Science & Technology News – Page 259

Human Behavior, Report, Robots, Science & Technology News

Robot racism? Yes, says a study showing humans’ biases extend to robots

August 15, 2019

“Robots And Racism,” a study conducted by the Human Interface Technology Laboratory in New Zealand and published by the country’s University of Canterbury, suggests people perceive physically human-like robots to have a race and therefore apply racial stereotypes to white and black robots.

Have you ever noticed the popularity of white robots?

You see them in films like Will Smith’s “I, Robot” and Eve from “Wall-E.” Real-life examples include Honda’s Asimo, UBTECH’s Walker, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, and even NASA’s Valkyrie robot. All made of shiny white material. And some real-life humanoid robots are modeled after white celebrities, such as Audrey Hepburn and Scarlett Johansson.

The reason for these shades of technological white may be racism, according to new research.

Continue reading… “Robot racism? Yes, says a study showing humans’ biases extend to robots”

Brain, brain hacking, communication, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Neuroscientists decode brain speech signals into written text

August 15, 2019

Study funded by Facebook aims to improve communication with paralysed patients

The study recording brain signals sent to trigger organ movement is considered a breakthrough.

When Stephen Hawking wanted to speak, he chose letters and words from a synthesiser screen controlled by twitches of a muscle in his cheek.

But the painstaking process the cosmologist used might soon be bound for the dustbin. With a radical new approach, doctors have found a way to extract a person’s speech directly from their brain.

The breakthrough is the first to demonstrate how a person’s intention to say specific words can be gleaned from brain signals and turned into text fast enough to keep pace with natural conversation.

Continue reading… “Neuroscientists decode brain speech signals into written text”

Automobiles, Electric Automobile, Electric Vehicles, government, Science & Technology News

Automakers run into collision with Centre’s electric vehicle plan

August 15, 2019

Two- and three-wheeler manufacturers are stoutly resisting the government’s e-mobility plan. The government wants to ban internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered three- and two-wheelers (with an engine capacity of less than 150cc) by 2023 and 2025, respectively, and replace them with electric vehicles (EVs).

With the meeting between the NITI Aayog and auto industry executives ending in a stalemate on Friday, the two sides may continue to spar over the road map for e-mobility in one of the world’s most polluted countries..

Via Wap Business Standard

Biotech, DNA, Hot Issues, Latest News, Science & Technology News

Wait, What? The first human-monkey hybrid embryo was just created in China

August 14, 2019

Last week, news broke that a prominent stem cell researcher is making human-monkey chimeras in a secretive lab in China.

The story, first reported by the Spanish newspaper El País, has all the ingredients of a bombshell. First, its protagonist is the highly-respected Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, a Spanish-born stem cell biologist at the Salk Institute in California known for his breakthroughs in anti-aging research. His other fascination? Human-animal chimeras, in which animal embryos are injected with human cells and further developed inside a surrogate animal’s body. Second, according to El País, Izpisúa Belmonte may have collaborated with monkey researchers in China to circumvent legal issues in the US and Spain, where research with primates is heavily regulated.

The news did not sit well with Chinese scientists, who are still recovering from the CRISPR baby scandal. “It makes you wonder, if their reason for choosing to do this in a Chinese laboratory is because of our high-tech experimental setups, or because of loopholes in our laws?” lamented one anonymous commentator on China’s popular social media app, WeChat.

Continue reading… “Wait, What? The first human-monkey hybrid embryo was just created in China”

brain hacking, facebook, privacy, Science & Technology News

Facebook is funding brain experiments to create a device that reads your mind

August 14, 2019

Big tech firms are trying to read people’s thoughts, and no one’s ready for the consequences.

In 2017, Facebook announced that it wanted to create a headband that would let people type at a speed of 100 words per minute, just by thinking.

Now, a little over two years later, the social-media giant is revealing that it has been financing extensive university research on human volunteers.

Today, some of that research was described in a scientific paper from the University of California, San Francisco, where researchers have been developing “speech decoders” able to determine what people are trying to say by analyzing their brain signals.

Continue reading… “Facebook is funding brain experiments to create a device that reads your mind”

Engineering, Health & Fitness, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

Scientists create contact lenses that zoom on command

August 14, 2019

Blink twice to get a closer look.

Nosebleed seats may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists at the University of California San Diego have created a prototype contact lens that is controlled by the eye’s movements. Wearers can make the lenses zoom in or out by simply blinking twice. A paper detailing the team’s findings was published this month in Advanced Functional Materials.

Continue reading… “Scientists create contact lenses that zoom on command”

Automation, Healthcare, Robots, Science & Technology News

Desperate for workers, aging Japan turns to robots for healthcare

August 14, 2019

A woman wearing a Cyberdyne lumbar robotic suit, which is designed to help her walk, gets an assist from caregiver Asami Konishi.

