COLD STORAGE RECORD

Physicists have taken another step toward making quantum computing a reality.

A team of researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta recently set a record for the length of time that quantum information can be stored in and retrieved from an ensemble of very cold atoms.
What use can that be to quantum computing?

The computing method would distribute entangled quantum bits—two correlated data bits—over long distances.

Associate professor Alex Kuzmich (left) and research scientist Stewart Jenkins, both of the Georgia Tech School of Physics, adjust optical equipment used to study quantum memory.

The quantum bits, or qubits, would travel as photons across the existing optical networks that are already part of the global telecommunications system, said Alex Kuzmich, associate professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Physics.

Kuzmich and fellow Georgia Tech researchers set the quantum-memory storage record.

Because of loss within the optical fiber that makes up networks, repeaters must be installed at regular intervals—about every 100 kilometers—to boost the signal. Those repeaters will need quantum memory to receive the photonic signal, store it briefly, and then produce a photonic signal that will carry the information to the next node and on to its final destination, Kuzmich said.

The storage record has lengthened the time quantum memory can be stored before being passed to the next node.

“This is a really significant step for us, because conceptually it allows long memory times necessary for long-distance quantum networking,” Kuzmich said. “For multiple architectures with many memory elements, several milliseconds would allow the movement of light across a thousand kilometers.”

The new storage record—7 milliseconds for rubidium atoms stored in a dipole optical trap—was reported December 7, 2008, in the online version of the journal Nature Physics.

The previous record for storage time was 32 microseconds, Kuzmich said.

TEENY COMPUTER COMPONENTS

Atomic-scale computing, in which computer processes are carried out within a single molecule that does the work of several transistors, could reshape the microelectronics industry.

In theory, atomic-scale computing could put devices more powerful than today’s supercomputers into everyone’s pockets. The increase in computing processing power would far exceed the capabilities of nano-scale components, said Christian Joachim of the French National Scientific Research Center of Toulouse, France.

As head of the center’s Nanoscience and Picotechnology Group, he’s coordinating a team of researchers from 15 academic and industrial research institutions in Europe to work on developing a molecular replacement for transistors.

In a conventional microprocessor transistors are the building blocks of digital circuits. They create gates to process signals. A few transistors are needed to create a single gate and modern microprocessors contain billions of them, each measuring around 100 nanometers, Joachim said.

Transistors have continued to shrink in size. But there will inevitably come a time when the laws of physics prevent any further shrinkage using conventional methods, Joachim said.

His team’s goal is to host a single gate within one molecule. The team has managed to design a simple logic gate with 30 atoms that perform the same task as 14 transistors, while also exploring the architecture, technology, and chemistry needed to achieve computing inside a single molecule and to interconnect molecules.

“The question we have asked ourselves is how many atoms does it take to build a computer?” Joachim says. “That is something we cannot answer at present, but we are getting a better idea about it.”

HEAVY LIFTING

Lifted a heavy bag of groceries recently? You know 20 pounds can be surprising, if you’re not ready for it. Multiply that by a hundred thousand and consider the lifting at North American Shipbuilding of Larose, La.
The company designs and constructs offshore vessels.

The company recently constructed an anchor-handling tug supply vessel. The problem was the 1,000-ton superstructure that needed to be installed on the hull.

Before North American Shipbuilding lifted a 1,000-ton superstructure
to mount it on a hull, engineers used FEA software to verify that the
ship could withstand the operation.

The hull was built in a fabrication building and then rolled onto a launching dock and floated in the water, said Jacob Cheramie, naval architect at the shipbuilding company. The superstructure was built separately from the hull due to weight limitation on the dock. Cranes would have to be called in to install it on
the hull.

But could the ship withstand the forces generated during operation?

Engineers at NAS performed finite element analysis to find out, Cheramie said.

For FEA analysis, engineers used software from Algor Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pa.

Engineers determined the ship as designed could withstand the forces just fine and the structure was installed without issue.

DON’T BAN THE BOOK

Turning and touching the pages instead of clicking on the screen help us better focus on the material at hand.

Clicking and scrolling interrupt that focus, according to Anne Mangen at the Center for Reading Research at the University of Stavanger in Norway, who has investigated the pros and cons of new reading devices.

The physical manipulations we have to do with a computer disturb our ability to take in reading material, Mangen said.

The physical substance of a book offers tranquility, she found. The text doesn’t move on the printed page as it does on a screen.

Hypertext stories, often used in classrooms today, rely on digital video, sound, pictures, and text. Clicking one’s way around them comes close to a literary computer game, Mangen said.

While she stops short of warning against this type of material when used as part of a curriculum, she doesn’t advocate it either.

“I think there is generally little reflection around digital teaching material,” she said.

She recently published her findings in the peer-reviewed Journal of Research in Reading.

SEE SOMETHING, COMPUTE SOMETHING

Engineers at Ohio State University in Columbus are at work on a computerized surveillance system that they say will be able to recognize behavior patterns on a street and suggest that a person is acting suspiciously or is lost.

Intelligent video cameras, large video screens, and geo-referencing software are among the technologies that will make up the system, which may soon be available to law enforcement and security agencies, said James Davis, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at the university.

