Scientists Hope to Put Bee Brain in Robot

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Scientists in the U.K. are working on a buzzworthy project that will scan the brains of bees and then build models of them, creating robots that will act like the real thing.

The goal of the $1.61 million study, called “Green Brain,” is to create a robotic brain that can perform tasks as well as the brain of an animal.

Scientists hope bionic bees could be used for life saving jobs, such as search and rescue missions or detecting the source of a gas leak.

“The development of an artificial brain is one of the greatest challenges in Artificial Intelligence,” said Dr. James Marshall, who is leading the research at the Universities of Sheffield and Sussex. “So far, researchers have typically studied brains such as those of rats, monkeys, and humans, but actually ‘simpler’ organisms such as social insects have surprisingly advanced cognitive abilities.”

The study is being funded by the U.K.’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.  Scientists say they hope to have the bionic bee buzzing by 2015.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

The 6 Biggest Videogame Auctions

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A game console for 200 dollars is something that a lot of people invest in these days. Add a few games for 50 dollars a pop and you start having to need a larger wallet to pay for all this. But some people love their games so much that they are willing to spend almost 100 times as much on just a single game or a specific console. The world of gaming memorabilia is quite astonishing and the figures that circulate from time to time are staggering. Here is a list of some of the most ludicrous (or amazing) gaming purchases in the world.

Legend of Zelda Prototype

When an American man put up a Zelda game on his eBay profile there were not many eyebrows raised at first. But when they looked at the picture and read the description they saw one of the most sought after pieces in the world of gaming. He had, somehow, got his hands on the prototype release for the original Legend of Zelda for NES. The item got huge publicity in the world of gaming and after a long few days of bidding the final bid came to $55,000 for a single game. We can at least hope that the buyer got free shipping with that price…

Stadium Events

This game is seen as one of the rarest in the world of gaming and around 200 copies are said to be in circulation. Again it is for the ancient, yet brilliant, NES console and the story behind one of the games was quite astonishing. Someone put up a few old NES games on ebay to sell with no real knowledge about games. A game aficionado saw that Stadium Events was one of the games and the bidding war started. As the dust settled the game had reached a value of over $41,000 and the seller must have been shocked when the auction closed.

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The Ultimate 11

This game was released back in 1996 and there are only 10 known copies around the world. This makes it one of the rarest games in the world and it came as no surprise when someone purchased this game and Kizuna Encounter for a combined $55,000. Saving old video games seems to be the way forward if you want to make a lot of money.

Nintendo World Championships

Nintendo have created some of the best games in history and this one was sold 26 times with the gold cartridge and 90 times with the regular one. A gold cartridge will set a collector back around $10,000.

Bangai-O: Prize Edition

Even though there is no recorded price for this Sega Dreamcast game it is well known that only five copies were produced. The Dreamcast did not have a big breakthrough and this game never really hit the market at all.

Looking to earn some money to buy your own piece of gaming memorabilia? Check out IronFX who specialise in Forex Trading.

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Flickr app for Android gets a major update

The Flickr app for Android has been around for a while now but thanks to its lackluster nature and the growing disinterest in the service itself means not a lot of people know or care about it.

That should change a bit with the release of the new version 1.5 app, which brings some new features along with an updated UI design, which should hopefully make people excited about using Flickr once again.

If you’ve used the older version of the app, you’ll notice that the update brings a new design. Although it’s not particularly great and Flickr seems to have missed the keynote where Google announced Ice Cream Sandwich and the new Holo UI, it still looks decent.

Upon launching the app you’ll be greeted with the usual Flickr way of wishing you in various languages, and after that you’ll land in your user stream where you’ll see your and your friends’ recent activity. The second tab on the bottom shows you your photostream and contacts. Tap a photo and you’ll see its details, tap it again and you’ll see it full screen. You can swipe horizontally to move between images and double tap to zoom.

The Flickr app also lets you take photos and there is a new camera mode for that. Once you take a photo, you can edit it using the built-in filters, which have become all too common these days and then upload them. Flickr lets you upload images in their original resolution without any compression. You can also upload images that are already present in your phone’s gallery.

The fourth tab at the bottom shows you your friends’ uploads and the fifth one shows interesting images on Flickr by all the users. You can also swipe left to see nearby images from people who are in your city.

Overall, the new update seems nice and should hopefully make mobile users who have migrated to services like Instagram give Flickr another chance. Flickr does need to keep updating this app regularly, however, and especially keep up with new design changes that happen in the Android world.

You can download the Flickr app for Android from here.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Flickr team doubles and prepares (fingers crossed) for its return to greatness

After what can nicely be called a rough patch, Flickr receives some much-deserved attention under new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

It took a mere month for new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to hear the Internet’s plea. Shortly after she was announced as the new head of the beleaguered Web company, users quickly begged her to pay a little attention to the increasingly ignored yet beloved Flickr. The “Dear Marissa Mayer, please make Flickr awesome again” plea was heard around the Internet, and it turns out… she listened.

According to Web scion Robert Scoble‘s reports, she’s doubled the size of the Flickr team within the past week. While the team has continued to build for Flickr with new tools and features, there’s no arguing that the Web app missed the first wave of mobile – and missed in a big way. This turned out to be a rather massive oversight, and compounded with Yahoo’s general mismanagement of the Flickr staff, there has been an understandable amount of concern about Flickr’s future.

But Mayer is reportedly focused on products — taking a note from Google’s strategy over to her new job – and it appears that Flickr has again become a priority. So how does Yahoo pull Flickr back from the brink?

The obvious answer here is mobile. The iPhone is the most popular camera on Flickr but it’s a one-sided relationship. It’s time for Flickr to relaunch its iOS app and then some. The current version has a measly 2.5 stars, and two comments posted two days ago complain about login issues, calling it “lame and frustrating.” The nicest thing I can say about the app is that it provides basic Flickr utility, but users want something much more compelling.

Fortunately, the tide might be turning as Yahoo reinvests in one of its tentpoles.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com