Archives for: April 2010
04/26/10
Fish Farming Business In Nigeria - How To Start
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04/22/10
Microsoft's Skinput turns hands, arms into buttons
In Chris Harrison's ideal world, mobile phones would be the size of matchbooks. They'd have full-size keyboards. They'd browse the Web. They'd play videos.
And, most importantly, you'd never have to touch them.
Sound like too much to ask? Maybe not.
Harrison, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University and a former intern at Microsoft Research, has developed a working prototype of a system called Skinput that does just that, essentially by turning a person's hand and forearm into a keyboard and screen.
"People don't love the iPhone keyboard. They use them. But they don't love them," Harrison said in a interview at the recent Computer-Human Interaction conference. "If you could make the iPhone keyboard as big as an arm -- that would be huge."
Using Skinput, a person could tap their thumb and middle finger together to answer a call; touch their forearm to go to the next track on a music player; or flick the center of their palm to select a menu item.
All of these sign-language-like movements, which are customizable, would control a gadget in a person's pocket through a Bluetooth connection.
When fitted with a pico-projector, the Skinput system could display an image of a digital keyboard on a person's forearm. So, using Skinput, someone could send text messages by tapping his or her arm in certain places -- without pulling the phone out of a pocket or purse.
"You could pretty much do a lot of what you do on your iPhone," said Harrison, who says Skinput "is [like having] your iPhone on your palm."
The system, which has been under development for eight months, won't be commercially available for two to seven years, said Dan Morris, a Microsoft researcher who is working with Harrison on Skinput.
Before that can happen, Skinput's sensors need to get more accurate, he said. In a 13-person trial in Seattle, Washington, Skinput was found to be 96 percent accurate. But that test only used five buttons. The system would have to improve for people to make use of a full keyboard, which would be the "holy grail," Morris said.
"The accuracy is good, but it's not quite consumer-level yet," he said.
Skinput is one of a number of prototypes, ideas and near-products aiming to make computing more natural.
These devices seek to move beyond the mouse and physical keyboard, letting people communicate with their gadgets by gesturing, using sign language or, in the case of Skinput, tapping on their hands, fingers and forearms.
The arm as an instrument
Understanding how Skinput works makes it seem all the more futuristic.
The system turns a person's arm and hand into a wiggling, pulsating instrument, full of vibrations that can be picked up and translated.
Skinput users wear an armband -- the prototype version is made of an elbow brace -- that's lined with 10 sensors. These sensors look like tiny diving boards with dumbbells on one end, and they pick up inaudible sounds that range in frequency from 25 to 78 hertz.
When a Skinput user taps a thumb and middle finger together, the impact sends ripples down the skin and through the bones in the person's arm. "They sort of start resonating -- like guitar strings," Harrison said. The diving-board receivers read the sound waves to figure out what gesture the person made, and then relay that information to a phone.
Skinput can tell whether a person tapped a middle finger or an index finger, because the two moves sound slightly different to the springy receivers.
The system takes one or two minutes to learn the sounds of a particular person's arm, Morris said, and then it can be used however the user likes.
Trial and error
When they started working on Skinput, Morris and Harrison weren't sure if it would be possible to turn the human arm into a virtual keypad. The pair tried clipping sensors to the ends of peoples' fingers and other strange configurations that made users feel like cyborgs.
"We spent a lot of nights in the lab tapping on our arms and wondering if this would ever happen," Harrison said.
But the most profound achievement of Skinput is proving that the human body can be used as a sensor, he said.
Morris believes Skinput will make computing accessible to people in a way that never would have been possible before.
With Skinput, "literally, computing is always available," he said.
A person might walk toward their home, Harrison said, tap their palm to unlock the door and then tap some virtual buttons on their arms to turn on the TV and start flipping through channels.
"It's almost like magic," he said.
04/22/10
NASA reveals new images of the sun
Your mother always said not to look directly at the sun. In this case, you may want to make an exception.
NASA released stunning new images captured by their Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, a space telescope designed to study our sun.
"SDO is our 'Hubble for the sun,'" says Lika Guhathakurta, a NASA scientist, in a statement released Wednesday. NASA says SDO will play a critical role in helping scientists understand our nearest star more thoroughly, as well as its effect on our planet.
Since its launch on February 11, SDO has been moving into a geosynchronous orbit and bringing its on-board instruments online. The images unveiled on Wednesday's press conference are among the first images sent back by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, the observatory's main telescope array.
One thing that makes SDO unique it its ability to see the big picture -- literally. Rather than just focusing on a section of the sun, the observatory is able to monitor the entire sun in what it calls the "full disk" view.
NASA plans to have SDO in operation for the next five years, and says the observatory has enough fuel on board to continue to operate for an additional five years after it completes its initial science mission.
04/14/10
EFCC declares Ibori wanted
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday declared the immediate former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, wanted.
