FullDuplex
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Microsoft buys AI company to improve Cortana's conversational skills
Microsoft has acquired a natural language AI firm called Semantic Machines to help Cortana and other bots carry on natural conversations, it announced. The tech "uses the power of machine learning to enable users to discover, access and interact with information and services in a much more natural way, and with significantly less effort," wrote Microsoft AI & Research CTO David Ku. What's more, Microsoft will establish a "conversational AI center" in Berkeley to amp up its language tech and "take conversational computing to a new level."
Researchers demo full-duplex wireless: double the throughput with no new towers
Back in February researchers at Stanford first taunted us with the possibility of simultaneous, two-way data transmission on the same frequency. Now some folks at Rice University are edging full-duplex communication closer to reality. By the time carriers get around to rolling out 4.5G networks, engineers could potentially double throughput without adding more cell towers and using only existing mobile hardware. With an extra antenna and some fancy software tricks, which allow the device to ignore locally produced signals, the Rice team was able to produce a connection ten-times stronger than previously published studies. Since the technology is based on existing MIMO setups, it may also prove the shortest route to asynchronous full-duplex transmissions. That means you'll be able to upload ill advised videos of your drunken antics (and suffer the consequences) that much faster, without having to pause the latest Maru clip. Check out the PR after the break. [Image credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University]
