the device on a college tour with chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie.

[ Read Full Story ]

In the realm of beautiful, shiny things Dell's new Adamo XPS is among the shiniest and most beautiful. And, if we were in the business of judging (note)books by their covers, we'd leave that at that. That's not our business, though; the Adamo XPS is a gorgeous conversation piece, but a computer worth $1,800 it is not.

[ Read Full Story ]

We've come along way since the age when every office's communications nerve center depended on its switchboard operators tucked discreetly inside a windowless room somewhere. Or have we?.

[ Read Full Story ]

Imagine running a Google search for basketball videos, and having your computer sift through actual footage of online videos rather than just the text of the descriptions. A new type of software could enable computers to run searches inside videos, and pick out humans and objects alike.

[ Read Full Story ]

A research collaboration between Microsoft, the University of Washington and the University of Toronto is developing a muscle-controlled interface enabling Minority Report-esque, gesture-driven interaction with computers. It's perhaps the most promising of the billion or so Minority-Report-aspiring prototype interfaces.

[ Read Full Story ]

Today, a company called DeepDyve launched the largest online rental service for scientific papers, which allows users to rent any article for just 99 cents. Journal articles currently trend toward the obscene ($30 or more), unless you're the lucky dude with a password for a university library. DeepDyve saw an opening in the market and made deals with major scientific publishers to stock 30 million (and growing) articles of tech, med, and scientific interest.

DeepDyve is part of a greater trend of getting scientific info back to the hardworking taxpayers who funded it.

[ Read Full Story ]

If you're like me, the lack of computing power in your T-shirt causes constant problems. Well, thanks to the guys over at Xerox, you'll never have to worry about a jacket that can't run Windows 7 ever again. The company has just announced a new process for creating an ink that doubles as a circuit, paving the way for ubiquitous computing through printable electronics.

[ Read Full Story ]

It's been 10 months since the code for the Windows 7 beta leaked to BitTorrent. That leak was quickly followed by an official free beta release the first week of January and a release candidate in April. Hardware manufacturers have had their hands on the final version since July, and today is finally your day--the day you can buy a machine running Windows 7 pre-installed.

[ Read Full Story ]

Good idea: ditch the annoying scroll nipple (especially annoying on Apple's previous mice) and turn the entire top surface into a multitouch trackpad. That's what Apple's done with the Magic Mouse. Is this the end of the scroll wheel?

[ Read Full Story ]