Impact Lab – Page 254 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

AI

Synthetic data for AI fills gaps in edge cases

October 29, 2022

Movie magic: computer generated images of automotive scenarios provide valuable synthetic data for AI.

Self-driving car developers safely explore extreme scenarios during autonomous vehicle training thanks to the rise of synthetic data for AI.

Deep learning has pushed the capabilities of artificial intelligence to new levels, but there are still some kinks to straighten out. Particularly in safety-critical applications such as self-driving cars. If an artificial intelligence (AI) recommendation engine gets its predictions wrong and puts a strange advert in your browser window, you might raise an eyebrow. But no long-term damage would have been done. Things are very different of course when algorithms get behind the wheel and encounter something they’ve never seen before. Rare events, or edge cases, present a tricky problem for developers of autonomous vehicles. Fortunately, synthetic data for AI – based on lifelike simulations of real-world events – could help to fill in the gaps.

Robots, Science & Technology News

A.I.-driven robots are cooking your dinner

October 28, 2022

Your next Friday night pizza may be made by robot hands.

BY STEPHANIE CAINE

That’s the vision of Ajay Sunkara, who launched the Pizzaiola autonomous chef, an A.I.-driven, voice-controlled pizza maker that’s making its way to Chicago-based regional pizza chain, Slice Factory. The robotic chef monitors more than 1,200 parameters every microsecond, from managing food quality to the point-of-sales machine.

When a customer places a pizza order, Pizzaiola will select, press, and stretch the dough; add the sauce, cheese, and toppings; then cook, slice, and box the pizza all to the customer’s specified preferences. It’s fulfilled in real time and can even have an individual jumbo slice ready to go through the Slice Factory drive-thru in minutes.

Not a single human touch is involved.

“There are robotics in the food industry, but in factories, meat-processing centers, and packaged food processing,” Sunkara tells Fortune. “We reduced the scale of it from industrial to something that can fit in a normal commercial kitchen.”

Space

New Zealand: Superconducting Magnet Tech Demonstrator in Space

October 28, 2022

The University of Wellington’s Paihau-Robinson Research Institute and an astronautics company based in Texas have announced a partnership to launch a new superconducting magnet technology demonstrator to test a novel type of space propulsion.

By Samaya Dharmaraj

Paihau-Robinson selected the Houston-based hosted-payload provider to launch a superconducting magnet technology demonstrator to the International Space Station (ISS). According to a statement, the Institute is undertaking a five-year research programme into the application of its proprietary magnet technology to a type of electric space thruster, applied-field magneto plasma dynamic (AF-MPD) thrusters. There is currently only one example of a similar thruster being flown in space, with the mass and power requirements of magnetic components being a key technological barrier. The Institute intends to leverage its advancements in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet development to overcome these obstacles.

The Primary Investigator and Institute Director, Nick Long, stated that the research leverages Paihau-Robinson’s twenty-year track record in HTS magnet technology to drastically reduce the mass and power consumption of these thrusters, demonstrating a viable pathway to commercial applications. The researchers believe they could provide propulsion solutions for large spacecraft instead of electric thrusters.

The payload will launch to the ISS where it will be installed into the private player’s external platform by astronauts onboard the station. Engineers on the ground will then operate the magnet over several months-demonstrating the ability to generate a core magnetic field thousands of times stronger than that of the Earth, along with shielding to ensure the safety and stability of surrounding equipment.

Space

Boffins propose Slinky-like robot that can build stuff in space

October 28, 2022

E-Walker is a ‘seven degrees-of-freedom fully dexterous end-over-end walking robot’

By Richard Currie

Although large in-space construction projects are the stuff of science fiction, they will have to become science fact as missions grow ever more ambitious. Researchers at the University of Lincoln have decided to get a head start.

Introducing the design for an “End-over-end Walking Robot” (or E-Walker) in the Frontiers in Robotics and AI journal, study authors Manu Harikrishnan Nair, Mini Chakravarthini Rai, and Mithun Poozhiyil describe “an innovative dexterous walking robotic system for in-orbit assembly missions.”

They say that simulated results “prove the dual E-Walker robotic system’s efficacy for accomplishing complex in-situ assembly operations through task-sharing,” using a Large Aperture Space Telescope (LAST) as an example.

