It’s official. The very video games that make parents squirm are in fact beneficial for at least building visual attention skills in children. Researchers from the Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester have found that first-person shooter games—the ones that require players to kill or maim virtual enemies and destroy screen-based surroundings—significantly improve a child’s attention span. Their study indicates experienced players of these games are 30%50% sharper than non-players at taking in everything happening around them. Gamers can identify objects in their peripheral vision, perceive several objects without having to count them, switch focus rapidly, and track many items at once. Although several visually stimulating games were used in the study, only the shooter games improved attention. The U.S. military is now using action games to train its special forces: "To enter territory you’ve never seen and detect where your enemies are, you need an accurate understanding of the visual scene," says Daphne Bavelier, who led the study.
Canary in a Chip
The coal-mine canary has been given a 21st century spin with the creation of a bionic chip that merges a living cell with an electronic circuit. In the event of a chemical attack, the cell’s death trips an alarm that might one day save the lives of hundreds of subway riders or stadium spectators. Boris Rubinsky and Yong Huang of the University of California at Berkeley created the chip, which works by gauging the electrical resistance of a cell membrane. In the cell’s death throes, that resistance spikes, then crashes. Rubinsky told Wired News.com "Our system will detect anything that has the ability to kill a cell, even when not expected." Other potential applications for these chips, each with a life span of days to weeks, include safeguarding the handling of industrial pollutants and testing the degree of toxicity of new cancer drugs.
PlayStation Superpower
Researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois-Champaign have assembled a supercomputer from 70 PlayStation2 consoles. The New York Times reports the resulting system, with components purchased at retail prices, costs about $50,000 and is capable of a half-trillion operations per second. The hardware engineering involved placing the individual game machines in a rack and plugging them together with a high-speed Hewlett-Packard network switch. At the heart of the new supercomputer is PS2’s graphics co-processor Emotion Engine—a customized chip in each console capable of producing up to 6.5 billion mathematical operations per second. "If you look at the economics of game platforms and the power of computing on toys, this is a long-term market trend and computing trend," says Dan Reed, NCSA director. "The economics are just amazing. This is going to drive the next big wave in high-performance computing." The NCSA team originally purchased 100 consoles but is holding the remaining 30 in reserve, possibly for high-resolution display applications.
Personal Shopper
Researchers at the University of Southampton, U.K., are developing agent programs to allow cell phones to make purchases based on information gleaned from the buying habits and routines of their users. Software engineers for the project, funded by such consumer firms as Nokia, Sony, and Vodafone, have already tested the AI program on PDAs with built-in cell phones. The full version of the technology is designed to run on next-generation 3G phones and should be available in 15 months. New Scientist reports the researchers expect the technology could meet with some resistance at first, but its popularly will likely build with use. Hewlett-Packard agent expert Dave Cliff imagines users will tire of having to approve the agent’s actions and eventually let it work autonomously, within limits.
"We are just at the very beginning of the computer revolution. People should realize not only is it not over, but it’s scarcely begun."
—Andries van Dam, Brown University’s Vice President for Research and CS professor, on the notion that computing has lost its allure among college students.
Leaner and Meaner
The Pentagon approved a $15 billion project to build a network of high-tech equipment and artillery to make the Army faster, lighter, and more lethal. The Associated Press reports the Future Combat System (FCS) would include robots to lead the way on armed reconnaissance missions; remote-control drones to carry supplies and equipment for the soldiers, vehicles weighing less than a third as much as current models; and a computer system to link all vehicles and weapons with soldiers and commanders, giving troops better awareness of an entire battle as it progresses. Plans call for an Army battalion (700 soldiers) to be fully equipped with the new system by the end of 2010. Another five battalions would be FCS-ready by 2015.
Get Me Rewrite!
The keyboard is threatening the role of cursive handwriting in the educational process. A growing faction of educators, historians, and parents now fear that computers are speeding the demise of a unique form of expression—handwriting. Indeed, handwriting experts worry the wild popularity of email, IM, and other electronic communication among kids could erase cursive handwriting within a few decades. The Associated Press reports the trend already pervades Silicon Valley, where many schools have computer labs and kids gravitate toward careers in the computer industry, and it’s spreading nationwide. "Penmanship these days is thought of as a vestigial organ because it is not translated into dollars, like computer skills," says Michael Sull, former president of the International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting, who contends keyboards, joysticks, and touch pads have ruined students’ ability to hold a pencil properly, let alone write legibly.
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