БЛОГ

Archive for the ‘information science’ category: Page 223

Apr 3, 2020

Meet Ai-Da, the world’s first AI artist, who is almost human

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI

Ai-Da is the world’s first ultra-realistic artist robot powered by AI and named after Ada Lovelace, the first female computer programmer in the world. She is a humanoid with human facial features and a robotic body created by the Oxfordians, a group of cutting-edge art and technology experts. Embedded with a groundbreaking algorithm, she has taken the scientific and art world by surprise, now becoming an intense subject of conversation in over 900 publications worldwide. She has already collaborated with Tate Exchange and WIRED at the Barbican, Ars Electronica, and will be performing at the Louvre Abu-Dhabi later this year.


Here, she discusses what it means to identify as a creative without a consciousness with Futurist Geraldine Wharry.

Continue reading “Meet Ai-Da, the world’s first AI artist, who is almost human” »

Apr 2, 2020

A Voice Only You Can Hear: DARPA’s Sonic Projector

Posted by in categories: information science, military

2007…


Imagine a weapon that creates sound that only you can hear. Science fiction? No, this is one area that has a very solid basis in reality. The Air Force has experimented with microwaves that create sounds in people’s head (which they’ve called a possible psychological warfare tool), and American Technologies can “beam” sounds to specific targets with their patented HyperSound (and yes, I’ve heard/seen them demonstrate the speakers, and they are shockingly effective).

Sound Now the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is jumping on the bandwagon with their new “Sonic Projector” program:

Continue reading “A Voice Only You Can Hear: DARPA’s Sonic Projector” »

Apr 2, 2020

Sponsored: Taking a Quantum Leap for Near-Term Defense

Posted by in categories: economics, finance, government, information science, law, policy, quantum physics, robotics/AI

Quantum computers will revolutionize information technology, ushering in an era where certain types of calculations will be performed with almost unimaginable speed. Practical applications will include healthcare disciplines such as molecular biology and drug discovery; big data mining; financial services such as portfolio analysis and fraud detection; and artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The federal government is helping to create an environment in which quantum computing innovation and experimentation can flourish. The National Quantum Initiative Act puts $1.2 billion into the quantum research budgets of the Energy Department, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NASA and the National Science Foundation. The law also outlines a 10-year plan to accelerate the development of quantum information science and technology applications.

Meanwhile, The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy is working to ensure that economic growth opportunities and opportunities for improving the world are baked into quantum policies and systems.

Apr 1, 2020

‘Liquid biopsy’ blood test accurately predicts cancer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, information science, robotics/AI

A new blood test that can detect methylation of DNA can accurately predict whether a person has any one of 50 cancers and where the tumour is growing.

The California-based healthcare company Grail, which developed the test, owns a large database of methylation patterns in cancerous and non-cancerous cell-free DNA. From that repository, a machine learning program was developed to analyse blood samples. The algorithm identified methylation changes that are classified as cancerous or non-cancerous, and it could even pinpoint the tissue of origin before the onset of symptoms.

Validation of the test was carried out by researchers from the US at the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Harvard medical school, working with colleagues at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London in the UK. In all, more than 15,000 volunteers from over 140 clinics in North America took part, and their samples revealed that this ‘liquid biopsy’ had a 0.7% false positive rate for cancer detection. The test was also able to predict the tissue that the cancer originated in with more than 90% accuracy. It performed best on 12 of the most common cancers, including ones that are most lethal and have no established screening paradigms such as pancreatic and ovarian cancers.

Mar 31, 2020

Mind-reading AI turns thoughts into words using a brain implant

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI

An artificial intelligence can accurately translate thoughts into sentences, at least for a limited vocabulary of 250 words. The system may bring us a step closer to restoring speech to people who have lost the ability because of paralysis.

Joseph Makin at the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues used deep learning algorithms to study the brain signals of four women as they spoke. The women, who all have epilepsy, already had electrodes attached to their brains to monitor seizures.

