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Category: robotics/AI – Page 84

Repurposed Roombas: Scientists program domestic robots for additional household tasks

At a time when we run ourselves ragged to meet society’s expectations of productivity, performance and time optimization, is it right that our robot vacuum cleaners and other smart appliances should sit idle for most of the day?

Computer scientists at the University of Bath in the UK think not. In a new paper, they propose over 100 ways to tap into the latent potential of our robotic devices. The researchers say these devices could be reprogrammed to perform helpful tasks around the home beyond their primary functions, keeping them physically active during their regular downtime.

New functions could include playing with the cat, watering plants, carrying groceries from car to kitchen, delivering breakfast in bed and closing windows when it rains.

Language structure shapes color-adjective links even for people born blind, study reveals

Humans are known to make mental associations between various real-world stimuli and concepts, including colors. For example, red and orange are typically associated with words such as “hot” or “warm,” blue with “cool” or “cold,” and white with “clean.”

Interestingly, some past psychology studies have shown that even if some of these associations arise from people’s direct experience of seeing colors in the world around them, many people who were born blind still make similar color-adjective associations. The processes underpinning the formation of associations between colors and specific adjectives have not yet been fully elucidated.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently carried out a study to further investigate how language contributes to how we learn about color, using mathematical and computational tools, including Open AI’s GPT-4 (LLM). Their findings, published in Communications Psychology, suggest that color-adjective associations are rooted in the structure of language itself and are thus not only learned through experience.

Atmospheric reaction between Criegee intermediates and water found to be unexpectedly fast

Criegee intermediates (CIs)—highly reactive species formed when ozone reacts with alkenes in the atmosphere—play a crucial role in generating hydroxyl radicals (the atmosphere’s “cleansing agents”) and aerosols that impact climate and air quality. The syn-CH3CHOO is particularly important among these intermediates, accounting for 25%–79% of all CIs depending on the season.

Until now, scientists have believed that syn-CH3CHOO primarily disappeared through self-decomposition. However, in a study published in Nature Chemistry, a team led by Profs. Yang Xueming, Zhang Donghui, Dong Wenrui and Fu Bina from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has uncovered a surprising new pathway: syn-CH3CHOO’s reaction with is approximately 100 times faster than previously predicted by theoretical models.

Using advanced laser techniques, the researchers experimentally measured the reaction rate between syn-CH3CHOO and water vapor, and discovered the faster reaction time. To uncover the reason behind this acceleration, they constructed a high-accuracy full-dimensional (27D) potential energy surface using the fundamental invariant-neural network approach and performed full-dimensional dynamical calculations.

Light signature algorithm offers precise insight on viral proteins, brain disease markers and semiconductors

Researchers at Rice University have developed a new machine learning (ML) algorithm that excels at interpreting the “light signatures” (optical spectra) of molecules, materials and disease biomarkers, potentially enabling faster and more precise medical diagnoses and sample analysis.

“Imagine being able to detect early signs of diseases like Alzheimer’s or COVID-19 just by shining a light on a drop of fluid or a ,” said Ziyang Wang, an electrical and computer engineering doctoral student at Rice who is a first author on a study published in ACS Nano. “Our work makes this possible by teaching computers how to better ‘read’ the signal of light scattered from tiny molecules.”

Every material or molecule interacts with light in a unique way, producing a distinct pattern, like a fingerprint. Optical spectroscopy, which entails shining a laser on a material to observe how light interacts with it, is widely used in chemistry, materials science and medicine. However, interpreting spectral data can be difficult and time-consuming, especially when differences between samples are subtle. The new algorithm, called Peak-Sensitive Elastic-net Logistic Regression (PSE-LR), is specially designed to analyze light-based data.

Ghost Highways in Memory Chips — The Secret Electron Shortcut to Lightning-Fast AI

A major breakthrough at POSTECH could dramatically boost AI speeds and device efficiency.

Researchers have, for the first time, decoded how Electrochemical Random-Access Memory (ECRAM) works, using a special technique to observe internal electron behavior even at extreme temperatures. This hidden mechanism, where oxygen vacancies act like shortcuts for electrons, could unlock faster AI systems and longer-lasting smartphones, laptops, and tablets.

Breakthrough at POSTECH: boosting AI efficiency.

Today’s AI Risks Are Scarier Than Doomsday Predictions, Study Finds

A new University of Zurich study shows that people are more concerned about the immediate risks of AI, like bias and misinformation, than about distant existential threats. Most people are more concerned about the immediate risks of artificial intelligence than about distant, theoretical threats

AI to make laws in UAE? Country passes new regulatory intelligence system ‘powered by artificial intelligence’

With an aim to accelerate legislative reform, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Cabinet has launched a new AI-based regulatory intelligence system that will make laws for the country. Prime Minister of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in a post on social media said that this system will work on creating a comprehensive legislative plan that brings together all federal and local laws in the UAE, connecting them through artificial…

Neuralink’s third patient regains speech with help from AI

An Arizona man has become the third person in the world to receive Neuralink’s brain implant – letting him ‘speak’ again in his own voice.

Brad Smith has ALS, a progressive disease that makes him unable to move any part of his body, except his eyes and the corners of his mouth.