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Why putting googly eyes on robots makes them inherently less threatening
At the start of 2019, supermarket chain Giant Food Stores announced it would begin operating customer-assisting robots -- collectively dubbed Marty -- in 172 East Coast locations. These autonomous machines may navigate their respective store using a laser-based detection system, but they're also outfitted with a pair of oversize googly eyes. This is to, "[make] it a bit more fun," Giant President Nick Bertram told Adweek in January, and "celebrate the fact that there's a robot."
ICYMI: Laser-powered spacecraft, upgraded Atlas bot and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-139655{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-139655, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-139655{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-139655").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A professor from California is working on a plan to use photonic propulsion to get a spacecraft to Mars within 72 hours. It would use get the craft off of earth with the power generated by photons leaving a laser.
Squid skin could help make color-changing gadgets
Not happy with the color of your clothes and devices? Eventually, you might get to change those hues on a whim. UC Santa Barbara researchers have discovered that the color-changing California market squid (aka opalescent inshore squid) manages its optical magic thanks to the presences of protein sequences that let it create specific light reflections. If scientists can recreate those proteins in artificial structures, it'd be easy to change colors at a moment's notice. This could be useful for camouflage and near-invisibility, but scientists note that the squid's colors are as vivid as "paintings by Monet" -- to us, that suggests wearables that can stand out when you want them to, or blend in when you'd rather go low-key.
Brain-like circuit performs human tasks for the first time
There are already computer chips with brain-like functions, but having them perform brain-like tasks? That's another challenge altogether. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara aren't daunted, however -- they've used a basic, 100-synapse neural circuit to perform the typical human task of image classification for the first time. The memristor-based technology (which, by its nature, behaves like an 'analog' brain) managed to identify letters despite visual noise that complicated the task, much as you would spot a friend on a crowded street. Conventional computers can do this, but they'd need a much larger, more power-hungry chip to replicate the same pseudo-organic behavior.
Laser-activated nanoparticles are coming to clear your acne
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have developed a high-tech solution to the bane of adolescence: acne. Acne occurs when the skin's pores become clogged. Conventional remedies generally involve stripping the skin of sebum -- the waxy substance naturally produced by pores that makes your skin waterproof -- with topical washes or regulating its production with medication. However, researchers have published a novel solution in the Journal of Controlled Release, called selective photothermolysis, that relies on neither drugs nor harsh chemicals.
Scientists show how to make an integrated circuit using only graphene
IBM built an integrated circuit using graphene back in 2011, but it wasn't a complete breakthrough -- much of the hardware was based on old-fashioned metal and silicon. UC Santa Barbara has gone one step further by showing how to design an IC made exclusively from the advanced substance. The new process shapes circuit components from graphene ribbons whose properties change depending on the pattern; a narrow ribbon is semiconducting, while a wide ribbon is metallic. Chips designed this way should be thinner, more efficient and easier to assemble than their mixed-material counterparts. The catch? Right now, this all-graphene IC exists solely as a computer model. When there are no immediate plans for production, it could be a long while before we see the real thing.
Physicists steer light on superconducting chips, forge our quantum computing future
We're still years away from quantum computing becoming an everyday reality, but the physics geniuses over at the University of California Santa Barbara have made a discovery that might speed that process along. A team under professor John Martinis' tutelage has developed a way to manipulate light on a superconducting chip at the quantum level, allowing the group to control the wave forms of released photons with a switch and a resonator. That might not seem like much, but it's ultimately a launching pad for much more. With photons now bowing to researchers' whims, the next step is to see if the particles can securely transfer data over long distances, such as between Earth and orbiting satellites, or just from one end of the world to another. It's a lofty goal to be sure, but nobody said the revolution would be over in a day.
UCSB engineers proteins that make silicon, leads hipsters to insist on organically-grown computers
Organic circuits have been in development for awhile, but it's still rare that the organics are producing the circuitry themselves. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara plan to break that silence with genetically engineered proteins that can make silicon dioxide or titanium dioxide structures like those used in the computer chips and solar cells that we hold dear. The trick, the university's Daniel Morse found, is to attach silica-forming DNA to plastic beads that are in turn soaked in the silicon or titanium molecules they're looking for: after some not-so-natural selection for the best genes, the thriving proteins can produce not only substantial minerals, but whole fiber sheets. Much work is left to get the proteins producing the kind of silicon or titanium dioxides that could run a computer or power your house, but the dream is to have synthetic creations that organically produce what would normally need a mining expedition -- imagine something akin to the glass-like Venus' Flower Basket sponge (pictured above) sitting in an Intel factory. We're half-expecting organically-grown smartphones at Whole Foods, right next to the kale chips and fair trade coffee. [Image credit: Ryan Somma, Flickr]
AlloSphere three story virtual environment not available for birthday parties, Bat Mitzvahs
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara are developing an immense, wholly immersive VR environment that would allow groups of researchers the opportunity to explore their data aurally and visually on a scale never before seen. The AlloSphere is a three story metal sphere housed in an echo-free chamber, large enough that twenty researchers can stand on a bridge and take a walk through an atom, for instance, or a human brain. The project relies on a supercomputer for generating real-time, high-res 3D video and audio streams from a mountain of scientific data, and currently the team is hard at work building the bad boy's computing platform and interactive display. The project leader JoAnn Kuchera-Morin has yet to state whether or not the sense of smell would be incorporated into the finished product, but we sure hope not -- that would be rather distracting, don't you think? Check it out on video after the break.[Via TED]
Shuji Nakamura wins €1m for invention of LEDs
If you've ever turned on a computer, you can thank Shuji "Fiat Lux" Nakamura for the LED that glows back at you. This University of California, Santa Barbara-based professor was recently awarded the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize by the government of Finland yesterday for his work on light emitting diodes. The previous winner of the first prize went in 2004 to Tim "The Webfather" Berners-Lee -- and Nakamura, like Sir Tim and each future winner of this biannual prize, takes home a cool €1 million. Nakamura has also worked on the blue laser diode that is used in the reading of Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. Maybe we can now get Nakamura to use his smarts to go after the Nobel Peace Prize by solving the Blu-ray / HD DVD format war. [Via BBC]