Ibori, according to the anti-graft agency, is wanted for alleged official corruption and money laundering.It said in a statement by its Head, Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Babafemi, that a court warrant had been obtained for his arrest.The statement, however, did not name the court, the judge and when the arrest warrant was issued.
When contacted on the missing links, Babafemi said the name of the judge and his court were being kept under wraps to avoid undue pressure on the agency by Ibori and his sympathisers.
But Babafemi explained in the statement that letters inviting the former governor for interrogation had earlier been sent to his addresses in Lagos and Abuja, before the decision to declare him wanted. He said, “Following persistent public enquiries over the status of the case involving the former governor, we will like the public to know that Chief Ibori is wanted by the commission for interrogation. “In this regard, letters of invitation have been sent to his known addresses in Lagos and Abuja while a court warrant has equally been obtained for his arrest.”
Our correspondent gathered that the letters specified that he should surrender to the commission on March 23. The letters, it was further learnt, asked Ibori to avail the anti-graft agency the necessary documents that could help it in the course of its investigations.
The commission, it was learnt, would have promised a reward to anyone that could provide information on the whereabouts of the former governor but wanted to accord him ”some respect and see if he would reciprocate by surrendering himself.” However, Ibori, in a swift reaction to the statement denied receiving any invitation from the anti-graft agency. He vowed in a statement by his Media Assistant, Mr. Tony Eluemunor, to “challenge EFCC’s political persecution.” Ibori said that his being declared wanted was a “political harassment that demands for vigourous legal challenge so that Nigeria is not ruled like a fiefdom.” He added that EFCC’s claim that “letters of invitation have been sent to his known addresses in Lagos and Abuja while a court warrant has equally been obtained for his arrest is a wicked lie” The former governor advised his supporters not to panic because up till today (Tuesday), no letter inviting him for questioning from either the EFCC or any other security agency, had been received in any of his houses in Abuja and Lagos. But the anti-graft agency debunked Ibori’s claim that he had not been invited.
The commission confirmed that an invitation letter to him was dated March 22, 2010 and that he was expected to have faced EFCC interrogators on March 23. An EFCC source claimed that Ibori’s associates had been in contact with some operatives through the telephone since the invitation was sent to Ibori. “These associates have been pleading with the EFCC to allow the operatives to visit Ibori in Warri, Deta State, to take his statement rather than him visiting the EFCC headquarters in line with the invitation letter but we turned it down,” he said. Ibori, who until President Umaru Yar’Adua’s sickness was a prominent visitor at the Presidential Villa, had not been visible at public places since the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President. A source close to the former governor, said his decision to “lie low” was taken about three weeks ago when his political associates met in Asaba and reviewed the political situation in the country.
SATURDAY PUNCH had exclusively reported on March 27 that Ibori might be quizzed by the commission following a fresh petition written against him by the Delta State Elders Leaders and Stakeholders Forum.
The petition was signed by a former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark; Chief Patrick Ideh; Dr. Richard Tosanwumi; Col. G.A.Eboma(rtd.); Chief Hope Erute; Chief Williams Ekpebitere; Chief Eddy Akangbou; Dr. B.K Adasen; Chief A. Abugbo; and Chief Benson Lelekumo.
Copies of the petition dated March 8,2010, were sent to the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan; the Attorney-General of the then Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode(SAN); and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Lamido Sanusi.
The forum had demanded the commission to find out whether it was right to use the state government’s shares to obtain a N44b private loan from a bank. They said there was evidence that shares worth N528m in Oceanic Bank belonging to Delta State Government was used to guarantee the N44b loan to Ascot Offshore Nigeria Limited by Intercontinental Bank Plc.
An EFCC source had then informed our correspondent that the petition against the governor by Forum was too weighty for the commission to ignore. Ibori was first arrested by EFCC operatives when Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was the commission’s chairman. He was charged to a Federal High Court in Kaduna. The case however suffered a setback when the Court of Appeal, Kaduna ruled that the high court did not have jurisdiction over the matter and that Ibori should be charged in his state. He was subsequently arraigned in Asaba before Justice Mercy Awokulehin, who discharged him of all the 170- count charge against him. The commission have since appealed against the ruling.
04/10/10
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04/02/10
Nigerian president Yar'Adua meets with top imams: media
Ailing Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, who has not been seen in public since last November, met with top Islamic clerics at his residence in the capital Abuja, media outlets reported on Friday.
Ustaz Musa Mohammed, the chief imam of the Abuja National Mosque, told the BBC and Nigeria's ThisDay and Daily Trust newspapers, that he shook Yar'Adua's hand and prayed with him on Thursday. He said the ailing leader had difficulty speaking.
The 58-year-old leader has not made a public appearance since he left for treatment in Saudi Arabia at the end of November. He was flown back to Nigeria two months ago but remains too frail to govern.
His deputy Goodluck Jonathan has taken over executive powers in his absence.
Reuters
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