A NEW WAY TO AUTOMATICALLY BUILD ROAD MAPS FROM AERIAL IMAGES
“RoadTracer” system from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory could reduce workload for developers of apps like Google Maps. Source: mit.edu
ARTIFICIAL ANTIMICROBIAL PEPTIDES COULD HELP OVERCOME DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA
Researchers at MIT and the Catholic University of Brasilia have now developed a streamlined approach to developing artificial antimicrobial peptides. Their strategy, which relies on a computer algorithm that mimics the natural process of evolution, has yielded one potential drug candidate that successfully killed bacteria in mice. Source: mit.edu
RETHINKING GPS: ENGINEERING NEXT-GEN LOCATION AT UBER
Location and navigation using global positioning systems (GPS) is deeply embedded in our daily lives, and is particularly crucial to Uber’s services. To orchestrate quick, efficient pickups, our GPS technologies need to know the locations of matched riders and drivers, as well as provide navigation guidance from a driver’s current location to where the rider needs to be picked up, and then, to the rider’s chosen destination. For this process to work seamlessly, the location estimates for riders and drivers need to be as precise as possible.
Read moreA FACE-DETECTION LIBRARY IN 200 LINES OF JAVASCRIPT
The pico.js library is a JavaScript implementation of the method described in 2013 by Markuš et al. in a technical report. The reference implementation is written in C and available on GitHub: https://github.com/nenadmarkus/pico. We follow this implementaion closely as we do not intend to replicate the learning process, just the runtime. The reasoning behind this is that we are better off by learning a detector with the official code, load it into JavaScript and do the runtime processing there as this offers some unique advantages (such as great portability across various operating systems and devices).
Read moreDRILLING WITH CURIOSITY
Remotely operating a rover on another planet so that it can gather and analyze samples requires extensive planning, failure work-arounds, and compromise. Source: americanscientist.org
DOCTORS TRIED TO LOWER $148K CANCER DRUG COST; MAKERS TRIPLE PRICE OF PILL
Imbruvica’s makers, Janssen and Pharmacyclics, have now gotten approval to sell four different tablets of varying strengths: 140mg, 280mg, 420mg, and 560mg. But the new pills will all be the same price—around $400 each—even the 140mg dose pill. The makers willstop selling the old, cheaper 140mg pill within three months, according to a report by the Washington Post.
Read moreVELODYNE INVENTED MODERN LIDAR—IT’S ABOUT TO FACE REAL COMPETITION
David Hall invented modern three-dimensional lidar more than a decade ago for use in the DARPA Grand Challenge competitions. His company, Velodyne, has dominated the market for self-driving car lidar ever since. Last year, Velodyne opened a factory that it said had the capacity to produce a million lidar units in 2018—far more than any other maker of high-end lidars. Source: arstechnica.com
THE AI REVOLUTION HASN’T HAPPENED YET
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the mantra of the current era. The phrase is intoned by technologists, academicians, journalists and venture capitalists alike. As with many phrases that cross over from technical academic fields into general circulation, there is significant misunderstanding accompanying the use of the phrase. But this is not the classical case of the public not understanding the scientists—here the scientists are often as befuddled as the public. The idea that our era is somehow seeing the emergence of an intelligence in silicon that rivals our own entertains all of us—enthralling us and frightening us in equal measure. And, unfortunately, it distracts us.
Read moreMIT DISCOVERS WAY TO MASS-PRODUCE GRAPHENE IN LARGE SHEETS
The team’s results are the first demonstration of an industrial, scalable method for manufacturing high-quality graphene that is tailored for use in membranes that filter a variety of molecules, including salts, larger ions, proteins, or nanoparticles. Such membranes should be useful for desalination, biological separation, and other applications. Source: mit.edu
THE QUEST FOR THE NEXT BILLION-DOLLAR COLOR
Mas Subramanian, the biggest celebrity in the uncelebrated world of pigment research, glances at a cluster of widemouthed jars containing powders in every color of the rainbow, save one. He’s got OYGBIV. “We’re getting closer,” he says brightly. He points to a jar of reddish brown dust, smoky and rich as paprika. Fetching, but it isn’t what he’s looking for. Source: bloomberg.com