“We need to introduce sustainable, futuristic technology to support the current and growing orbital ecosystem,” said lead author Nair, PhD candidate at the University of Lincoln.

“As the scale of space missions grows, there is a need for more extensive infrastructures in orbit. Assembly missions in space would hold one of the key responsibilities in meeting the increasing demand.”

Blockchain

South Korea to Provide Blockchain-based Digital Identities to Citizens by 2024

October 27, 2022

South Korea plans to provide digital identities encrypted by blockchain with smartphones to citizens in 2024 to facilitate its economic development., Bloomberg reported Monday.

The South Korean government stated that with the expansion of the digital economy, the ID embedded in the smartphone is an indispensable emerging technology to support the development of data.

Through digital identities on the blockchain, the network verification process will be simplified, and users can log in without taking a certificate or a verification code sent by text.

Widespread use based on digital IDs will be expected to increase government efficiency by saving more administrative workforce and time, reducing wage fraud, expanding consumer credit, facilitating trade, and generating new markets.

Alternatively, other applications of digital IDs include: facilitating online medical services; hotel check-in using a smartphone; prevention of ID forgery and theft; remote approval of contracts; fast boarding, etc.

McKinsey & Company believes introducing digital IDs could boost a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 13% and reduce business costs by trillions of dollars.

Citing Hwang Seogwon, an economist at the Korea Institute for Science and Technology Policy, stressed the importance of risk assessment:

“Digitals IDs can yield huge economic benefits in finance, healthcare, taxes, transportation and other areas and may catch on quickly among the Korean population.”

Electric Vehicles

Hyundai Set To Open Hotel Powered Exclusively By EVs

October 27, 2022

Reservations for Hotel Hyundai are now open.

By Ben O’Hare

Hyundai has announced plans to open a luxury pop-up hotel powered solely by its electric vehicles. The hotel will consist of a cabin, a restaurant, and a cinema and will be located in Essex, England.

The pop-up hotel aims to demonstrate the Ioniq 5’s vehicle-to-load (V2L) capabilities and will be open for three weeks next year. The cabin suite features an EV charger, a shower, and a kettle – all of which will be powered by an Ioniq 5. Furthermore, the restaurant will only serve locally sourced food meanwhile the coffee lounge will provide espressos that are brewed using energy from an Ioniq 5.

The hotel’s cinema area will consist of a projector, speakers, and popcorn machine all powered by (you guessed it) an Ioniq 5.

It appears the hotel will consist of only one cabin and therefore will only cater for one party at a time. Those interested in staying in the hotel can enter a competition to win a free trip.

Cancer

Innovative Biotechnology Fuses Targeted and Immune Therapies To Kill Treatment-Resistant Cancer Cells

October 27, 2022

Mutated KRAS-driven lung cancer cells (purple) in a genetically engineered mouse model of lung cancer.

New biotechnology combines targeted and immune therapies to kill treatment-resistant cancer cells.

Targeted therapies specifically attach to and inhibit cancer-causing proteins, but cancer cells can swiftly evolve to counter their action. Immunotherapies, a second drug class, harnesses the immune system to attack cancer cells. However, these agents often cannot “see” the disease-causing changes happening inside cancer cells, which appear normal from the outside.

Now, a new study describes a strategy to overcome these limitations based on several insights. The research was led by scientists from the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health.

First, the investigation team recognized that certain targeted drugs called “covalent inhibitors” form stable attachments with the disease-related proteins they target inside cancer cells. They also knew that once inside cells, proteins are naturally broken down and presented as small pieces (peptides) on cell surfaces by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. Once bound to MHC, peptides are recognized as foreign by the immune “surveillance” system if they are sufficiently different from the body’s naturally occurring proteins.

Augmented Reality

Apple AR/VR to Authenticate User Identification and Payments Via Iris Scanning

October 26, 2022

Expect this high-end headgear to be unveiled in 2023!

By Trisha Kae Andrada

Apple’s AR/VR (augmented reality and virtual reality) device will reportedly use iris-scanning biometrics to enable smooth user switching and payment authentication without the need to input a password.

