Here’s a look at everything that caught my eye over the past week:
1. Emoji Passcode – The worldwide take over of emoji is now complete for they can now be used in place of numbers as a way to log into a computer.
As Wired writes, “On Monday, U.K.-based Intelligent Environments announced a new tool via its Android banking app that will let users log into their bank account using emoji instead of the typical four-digit PIN. A short demo video makes the app look a lot like any other four-digit code entry system but with emoji instead of numerals. This is much more than a digital novelty for the smartphone age. From a security standpoint, users can choose a combination from 44 emoji instead of 10 digits, meaning there are 480 times as many permutations as there are with a standard four-digit PIN.”
2. 3-D printed bridge – Speaking of things that could take over the world that brings us to 3-D printing. Another week another new thing that can be 3-D printed. This week it’s a bridge!
According to CNN, “Here’s how it will work: Engineers start with a piece of metal attached to a canal bank. The robots begin at one side of the canal, adding small amounts of molten metal to create lines in midair. The lines intersect to create a self-supporting structure — in this case, a bridge.”
In other words all you have to do is set and forget it. Come back in a few week and your bridge will be complete!
3. Ink-less Printer – Next up is another printed but this time it’s a not another type of 3-D printer. Instead its an ink jet printer that doesn’t use any ink. Instead it creates color through the use of tiny microscopic holes.
As Gizmodo puts it, “Considering printer ink costs more than booze and even human blood, it’s no surprise everyone’s on the hunt for a cheaper alternative. And that includes researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology who’ve created an ink-less printer that works by perforating special paper with thousands of microscopic holes.”
4. Mind reading experiment turns thoughts into texts – Texting can be hard. Fat fingers lead to constant typos and auto-correct usually makes things worse not better. In the future none of that may matter though for we soon could have a way to write texts without having to write at all.
According to Boing Boing, “For the first time ever, scientists in Albany, NY were able to use a “brain-to-text” interface to read thoughts and translate them into text. But it wasn’t as simple as one might imagine. In fact, the experiment made me a bit squeamish. To use the “device,” researchers placed seven patients in a controlled environment to perform a bit of surgery.”
Essentially this surgery involved attaching electrode sheets directly to the brain. Which if you ask me sounds like a lot of work and a lot of risk for just a novelty act.
Is a way to turn thoughts into texts the Greatest Idea Ever?
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