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Category: computing

Microsoft demos English-to-Chinese universal translator that keeps your voice and accent.

Alternative World News Network.

At an event in China, Microsoft Research chief Rick Rashid has demonstrated a real-time English-to-Mandarin speech-to-speech translation engine. Not only is the translation very accurate, but the software also preserves the user’s accent and intonation. We’re not just talking about a digitized, robotic translator here — this is firmly within the realms of Doctor Who or Star Trek universal translation.

The best way to appreciate this technology is to watch the video below. The first six minutes or so is Rick Rashid explaining the fundamental difficulty of computer translation, and then the last few minutes actually demonstrate the software’s English-to-Mandarin speech-to-speech translation engine. Sadly I don’t speak Chinese, so I can’t attest to the veracity of the translation, but the audience — some 2,000 Chinese students — seems rather impressed. A professional English/Chinese interpreter also remarked to me that the computer translation is surprisingly good; not quite up to the level of human translation, but it’s getting close.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-armed_bandit

In probability theory, the multi-armed bandit problem (sometimes called the K- or N-armed bandit problem) is a problem in which a gambler at a row of slot machines (sometimes known as “one-armed bandits”) has to decide which machines to play, how many times to play each machine and in which order to play them. When played, each machine provides a random reward from a distribution specific to that machine. The objective of the gambler is to maximize the sum of rewards earned through a sequence of lever pulls.

(Phys.org)—A combined team of researchers from France and Japan has created a decision-making device that is based on basic properties of quantum mechanics. In their paper published in Scientific Reports (and uploaded to the arXiv preprint server), the team describes the idea behind their device and how it works.

There is a classic decision-making problem that is known as the exploration-exploitation dilemma—it is typically described by suggesting a scenario where a gambler faced with a floor full of must decide which offers the best payout on a regular basis. In real life, the solution involves feeding all of the machines coins until a discernible pattern emerges. Computer algorithms have been developed to run essentially the same process. Now, however, that approach appears to be ready for an update, as the researchers with this new effort have come up with a way to run the same sort of algorithm without using any kind of computer. Instead, they use a laser, a and feedback device. The idea is based on the fact that laws are probabilistic in nature.

The device is based on prior research that has shown that if photons are fired from a proton gun at a 45 degree angle, they will each have an equal chance of being vertically or horizontally polarized when they strike a detector—thus a stream will have equal numbers of both. But, if the filter on the gun is changed slightly, to say fire at 44 or 46 degree angles, that increase the odds of the associated polarization. The team used that fact by adding a feedback loop to the system—data sent back representing a “win” on a slot machine caused the filter to move in one direction, while a loss moved it in the other. Over time, the preponderance of wins (indicating a learning process) from one virtual machine would drive the device towards indicating it was the winning choice.

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Researchers at MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital have developed a system that can take MRI scans of a patient’s heart and, in a matter of hours, convert them into a tangible, physical model that surgeons can use to plan surgery.

The models could provide a more intuitive way for surgeons to assess and prepare for the anatomical idiosyncrasies of individual patients. “Our collaborators are convinced that this will make a difference,” says Polina Golland, a professor of and computer science at MIT, who led the project. “The phrase I heard is that ‘surgeons see with their hands,’ that the perception is in the touch.”

This fall, seven cardiac surgeons at Boston Children’s Hospital will participate in a study intended to evaluate the models’ usefulness.

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Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a cornerstone of consumer tech. They make thin-and-light TVs and smartphones possible, provide efficient household, handheld, and automobile illumination, and, of course, without LEDs your router would not have blinkenlights. Thanks to some engineers from MIT, though, a new diode looks set to steal the humble LED’s thunder. Dubbed a diode for light, and crafted using standard silicon chip fabrication techniques, this is a key discovery that will pave the path to photonic (as opposed to electronic) pathways on computer chips and circuit boards.

In electronics, a diode is a gate that only allows electrons to pass in one direction (and with an LED, it also emits light at the same time). In this case, the diode for light — which is made from a thin layer of garnet — is transparent in one direction, but opaque in the other. Garnet is usually hard to deposit on a silicon wafer, but the MIT researchers found a way to do it — and that’s really the meat of this discovery.

Diode for light diagramBasically, it’s now possible, with regular chip-fab tools, to create an integrated silicon circuit with optical, rather than electronic, interconnects — both internally, and between other chips. Photons, moving through the kind of transparent metamaterials that would be required to make such a circuit, move a lot faster than electrons. Furthermore, optical channels, through wavelength-division multiplexing, can carry a lot more data than electric signals. At the moment, hundreds of copper wires connect the CPU, northbridge, and memory — with on-chip photonic controllers, a motherboard might only have 10 or 20 channels.

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Scientists have designed a novel type of nanoscale solar cell. Initial studies and computer modelling predict these cells will outperform traditional solar panels, reach power conversion levels by over 40 percent.

Solar power cells work through the conversion of sunlight into electricity using photovoltaics. Here solar energy is converted into direct current. A photovoltaic system uses several solar panels; with each panel composed of a number of solar cells. This combines to create a system for the supply usable solar power.

To investigate what is possible in terms of solar power, the researchers have examined the Shockley-Queisser limit for different materials. This equation describes the maximum solar energy conversion efficiency achievable for a particular material, allowing different materials to be compared as candidates for power generation.

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Facebook FB is working on a stand-alone app that would support 360-degree—or “spherical”—video, allowing users to alter their viewing perspective with the mere tilt of their phones.

The app is still in early development, and would be available for both Apple AAPL and Android operating systems if it proves to be a go, sources close to the project told The Wall Street Journal.

Typically compiled from multiple cameras, the video format allows users to change their viewing perspective by tilting their phones, the Journal reported.

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Kim Suozzi died at age 23 from glioblastoma — a deadly brain tumour.

When she died in 2013, she made sure her fight for survival, albeit an unusual one, would not be forgotten.

She wanted to live forever through a computer and chose to have her brain frozen in the hopes that it may one day be resurrected and transformed into digital code.

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