Mar 31, 2020

Machine translates brainwaves into sentences

Posted by in categories: information science, neuroscience

Scientists have taken a step forward in their ability to decode what a person is saying just by looking at their brainwaves when they speak.

They trained algorithms to transfer the brain patterns into sentences in real-time and with word error rates as low as 3%.

Previously, these so-called “brain-machine interfaces” have had limited success in decoding neural activity.

Mar 27, 2020

Google is using AI to design chips that will accelerate AI

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI

A new reinforcement-learning algorithm has learned to optimize the placement of components on a computer chip to make it more efficient and less power-hungry.

3D Tetris: Chip placement, also known as chip floor planning, is a complex three-dimensional design problem. It requires the careful configuration of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of components across multiple layers in a constrained area. Traditionally, engineers will manually design configurations that minimize the amount of wire used between components as a proxy for efficiency. They then use electronic design automation software to simulate and verify their performance, which can take up to 30 hours for a single floor plan.

Time lag: Because of the time investment put into each chip design, chips are traditionally supposed to last between two and five years. But as machine-learning algorithms have rapidly advanced, the need for new chip architectures has also accelerated. In recent years, several algorithms for optimizing chip floor planning have sought to speed up the design process, but they’ve been limited in their ability to optimize across multiple goals, including the chip’s power draw, computational performance, and area.

Mar 26, 2020

AI is searching for unexploded Vietnam War bombs in Cambodia

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI

Researchers are using AI to search satellite images for unexploded bombs dropped in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

The system uses object recognition algorithms that detect the unique features of bomb craters, including their shapes, colors, textures, and sizes. These algorithms then scan satellite images for signals of the craters.

The Ohio State University team first used the system to find craters in a village in the province of Prey Veng, a heavily bombed area around 30 kilometers from the Vietnam border.

Mar 25, 2020

Scientists invent symmetry-breaking for the first time in a nanoscale device that can mimic human brain

Posted by in categories: information science, nanotechnology, robotics/AI

Over the last decade, artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications such as machine learning have gained pace to revolutionize many industries. As the world gathers more data, the computing power of hardware systems needs to grow in tandem. Unfortunately, we are facing a future where we will not be able to generate enough energy to power our computational needs.

“We hear a lot of predictions about AI ushering in the fourth industrial revolution. It is important for us to understand that the computing platforms of today will not be able to sustain at-scale implementations of AI algorithms on massive datasets. It is clear that we will have to rethink our approaches to computation on all levels: materials, devices and architecture. We are proud to present an update on two fronts in this work: materials and devices. Fundamentally, the devices we are demonstrating are a million times more power efficient than what exists today,” shared Professor Thirumalai Venky Venkatesan, the lead Principal Investigator of this project who is from the National University of Singapore (NUS).

In a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology on 23 March 2020, the researchers from the NUS Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI) reported the invention of a nanoscale device based on a unique material platform that can achieve optimal digital in-memory computing while being extremely energy efficient. The invention is also highly reproducable and durable, unlike conventional organic electronic devices.

Mar 24, 2020

Raspberry Pi Project Uses Artificial Intelligence to Detect License Plates

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, information science, internet, robotics/AI

When you’re a software and hardware engineer sometimes you need a little challenge. Engineer Robert Lucian Chiriac’s latest Raspberry Pi creation can detect license plates and read the characters with fairly decent accuracy. This is an involved project that relies on machine learning to properly interpret images from the camera into discernible text.

The primary license plate reading function is constructed using three separate applications (there are more used throughout the project, but these three are critical). Chiriac used the YOLOv3 object detection algorithm to create a bounding box around each license plate it detects from the camera input. The image within the bounding box is sent to CRAFT, a text detecting application. Once the location for each character in the plate has been identified, the information is passed along to CRNN to predict the actual text.

Chiriac mounted the Raspberry Pi, GPS module, 4G module and Pi camera to his car’s rear-view mirror with a 3D-printed unit he designed. The Pi camera is even adjustable with a ball-joint swivel mount.