TSUKUBA, Japan — In America and other aging societies around the world, it has become common for the elderly to be cared for by their graying children or older workers. That’s largely because the younger labor force is shrinking, and few want to do such low-paying, back-aching work.

Japan sees an answer in robots.

At Minami Tsukuba nursing home near Tokyo, caregiver Asami Konishi wears a robotic device on her hips that cuts the stress on her back when she bends and lifts someone.

“It really helps when I have to pick up a heavier male patient,” said the 34-year-old.

Continue reading… “Desperate for workers, aging Japan turns to robots for healthcare”

Coworking, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News, Travel

The Microhotel, a Category Seeing a Growth Spurt, Makes Small Stylish

August 13, 2019

The Moxy Chelsea in New York City. Though their rooms are small, microhotels often have spacious lobbies that invite hanging out and co-working.

They appeal to senior citizens and millennials, business travelers and backpackers. And they’re particularly attractive to hotel developers, who can pack in more guest rooms than in a typical hotel.

They’re known as microhotels, inspired by the Japanese capsule or pod hotels of 40 years ago that offered cheap, tiny accommodations to businessmen.

The new versions — which are most common in but not exclusive to big, expensive cities like New York, London and Paris — are designed, as one hotel expert put it, down to their last square inch. Their guest rooms are small — often half, or less, the size of a typical room in an urban hotel — with furniture that often can be folded up or stowed away, and bathrooms that usually have showers and toilets but no bathtubs. Wall-mounted TVs are also major space savers.

Continue reading… “The Microhotel, a Category Seeing a Growth Spurt, Makes Small Stylish”

Elon Musk, Energy, Science & Technology News, Solar Power, Tesla

Tesla launches its Megapack, a new massive 3 MWh energy storage product

August 13, 2019

Tesla is launching today its ‘Megapack’, a massive new energy storage product that combines up to 3 MWh of storage capacity and a 1.5 MW inverter.

Electrek exclusively reported last year that Tesla has been working on a new energy storage system called ‘Megapack’.

We found out that Tesla was going to use the Megapack at a giant new energy storage project in California.

Today, almost a year later, the company is now officially launching the product.

Continue reading… “Tesla launches its Megapack, a new massive 3 MWh energy storage product”

Great New Product, New Inventions, Science & Technology News, Shopping

No more cardboard boxes? 3M invents an ingenious new way to ship products

August 13, 2019

The company is launching a new material that could reduce the time, materials, and space required to ship products by 50%.

Getting things delivered has never been more convenient. With just a few clicks, you can have a new bottle of shampoo sitting outside your door the next day, or that cool T-shirt you’ve been eyeing on Etsy. But when those items arrive at your door, there’s a good chance they’ll be in a too-big box, stuffed with lots of wasteful packaging filler.

That’s why the Minnesota-based materials company 3M is releasing a new type of packaging that requires no tape and no filler, and it can be customized to fit any object under 3 pounds—which 3M says accounts for about 60% of all items that are bought online and shipped. 3M claims that the material, called the Flex & Seal Shipping Roll, can reduce time spent packing, the amount of packaging materials, and the space needed to ship packages.

Continue reading… “No more cardboard boxes? 3M invents an ingenious new way to ship products”

communication, Machine Learning, Microsoft, Science & Technology News, Video

Microsoft’s tech can make your hologram speak another language

August 12, 2019

This exec doesn’t speak Japanese — but it sure looks like she does.

You no longer need to speak another language to look like you’re fluent in it — to anyone, anywhere.

On Wednesday, Microsoft executive Julia White took the stage at the company’s Inspire partner conference to demonstrate how it’s now possible to not only create an incredibly life-like hologram of a person, but to then make the hologram speak another language in the person’s own voice.

This demo was possible thanks to a combination of two existing technologies — mixed reality and neural text-to-speech — and it foreshadows a future in which tech greatly diminishes existing barriers in human communication.

Continue reading… “Microsoft’s tech can make your hologram speak another language”

Great New Product, mobile technology, New Inventions, Science & Technology News, Wearables

Sony is crowdfunding a wearable ‘air conditioner’

August 12, 2019

The Reon Pocket helps you stealthily cope with heatwaves and cold winters.

Are you struggling to cope with the heat outdoors? Sony might have a solution, if not as soon as you might like. The company’s First Flight program is crowdfunding a wearable ‘air conditioner,’ the Reon Pocket, that slips into a pouch in a special t-shirt. The stealthy device doesn’t condition the air as such. Rather, it sits at the base of your neck and uses the Peltier effect (where heat is absorbed or emitted when you pass an electrical current across a junction) to either lower your temperature by 23F or raise it by 14F, all without bulk or noise. You could wear a stuffy business outfit on a hot day and avoid looking like you’ve just stepped out of a sauna.

Continue reading… “Sony is crowdfunding a wearable ‘air conditioner’”