Chrome developers have announced that an upcoming version of Chrome will prevent video ads from automatically playing when a website loads. The new feature has already been pushed out to beta builds and can be manually enabled by opening Chrome’s content settings and adjusting the plugin content options. This push comes as part of an overall effort to improve Chrome’s performance on modern laptops.
Last year, Chrome was dinged by the discovery that the browser would set the CPU clock interval as low as 1ms, waking the chip far more often than is necessary in order to improve responsiveness, but at the cost of battery life. That issue was apparently fixed by a browser update earlier this year, but Google has evidently been looking for other ways to improve laptop power consumption. Auto-playing flash video, of course, isn’t just a battery life issue — it’s extremely annoying to have multiple tabs start playing their own audio streams automatically.
This new feature doesn’t prevent the ad from loading, it just doesn’t play the ad unless the user manually chooses to do. The feature is controlled from within Chrome’s preferences, as shown below:

Google didn’t say that it was blocking ads, specifically, instead claiming to block content that isn’t “central to the webpage.” The implication, however, is that this is a shot across the bow of Flash advertising. One could also argue, cynically, that this is an attempt to push users towards alternative advertising platforms and text-based ads. Block ads that rely on flash video players, and you encourage the entire advertising ecosystem to switch over and start building ads that run on HTML5 or even Google’s own VP9 codecs. I’d argue that this is likely the point of the feature.
It’ll be particularly interesting to see how this interfaces with Facebook’s platform. As of last fall, the social network titan was using a mixture of HTML5 and Flash for serving up its auto-play videos. It’s not clear if FB has completely switched over or not, but if desktop users are still being fed the Flash version, Chrome might kill auto-play entirely (as a non-necessary feature) or speed Facebook’s transition to an all-HTML5 network.
Regardless of the reasons for the change, consumers who use Chrome can benefit from ad-blocking, though the degree to which this benefits you will obviously depend on how many websites you frequent with auto-playing ads.

Despite the isolated success of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease, and a few other impressive parlor tricks with BCIs, running massive networks of wire electrodes through the brain is probably not going to be a long-term solution to any brain problem. Recognizing this truth, many researchers have turned to nanoparticle-based approaches for remote, non-invasive stimulation of the brain. A single 10 ug bolus of injectable smartdust delivering hundreds of 30nm motes to each cell can in theory provide the kind of mass neural coverage needed for complete brain control.
Fantastic as that might sound, reliable stimulation of neurons can now be routinely achieved by optically or magnetically activating special-purpose nanoparticles. For optical activation, typically some kind of structured gold is used while for deep brain magnetothermal stimulation, iron oxide is the material of choice.
There are several major problems with these technologies as they are now envisioned. For one, they generally rely on poorly characterized heating effects for the stimulation. Although heat-responsive protein channels have been added to neurons in an attempt to reduce the amount of heat required, there are simply too many unknowns still involved in the process. The other way to remotely activate neurons is to use high-intensity magnetic fields (as in TMS) to create local stimulation currents.
The problem with TMS is not just that there is no specificity, but that you need to blast away with a magnetic field (H field) of 10,000 Oersteds (Oe) just to get an effect. A way to use the energy intensification capability of nanoparticles for reducing this huge magnetic field requirement, without resorting to heating effects for stimulation, has recently been developed by Sakhrat Khizroev and his colleges at Florida International University. Their trick is to use a new kind of nanoparticle that exploits a phenomenon known as the magnetoelectric effect (ME).
Sakhrat’s group has previously shown that ME nanoparticles (MENs) could be used as nonthermal nanoscale actuators for controlled release of anti-HIV drugs within the brain. They have now shown that these same particles can also be used to stimulate mice brains using field of just 100 Oe. The MENs were made using a core of CoFe2O4 ferromagnetic spinel, which enhances the magnetic moment. A shell made from BaTiO3 peroskivite nanostructure induces the ME effects. By substituting in other transition metals from within the same series, the ME coefficient can be tuned over a large range. The nanoparticles are then made biocompatible by coating them with glycerol mono-oleate.

