Luca Grandicelli Blog

New Research: Auto-learning is now possible with rapid data upload into our brain.

2011-12-12T19:18:06Z

Scientists at Boston University and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan believe that learning new skills by just “uploading data” into our brain is set to become a reality in the near future.

It is called Decoded Neurofeedback (DecNef), and is the result of a research based on a functional magnetic resonance machine (FMRI) that can ‘induce’ knowledge in someone through their visual cortex by sending signals that change their brain activity pattern.

Here’s an introduction video:

The trick is to incept a specific brain pattern into the ‘Adult early visual areas”, which are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning. Basically there’s no need of medication because learners would just sit in front of a computer and download the informations they need. This process has been tested on a group of volunteers and the detailed procedure is available for a better inside-look here.

Of course this is just a first step closer to the goal of auto-learning, which, in any case, would have serious ethical and social implications, although the movie “The Matrix” has quite clearly defined some of the potential applications.

The Memory Pill: how to upgrade our brain
Recently, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine found that if a molecule called PKR is inhibited, it leads to brain activity which helps the formation of long-term memories in the adult brain. The key aspect is that this molecule can be artificially inhibited so, as Dr Mauro Costa-Mattioli from Baylor says:

‘It is indeed quite amazing that we can also enhance both memory and brain activity with a drug that specifically targets PKR. Our identity and uniqueness is made up of our memories. This molecule could hold the key to how we can keep our memories longer, but also how we create new ones.’

Some might be concerned of how much of this new technology will truly enhance human’s life in terms of brain evolution, because it sounds like we could just hack our body, becoming a sort of super-human beings.

Despite the transhumanist movement has already taken this path, i think the most relevant element to keep in consideration would be this overflow of data and synaptic activity, which could lead to unknown responses by the brain. Do new forms of digital addiction lie ahead?

Available Resources:

Perceptual Learning Incepted by Decoded fMRI Neurofeedback Without Stimulus Presentation (http://www.sciencemag.org)
How fMRI works
Transhumanist Movement on Wikipedia

The men who sold their body to the matrix: The Body Hackers.

2011-07-15T17:41:51Z

Data analysis and information gathering are always important bases of today modern technology. But what if those informations come right out from our bodies? A group of so-called Bio-Hackers plugged themself with sophisticated measurement devices, wiring their body with sensors and cables, collecting data about their habits and activities. A modern saga of old cyberpunkers or a new branch of the transhumanism movement, but that’s just the beginning.

Quantifying ourself.

Who are the Body Hackers? Despite the name may sound quite fictional, it instead fits really well to this growing group of people. In late May they held a conference in California discussing about the impact of self-quantification on society. They even have a website where all interested people can share thoughts and ideas, discovering new forms of self-tracking and data analysys.

What they’re basically trying to do is to pull out a large amount of information from their life-activity at the body level. Weight, exercise habits, calorie intake, sleep patterns. Everything is quantified and graphed for post-process analysis. Although this might sound a bit fancy, the hidden potential might tremendously overtake the market in the years to come.

Benefits and Risks

The medical community has shown a particular interest in the self-quantifiers world. The main idea infact, is that doctors could gather high customized informations about a patient, and formulate a diagnosis which might save a life in all those cases where a common treatment could cause unwanted side effects or even death.

At this point, there are several controvertial aspects and possible risks to take into account. The main question infact, is how important could be sharing these informations on the net? What if ordinary people would start tracking themself and deploying huge loads of sensible data? The matter is full of questions and few answers, and the number of those who think that privacy is extremely at risk is greater everyday.

It’s not hard to imagine how critical data security could be, trying not to expose all of this informations to potential hacker attacks, or at worse, to marketing companies. But the Body Hackers keep going forward, continuing their researches and experiments and liking to be seen as pioneers of a new era. At the moment, their Think Tanks are quite active over the US territory and sooner or later Europe will follow.

Resources
The Quantified Self Website
The original Financial Times article by April Dembosky

Source
Financial Times

Instagram gallery widget for WordPress

2011-11-24T12:05:09Z

Instagr.am widget gallery displays your Instagram pictures in an elegant and easy way on your wordpress blog.

