News of the week selected by Impactscool – May 7, 2018
7 May 2018 | Written by La redazione
The most important news on technology and the future, selected from all over the web for Impactscool’s readers
The phase that we all experience before falling asleep is called hypnagogia: precisely in this limbo between sleep and wakefulness could the most creative moment of our minds be hidden. To demonstrate this theory and learn more about hypnagogia, a research team at MIT invented Dormio, a device that can interface with the person who is going through this stage. In particular, Dormio is able to reliably maximize the amount of time that users spend suspended between waking and sleep and collects information, fundamental to better understand what happens during this phase. The idea of interfacing with dreams to naturally stimulate our creativity is captivating, but this field of research is still emerging and, in order to provide concrete answers, many more tests will be required compared to what has been done to date.
Touch walls? A new paint will take care of it
A very common wall can be transformed into a touch screen, equipped with sensors to detect the position of people in the room and locate electronic devices. It is not science fiction but the result of a study carried out by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research, which led to the discovery of a paint based on water and nickel particles, capable of conducting electricity. Wall ++, this is the name of the system, could be used as a light switch or to control electronic devices and thermostats. The cost is relatively low, about 20 dollars per square meter, and the development of this technology could in a short time projecting us into a future in which the houses will be equipped with walls that respond to our stimuli and commands.
From the United Nations an update on autonomous weapons
Since last November, with the release of the video “Slaughterbots“, the debate on lethal autonomous weapons has started. The United Nations organized a meeting, which took place from 9 to 13 April in Geneva, to discuss and evaluate the multiple ethical, legal, operational and technical challenges of such systems with 82 CCW countries, the United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons. During the week, almost all States and civil society representatives agreed that it is important to maintain “meaningful human control” over autonomous weapons, although there are still disagreements over the exact definition of such systems and the mechanism by which this “human control” should be exercised. With the exponential evolution of artificial intelligence and robotics, it is important to create a single and shared regulation on autonomous weapons, to be ready to face the situation from an ethical, juridical, political and diplomatic point of view.
