Bio-Inspired Cameras and AI Detect Obstacles Faster

Daniel Gehrig and Davide Scaramuzza from the Department of Informatics at the University of Zurich have combined a novel bio-inspired camera with AI to develop a system that can detect obstacles around a car much quicker than current systems and using less computational power. Read on to learn more about the study, which is published in Nature.

Building Quantum Computers of the Future

This advance could enable quantum computers that use programmable optical qubits or “spin-photon qubits” to connect quantum nodes across a remote network. It could also advance a quantum internet that is not only more secure but could also transmit more data than current optical-fiber information technologies. Read on to learn more.

New AR Glasses Use AI-Enhanced Holographic Imaging

Researchers in the emerging field of spatial computing have developed a prototype augmented reality headset that uses holographic imaging to overlay full-color, 3D moving images on the lenses of what would appear to be an ordinary pair of glasses. Read on to learn more about it.

AI Helps UAVs Predict Oncoming Turbulence

Professor Animashree (Anima) Anandkumar and her team at The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a control strategy for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that uses reinforcement learning to adaptively learn how turbulent wind can change over time and then uses that knowledge to control the UAV based on what it is experiencing.

Can Optical Component Manufacturers Design Better Devices With AI?

Opto Generative Pretrained Transformer (OptoGPT), a decoder-only transformer, developed by University of Michigan engineers, harnesses the computer architecture underpinning ChatGPT to work backward from desired optical properties to the material structure that can provide them. Read on to learn more.

Seeing Like a Butterfly: Optical Invention Enhances Camera Capabilities

Butterflies can see more of the world than humans, including more colors and the field oscillation direction, or polarization, of light. Other species, like the mantis shrimp, can sense an even wider spectrum of light, as well as the circular polarization, or spinning states, of light waves. Inspired by these abilities in the animal kingdom, researchers have developed an ultrathin optical element known as a metasurface, which can attach to a conventional camera and encode the spectral and polarization data of images captured in a snapshot or video through tiny, antenna-like nano-structures that tailor light properties.

Smart Full-Body Fitness Tracking

With the new Smart Connected Sensors platform from Bosch Sensortec, you can track more than just steps. You can program complex whole-body movements and accurately track them during physical workouts or while you are going through a rehabilitation or physical therapy regimen. Read on to learn more.

AI Model Harnesses Physics to Autocorrect Remote Sensing Data

The researchers are currently refining their approach with an eye toward applications where data is limited but high fidelity is required, such as target detection. Read on to learn more.

Butterfly-Inspired AI Technology

Professor Saptarshi Das and his team at Penn State University learned that when it comes to mating, two things matter for Heliconius butterflies: the look and the smell of their potential partner. This led them to think about how multiple sensory inputs could enable more efficient use of AI.

3D Processors May Revolutionize Wireless Communication

Scientists have pioneered a method for using semiconductor technology to manufacture processors that significantly enhance the efficiency of transmitting vast amounts of data across the globe. The innovation is poised to transform the landscape of wireless communication. Read on to learn more.

New Chip May Lead to AI Computing at Light Speed

Penn Engineers have developed a new chip that uses light waves, rather than electricity, to perform the complex math essential to training AI. The chip has the potential to radically accelerate the processing speed of computers while also reducing their energy consumption. Read on to learn more.

Using AI to Streamline Robotic Warehouse Operations

Getting 800 robots in a warehouse to and from their destinations efficiently while keeping them from crashing into each other is no easy task. So, a group of MIT researchers who use AI to mitigate traffic congestion applied ideas from that domain to tackle this problem. Read on to learn what they built.

Event Sensors Are Changing the Paradigm in Machine Vision

Event-based vision is well on its way to establishing itself as a paradigm that will create a new standard in many markets requiring efficiency in how machines can see. Over the past several years, it has successfully evolved to meet a wider range of uses. And by continuing to adapt and address the requirements of many applications, we will see more event-based cameras all around us.

Generative AI: Reshaping the Industrial Value Chain with the Industrial Copilot

Companies worldwide are faced with a shortage of skilled labor as experienced workers retire and not enough new talent enters the workforce to compensate. To address this, companies must find a way to capture knowledge from experienced workers and make it both accessible and enticing to new hires. Generative AI can help address this by transforming the way humans and machines interact and collaborate using solutions such as Siemens Industrial Copilot.

Computer Vision Lends Precision to Robotic Grappling

Innovators at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) have developed computer vision software that derives target posture determinations quickly and then instructs an operator how to properly align a robotic end-effector with a target that they are trying to grapple.

Tactile Sensing Strategy Enables Accurate Object Detection

Researchers from Tsinghua University worked to break through the difficulties of robotic recognition of various common, yet complex, items. Read on to learn more.

Increasing Agricultural Yields, Efficiency, and Sustainability with AI

Professor Chris Reberg-Horton and his colleagues at North Carolina State University’s Plant Sciences Initiative are taking hundreds of thousands of plant photos and, with the university’s newly acquired Grace Hopper 200 supercomputer, are using them to create the world's largest agricultural image repository.

5Ws of the Neuromorphic AI Drone

A team of researchers at Delft University of Technology has developed a drone that flies autonomously using neuromorphic image processing and control based on the workings of animal brains.

Pioneering Precision: The Fusion of AI Vision and Cobots in Manufacturing

The integration of collaborative robots, or cobots, into manufacturing has revolutionized traditional processes, offering an unprecedented blend of precision, productivity, and safety. Now, with advancements in AI and visual detection systems, cobots are evolving further, equipped to adapt their actions based on visual cues. Read on to learn more.

Using Machine Learning to Teach New Tricks to ANYMal Robot

ANYmal has for some time had no problem coping with the stony terrain of Swiss hiking trails. Now researchers at ETH Zurich have taught this quadrupedal robot some new skills: it is proving rather adept at parkour. ANYmal is also proficient at dealing with the tricky terrain commonly found on building sites or in disaster areas. Read on to learn more.

ChatGPT Enables Roboticist to Choreograph Flying Robots

Professor Angela Schoellig from the Technical University of Munich uses ChatGPT to develop choreographies for swarms of drones to perform along to music. An additional safety filter prevents mid-air collisions. Read on to learn more.

Deep Learning Models Enable Robotic Motion

MIT engineers are aiming to give robots a bit of common sense when faced with situations that push them off their trained path. They’ve developed a method that connects robot motion data with the “common sense knowledge” of large language models, or LLMs.

Innovative AI Approach Makes the Most of Sparse Sensor Data

An innovative approach to artificial intelligence (AI) enables reconstructing a broad field of data, such as overall ocean temperature, from a small number of field-deployable sensors using low-powered edge computing, with broad applications across industry, science, and medicine.

The New Industrial Edge Ecosystem for Machine Vision

Siemens is collaborating with Basler and MVTec in its open Industrial Edge Ecosystem. The results are scalable, plug-and-play solutions that combine Siemens’ automation technology with third-party machine vision hardware and software.

Flexible Artificial Intelligence Optoelectronic Sensors for Health Monitoring

Researchers from Tokyo University of Science (TUS) led by Associate Professor Takashi Ikuno have developed a flexible paper-based sensor that operates like the human brain. The researchers fabricated a photo-electronic artificial synapse device composed of gold electrodes on top of a 10 μm transparent film consisting of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and cellulose nanofibers (CNFs).

AI Helps Robots Manipulate Objects with Their Entire Bodies

Humans are generally good at whole-body manipulation, but robots struggle with such tasks. Now, MIT researchers have found a way to simplify this process, known as contact-rich manipulation planning.