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DeepShot syncs running apps between computer, phone

Getting those Google Maps directions you're viewing on your PC onto your smartphone might soon be as easy as pointing the phone at the screen.

Tsung-Hsiang Chang, a graduate student at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Yang Li, a Google employee, have developed a system that makes it much easier to transfer certain Web-based computing tasks between devices. To do this, one simply takes a photo of the computer screen that's showing the task. The phone then automatically opens up the corresponding application on the mobile device--at the corresponding stage of the task.

The same process can also work in reverse, moving data from the phone to a computer.

The system, called DeepShot, relies on the fact that many Web applications use a standard format, called the uniform resource identifier (URI), to describe their current states. A typical example of this is the link provided by Google Maps that transfers the exact current location or driving directions to another browser on another computer.

This link consists of a long string of symbols that contain URI-related information such as the addresses of the starting and ending points and codes that indicate their geographical coordinates and the approximate size of the map window. Though URIs are a common feature of many Web applications, the data contained in a URI can vary greatly and is sometimes harder to extract than in the case of Google Maps.… Read more

Sweet! Bakebot robot makes cookies

If there's one thing we know for sure, it's that humanity is only a few years away from the robot armageddon. The robots are improving too quickly and building each other too rapidly to stop. At least we can console ourselves by laughing at the robots of today. Like this bakebot. "A robot baking? How hilarious," you say. Well, get your chuckles in while you can, human. (It's actually pretty funny though.)

Personal favorite part of the video below? When Bakebot tosses the empty bowl on the floor. Just like a real chef! (We all do that, right?) Bakebot is well-known at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), where it was built by MIT graduate student Mario Bollini.

Bollini cooked up the bakebot using the PR2 research and development platform, developed by Willow Garage, to bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch.

"My task is to have the PR2 bake cookies all the way from locating the ingredients in front of it on the table to putting the cookie in the oven," Bollini said.

The bakebot (which is not the first robot chef we've seen) begins by examining the table using a laser scanner and camera to locate the cookie sheet and butter. It identifies all the other ingredients and supplies by color and size. The robot then follows a coded version of the recipe that takes it through mixing the ingredients, scraping the cookie dough onto the baking sheet, and patting it into a large cookie. … Read more

Future bright for cleaner-burning natural gas

For natural gas, the stars are aligned for it to play a far more substantial role in the world energy mix, according to a pair of reports this week.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology today published its report on natural gas, which it characterized as an abundant and reasonably priced resource able to act as a bridge to a low-carbon future. The International Energy Agency released its own study (PDF) Monday, where it said natural gas is poised to enter a "golden age."

The key driver for the optimism around natural gas is supply as well as societal … Read more

MIT flow battery breaks mold for cheap storage

Instead of filling up with gasoline, electric cars with a new design may one day refuel their batteries with "Cambridge crude."

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today published details on a battery design that reinvents the operation of traditional lithium ion batteries by using flowable, rather than solid, materials. In a paper published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials, they said the approach has the potential to boost battery storage capacity many times today's levels while being inexpensive to manufacture for both electric vehicles and grid storage.

The technology developed in the lab has been licensed to 24M, … Read more

Liquid Metal Battery snags funding from Gates firm

Liquid Metal Battery, a company pursuing a breakthrough battery design, has attracted Bill Gates and an oil driller as seed investors.

Many battery companies are working to improve existing technology, but the founders of Liquid Metal Battery are taking an unusual approach that they hope will slash energy storage costs and deliver batteries able to store several hours of wind and solar power. The target of the company, which was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is to have demonstration systems connected to the grid in three to five years, executives said. An official announcement of the series … Read more

A focus on possibilities at MIT Sloan CIO Symposium

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--One of the reasons I like to attend events like the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is that they're opportunities for a reality check. Vendor confabs can sometimes feel like a bit of an echo chamber that is a bit disconnected from what IT departments are really doing or, at least, the pace at which they're doing it.

To be sure, the companies attending and speaking at events like this symposium tend to be more leading edge and forward-thinking than average. Even so, I was still a bit surprised at how strongly most of the end-user panelists … Read more

MIT study: Biofuels not necessarily greenest choice

Biomass used to make biofuels must be carefully sourced, or the biofuels they produce may be no greener than conventional jet fuel.

That's according to a study that was published this week in the online version of Environmental Science and Technology and was conducted by a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

For the nearly four-year study, researchers conducted a life cycle analysis on 14 diesel and jet fuel sources made from feedstocks, and identified the key factors that make a difference in whether a biofuel is truly an environmental improvement over conventional jet fuel.

The … Read more

MIT glasses-free 3D works from many perspectives

Researchers at MIT have been developing an improved glasses-free 3D display that would be brighter than the Nintendo 3DS, use less battery power, and work from multiple perspectives.

A group working with associate professor Ramesh Raskar at the MIT Media Lab developed a 3D technology called high-rank 3D.

The device would expand the viewing angle of the 3D screen and it would still work when rotated, according to a release yesterday from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The device, described in a paper for SIGGRAPH Asia, improves upon the 3DS parallax barrier technology, a partly opaque screen that helps create … Read more

Thermoelectric generator powered by sun's heat

There are solar panels that generate electricity and those that absorb heat for hot water. And now researchers at MIT and elsewhere say they've made progress on using the sun's heat to make electricity.

In a paper published in Nature, the researchers describe the progress they've made on a nanostructured material that improves on the heat-to-electricity conversion rate over existing thermoelectric devices.

The researchers envision that this solid-state material could be packaged either as a stand-alone thermoelectric generator or added onto existing solar hot water systems to make electricity. "Our work opens up a promising new … Read more

Joi Ito dives into the MIT Media Lab (Q&A)

Consider this list of institutions and companies that are at the center of the Internet and technology worlds: Creative Commons, Mozilla, Technorati, ICANN, Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Twitter, Six Apart, and Flickr. What do they all have in common?

If you answered Joi Ito, you're spot on. And now you can add the MIT Media Lab to that list. Ito is a Japanese venture capitalist and entrepreneur who has been running and investing in technology companies like those listed above and serving on the boards of important institutions for years. And on Monday, he was … Read more