Special Features

Easy-to-install procedure. Just enter one of your Instagr.am pictures URL and you’re done
Nice FancyBox effect when clicking on thumbnails
Browse your Instagram pictures just like a gallery
Random Display Mode
Filter images by Effects
Thumbnails custom sizes option for every widget instance
Multiple widgets configurations
Specific PHP function call for theme customization
Shortcodes Support

Screenshots

Installation:

Download the plugin, unpack it and upload the ‘instagram-widget-gallery‘ folder to your wp-content/plugins directory.
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
On the widgets panel, drag the Instagram Widget Gallery onto one of your sidebars and configure its specific settings.
If you need to adjust some CSS to suite your theme layout, go to Settings->Instagram Gallery Widget page and change the inner stylesheet.
IMPORTANT: Go to this page and enter one of your instagram generated urls in the instagr.am permalink field, then press “Lookup”. You should see your profile gallery.
You’re done. Enjoy.

The Instagram Gallery Widget comes with a specific CSS editor to adjust every element according to your theme settings. Check the documentation online.

Download Instagram Gallery Widget v.1.4.1 WordPress.org repository | Previous Versions

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Who controls the Cloud? Revealing the dark sides of Cloud Computing

2011-06-13T20:54:46Z

Cloud computing is without a doubt, one of the most important and very revolutionary innovations of the last couple of years, and its benefits and advantages will basically transform the way we look at the “Web”.

Although this argument has been fully covered and discussed on almost every important web magazine and widely examined by experts, there is still something that lies behind. And like always, dark sides must be revealed.

Back to the old-style Terminals?

The main principle of cloud computing is to provide a global system to store all of our data in one place, making it available at anytime and everywhere. This is the so-called “Cloud”: an always connected, persistent and fully available network where information is centralized. Stored data will then be pushed to all of our connected devices, keeping informations updated and in sync.

This structure, basically derived from the classic Star Network Scheme, is going to be a natural enviroment for our devices to be merely turned into classic old-style terminals. Centralization infact, involves not only user-generated content such as personal info, photos and music.

But applications too. So the need to run software on our hardware is reduced to a very low percentage, because almost everything will run on the main Cloud. A clear example can be found in the ChromeBook. It’s built essentially to run the OS and other few applications. But most of the job is done and hosted online. Chromebook = Terminal. Quite easy equation.

Who controls the Cloud?

So, who controls the Cloud? Needless to say that corporate companies such as Google or Apple will take the lion’s share, building up the largest clouds and offering most of the essential services that common users demand.

But apart from strategy details, we should be aware that this is a centralization system where we will completely de-authorize ourself from controlling our generated and submitted data. De facto, who controls the Cloud, gains control on our digital life. In part, this already happens though.

For example, most of the services Google offers, are developed to host personal informations on their own servers, making them available at all connected users. Cloud computing will extend this concept and essentially overcome it, conforming this mechanism and turning it into a master-slave concept. And after all, it’s all about the pyramid.

The pyramydal factor

Another aspect to take into consideration is the “pyramidal factor”. Clouds will become centralization points, creating a network inside the network. They could be considered as a layer over the standard Internet, so controlling the Cloud means controlling all of its users. And this is such a dangerous thing which lead us to the following chapter.

Politic Control

Controlling the Internet means controlling the world. Governments know that.
Having a wide-centralized-controlled network of private users data is such a rich opportunity to extend their control. And i guess that dealing with few big companies that hold the network, rather than with many small hosting service providers, is definetely a better situation.

So in any moment, political crisis could give governments the chance to interfere, control and switch off portions of the Cloud Network, to isolate groups, or entire nations. Although this scenario is highly uncomfortable and quite pessimistic, recent news seem to light this path.

Considerations

Clouds computing systems can be thought as little reprodutions of the Global Web, but with particular functions and very separated enviroments. Think of a giant fractal where every little cloud is a reproduction of the mother scheme. A pyramidal structure where users stand at the bottom, pushing up their digital life and getting it back with a controlling-eye on it.

Everything’s good and everything’s right. We’re on it. George Orwell too.

Cyber War and the beginning of hostilities. Will it be a new cold war?

2011-06-01T19:59:09Z

There is a slow but inexorable ongoing change which involves new forms of war, crime and national security. It’s cyber war, and this time from books and fictions straight to reality.

