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Mar 23, 2021

Google Chrome’s new Live Caption feature will transcribe speech in videos

Posted by in categories: mobile phones, space

First introduced in 2019, Google Chrome’s Live Caption accessibility feature offers real-time captions for audio playing on both Pixel and non-Pixel phones, including the Galaxy S20 series, OnePlus 8 series, OnePlus Nord and beyond.

The main benefits of this feature arise for hearing impaired users as well as users who simply wish to watch a video without audio. Furthermore, not only does the allow users to view videos without sound for their own convenience, it also permits the viewer to avoid disturbing others nearby with audio.

Until recently, this tool has only been available on Android phones, but Google is now releasing Live Caption for its Chrome browser. So far, Google aims to implement this feature on both Chrome desktop as well as Chrome 89. Now, users can access Live Caption for Chrome 89 by navigating to Settings Advanced Accessibility. Chrome 89 users who don’t automatically see the Live Caption toggle can try restarting Chrome.

Mar 22, 2021

The Battery That Will Finally Unlock Massless Energy Storage

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

It could revolutionize electric vehicles and aircraft.


In groundbreaking new research, scientists have made a structural battery 10 times better than in any previous experiment.

Continue reading “The Battery That Will Finally Unlock Massless Energy Storage” »

Mar 22, 2021

Flying Cars and Drones Will Soon Get Their Own Airport in the UK

Posted by in categories: drones, economics, government

Coventry, a city in the United Kingdom, will play host to the world’s first airport for electric flying cars and delivery drones. Urban Air Port will build the Air One transport hub next to the city’s Ricoh Arena and will open later this year. It’ll be used to transport cargo and hopefully even people later across cities.

The city was specifically chosen by the company for its relatively central location and also because it’s a historically prominent location for both the aerospace and automobile industries. The project received a £1.2 million grant after winning the Government’s Future Flight Challenge, and the city is now in an urban air mobility partnership that’s backed by the UK Government.

“Cars need roads. Trains need rails. Planes need airports. eVTOLs will need Urban Air Ports. Over 100 years ago, the world’s first commercial flight took off, creating the modern connected world. Urban Air Port will improve connectivity across our cities, boost productivity and help the UK take the lead in a whole new clean global economy. Flying cars used to be a futuristic flight of fancy. Air-One will bring clean urban air transport to the masses and unleash a new airborne world of zero-emission mobility,” said Ricky Sandhu, Urban Air Port’s founder and executive chairman.

Mar 22, 2021

Quantum computing: IBM’s new tool lets users design quantum chips in minutes

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Big Blue has made Qiskit Metal generally available, to let “anyone” try their hand at quantum hardware design.

Mar 22, 2021

Plasmonic nanoreactors regulate selective oxidation via energetic electrons and nanoconfined thermal fields

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, engineering, nanotechnology

When optimizing catalysis in the lab, product selectivity and conversion efficiency are primary goals for materials scientists. Efficiency and selectivity are often mutually antagonistic, where high selectivity is accompanied by low efficiency and vice versa. Increasing the temperature can also change the reaction pathway. In a new report, Chao Zhan and a team of scientists in chemistry and chemical engineering at the Xiamen University in China and the University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S., constructed hierarchical plasmonic nanoreactors to show nonconfined thermal fields and electrons. The combined attributes uniquely coexisted in plasmonic nanostructures. The team regulated parallel reaction pathways for propylene partial oxidation and selectively produced acrolein during the experiments to form products that are different from thermal catalysis. The work described a strategy to optimize chemical processes and achieve high yields with high selectivity at lower temperature under visible light illumination. The work is now published on Science Advances.

Catalysts

Ideal catalytic processes can produce desired target products without undesirable side effects under cost-effective conditions, although such conditions are rarely achieved in practice. For instance, high efficiency and high selectivity are antagonistic goals, where a relatively high temperature is often necessary to overcome the large barrier of oxygen activation to achieve high reactant conversion. Increasing the functional temperature can also lead to overoxidized and therefore additional byproducts. As a result, researchers must compromise between selectivity and efficiency. For instance, a given molecule typically requires diverse catalysts to generate different products, where each catalyst has different efficiency and selectivity. To circumvent any limitations, they can use surface plasmons (SPs) to redistribute photons, electrons and heat energy in space and time.

Mar 22, 2021

Breakthrough in electronic display fabrics could help pave the way for smart clothing

Posted by in categories: electronics, innovation

The fabric is about as bright as the average flat-screen TV. The researchers noted their prototype was also significantly more durable than conventional thin-film flexible displays, making it more suitable for practical use. The performance for most of the display remained stable after 1000 cycles of bending, stretching and pressing, and 100 cycles of washing and drying.

Mar 22, 2021

Doctors Capture Cherenkov Light Being Generated Inside Patient’s Eyeball For The First Time

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nuclear energy

For decades, people undergoing radiotherapy, which is used to treat cancer, have reported a bizarre phenomenon: Seeing flashes of light in their eyes, even when their eyes are closed.

Patients documented in the medical literature have described a ‘‘ray of blue light” and ‘‘seeing a blue neon light”, sometimes accompanied by a “white smell” during the delivery of radiation, lasting for a fraction of a second. There have been several theories for why this could be happening, including retinal pigments inside patients’ eyes being stimulated during the therapy, or that Cherenkov light or Cherenkov radiation – the same effect that makes nuclear reactors glow blue when they’re underwater – is produced inside the eyeball itself.

Now scientists have captured this strange light for the first time, producing the first photographic evidence that the phenomenon is in fact Cherenkov light.

Mar 22, 2021

Mars 360: 1.2 billion pixel panorama of Mars — Sol 3060 (360video 8K)

Posted by in categories: climatology, media & arts, robotics/AI, space

1.2 billion pixel panorama of Mars by Curiosity rover at Sol 3060 (March 152021)

🎬 360VR video 8K: 🔎 360VR photo 85K: http://bit.ly/sol3060

Continue reading “Mars 360: 1.2 billion pixel panorama of Mars — Sol 3060 (360video 8K)” »

Mar 22, 2021

How Did NASA Broadcast Live TV From The Moon?

Posted by in category: space

This special camera included classified technology.

Mar 22, 2021

Artificial neurons are smaller and more energy efficient

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Researchers have developed a new device able to run neural network computations using 100 times less energy and area than existing CMOS-based hardware.