rfonseca

Kinderlab Robotics' Kibo Robot (http://kinderlabrobotics.com/kibo/) also features a tangible, screen-free programming language where the instructions are wooden blocks that kids put together in a sequence. They are a funded startup shipping mostly to schools and museums, and the whole thing is backed up by a long line of research first at the MIT Media Lab, and now at Tufts. Previously, the founders created ScratchJr. Worth checking out.

This is fantastic, especially the part about what sensors could be if reimagined.

"But we're still doing that today, after decades of digital camera technology, and it really makes no sense anymore: why are we still lump-sum recording light instead of using sensors that can tell how much light passes through it per time unit, instead of "filling up"? (...) Instead of starting a sensor, letting light fall on it, and then turning it off and asking it how much light it found, we have the technological capability to make sensors that change electrical resistance based on how strong a light hits them."

That would mean almost unlimited dynamic range.

One avenue for possible disruption that the article does not mention is through digital cinematography first, where a sensor would have to be "only" 8 Mpixels (4K), and the users have more budget and care about dynamic range. This could starts with the likes of Red or Black Magic and eventually trickle down to the photo market.

Is there any prototype of such a sensor anywhere? What would it take for this to be produced using current processes? Is there any foundry today that could miniaturize these photoresistors?

Thanks again for the article, very refreshing!

Other comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8411283

Other comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8410586

The problem is much bigger than the specific process used or the findings in the verification. If you look at what they found in the code in the short inspection, you would shiver. For example, vote secrecy was protected by storing votes in a shuffled order, where the shuffle was determined with the random seed srand(time(null)).

But still, the problem is the principle: the system is the only source of truth, and if there is fraud, or a bug, that changes votes, it is undetectable and impossible to prove. TO have the fate of 200M people depend on such premise is absurd.

The electronic system must change, but this will only happen if there is awareness and sound technical discussion by the population.