Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers have shown that it is possible to train artificial neural networks directly on an optical chip. The significant breakthrough demonstrates that an optical circuit can perform a critical function of an electronics-based artificial neural network and could lead to less expensive, faster and more energy efficient ways to perform complex tasks such as speech or image recognition.

“Using an optical chip to perform neural network computations more efficiently than is possible with digital computers could allow more complex problems to be solved,” said research team leader Shanhui Fan of Stanford University. “This would enhance the capability of artificial neural networks to perform tasks required for self-driving cars or to formulate an appropriate response to a spoken question, for example. It could also improve our lives in ways we can’t imagine now.”

An artificial neural network is a type of artificial intelligence that uses connected units to process information in a manner similar to the way the brain processes information. Using these networks to perform a complex task, for instance voice recognition, requires the critical step of training the algorithms to categorize inputs, such as different words.

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The engines of an airplane are complicated machines with plenty of hard-to-reach places, and keeping them in working order requires a lot of time and maintenance. The future of this task, as Rolls-Royce sees it, could involve deploying different kinds of of robots that patrol these aircraft parts and quickly nip any problems in the bud.

Full automation of things like Logging, and Mining is not that far off. A humanoid robot that can do all the tasks of those sorts of jobs is already really close, the main issue right now is copying Human Hands, and it is almost there. Then, having vehicles like this to haul the stuff out of there. And, then those jobs are gone for good.

It might not be the quickest vehicle at the event, but Swedish transport company Einride has chosen the Goodwood Festival of Speed to reveal the T-log, an autonomous, electric logging truck. Incorporating some unusual purpose-built design for the niche logging market, the vehicle is designed to go off-road and to navigate forest roads with and without loads.

Want a hint of how the automotive zeitgeist is changing? You only need to look at the just-ended Goodwood Festival of Speed. Roborace has carved out a small niche in history with the first self-driving vehicle to successfully complete Goodwood’s famous hill climb, where vehicles have to tackle a gradual 300-foot ascent that includes narrow hay- and brick-lined passages. It wasn’t a flat-out assault, but the attempt (which was preceded by a practice run) went off without a hitch — which you can’t say for the other autonomous contender at the festival.

Siemens had prepared an autonomous Ford Mustang that carried none other than the festival’s founder, the Duke of Richmond, through the run. Technically, it did complete the run — but only with help from a safety driver, who had to repeatedly take over as the modified coupe threatened to plow into hay bales. This came despite Siemens’ team having 3D-mapped the course and plotted the route in advance.

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Former F1 racer and designer Taso Marques has created the TMC Dumont, an incredibly sleek, low-to-the-ground motorcycle that sports an airplane engine and giant silver wheels without hubs, looking very much like something out of a science fiction film. The bike made its debut at Daytona Bike Week in March 2018 and won all sorts of admiration and accolades for its design.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the assembly of the TMC Dumont Motorcycle.

One of the best parts about having expendable money has to be flying in style.

After all, being on an airplane can be brutal. Especially when your flight stretches over 10 hours.

Here’s the 10 most luxurious first-class cabins that make flying comfortable and enjoyable.

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A nightmare on the roads here. And, proof that anyone who tries to make it better will be seen as a bad guy.

Elon Musk’s ambitions often come under attack from entrenched interest groups. Now Musk’s Boring Company has a deal with Chicago to build a high-speed tunnel train to O’Hare Airport. Cabdrivers, already stinging from Uber and Lyft, could become the next “unfriendly” force for the billionaire entrepreneur.

You’re probably sitting still, right? Wrong, absolutely wrong. Not only are you on a spinning orb, but you’re also traveling around 70,000 miles per hour around a star, in a galaxy that, observations imply, is sailing through space at over a million miles per hour.

If the above numbers seem shocking, they shouldn’t be. The laws of physics look and feel the same for any object so long as it’s not accelerating, the way you can’t feel that a car is traveling at a steady 60 miles per hour unless you look out the window. But that also makes our galactic speed hard to measure from here on Earth. The million-plus mile per hour number is based on measurements of how the most distant objects in the Universe appear to move in comparison to us, but scientists want to try to measure our acceleration by looking at more nearby objects.