Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General
Published

New in-home AI tool monitors the health of elderly residents      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Engineers are harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and wireless technology to unobtrusively monitor elderly people in their living spaces and provide early detection of emerging health problems.

Computer Science: General Energy: Technology Physics: General Physics: Optics
Published

Optical switching at record speeds opens door for ultrafast, light-based electronics and computers      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Imagine a home computer operating 1 million times faster than the most expensive hardware on the market. Now, imagine that being the industry standard. Physicists hope to pave the way for that reality.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Physics: Acoustics and Ultrasound
Published

Road noise makes your blood pressure rise -- literally      (via sciencedaily.com) 

If you live near a busy road you might feel like the constant sound of roaring engines, honking horns and wailing sirens makes your blood pressure rise. Now a new study confirms it can do exactly that.

Offbeat: General Physics: Acoustics and Ultrasound
Published

Vocal tract size, shape dictate speech sounds      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers explore how anatomical variations in a speaker's vocal tract affect speech production. Using MRI, the team recorded the shape of the vocal tract for 41 speakers as the subjects produced a series of representative speech sounds. They averaged these shapes to establish a sound-independent model of the vocal tract. Then they used statistical analysis to extract the main variations between speakers. A handful of factors explained nearly 90% of the differences between speakers.

Computer Science: General Energy: Technology
Published

Researchers create breakthrough spintronics manufacturing process that could revolutionize the electronics industry      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a breakthrough process for making spintronic devices that has the potential to create semiconductors chips with unmatched energy efficiency and storage for use in computers, smartphones, and many other electronics.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Engineering: Graphene Engineering: Nanotechnology Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

Mind-control robots a reality?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed biosensor technology that will allow you to operate devices, such as robots and machines, solely through thought control.

Computer Science: General Computer Science: Quantum Computers Physics: General Physics: Quantum Computing Physics: Quantum Physics
Published

Superconducting amplifiers offer high performance with lower power consumption      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have devised a new concept of superconducting microwave low-noise amplifiers for use in radio wave detectors for radio astronomy observations, and successfully demonstrated a high-performance cooled amplifier with power consumption three orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional cooled semiconductor amplifiers. This result is expected to contribute to the realization of large-scale multi-element radio cameras and error-tolerant quantum computers, both of which require a large number of low-noise microwave amplifiers.

Computer Science: General Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

3D-printed revolving devices can sense how they are moving      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers created a system that enables makers to incorporate sensors directly into rotational mechanisms with only one pass in a 3D printer. This gives rotational mechanisms like gearboxes the ability to sense their angular position, rotation speed, and direction of rotation.

Computer Science: General Computer Science: Quantum Computers Computer Science: Virtual Reality (VR) Physics: General Physics: Quantum Computing Physics: Quantum Physics
Published

Qubits put new spin on magnetism: Boosting applications of quantum computers      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Research using a quantum computer as the physical platform for quantum experiments has found a way to design and characterize tailor-made magnetic objects using quantum bits, or qubits. That opens up a new approach to develop new materials and robust quantum computing.

Energy: Technology Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Physics: Acoustics and Ultrasound
Published

Propeller advance paves way for quiet, efficient electric aviation      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Electrification is seen as having an important role to play in the fossil-free aviation of tomorrow. But electric aviation is battling a trade-off dilemma: the more energy-efficient an electric aircraft is, the noisier it gets. Now, researchers have developed a propeller design optimization method that paves the way for quiet, efficient electric aviation.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Mathematics: General Mathematics: Modeling
Published

Researcher solves nearly 60-year-old game theory dilemma      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A researcher has solved a nearly 60-year-old game theory dilemma called the wall pursuit game, with implications for better reasoning about autonomous systems such as driver-less vehicles.

Computer Science: General Computer Science: Quantum Computers Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Cleaning up the atmosphere with quantum computing      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Practical carbon capture technologies are still in the early stages of development, with the most promising involving a class of compounds called amines that can chemically bind with carbon dioxide. Researchers now deploy an algorithm to study amine reactions through quantum computing. An existing quantum computer cab run the algorithm to find useful amine compounds for carbon capture more quickly, analyzing larger molecules and more complex reactions than a traditional computer can.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General Energy: Technology Engineering: Robotics Research
Published

Researchers develop soft robot that shifts from land to sea with ease      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Most animals can quickly transition from walking to jumping to crawling to swimming if needed without reconfiguring or making major adjustments. Most robots cannot. But researchers have now created soft robots that can seamlessly shift from walking to swimming, for example, or crawling to rolling using a bistable actuator made of 3D-printed soft rubber containing shape-memory alloy springs that react to electrical currents by contracting, which causes the actuator to bend. The team used this bistable motion to change the actuator or robot's shape. Once the robot changes shape, it is stable until another electrical charge morphs it back to its previous configuration.

Physics: Acoustics and Ultrasound
Published

Understanding sound direction estimation in monaural hearing      (via sciencedaily.com) 

One of the fascinating features of human hearing is its ability to localize sound. While the human ear usually does this with binaural cues, it is, in fact, possible to locate sound direction with monaural hearing alone. Now, researchers have developed a method to estimate the direction of sound signals in 3D space using monaural cues based on monaural modulation spectrum that could help simplify sound surveillance techniques and enhance hearing aid instruments.

Physics: Acoustics and Ultrasound
Published

New ultrasound method could lead to easier disease diagnosis      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new ultrasound method that can measure the level of tension in human tissue -- a key indicator of disease -- has been developed.

Computer Science: General Energy: Technology Engineering: Nanotechnology Physics: General
Published

New kind of transistor could shrink communications devices on smartphones      (via sciencedaily.com) 

One month after announcing a ferroelectric semiconductor at the nanoscale thinness required for modern computing components, a team has now demonstrated a reconfigurable transistor using that material. Their work paves the way for single amplifiers that can do the work of multiple conventional amplifiers, among other possibilities.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Computer Science: General
Published

Artificial intelligence (AI) reconstructs motion sequences of humans and animals      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Imagine for a moment, that we are on a safari watching a giraffe graze. After looking away for a second, we then see the animal lower its head and sit down. But, we wonder, what happened in the meantime? Computer scientists have found a way to encode an animal's pose and appearance in order to show the intermediate motions that are statistically likely to have taken place.

Computer Science: General
Published

Complex oxides could power the computers of the future      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Materials scientists describe in two papers how complex oxides can be used to create very energy-efficient magneto-electric spin-orbit (MESO) devices and memristive devices with reduced dimensions.

Biology: Botany Computer Science: General Ecology: General Ecology: Research Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Phone-based measurements provide fast, accurate information about the health of forests      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed an algorithm that uses computer vision techniques to accurately measure trees almost five times faster than traditional, manual methods.