Future Lab Radio

Researchers are investigating how to build virtual environments in which hundreds or thousands of participants can log in and interact with each other. The applications go beyond gaming. Simulations are used for meetings, organizational operations and even product branding. Scientists are discovering how to meet the challenges of creating 3D spaces for many users to […]

Advances in interactive molecular graphics enable not only creative research, but an increasingly collaborative and mobile research community to interact. In the “VIsualization Vault,” at the University of California, San Francisco, Professor Tom Ferrin and his team created Chimera, a visualization system for exploratory research. Ferrin, one of the pioneers of visualization, leads UCSF’s computer […]

While context-aware devices of the near future might recommend restaurants, monitor a user’s health, or screen phone calls, they may also save human lives by keeping drivers safe and aware of their surroundings. Future Lab spoke with researchers about the problem of drowsy or distracted driving, the ability of the human mind to process information […]

The world’s population is aging. It’s estimated that by the year 2050 more than half the people on Earth will be over the age of 50. But while people are living longer, they still have to live with the diseases that come with old age. The European community has been working with technology companies to […]

As computing power increases and we all rely increasingly on cloud computing and storage, the environmental demands of information technology are growing significantly. Earth Day 2011 marks a moment when, by some estimates, the carbon footprint of data centers exceeds that of the airline industry (an Environmental Protection Agency estimate suggests this will happen by […]

One of the next frontiers of computing is to create systems that understand the user. Context aware devices of the near future might recommend restaurants, monitor a user’s health, or screen phone calls—all based on information collected from device sensors and casual input data. Two of the most profound sensors are already on our devices: […]

Every year, finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search gather in Washington, DC, to share their research. This year, finalists Ryan Lee and Laurie Rumker, and winner Evan O’Dorney, spoke with Future Lab radio about their work, and what it could mean for the world. Ryan Lee is a student at the North Carolina School […]

Gaming fans are eagerly awaiting the arrival of “cloud gaming,” with its promise of mobile, low-end devices running intense, realistic graphics at amazing speeds. Technological developments from leading scientists, combined with newsmaking marketplace competition (well-covered by Dean Takahashi), are bringing intense graphics and computationally demanding games to devices like Apple’s iPad. Games like “Assassin’s Creed […]

Researchers around the world are searching for ways to help seniors remain healthier and live independently in their homes for longer. Intel is working on new sensing devices that can feed data to a central hub that infers whether a person is getting enough sleep, taking their meds on time and feeding themselves properly. The […]

Intel’s new visual computing lab is researching how to create immersive experiences with computers. Parallel processing is opening the doors to the ability to synthesize images and audio which look and sound real. Here is Intel’s announcement of the new visual computing lab and the new Science and Technology Centers. Interviewees: Doug James, Associate Professor, […]

Researchers from the University of Washington and Intel Labs in Seattle show off smart phone applications designed to make people more aware of the importance of sleep. It’s part of a larger movement to integrate computer technology into personal health. Interviewees: Jared Bauer; Ph.D student, Information School, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. David Dinges, Ph.D; […]

The technology to make a connected home probably exists. With diverse platforms and network configurations, as well as manufacturers’ unique characteristics built into computing gear, audio and video equipment and appliances, the task of getting them to work together usually requires more than getting the settings correct under a PC’s preferences menu. In this edition […]

Artists have often been proponents and leading users of technology. In computing, gaming has presented a challenge to hardware and software developers as artists create images that push the boundaries of compute performance. In this edition of Future Lab on digital art, an introductory investigation of the collaboration of art and science. Interviewees: Joel Slayton, […]

Television is far more complex than just the infrastructure that brings a signal to a TV set. It is the business of funding watchable programs in order to sell them to advertisers or audiences. It is a complex arrangement of creative and distribution legal agreements. It is what happens in front of and behind the […]

Many digital tools are available to help photographers achieve better results. But those tools only augment the photographer’s ability to see. Computer vision researchers have been working on programs that allow computers to see. Subhabrata Bhattacharya, working with Intel Labs, helped to develop algorithms that enable computers to analyze the aesthetic qualities of images. Total […]

