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Contents | Zoom in | Zoom outFor navigation instructions please click here Search Issue | Next Page IBM’S “BRAIN CHIP” NEARLY PERFECT A SHADOWY CARTEL GOOGLECAR'S BLINKS INTO BEING ATOMIC CLOCKS RULED THE LIGHT DRIVING TEST It’s a stamp-size One second off The long legacy of We've got the supercomputer in 14 billion years the Phoebus cartel details online at P. 13 P. 36 P. 50 SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG____________ FOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER | 10.14 Why Voice Quality Stinks… And Why It Doesn’t Have To P. 30 Contents | Zoom in | Zoom outFor navigation instructions please click here Search Issue | Next Page qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® NOW AVAILABLE comsol.com/release/5.0 FROM MODEL TO APP The Application Builder provides you with Verify and Optimize your Designs with tools to easily design a custom interface for your multiphysics models. 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COMSOL, COMSOL Multiphysics, Capture the Concept, COMSOL Desktop, and LiveLink are either registered trademarks or trademarks of COMSOL AB. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners, and COMSOL AB and its subsidiaries and products are not affi liated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or supported by those trademark owners. For a list of such trademark owners, see www.comsol.com/trademarks qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® FEATURES_10.14 50 30 36 44 All Smart, An Even The People’s THE GREAT LIGHTBULB No Phone Better Cloud Why voice calls Atomic Clock Clever use of peer- CONSPIRACY on your smartphone to-peer technology still sound so lousy, Optical-lattice clocks, could make cloud How the worldwide alliance known as the Phoebus cartel and what carriers now the world’s most computing a are trying to do accurate, may one day grassroots affair. painstakingly engineered a shorter-lived lightbulb. about it. redefine the second. By Ozalp Babaoglu & BY MARKUS KRAJEWSKI By Jeff Hecht By Jérôme Lodewyck Moreno Marzolla On the Cover Illustration for IEEE Spectrum by Serge Bloch SIEMENS CORPORATE ARCHIVES SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG__________ | INTERNATIONAL | OCT 2014 | 01 qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® Who will bring our electrical grid out of the Dark Ages? You and NI will. Creating a sustainable, smarter electrical grid for the future starts by integrating renewable energy, implementing automated analytics, and improving overall energy efficiency. Only one company has the power to provide design tools, test systems, and embedded deployment platforms to bring these solutions to life. Learn more at ni.com. ©2014 National Instruments. All rights reserved. National Instruments, NI, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 18586 qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® DEPARTMENTS_01.13DEPARTMENTS_01.13 1323 08 Online News Resources Opinion Spectrum.ieee.org IBM’s New Brain A Real Page-Turner Spectral Lines Google’s Driver’s License Brain-inspired tricks lower the Flip the pages of musical scores with this At a crucial juncture, a remarkable In May 2012, Nevada Department TrueNorth chip’s power consumption. home-brew digital display system. engineer gave IEEE Spectrum of Motor Vehicles officials tested By Jeremy Hsu By W. Wayt Gibbs a shove in the right direction. an unusual driver’s license By Glenn Zorpette applicant—a car. IEEE Spectrum 15 Identifying Explosives 25 Choosing Remote-Collaboration obtained the records of this first at a Distance Software for Engineers 04 Back Story robotic driving test. They show 16 A Better Test Than Turing 26 Review: WikiMusical 06 Contributors that officials were impressed but 18 Fighting Fires With Wearables 27 Tools & Toys: Boost Hearing 28 Technically Speaking: also that Google had a big hand in 20 The Big Picture With the Bean Mapheads and Roadgeeks determining the nature of the test. 64 Dataflow: VCs and Their Tech Bets ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Tech Insider / Webinars The Institute Available at spectrum.ieee.org/webinar Available 6 October at theinstitute.ieee.org How Proper Application of Thermally Conductive Materials Will Improve MIND-CONTROLLED MACHINES IEEE Senior Member Dean Aslam has Motor Power Density—2 October come up with a way to control everyday devices just by thinking about them. By Designing Building Structures for Protection Against EMP and inserting a wireless sensor in something that lies on the forehead, say, a base- Lightning—9 October ball cap, the wearer can transmit a signal produced by brainwaves to another The Internet of Things and Open Source—9 October sensor in an object, such as a coffee machine, and turn it on or off. Simulation of Accelerator Components—16 October IEEE.TV ADDS NEW CONTENT The IEEE Computer and IEEE Robotics NEW PRODUCT RELEASE LIBRARY and Automation societies have made hundreds of videos available for free, with http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/new-product-release-library thousands more on the way. WHITE PAPERS HEAVY MACHINERY When she’s not at her desk parsing lines of code, http://spectrum.ieee.org/whitepapers Member Amy Jones can be found driving large vehicles like excavators and tree-felling machines to test the software she’s developed for them. IEEE SPECTRUM (ISSN 0018-9235) is published monthly by TheInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.All rights reserved. © 2014 by TheInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 3 ParkAvenue, New York,NY 10016-5997, U.S.A.Volume No. 51, issue No. 10, International edition. The editorial content of IEEE Spectrum magazine does not represent official positions of the IEEE or its organizational units. Canadian Post International Publications Mail (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40013087. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Department, IEEE Spectrum, Box 1051, Fort Erie, ON L2A 6C7. Cable address: ITRIPLEE. Fax: +1 212 419 7570. INTERNET: [email protected]._______ ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: IEEE Members: $21.40 included in dues. Libraries/institutions: $399. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to IEEE Spectrum, c/o Coding Department, IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855. 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SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG__________ | INTERNATIONAL | OCT 2014 | 03 qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® qM qMqM Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next Page qMqM Qmags THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND® BACK STORY_ EDITOR IN CHIEF Susan Hassler, [email protected] EXECUTIVE EDITOR Glenn Zorpette, [email protected] EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, DIGITAL Harry Goldstein, [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth A. Bretz, [email protected] SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Mark Montgomery, [email protected] SENIOR EDITORS Stephen Cass (Resources), [email protected] Erico Guizzo (Digital), [email protected] Jean Kumagai, [email protected] Samuel K. Moore (News), [email protected] Tekla S. Perry, [email protected] PhilipE. Ross, [email protected] David Schneider,