The ultimate goal is a networked system of smart video cameras that will let surveillance officers observe a wide area quickly. Computers will carry much of the workload, Davis said.

“In my lab, we’ve always tried to develop technologies that would improve officers’ situational awareness, and now we want to give that same kind of awareness to computers,” he said.

Davis and doctoral student Karthik Sankaranarayanan have written a software algorithm that creates a wide-angle video panorama of a street scene. Another algorithm maps the panorama onto a high-resolution aerial map of the scene. The researchers have also come up with a method to track a selected target.

The research isn’t meant to gather specific information about individuals, Davis said.

“We’re trying to automatically learn what typical activity patterns exist in the monitored area, and then have the system look for atypical patterns that may signal a person of interest,” he said.

To first determine what constitutes normal behavior, the system will follow the paths of many people who walk through a particular place. A line tracing each person’s trajectory will be saved to a database.

“You can imagine that over a few months, you’re going to start to pick up where people tend to go at certain times of day—trends,” Davis said.

People who don’t mimic those trends, who stop in an unusual spot or leave behind an object like a package or book bag will flag the system, as they might be considered suspicious by law enforcement, he added.

MIGHTY LAPTOP

Laptops are handy, but they aren’t traditionally helpful for large scientific or engineering analysis projects.
Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have developed a compact algorithm that they said can be used on laptop computers to extract features and patterns from huge and complex raw data sets.

The team that developed this algorithm has already used it to probe a slew of phenomena represented by billions of data points, including analyzing flame surfaces and identifying and tracking pockets of fluid in a simulated mixing of two fluids, said Attila Gyulassy, who led the development effort while pursuing a doctoral degree in computer science at the university.

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory also worked on the project.

His team’s algorithm divides data sets into parcels of cells, then analyzes each parcel separately using a mathematical tool that extracts and visualizes useful features from data sets. Results of those computations are then merged, Gyulassy said.

As new parcels are created from merged parcels, they’re analyzed and merged yet again. At each step, data that do not need to be stored in memory are discarded, reducing the computing power required to run the calculations, he added.

Gyulassy is currently developing software that will allow others to put the algorithm to use. He expects the learning curve to be steep for this open-source product. But for those with even a slight background in data analysis, the program should be pretty intuitive, he said.

HYPERLINKED REALITY

You wake up in a strange city with no recollection of how you got there and no information about where you are. Demonstrating nerves of steel, you calmly pick up your mobile phone and take a picture of the streetscape.

Quickly, the picture comes alive with hyperlinks, offering the names of the buildings, monuments, and streetscape features that appear in the photograph. The hyperlinks lead to information about the history, services, and context of all the features in the photograph. You have just hyperlinked your reality.

European researchers said they’re at work on a way to attach hyperlinks to pictures taken on a mobile phone.

The MOBVIS platform identifies the buildings in a photograph and places icons on points of interest, said Aleš Leonardis, professor of computer and information science, at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, one of the partners on the project. As they say on the MOBVIS project’s Web site, www.mobvis.org, it’s “mobile vision technology in urban scenarios.”

A user can select an icon, and the system will provide information on the building’s history, art, architecture, or maybe even the menu if a restaurant is housed inside, Leonardis said.

The MOBVIS project, funded by the European Union, has engaged a team of engineers and scientists. They say they have successfully demonstrated the technology working in a real environment, with real users unconnected to the project.

The brains behind the system is a feature-matching algorithm developed at the University of Ljubljana.

A report on the project originally appeared in ICT Results, a Web site at cordis.europa.eu/ictresults, that publishes articles about European Union-funded projects.

BRIEFLY NOTED

The 3-D design software IronCAD has been updated to version 11. The software is from IronCAD of Atlanta. The upgraded version can be operated on newer 64-bit and Vista platforms. /// The software program progeCAD 2009 has been released by progeSoft of Como, Italy. The AutoCAD-compatible CAD program allows for DWG file compatibility and includes many extra features. /// FARO Technologies Inc. of Lake Mary, Fla., which makes portable computer-aided measurement hardware and software, has upgraded its metrology software, CAM2 Q, to include the capability to collect scan data. /// The Internet-based fabrication portal Sheetmetalworld of Cincinnati now includes a directory and events database. /// Kubotek USA of Marlborough, Mass., has released a KeyMachinist application based on its KeyCreator NC technology. The program is includes capabilities that range from modeling to machining. /// Lattice Technology of San Francisco, a developer of digital manufacturing applications using the XVL format, has made available its XVL Plug-in version 1.2 for Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended software. The Acrobat software supports the major 3-D CAD data formats. Lattice’s plug-in allows engineers to open any of the supported file formats directly in Lattice Technology’s XVL Studio and Lattice3D Reporter applications. /// The updated EnSuite 2.2 for data viewing and sharing, recently released by CCE of Farmington Hills, Mich., offers a complete solution for seamless sharing of product knowledge across the enterprise. /// The PointCloud modeling package for AutoCAD has been updated to version 4.0.3 by kubit USA in Houston. /// Siemens PLM Software of Plano, Texas, is shipping CAM Express version 6.0.1, the core CAM component of its Velocity Series portfolio.