Tag: perception

WHO Lauds Lockdown-Ignoring Sweden As a ‘Model’ For Countries Going Forward

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Post: The World Health Organization lauded Sweden as a “model” for battling the coronavirus as countries lift lockdowns — after the nation controversially refused restrictions. Dr. Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergencies expert, said Wednesday there are “lessons to be learned” from the Scandinavian nation, which has largely relied on citizens…

Sticking fish in VR lets us study their brains as they virtually swim

Watching brain activity in fish as they try to “swim” in virtual reality helps us understand their perception abilities and how they interact with other animals Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2235876-sticking-fish-in-vr-lets-us-study-their-brains-as-they-virtually-swim/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Dark Mode vs. Light Mode: Which Is Better?

Recently a well-respected UI consulting firm (the Nielsen Norman Group) published their analysis of academic studies on the question of whether Dark Mode or Light Mode was better for reading? Cosima Piepenbrock and her colleagues at the Institut für Experimentelle Psychologie in Düsseldorf, Germany studied two groups of adults with normal (or corrected-to-normal) vision: young adults (18 to 33 years old)…

AI could deceive us as much as the human eye does in the search for extraterrestrials

An artificial neural network has identified a square structure within a triangular one in a crater on the dwarf planet Ceres, with several people agreeing on this perception. The result of this intriguing visual experiment, carried out by a Spanish neuropsychologist, calls into question the application of artificial intelligence to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI). Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-01-ai-human-eye-extraterrestrials.html…

Moon phase a clue to the sun’s position

If you look in a clear western sky at dusk and early evening, you should spot the waxing crescent moon. Notice that its lighted crescent points toward the sunset. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/moon-phase-a-clue-to-the-suns-position…

Are Government Shutdowns of the Internet Becoming The World’s New Normal?

An anonymous reader quotes CNN:
CNN reports that government shutdowns of the internet are becoming the new normal: An ongoing internet blackout in Indian-controlled Kashmir is now the longest ever in a democracy — at more than 135 days — according to Access Now, an advocacy group that tracks internet freedom. Only the autocratic governments of China and junta-era Myanmar have cut…

A Blind Man Sees His Birthday Candles Again, Thanks To a Bionic Eye and a Brain Implant

peterthegreat321 shares this story from Medium’s new tech site, OneZero about Second Sight’s experimental brain implant that offers a kind of artificial vision:
From the outside, the Orion looks like a pair of sunglasses with a small camera and video processing unit attached to it. Implanted in the brain, however, is a postage stamp-sized chip containing 60 electrodes that sits on the…

What Caused Uber’s Fatal 2018 Crash? NTSB Reveals Its Findings

This week America’s National Transportation Safety Board presented its findings on the fatal 2018 crash of a Uber test robocar with a pedestrian in Arizona. Forbes reports: The NTSB’s final determination of probable cause put primary blame on the safety driver’s inattention. Contributory causes were Uber’s lack of safety culture, poor monitoring of safety drivers, and lack of countermeasures for automation…

The World’s Top Economists Just Made the Case For Why We Still Need English Majors

An anonymous reader writes: A great migration is happening on U.S. college campuses. Ever since the fall of 2008, a lot of students have walked out of English and humanities lectures and into STEM classes, especially computer science and engineering. English majors are down more than a quarter (25.5 percent) since the Great Recession, according to data compiled by the National…