Subconscious learning shapes pain responses
In a new study led from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, researchers report that people can be conditioned to associate images with particular pain responses – such as improved tolerance to pain – even when they are not consciously aware of the images. The findings are being published in the journal PNAS.
Previous studies have shown that a person’s pain experience can be increased or decreased by associating a specific cue, such as an image, with high or low intensity pain. However, until now it has been unclear if it is necessary to be consciously aware of the cue in order to learn the association. In this recent study, Dr Karin Jensen and colleagues tested whether unconscious learning affected pain responses, by using subliminal images and training participants to associate a certain image with high pain and another image with low pain.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-subconscious-pain-responses.html
Interactive tabletop holographic display soars on Kickstarter
Holus is a tabletop holographic platform that could make many people aware of what consumer technology will be like in future years. They will get a taste of the digital world meeting the physical world, the digital world as an intrinsic part of the immediate environment, utilized to interact with people near and far. Holus would be a tabletop Jack in the Box. That is—that would really be your friend, Jack, in the box.
Talking about their tabletop display in a video, they said they wanted to make something with as many viewing angles as possible. You can view content from different angles. The group made Holus shaped as a pyramid instead of four square sides to shrink the size of Holus so as not to take up much space and, they said, it creates a better holographic effect.
Tempered glass coating was designed to reflect a specific amount of light, they said, for optimal design quality. There is a slide-out drawer with inset plugs. There are USB side charging ports so that multiple users may stay charged using the device. Built in HD directional mini-speakers sync with devices. Setup appears easy: Unbox, plug in and download a choice of apps from the Google Play & Apple Stores.
Holus is from the company H+Technology in Vancouver. The team pooled their interest in human-computer interaction under the guidance of masters graduates of The Center for Digital Media. It was founded in 2012 by Dhruv Adhia, Vincent Yang and Yamin Li after completing their Master’s at the Center, in Vancouver. They belong to that camp of innovators who focus on digital interactive systems that feel natural to use, with seemingly no barrier between human and digital information. As they put it, they would like to work with “non-isolating computing environments” where users engage with information in a three-dimensional form.
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-interactive-tabletop-holographic-soars-kickstarter.html#jCp
Microsoft brings Office to Android smartphones for free
After a few weeks in preview, Microsoft Office is now available for Android smartphones. Despite Microsoft’s mobile-first, cloud-first philosophy, it has actually taken some time to bring the world’s most popular office suite to Android phones — it joins the tablet version of the suite that was released last year.
Just like the tablet editions, the phone versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint won’t cost you a penny, allowing for the viewing and editing of a range of files when on the move. There is a cloud focus with support for not only OneDrive, but also Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box, and Microsoft says it has made changes based on the feedback received during the preview period.
http://betanews.com/2015/06/24/microsoft-office-android-smartphones-free/
