The following articles from ACM tech news indicate interesting possibilities, which computer science students should be aware of. These are areas of great innovation possibilities. You might explore these in near or distant future!
Researchers Can Store Data in DNA; the Hard Part Is Retrieving It
Computerworld (08/19/15) Lucas Mearian
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ETH Zurich researchers have announced they can encode information within DNA molecules for at least two millennia, and they are engaged in developing a filing system to ease retrieval. Among DNA's advantages over electronic storage is durability and size, and the researchers estimate less than an ounce of DNA could theoretically store more than 300,000 terabytes (TB). In comparison, the average external hard drive stores 5 TB of data and lasts about 50 years. The team, led by ETH professor Robert Grass, has stored 83 kilobytes of text from several ancient documents in DNA by encapsulating the DNA in silica spheres and heating it to almost 160 degrees Fahrenheit for seven days. No errors were detected when the information was decoded. A filing system that avoids read/write errors is the next challenge for the ETH researchers, and this entails determining how to label specific pieces of information on DNA strands so they are searchable. "In DNA storage, you have a drop of liquid containing floating molecules encoded with information," Grass notes. "Right now, we can read everything that's in that drop. But I can't point to a specific place within the drop and read only one file."
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2973473/emerging-technology/researchers-can-store-data-in-dna-the-hard-part-is-retrieving-it.html
Software Can Automatically Critique Composition of Digital Photographs
Penn State News (08/13/15) Matt Swayne
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Pennsylvania State University (PSU) researchers have developed an analytical algorithm to examine the composition of elements in a digital photograph and offer constructive feedback. PSU professor James Wang says the algorithm also provides feedback about the perceived composition of the photo and offers examples of similarly composed images of high aesthetic value. Co-researcher and professor Jia Li notes the software is reliant on psychological theories of human vision and the opinions of people to help classify pictures. The development of the algorithm was assisted by graduate students who labeled numerous images from a collection on photo.net, and categorized each image's composition into horizontal, vertical, centered, diagonal, and textured types. The labels function as the training dataset that educates the algorithm on photo classification. The software conducts a pixel-by-pixel analysis to extract features from a picture and then applies statistical analysis to classify and compare it to highly aesthetic images. The software can be placed on a server that is accessible from a mobile phone. Wang says the project's goal from the outset was to aid photographers, and notes "if you are an amateur photographer then, potentially, a computer can analyze your photograph's composition and help you improve it."
Researchers Can Store Data in DNA; the Hard Part Is Retrieving It
Computerworld (08/19/15) Lucas Mearian
View Full Article
ETH Zurich researchers have announced they can encode information within DNA molecules for at least two millennia, and they are engaged in developing a filing system to ease retrieval. Among DNA's advantages over electronic storage is durability and size, and the researchers estimate less than an ounce of DNA could theoretically store more than 300,000 terabytes (TB). In comparison, the average external hard drive stores 5 TB of data and lasts about 50 years. The team, led by ETH professor Robert Grass, has stored 83 kilobytes of text from several ancient documents in DNA by encapsulating the DNA in silica spheres and heating it to almost 160 degrees Fahrenheit for seven days. No errors were detected when the information was decoded. A filing system that avoids read/write errors is the next challenge for the ETH researchers, and this entails determining how to label specific pieces of information on DNA strands so they are searchable. "In DNA storage, you have a drop of liquid containing floating molecules encoded with information," Grass notes. "Right now, we can read everything that's in that drop. But I can't point to a specific place within the drop and read only one file."
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2973473/emerging-technology/researchers-can-store-data-in-dna-the-hard-part-is-retrieving-it.html
Software Can Automatically Critique Composition of Digital Photographs
Penn State News (08/13/15) Matt Swayne
View Full Article
Pennsylvania State University (PSU) researchers have developed an analytical algorithm to examine the composition of elements in a digital photograph and offer constructive feedback. PSU professor James Wang says the algorithm also provides feedback about the perceived composition of the photo and offers examples of similarly composed images of high aesthetic value. Co-researcher and professor Jia Li notes the software is reliant on psychological theories of human vision and the opinions of people to help classify pictures. The development of the algorithm was assisted by graduate students who labeled numerous images from a collection on photo.net, and categorized each image's composition into horizontal, vertical, centered, diagonal, and textured types. The labels function as the training dataset that educates the algorithm on photo classification. The software conducts a pixel-by-pixel analysis to extract features from a picture and then applies statistical analysis to classify and compare it to highly aesthetic images. The software can be placed on a server that is accessible from a mobile phone. Wang says the project's goal from the outset was to aid photographers, and notes "if you are an amateur photographer then, potentially, a computer can analyze your photograph's composition and help you improve it."
Please check these additions. What are your thoughts about such evolving technologies?
ReplyDeletePrediction: what 2025 will look like? Read for yourself at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2015/09/tech-experts-predict-what-2025-will-look/121031/