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Category: computing

Researchers have used graphene to create a lens that’s so flat, it’s 300 times thinner than a sheet of paper and weighs just 1 microgram. That means it’s small enough to split a beam of single photons — something that’s going to be crucial if we ever want to develop optical computers that process data at the speed of light.

These optical computers require devices called photonic chips, which store information as photons rather than electrons, and allow that information to move at light speed — and people are pretty excited about it. NASA is already using it, and the technology is getting more and more impressive. But there are still some limitations, and one of those is having lenses thin enough to split beams of light and divert them around the chip.

Attempts to make these lenses in the past have required expensive and impractical materials such as gold, but researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have been working on a solution, and they’ve managed to produce a lens using graphene oxide that’s not only thin enough to overcome the diffraction limit, but is also cheap, strong, flexible, and easy to produce.

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MIT researchers have developed a chip that can run neural networks. It’s 10 times more efficient than a mobile graphics processors, and it could allow us to have AIs on mobile devices.

Despite the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, most mobile devices remain behind in adapting and implementing these changes in their software. More glaringly, any kind of mobile software that utilizes AI software (such as deep learning and neural networks) offloads these tasks online to outside networks.

It’s all due to one main reason: Power consumption.

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This is a excellent use for the robots.

Brenau University students will soon be able to “be in the classroom” even from remote locations thanks to robots the school will be using.

A “Kubi” — a computer with arms for a tablet to be mounted on it — will allow students to control their interaction with a classroom and instructor. Brenau expects to have the technology in its classrooms by August.

“Our goal is to make the online or remote students have the same experience as on-site students,” said Dan Odom, instructional technology support technician at Brenau.

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DARPA’s efforts to teach AI “Empathy & Ethics”

The rapid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) has raised fears about whether robots could act unethically or soon choose to harm humans. Some are calling for bans on robotics research; others are calling for more research to understand how AI might be constrained. But how can robots learn ethical behavior if there is no “user manual” for being human?

Researchers Mark Riedl and Brent Harrison from the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology believe the answer lies in “Quixote” — to be unveiled at the AAAI-16 Conference in Phoenix, Ariz. (Feb. 12 — 17, 2016). Quixote teaches “value alignment” to robots by training them to read stories, learn acceptable sequences of events and understand successful ways to behave in human societies.

“The collected stories of different cultures teach children how to behave in socially acceptable ways with examples of proper and improper behavior in fables, novels and other literature,” says Riedl, associate professor and director of the Entertainment Intelligence Lab. “We believe story comprehension in robots can eliminate psychotic-appearing behavior and reinforce choices that won’t harm humans and still achieve the intended purpose.”

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Intel’s solid-state drives could be poised for a big jump in capacity and speed with new 3D flash chips coming from Micron.

Micron, which makes the flash in Intel’s SSDs, has started volume shipments of its 3D NAND flash chips. The chips could lead to SSDs the size of a pack of gum with more than 3.5TB of storage and standard 2.5-inch SSDs with capacities greater than 10TB.

SSDs have been advancing in capacity and durability. Fixstars last month shipped a 13TB SSD, which is priced at about $1 per gigabyte, or $13,000. This year, SanDisk plans to ship 6TB and 8TB SSDs, while Samsung is aiming to release a 4TB SSD.

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Very huge step forward for brain sensory mapping.

Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have provided eye-popping pictures of the way the brain is wired, and allowed neuroscientists and laypeople alike to view intricate anatomical and functional connections between regions of the brain. But what if a new tool could be applied to MRI and other data, to listen to the way the brain works and how it is forged with connections?

An emerging effort to “sonify” imaging data is taking root at UT Dallas’ Center for Vital Longevity, in the lab of Dr. Gagan Wig. The approach, now funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), allows data to be represented by sounds from which a trained listener might be able to discern patterns of brain connectivity not readily seen in available visualization strategies.

Wig, an assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, is working with his UT Dallas colleagues Dr. Roger Malina, Arts and Technology Distinguished Chair, Scot Gresham-Lancaster, assistant professor in the sound design program in the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication, and a mix of scientists, computer programmers and artists to translate data to sight and sound.

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