While for decades it has been something tightly enclosed within a small group of hackers and experts, now that the Internet has spread its wings throughout the entire world, things are tremendously getting serious.

A declaration of hostilities
The Pentagon has recently concluded that computer attacks coming from another country can constitute an act of war, letting the U.S to respond using traditional military force. On the other side of the globe, North Korea has scoured its universities for computer prodigies to send overseas for training as part of a plan to expand its cyber warfare unit.

Hackers are being hired by national security agencies to fight against other hackers in some modern “cold-war” where the struggle for information is vital and national security demands advanced techniques to prevent in advance potential intrusions that will compromise the social establishment.

It seems like all the pieces are falling into place, ready to play another chapter of a dramatic war scheme. This time quietly hidden.

A new Cold War?
This type of secret warfare just reminds me of moments during the so called “Cold War” in the 80′s, with all differences considered. Nations in an apparently level of calm and peace working underneath the surface, bewaring from most of their diplomatic assets and struggling for information recovery.

This time the situation is slightly complicated, because anyone with a computer connected to the Internet might be a potential threat, so focusing on the real enemy ain’t easy anymore. This could lead to a wide form of National-Security-Paranoia which could involve legal acts intended to censorship the Internet in specific geographical areas, or other drastic measures developed to preventively block outcoming security threats.

We all must be aware of that, with the hope of a New Freedom somewhere.

Pre-Crime detector device tested in United States

2011-05-31T19:28:38Z

Once again, the movie Minority Report turned out to be one of the most tech-inspiring productions ever. Scientists and engineers seemed to have tapped the loop button on it, and out of that movie, sucked the best from the bone. That’s it, another brand new technology is scratching the surface, believe it or not.

At Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programme, scientists have developed a system able to spot people who are intending to commit a terrorist act. The device measures a variety of physiological indicators, ranging from heart rate to the steadiness of a person’s gaze, to judge a subject’s state of mind.

The localization process is completely remote: scanning infact, may occur while we’re walking through an airport gate, a train station or other relevant places.

If all of this sounds quite odd, you’ll be surprised to know that lab tests have already taken place in the last few months with successful results.
DHS have acclaimed accuracy rates of around 70% but no one really knows how the system will be performing on realistic field trials.

Needless to say, the scientist community is mostly pessimistic: “There are high risk of potential false positives” states Steven Aftergood, a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, “with the result of frequently tagging innocent people as potential terrorists and making the system unworkable in a busy airport.”

At the moment, DHS have completed the first round of tests at the end of March, and they’re going to proceed to the next step, which will involve field tests on public spots. They also seem to be quite concerned about letting people know when and where tests will take place, because of the potential psychological reaction that will affect the outcome results.

Well, apart from the technical aspects of how a computer could decode human thoughts and intentions, i think something’s crucial is missing out there: Privacy, or in this case, Mental Privacy.

Source: nature.com

New feature suggestion for Google Gmail: a Twitter-like mentioning function

2011-05-30T15:50:55Z

In this post i’d like to propose and suggest a new Gmail feature that would make email composing a lot easier.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a twitter-like @mention feature in our message edit box?

Here are some few descriptions of how it could look like:

While writing a message, we can easilly mention somebody in our contact list with a simple “@mention”. Just typing the @ character, a small pop-up menu would come up giving us the chance to select the desired name. Typing ESC will just leave the @ symbol in the box.
After the email has been sent, all the mentioned people will recieve an email to be notified of what others are saying about who and what.
People who are being notified will only read the single email where they’ve been mentioned.
After someone’s been mentioned, there will be the option to follow the discussion by just clicking on a link inside the notifying email. Doing so, people will just be included like they’ve been listed in the old common CC/CCN behaviour.

This is just an idea that came up after being using Twitter for a while, discovering its social potential even through its mentioning system. It’s just a start, not even fully analyzed.

So if you think that this could be a feature that will improve our Gmail daily use, or even if you don’t think it, leave a reply and join the discussion!

Special Recent Posts plugin for WordPress

2011-11-24T12:05:41Z

Special Recent Posts PRO (SRP) is a very powerful plugin/widget for WordPress which displays your recent posts with thumbnails. It’s the perfect solution for online magazines or simple blogs and it comes with more than 60+ customization options available.

