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The voice is made even more convincing because it has been programmed to include verbal tics such as "ums", "ers" and sighs. Computer experts at IBM have invented the technology to be used on telephone helplines, satellite navigation systems and even on cameras or iPods. It is so sophisticated that the devices will be able to pause for effect or cough to attract the users' attention, spelling an end to the irritating monotone voices that have become a part of everyday modern life. Andy Aaron, of IBM's Thomas J Watson research group speech team, said: "These sounds can be incredibly subtle, even unnoticeable, but have a profound psychological effect. It can be extremely reassuring to have a more attentive-sounding voice. "When you are on the telephone on an automated service helping you fix your computer or buy insurance, this could make the difference between being a happy customer or hanging up and cancelling a service." The new technology, c...

The possibility of life on Mars has been debated almost since the invention of the telescope. Annual growth and shrinkage of the martian ice caps and seasonal changes in color were observed by astronomers such as Herschel and Whewell in the 18th and 19th centuries. Late in the 19th century, Schiaparelli reported the existence of linear features he called canali, and this led to speculation by Lowell (among others) that the Red Planet might host a civilization more advanced than our own. The arrival of instrumented spacecraft, beginning with Mariner IV in 1964, showed a cratered, dry, cold planet that looked almost as inhospitable as our Moon; but later missions provided  evidence of liquid water on Mars  in the recent past. This has led to speculation about whether simple forms of life, like bacteria, might exist on Mars. The thin atmosphere of Mars does little to block out damaging radiation from the sun, and the surface of Mars seems to be sterilized by caustic chemicals like hydroge...

Pink Tentacle reports  that researchers at Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed a system that can “reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor.” According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep. The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs. Then,...

The number of people using their mobile phones to access social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo and keep in constant touch with their friends has rocketed this year, according to new research  reported by Guardian . Almost all the handset manufacturers like  Nokia ,  Blackberry ,  Apple   releasing  new handsets and  smart phones  that are capable of high speed  internet  access and comfortable screen sizes for internet browsing. The combination of cheap or unlimited internet access tariffs and handsets which make it simple for people to log onto their favorite sites has created a boom in social networking, the study by Orange found. The mobile phone company did not even keep count of the number of its customers that were using their phones to access social networking sites a year ago, as there was little interest. By the end of September, however, 640,000 of its UK users were accessing a social networking site every month, clocking up 66m page views and in the company’s fou...

If you are one of the 110 million Nokia phone users around the world,  now you can  set up your  Ovi  email account directly on your Nokia phone using the recently announced   ‘Mail on OVI’  Beta. Mail on Ovi, the free email account from Nokia, is now ‘live’ and can be set up directly on Nokia phones without requiring a PC to get started. People who use Nokia Series 40 devices can create their own email address directly on their mobile phones. The Ovi email account gives a person all the features and functionalities of a typical PC-based email account. During the Beta period, consumers will be able to choose from 12 languages based on the settings of their device, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. Mobile phone users from India, Malaysia and the Philippines have been able to use the Beta service since November, with extremely encouraging results, and the availablity is now being extended to the rest of ...

The Linux operating system is the most successful open source project in history, but just how much is the software in a Linux distribution “ worth “? The Linux operating system is the most popular open source operating system in computing today, representing a $25 billion ecosystem in 2008.1 Since its inception in 1991, it has grown to become a force in computing, powering everything from the New York Stock Exchange to mobile phones to supercomputers to consumer devices. Linux foundation  estimated  the Total Development Cost of a Linux Distribution. For this estimation Fedora 9 distribution was considered. The approach was to download the source code and installing it properly on test machines and counting the number of source lines of code (SLOC). Finally, given all the assumptions, the SLOC and estimated production values for Fedora 9 are as follows. Total Physical Source Lines of Code (SLOC) 204,500,946 Development Effort Estimate, Person-Years (Person-Months) (Basic COCOMO model,...

The start of next year will be delayed by circumstances beyond everyone’s control. New Year will  arrive a second late  when time across the globe is adjusted to account for the changes in the Earth’s rotation. A ‘Leap Second’ will be added onto the final minute of 2008 because the planet is gradually slowing down as it spins on its axis. The tweak will help correct the time-lag which shows up on ultra-accurate atomic clocks. Our planet rotates on its axis at irregular rates, and on average has been falling behind atomic time at a rate of about two milliseconds per day.  It now trails the official clock by about six-tenths of a second. As a result of this difference, atomic clocks can get out of sync with the Earth and periodically have to be adjusted.  Since it’s the atomic clocks that are used to set all other clocks, a Leap Second has to be added from time to time to make up the difference. It is the 24th time since 1972 that the adjustment has been made by the Paris based Internati...