James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Interfacing machines with the human brain: Paralyzed man has sense of touch again
It was more than decade ago that Nathan Copeland had the experience of touching something with his hands. Following a catastrophic car crash that injured his spinal cord, Copeland was paralyzed and lost all feeling in his fingers. Now, thanks to medical breakthroughs at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, he can feel again. Reported ...
Barack Obama on artificial ‘white male’ intelligence and the kinks that make us human
U.S. President Barack Obama is no stranger to artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies despite not being known for his interest in computer technology. The President reportedly just got rid of his Blackberry, and the world seemed mightily surprised the day he was photographed donning a virtual reality headset. Nonetheless, earlier this year Obama showed some tech ...
Police using surveillance tool on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
Social media analytics platform Geofeedia had been feeding information from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to law enforcement, according to a report just released by the American Civil Liberties Union. Once the ACLU announced its findings, the social media giants were reported to have severed ties with Geofeedia, although in another report ACLU states that police are using ...
The technology that brought a dead friend back from the grave
Arguably the creepiest installment of the outstanding, tech-influenced horror series, “Black Mirror“, is the episode in which a grief stricken woman brings her boyfriend back from dead. “I’ll Be Right Back” and the entire “Black Mirror” series – a new U.S. version of which is coming to Netflix very soon – takes emerging computer technology ...
Johnson & Johnson warns diabetics its connected insulin pumps could be hacked
One of Johnson & Johnson’s insulin pumps could be hacked to overdose diabetic patients, the company has warned patients. The company sent a letter to patients warning of a security vulnerability, though it described the risk as low, according to Reuters. It’s another example of the potential of the Internet of Things to come under attack. Possibilities include ...
Google just released the ‘everyman’ VR headset, critics are pleased
It seems Google Inc. had it sights set on the average consumer rather than the virtual reality fanatic when it came up with the idea of the Daydream View headset. As we noted yesterday, the headset is temptingly priced to woo the curious shopper into trying out this new(wave) fad called VR. The question we now ...
With ‘Daydream’ headset, Google looks to woo virtual reality neophytes
If Google Inc. reveals its new virtual reality headset at an event in San Francisco Tuesday, as it’s expected to do, one thing will be apparent: This machine won’t be aimed at current VR fanatics. Early reports suggest that theDaydream VR will be considerably cheaper than its competitor, the Samsung Gear VR, priced at just $79 if ...
Is that a Beatles song? No, it was created by artificial intelligence
Musicians have for some time been lamenting the end of musical purity, as technology such as drum software occasionally usurps members of the band. Those same folks might believe they have a bit more to worry about now in view of a recent song released by Sony CSL research laboratory, a Beatles-esque number that was created by ...
Tech giants form partnership to promote ethical AI development
Some of the world’s largest tech companies are coming together to form a partnership aimed at educating the public about the advancements of artificial intelligence and ensure they meet ethical standards. The group appears to be the one revealed in a New York Times story in early September. Interestingly, two big names are missing from the group, those ...
Google says it has almost cracked language translation
When Google launched its Translate service a decade ago, the Internet was pretty much devoid of digital language translation tools. Google Translate became more useful over time, but it could also be catastrophic if one had serious work to do, leading many people to doubt these tools would ever work well. That was then. On ...