Neurosphere

The Human-Human Interface

Rapid Prototyping of Technologies for Awareness


The World Right Now

SunSpot is Sun Microsystems’ technology program for small, wireless sensors for many applications. Here’s a recent example from their web site documenting different applications of the technology – think about this as how easy to actually build something that can tell you more about the world around you.

“So starting Friday morning, we built a rocket, embedded 2 Sun SPOTs in “Space Shuttle” vehicles, wrote the ground-telemetry software (in Java), developed some Sun SPOT antenna extenders and documented the whole thing from start to finish. The result? We launched two (redundant) Sun SPOTs on a single rocket that streamed light, temperature and acceleration data live over the radio to the ground stations that were busy plotting the data.”

http://blogs.sun.com/davidgs/entry/the_birth_of_the_sun

Solar Connectivity


Personal Infrastructure

Universal power supply.

“Do I need direct sunlight to charge up with my Solar Style Charger?

No. The solar panels convert any light into electricity. The amount of time it takes to fully charge your device will be affected by the brightness of the light source but you do not need a clear sunny day to use your Solar Style Charger.”

http://solarstyle.com/

Security Drives Innovation


Personal Infrastructure

Smaller, more mobile, sensors and cameras, driven by fear but what the heck. You can also get a stun gun here…

“The only FCC approved 2.4 Ghz Portable Color Wirewless Pinhole Camera in the market.”

http://store.espymall.com/

Perception Enhancement


Personal Infrastructure

Night vision, binocular-cameras, two-way radio watches; capabilities for awareness of the world around us, rapidly migrating into affordable consumer products.

“Famous Trails is dedicated to providing the finest in Perception Enhancement Solutions”

http://www.famoustrails.com/home.html

Mesh Marches On


Network Infrastructure for the Neurosphere

Here’s news from wi-fi infrastructure developers that are expanding spectrum available for such broad coverage of connectivity.

“Using Tropos’ recently-announced SABRE technology, operators can use policy-based routing to dynamically route traffic through unlicensed Wi-Fi, 4.9 GHz, licensed WiMAX or other links based on application, service, priority or other configurable rules.”

http://www.tropos.com/news/pressreleases/2007_03_27a.php

WiTricity


Personal Infrastructure

Always on, always connected, requires always electricity.

“Realizing their recent theoretical prediction, they were able to light a 60W light bulb from a power source seven feet (more than two meters) away; there was no physical connection between the source and the appliance. The MIT team refers to its concept as “WiTricity” (as in wireless electricity). The work will be reported in the June 7 issue of Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science.”

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/wireless-0607.html

G-8 Protests


Wholeness and Virtual Communities

Global movement meets global movement.

http://de.indymedia.org/en/

Earth Portal


The World Right Now

If partisan administrations are going to kill science funding because it conflicts with government goals, maybe web-based networks of scientists will grow in response. This one happens to have angel investors, so no telling yet how sustainable it is. But let a thousand earth-sensing flowers bloom.

The Earth Portal is a comprehensive resource for timely, objective, science-based information about the environment. It is a means for the global scientific community to come together to produce the first free, expert-driven, massively scaleable information resource on the environment, and to engage civil society in a public dialogue on the role of environmental issues in human affairs. It contains no commercial advertising and reaches a large global audience.

www.earthportal.org

Expanded Awareness


Personal Infrastructure

Connection of sensors to brain areas to shorten the processing loop. Think of ten examples that have nothing to do with killing “targets”.

“The most far-reaching component of the binocs has nothing to do with the optics: it’s Darpa’s aspirations to integrate EEG electrodes that monitor the wearer’s neural signals, cueing soldiers to recognize targets faster than the unaided brain could on its own. The idea is that EEG can spot “neural signatures” for target detection before the conscious mind becomes aware of a potential threat or target…That prefrontal cortex, he explains, allows the brain to pick up patterns quickly, but it also exercises a powerful impulse control, inhibiting false alarms. EEG would essentially allow the binoculars to bypass this inhibitory reaction and signal the wearer to a potential threat. In other words, like Spiderman’s “spider sense,” a soldier could be alerted to danger that his or her brain had sensed, but not yet had time to process.”

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2007/05/binoculars

Mindfulness Expansion


Wholeness and Virtual Communities

I think this is useful questioning. My response is to ask, when one is on the cell phone at the beach, can one be mindful of both places at the same time. My concern with various forms of meditation is that they have equal possibilities of withdrawing from other people, from connectedness in that sense.

“With our mobile phones and wireless palm devices, we are now able to be so connected that we can be in touch with anyone and everyone at any time, and do business anywhere. But have you noticed that, in the process, we run the risk of never being in touch with ourselves?”

http://www.resurgence.org/2007/Zinn241.htm