According to 9to5Mac, these capabilities are similar to those of the Face ID biometrics system featured in recent iPhones and iPads.

It is believed to make it easier for numerous individuals to use the same gear. Also, the feature differentiates the device from the most recent Meta Quest Pro VR headset, which doesn’t have it.

The headset has been under development at Apple for many years, and finally, recent news indicated that it is set to be unveiled sometime in 2023.

AI

A new AI model can accurately predict human response to novel drug compounds

October 26, 2022

The journey between identifying a potential therapeutic compound and Food and Drug Administration approval of a new drug can take well over a decade and cost upward of a billion dollars. A research team at the CUNY Graduate Center has created an artificial intelligence model that could significantly improve the accuracy and reduce the time and cost of the drug development process.

Described in a newly published paper in Nature Machine Intelligence, the new model, called CODE-AE, can screen novel drug compounds to accurately predict efficacy in humans. In tests, it was also able to theoretically identify personalized drugs for over 9,000 patients that could better treat their conditions. Researchers expect the technique to significantly accelerate drug discovery and precision medicine.

Accurate and robust prediction of patient-specific responses to a new chemical compound is critical to discover safe and effective therapeutics and select an existing drug for a specific patient. However, it is unethical and infeasible to do early efficacy testing of a drug in humans directly. Cell or tissue models are often used as a surrogate of the human body to evaluate the therapeutic effect of a drug molecule. Unfortunately, the drug effect in a disease model often does not correlate with the drug efficacy and toxicity in human patients. This knowledge gap is a major factor in the high costs and low productivity rates of drug discovery.

3D Printer

Fast-as-lightning 3D microprinting with two lasers

October 26, 2022

In light sheet 3D printing, red and blue laser light is used to print objects precisely and quickly on a micrometer scale. Credit: Vincent Hahn, KIT

Printing objects from plastic precisely, quickly, and inexpensively is the goal of many 3D printing processes. However, speed and high resolution remain a technological challenge. A research team from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Heidelberg University, and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has come a long way toward achieving this goal. It developed a laser printing process that can print micrometer-sized parts in the blink of an eye. The international team published the work in Nature Photonics.

Stereolithography 3D printing is currently one of the most popular additive manufacturing processes for plastics, both for private and industrial applications. In stereolithography, the layers of a 3D object are projected one by one into a container filled with resin. The resin is cured by UV light. However, previous stereolithography methods are slow and have too low a resolution. Light-sheet 3D printing, which is used by the KIT researchers, is a fast and high-resolution alternative.

Metaverse

Honda and Sony Join Forces to Create EVs to Take You to the Metaverse

October 25, 2022

By 2026, Sony Honda Mobility will produce EVs that have at least some self-driving capability and will be packed with Sony content.

By Emily Dreibelbis

Honda is prepping to release its first electric SUV in 2024, in partnership with GM, but it’s also now teaming up with Sony on entertainment-focused EVs that will hit the market in 2026.

Sony, which gave us the Walkman, PlayStation, and films like Spider Man, Jumanji, and The Karate Kid, will have an equal, 50% stake in the newly formed Sony Honda Mobility Inc. (SHM)(Opens in a new window).

“SHM aims to evolve the mobility space into the entertainment and emotional space, by seamlessly integrating real and virtual worlds, and exploring new entertainment possibilities through digital innovations such as the metaverse,” Honda says.

Medicine

Novel Antibiotic Cement May Help Treat Bone Infections

October 25, 2022

Every year, 700,000 people die due to antibiotic resistance. Now, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a specialized drug-device delivery system to identify an effective antibiotic for targeted use in a bone cement matrix. The new antibiotic demonstrated promising results used against Staphylococcal in a rat model. Their approach may potentially be used to treat bone infections and decrease bacterial resistance development.

Their findings are published in Nature Biomedical Engineering in an article titled, “A potent antibiotic-loaded bone-cement implant against Staphylococcal bone infections.”

“New antibiotics should ideally exhibit activity against drug-resistant bacteria, delay the development of bacterial resistance to them, and be suitable for local delivery at desired sites of infection,” wrote the researchers. “Here, we report the rational design, via molecular-docking simulations, of a library of 17 candidate antibiotics against bone infection by wild-type and mutated bacterial targets.”