In order to pull the MENs into the brain from the bloodstream, the researchers applied a 3000 Oe/cm magnetic field gradient with a permanent neodymium magnet for 30 minutes. That was enough to get at least 10% of the MENs (around 20 billion particles) into the brain. They then applied an alternating magnetic field using a one inch coil energized at frequencies from 1-20 Hz. This resulted in significant modulation of the EEG signals obtained from two electrodes implanted in the mice. The researchers estimated that local ME coupling in neurons which had taken up or bonded the nanoparticles would generate electric fields up to 1000 volts/m.
Without recording single unit spike activity of neurons directly, it is probably not possible to unequivocally demonstrate direct stimulation by the presumed excitatory neural mechanisms. The researchers were able to image sections of the brain using atomic force and electron microscopes to prove the particles were at least in the right places. They were also able to show uniformity of the particle sizes and measure both the magnetization saturation and magnetic coercivity with a vibrating sample magnetometer.
Since the MENs are not yet commercially available, anyone wanting to experiment will either have to ask the researchers for some of them, or else have access to a fairly sophisticated materials characterization lab. The external coil probably wouldn’t be too difficult to make, however, to get real spatial selectivity — something more precise will probably be needed. Although a modified MRI machine could probably do the trick, it wouldn’t be something you could wear around. The researchers suggest that it eventually may be possible to use multiple near-field coherent antennas operated in a holographic mode to get the required selectivity.
For a full blown BCI, the other piece of the puzzle is the ability to record from the neurons. While the MRI, again, could in theory create a real-time electric field map of the brain by using the MENs as contrast agents, something better would be needed. We won’t delve too deep here, but the ideal solution to the ‘readout’ problem may already be in hand. Ed Boyden and his colleagues just posted a proposal on the Arxiv server to use optical reflectometry to read multiple neurons from a single fiber. Tiny capacitive effects generated by the local firings of neurons would create “intensified” electric fields along the fiber.
This intensification is analogous, but reciprocal, to the the MEN approach we have described. The reflectometer would work by sending light pulses down the fiber and recording the time and magnitude of the reflections. The voltage at points along the fiber would modulate the local index of refraction and generate a signal that could be decoded to give the activity of the neurons at each position. The beauty of the fiber approach is that they could be threaded through the vasculature to reach any neuron.
While combining the best ‘read out’ techniques with the best ‘write’ techniques is still a task for the future, we are already getting the flavor of what the ultimate brain interface might look like. Please note that Boyden’s work, although submitted for publication to the Journal of Biomedical Optics, has yet to condoned for general consumption by the proper peer review channels. Sakhrat’s research, on the other hand, has already been appropriately vaulted away the under the protective shield of a $60.00 pay-per-view rental fee that self-obliterates after 24 hours.

Researchers at Linz University in Austria has developed the world’s first artificial leg capable of simulating some of the “feeling” in a normal leg. Professor Hubert Egger led a live demonstration during a Vienna press conference, detailing how the Austrian researchers have fitted a human being with a leg prosthesis that sends feelings to its wearer.
Here’s how it works: Doctors surgically move the nerve endings close to the surface to receive impulses from the stimulators in the prosthesis. The amputee’s stump is fitted into a shaft that contains “stimulators” electronically attached to six sensors in the foot of the device. The stimulators then  receive sensations from the prosthetic leg. The wearer is able to feel the movement of the leg being picked up and placed down again.
Nerve endings that inform the brain of movement are still present in the leg of an amputee, but are no longer being stimulated. Professor Egger says, “In a healthy foot, skin receptors carry out this function but they are obviously missing here. However, the information conductors — the nerves — are still present, they’re just not being stimulated.”
Austrian amputee Wolfgang Rangger, who participated in the Vienna press conference, said “It’s like a second lease of life, like being reborn.” Rangger, a former teacher, lost his right leg after suffering a blood clot eight years ago. He has spent the last six months testing the new prosthesis. “It feels like I have a foot again. I no longer slip on ice and I can tell whether I walk on gravel, concrete, grass or sand. I can even feel small stones,” he said.
This is a step toward stopping the phantom pain and discomfort that many amputees feel. Frequently, after losing a limb, people report feelings of pain, itching, or other unpleasant sensations of the arm or leg that is no longer there. In Mr. Rangger’s case, in the years since the amputation, he has felt excruciating pain, for which morphine seemed to be the only relief. The new limb not only offers real sensations of feeling, but has reduced the pain to minimal discomfort, and morphine is no longer required.
Professor Egger said, “the brain now receives real data rather than searching for information from the missing limb.” Egger points out that Rangger is a different person from the one he met in 2012. Back then, he never laughed and always had dark circles under his eyes. He was unable to sleep much more than two hours at night due to the pain, and had great difficulty walking with the conventional prosthesis. Today, Rangger is much more active. The 54 year-old runs, cycles and climbs, and his limp is barely noticeable when he walks.
Professor Eggar is also at the forefront of research on mind-controlled prosthesis. Since 2010 he has made several contributions to the field of mind-controlled artificial arms and hands. Eggar states that the principles are the same for the “feeling” prosthesis, except in reverse. Information is transmitted from the limb to the brain, instead of the other way around.
Currently, the high-tech prosthesis costs anywhere from $12,000 to $30,000 build. Egger hopes that small companies will begin building the artificial limb and help to reduce the cost.

Display   Hooray! An IPS display on a budget tablet! You don't have to go blind slowly just because you bought an inexpensive tablet. Of course, there are quality levels with IPS displays just as there are with TN panels, and this is a midrange IPS panel. It's sharp enough with particularly good contrast, but brightness is low for a tablet at 210 nits. Since it's a glossy panel with the top layer of glass visibly above the display substrate, glare is an issue and the low brightness doesn't combat it in bright rooms. We saw none of the light bleed that plagued other Asus tablets. Colors are average, which is actually laudable in a budget device. The 1366 x 768 resolution seems well matched to the relatively small 10.1" panel, but we didn't feel that text was beautifully sharp as it is on the IPS full HD Microsoft Surface 2 (Windows RT 8.1, $449). Again, this is a value product, so you won't get full HD displays, backlit keyboards or other high end amenities. Reasonable enough. The display is sharper and has wider viewing angles than many $500 to $700 laptops with TN panels, and that's impressive.

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