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WORLD’S SMALLEST HARD DRIVE BUILT OF ATOMS

Just 96 atoms make up one byte of magnetic storage space.

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THE GIST
Scientists have built a magnetic storage device made of 96 atoms.
The advance could lead to tiny hard drives able to store 200 to 300 times more information than they can today.

The tip of a scanning tunneling microscope precisely assembles atoms onto a surface to make the world’s smallest hard drive. Click to enlarge this image. Sebastian Loth/CFEL
Hard drives could one day be the size of rice grains, powering music players so small they would fit inside your ear.

Scientists at IBM and the German Center for Free-Electron Laser Science have built the world’s smallest unit of magnetic storage, using just 96 atoms to create one byte of data. Conventional drives require a half a billion atoms for each byte.

The advance could lead to tiny hard drives able to store 200 to 300 times more information than they can today. Just imagine an iPod Touch that held 12.8 terabytes of music.

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LG’s 55-inch OLED TV packed with 3D bells, smart TV whistles

Television manufacturer LG says that by 2016, its organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, televisions will cost the same as an LCD television.
This year, the company is working toward reaching that goal with the release of its first OLED TV in the American market, the 55-inch 55EM9600.
LG announced the TV in the week before CES 2012, but it might not be the only big OLED screen announced at the show; reports mention a similar TV from Samsung. While the public may remember Sony’s XEL-1 from a couple of years ago and be familiar with the AMOLED screens of various Samsung phones, LG’s EM9600 features a unique spin on the technology. While other OLEDs feature RGB (red, green, and blue) pixels, the LG adds a fourth, white pixel in a move LG says cuts costs and produces a brighter picture.

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The latest version of the LittleDog Robot

AN ANCIENT ASTRONOMY COMPUTER

Beam me up autonomous car

HELPING A PARALYZED ARTIST COMMUNICATE

Next evolution: Embedded chips for cyber connectivity

Federally funded research at the University of Illinois has produced a microchip that can be put on skin like a temporary tattoo and is successful in linking the physical world and the cyberworld in stunning new ways, according to a university announcement.

“We think this could be an important conceptual advance in wearable electronics, to achieve something that is almost unnoticeable to the wearer,” said university electrical and computer engineering professor Todd Coleman.

Coleman helped lead the multi-disciplinary team that worked on the project that is being touted for its uses in medical monitoring as well as treatment of disorders that require links to computers.

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“The researchers found that, when applied to the skin of the throat, the sensors could distinguish muscle movement for simple speech,” the university report said. “The researchers have even used the electronic patches to control a video game, demonstrating the potential for human-computer interfacing.”

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Babbage Analytical Engine designs to be digitised

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15001514

THE FUTURE OF KITCHEN TABLES

New York Times R&D Lab: The kitchen table of the Future from Nieman Journalism Lab on Vimeo.