Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: computing – Page 877

Human and animal movements generate slight neural signals from their brain cells. These signals obtained using a neural interface are essential for realizing brain-machine interfaces (BMI). Such neural recording systems using wires to connect the implanted device to an external device can cause infections through the opening in the skull. One method of solving this issue is to develop a wireless neural interface that is fully implantable on the brain.

However, the neural interface implanted on the brain surface should be of small size and minimally invasive. Furthermore, it requires the integration of a power source, antenna for wireless communication, and many functional circuits.

Now, a research team at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology has developed a wafer-level packaging technique to integrate a silicon large-scale integration (LSI) chip in a very thin film of a thickness 10 µm (Sensors, “Co-design method and wafer-level packaging technique of thin-film flexible antenna and silicon CMOS rectifier chips for wireless-powered neural interface systems”).

Wirelessly Supplying Power To Brain

Read more

Now, that’s a concept! Spray paint from a can that harnesses solar energy. Imagine, you can spray paint windows, patio tables, your car, a bike, etc. with Solar Spray Paint in a can; and watch your gadgets get charged. It is almost like the “Computer Screen in the Can” idea that I had last week. Geez, wonder if she could partner with me on that concept?

Researcher aims to engineer spray paint that can convert sun’s elusive energy to electricity.

Read more

NASA laser expert Mike Krainak and his team plan to replace portions of this fiber-optic receiver with an integrated-photonic circuit (its size will be similar to the chip he is holding) and will test the advanced modem on the International Space Station. (credit: W. Hrybyk/NASA)

A NASA team plans to build the first integrated-photonics modem, using an emerging, potentially revolutionary technology that could transform everything from telecommunications, medical imaging, advanced manufacturing to national defense.

The cell phone-sized device incorporates optics-based functions, such as lasers, switches, and fiber-optic wires, onto a microchip similar to an integrated circuit found in all electronics hardware.

The device will be tested aboard the International Space Station beginning in 2020 as part of NASA’s multi-year Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD). The Integrated LCRD LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) User Modem and Amplifier (ILLUMA) will serve as a low-Earth-orbit terminal for NASA’s LCRD, demonstrating another capability for high-speed, laser-based communications.

Read more

Stanford University PhD candidate, Song Han, who works under advisor and networking pioneer, Dr. Bill Dally, responded in a most soft-spoken and thoughtful way to the question of whether the coupled software and hardware architecture he developed might change the world.

In fact, instead of answering the question directly, he pointed to the range of applications, both in the present and future, that will be driven by near real-time inference for complex deep neural networks—all a roundabout way of showing not just why what he is working toward is revolutionary, but why the missing pieces he is filling in have kept neural network-fed services at a relative constant.

There is one large barrier to that future Han considers imminent—one pushed by an existing range of neural network-driven applications powering all aspects of the consumer economy and, over time, the enterprise. And it’s less broadly technical than it is efficiency-driven. After all, considering the mode of service delivery of these applications, often lightweight, power-aware devices, how much computation can be effectively packed into the memory of such devices—and at what cost to battery life or overall power? Devices aside, these same concerns, at a grander level of scale, are even more pertinent at the datacenter where some bulk of the inference is handled.

Read more

What if computers could recognize objects as well as the human brain could? Electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego have taken an important step toward that goal by developing a pedestrian detection system that performs in near real-time (2−4 frames per second) and with higher accuracy (close to half the error) compared to existing systems. The technology, which incorporates deep learning models, could be used in “smart” vehicles, robotics and image and video search systems.

Read more

Another step forward for Quantum — The Quantum Current. US Dept. of Energy has a new method to generate very low-resistance electric (Quantum) current which will improve our methods for energy, quantum computing, and medical imaging, and possibly even a new mechanism for inducing superconductivity—the ability of some materials (zirconium pentatelluride) to carry current with no energy loss.

Read more

Individual brain cells within a neural network are highlighted in this image obtained using a fluorescent imaging technique (credit: Sandra Kuhlman/CMU)

Carnegie Mellon University is embarking on a five-year, $12 million research effort to reverse-engineer the brain and “make computers think more like humans,” funded by the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). The research is led by Tai Sing Lee, a professor in the Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC).

The research effort, through IARPA’s Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks (MICrONS) research program, is part of the U.S. BRAIN Initiative to revolutionize the understanding of the human brain.

A “Human Genome Project” for the brain’s visual system

“MICrONS is similar in design and scope to the Human Genome Project, which first sequenced and mapped all human genes,” Lee said. “Its impact will likely be long-lasting and promises to be a game changer in neuroscience and artificial intelligence.”

Read more

By now, everyone is probably familiar with holographic performances from such artists as Elvis, Micheal Jackson and the one that started it all, Tupac Shakur at Coachella. However, the real pioneers of performance holograms were that quirky cartoon band, Gorillaz. The costs of a holographic setup would make your toes curl, but the technology itself is fairly straight forward. Projecting onto a specialized screen which is as close to invisible as one can get. There are two main players in the space, Holo-gauze and Musion.

When it comes to digital artists, there is one name that stands out from all others. Hatsune Miku. What makes Miku so unique when compared to holograms of dead celebrities or even the animated Gorillaz with Blur frontman, Damon Albarn, is that she is entirely computer generated. A software instrument manifest as an anime character who has become as much of a ‘real’ celebrity as anyone currently in the charts.

Read more

As I said this morning; there is something definitely going with Quantum today. Maybe it’s the planet alignment (I saw there was something going on with the alignment with Aquaris today) — this is awesome news.

Rigetti Computing is working on designs for quantum-powered chips to perform previously impossible feats that advance chemistry and machine learning.

Read more

Wham! Another headline; 2 new companies (Rigetti and Q Branch) trying to capture the Quantum Platform crown from D-Wave. Now, we can say a real industry race is on.

Based on a recent analysis of our most popular articles, investors seem to have a strong interest in quantum computing. The problem for investors is that there aren’t any pure play opportunities to invest in quantum computing at the moment. The main reason for this is that there aren’t many companies working on quantum computing. In fact, there’s just one company right now that’s actually selling a quantum computer; Canadian based startup D-Wave.

D-Wave has actually released a controversial “quantum computer”, and is working with big names like Google, NASA, and Lockheed. D-Wave received some major credibility recently when Google announced that they solved an optimization problem in seconds that would normally take 10,000 years with a conventional computer. There is one way to get exposure to D-Wave, but it’s hardly a pure-play and doesn’t seem overly promising. While there are very few companies other than D-Wave directly involved in quantum computing, we did find two companies that quantum computing investors should keep an eye on.

QXBranch_Logo

Read more