A seamless and ubiquitous computing experience on the Internet also requires the user to take on a certain amount of risk that personal information would get into the wrong hands. Computer scientists are developing tools that protect a user’s privacy. In this Future Lab podcast, researchers discuss some of these tools as well as concepts […]

Researchers are developing technologies that will eventually allow users to control devices like computers, televisions and cell phones with their thoughts. Scientists have created Brain Computer Interface, also known as “BCI,” technology that allows computer programs to interpret human intentions by reading their brain waves. Researchers have used BCI to develop a system that enables […]

The 3D Internet is a rapidly converging set of technologies used for visualizing information on the web in game-like 3D environments. This convergence promises to allow future Internet users to interact with people and information in ways that are much more natural and intuitive than today’s Internet. The ScienceSim virtual world is a 3D Internet […]

Data network bandwidth requirements are currently shifting from 1Gb to 10Gb. But 100Gb is not far away – optical networking becomes essentially mandatory to carry large amounts of data. Researchers are investigating not only materials and equipment, but also novel signal formats. Interviewees: Karl Koch, General Co‑Chair, Frontiers in Optics 2010, The Optical Society; Researcher, […]

Agriculture presents good opportunities for robotics and computer vision research. And practices, devices and algorithms developed by researchers may someday significantly benefit farmers and improve crops. Determining vineyard yields is one of Intel Labs’ computational agriculture projects. Total time – 8:07 Interviewees: Karl D. Wente, Senior Vice President of Winemaking, Wente Vineyards Lily Mummert, Research […]

Brain trauma affects more than 2 million people in the U.S. each year because of accidents and participation in sports. But little is understood about the connections within the brain that can be broken but not detected. Using MRI scans, computer scientists are helping brain researchers to map the network of tracks–containing hundreds of thousands […]

Open Cirrus, a test bed for cloud computing (spearheaded by the companies HP, Intel and Yahoo, and including research partners such as Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois) recently announced its expansion. An Internet service such as Facebook is one example of cloud computing which presents certain data management challenges. Large sets of […]

A coming major advance in computer technology is a form of context awareness known as Socially Enabled Services or SENS, which refers to mobile devices that can anticipate user needs, such as advising the best routes to take on the road or providing information to other people about the user’s availability. SENS technology is possible […]

We have Isaac Asimov to thank for thinking about robots as a science when he coined the term “robotics” in the 1940s. Originally, the term came from the word “robota” from Czech (possessing a similar meaning in other Slavic tongues) referring to hard labor. In an interesting twist, robots portrayed in movies are often nearly […]

When Intel Labs established its Interactions and Experience Research Lab, known as IXR, this past summer, it was a sign that the making of technology has profoundly changed. It is one thing to invent a machine or a process, it is another to make one that people want to use. And to do that, one […]

In ancient Greece, potters would never have believed the vases they created – donning a vast array of inscriptions about daily life – would fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction. They also would have not guessed how much precious information about their (and our) civilization would be gleaned from this pottery. Today, millions […]

In 2009 the Irish rock band U2 experienced the realities of space communication when they connected in a live 2-way video conference between Bono on the concert stage in front of stadium audiences and astronauts in the International Space Station. There’s only about a half second delay from the surface of our planet to the […]

In this week’s show we explore computer vision and perception, and the research involved in advancing a computer’s ability to understand the real world. We talk with Intel senior researchers Rahul Sakthankar and Lily Mummert from the Intel research lab in Pittsburgh about practical applications like tracking honeybees in a hive, watching for signs of […]

The concept of “stemness” refers to the capacity within a stem cell to create different kinds of cells. It promises to revolutionize medicine. Isolated in the petri dish, stem cells exhibit interesting behaviors that scientists are just beginning to understand. With thousands of cells to monitor, computer vision technology is helping researchers analyze great numbers […]

Zero energy buildings, known as ZEB and also known as zero net energy buildings, promise to have a huge impact on energy consumption globally, especially since office and commercial buildings use nearly 40% of fossil based energy in the U.S. and Europe. Milan Milenkovic, who heads up the zero net energy project for Intel Labs, […]

What is possible if we could greatly reduce the bottlenecks in the transfer of data? Electrons and copper wire have taken us far, but only so far. What lies beyond is light speed. Silicon photonics is the transmission of data using light, which can go much faster and farther. It unleashes many new possibilities inside […]