You can dynamically re-size thumbnails to any desired dimension, drag multiple widget instances and configure each one with its specific settings. You can also use auto-generated PHP code/shortcodes to insert the widget in any part of your theme.

Special Recent Posts PRO is an high engineered, flexible and fully configurable plugin that lets you administrate everything about your blog’s recent posts.

Screenshots

Comparison Table

Some of the Special features:

Beautiful Dynamic Widget Interface
More than 60+ customization settings
Multiple widgets configurations
Basic Configuration Options
Thumbnails adaptive resize with GD libraries support
Thumbnails custom dimensions and rotation effect
Advanced Post Options
Advanced Filtering Options (you can filter by posts, pages, categories, custom post type, meta keys, meta values, tags, post status, most commented posts, last updated posts)
Random mode visualization
Fully Widget Configuration
Author display with optional PREFIX
Date Display with custom formatting
Category Display with optional PREFIX
Image Caching Support
Configurable custom CSS
Multi Layout Mode: Single Column, Single Row, Multiple Columns
Automatic Shortcode/PHP Code Generation

Upgrade Notes:

If you’re upgrading from the free version, many of your old settings might be overwritten. Anyway SRP PRO will try to do its best to preserve your old widget settings.
Note: Old custom CSS will be replaced so please make sure you make a backup copy of it before upgrading.

Free Version
Free version 1.9.1 is still available for free download at WordPress.org repository.
Please refer to the WordPress.org forums for getting specific support.

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An brief introduction to Architectural Projection Mapping

2011-03-18T16:10:23Z

Architectural Projection Mapping is basically a derivate of Argumented Reality. It consists in several 3D motion graphics projections onto a 3d surface like a building or other architectural enviroments.

The result is a particular extrusion effect, just like if the building itself is growing beyond its natural 3d structure.

The LightLine of Gotham from seeper on Vimeo.

What’s next
This technique has been already performed in several world events by pioneers like Klip Collective who are clearly under the spotlights for this upcoming technology.

TreeWax video installation from klipcollective on Vimeo.

Needless to say, possible application fields are clearly infinite: from commercials to cultural promotions. The future probably lies in a more interactive visuals, responding to music, movements and people reactions. Also, integrations with smartphones and geolocal patterns could be another prominent aspect of APM.

Some examples

Battle of Branchage from seeper on Vimeo.

Is programming taking a new path? Web Changes – Part 2

2011-02-08T13:35:46Z

Programming has faced several changes since last 10 ten years and web development is definetely the most affected branch, being right in the middle of the storm of the new internet digital era.

By the way, the character of programmer itself has quite changed: since open source has spread its wings throughout the Net, thousands of websites with massive collection of code snippets available in just a few seconds are just one click away.

Old Programmers VS Modern Programmers.
Most of the code we daily write comes from lots of inpiration. While checking for solutions over forums and blogs, we often cut, paste and modify, saving at least 40% of time on the scripting process. Obviously a basic knowledge of programming is required, but i think we’re slightly becoming modifiers of code and not creators.

Why should we write untested and unsecure code when hundreds of programmers already released that, well tested and secure? No doubt about it.

We’re probably evolving: There ain’t no such thing as “Single Programmer” anymore. Instead a “Community of Programmers”. And community is the new entity, and code has more than one father.

This is quite a common aspect of this internet era where knowledge belongs to communities and where everyone can interact exchanging and sharing knowledge.

Changing Path
So who’s a real programmer? The one who remember every single instruction or the one who can easily assemble differents parts of code making them work correctly? Although this distiction doesn’t seem important, perhaps a lack of creativity is about to grow.

When starting up a project for a website this often implies the use of pre-written code and platforms , such as wordpress, joomla or similar. By adding some plugin we almost can build a website without writing a line of code.

All of this is such an improvement as much as we share and partecipate to the big community of web development.

A new character: “The Google Finder”
Searching for the right piece of code is more than a simple task. Looks like a proper job. Finding the correct keywords for better results is a challenge every developer seems to join everyday.

So could this become a new job profile in the next future? Maybe “Data Finders” would be the name?

Things are changing fast and personal knowledge and experience is slighlty passing from ourself to the “Neural Network” of the Net.

Decentralization of consciousness?