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Electronic skin can display a heartbeat on your hand
Electronic skins might not only detect health troubles in the near future, but display them for the world to see. University of Tokyo researchers have developed an e-skin that can measure vital signs like your heartbeat and display them in real time on a skin display. The design blends a breathable nanomesh electrode and stretchable wiring with an array of micro LEDs that can output basic images bending with your body. Others know right away if you need help -- they'd just have to look at your hand (or anywhere else the sensor works) to get an idea of what's wrong. The sensor can pair with a smartphone and transmit its info to the cloud, too.
Adding a second pair of arms is as easy as putting on a backpack
There's only so much you can do with two arms and hands. That's basic science. But what if you could add extras without the need for ethically shady surgery or trading your apartment for a hovel in the shadow of a nuclear power plant? That's what researchers from Keio University and the University of Tokyo hope to achieve with their "Metalimbs" project. As the name suggests, Metalimbs are a pair of metal, robotic arms that doubles the amount of torso-extremities and worn with a backpack of sorts. And unlike thought-powered prosthetics we've seen recently, these are controlled not with your brain, but your existing limbs. Specifically, your legs and feet.
How artificial intelligence can be corrupted to repress free speech
The internet was supposed to become an overwhelming democratizing force against illiberal administrations. It didn't. It was supposed to open repressed citizens' eyes, expose them to new democratic ideals and help them rise up against their authoritarian governments in declaring their basic human rights. It hasn't. It was supposed to be inherently resistant to centralized control. It isn't.
ICYMI: Birds the magical flying machines
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: There are three main theories of flight and it turns out, Stanford has poked holes in them by simply training a mini parrot to wear tiny safety goggles, then fly through a laser sheet. The video is more adorable than you could probably imagine so feel free to get your fix here. Meanwhile, NASA's new jet engine could make waves in both increased fuel efficiency and plane design since it relies on slower-moving air currents. The Arctic Sea Ice video is here, but the must-watch in this scenario is the Weather Channel take-down of Breitbart News. The video of the lawn picture maker is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Japanese AI abandons its Tokyo University dreams
A team of scientists from the National Institute of Informatics in Japan have given up on making their AI smart enough to get into the University of Tokyo. The Todai Project -- Tokyo University's local nickname is "Todai" -- began in 2011, so we're sure at least some of them were disappointed by the decision. But, hey, this means robots aren't as smart as humans yet, and we don't have to fear an uprising in the near future. The researchers were hoping that the AI would score much higher than the 511 out of 950 it got last year when it took a standardized entrance exam in the country. Unfortunately, its overall results were pretty much the same for 2016.
ICYMI: Robots so advanced, they cool themselves with sweat
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers from the University of Tokyo devised a better air cooling system for robots that is modeled on their as-yet-overlords, sweaty humans. The 3D-printed bones have spaces for tiny pores, allowing Kengoro to do pushups for 11 minutes without overheating. Next up, world domination.
IBM's Watson AI saved a woman from leukemia
IBM's Watson has done everything from winning at Jeopardy to cooking exotic meals, but it appears to have accomplished its greatest feat yet: saving a life. University of Tokyo doctors report that the artificial intelligence diagnosed a 60-year-old woman's rare form of leukemia that had been incorrectly identified months earlier. The analytical machine took just 10 minutes to compare the patient's genetic changes with a database of 20 million cancer research papers, delivering an accurate diagnosis and leading to proper treatment that had proven elusive. Watson has also identified another rare form of leukemia in another patient, the university says.
Extra-thin LEDs put a screen on your skin
Eventually, wearable displays might be so thin that they effectively blend into your skin. University of Tokyo researchers have developed an optoelectronic skin whose polymer LEDs and organic photodetectors are so thin (3 micrometers) that they practically blend in with your body. If it weren't for the thin film needed to attach the display in the first place, it'd look like a tattoo. The technology more efficient than previous attempts at these skins, running several days at a time, and it's durable enough that it won't break as you flex your limbs.
AI has a better shot at Tokyo University than your kid
Students in Japan could soon compete with AI to get into colleges. The National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo has developed a program that scored above average on a standardized entrance exam that covered math, physics, English and history. The AI scored 511 out of 950, beating the national average of 416. While it was expected to do well on the math test, it did exceedingly well on the history questions that required natural learning processing skills to make inferences.
Super-fast projector may be key to holodeck-like rooms
Projection mapping theoretically adds a Holodeck-like level of immersion to simulations, but current projectors are simply too slow to keep up with fast-moving people. That won't be an issue if University of Tokyo researchers have their way. They've developed DynaFlash, a 1,000 frames per second projector that can keep up with just about any moving object. It can't beam images into thin air, like you see above (that's just for show), but it can seemingly do everything else -- even if you shake or spin an object very quickly, you'll still get the image where you wanted it to be. The trick involves adding a special controller to a DLP (digital light processing) projector that, combined with fast image output, delivers both high frame rates and low latency.
Stretchy conductive ink puts computing power on your clothes
Those dreams of having computers in your clothing might be more realistic than you think. Japanese researchers have developed a printable conductive ink that maintains a circuit even when you stretch fabric to three times its usual length -- you could have athletic gear with hidden activity trackers, sensors and other computing devices. The key is a careful mix of fluorine, an organic solvent and silver flakes which, when combined, keeps transmitting electricity even under heavy abuse.
Japanese robot moves heavy objects by putting its back into it
When you need to move something but it's too heavy to lift off the ground, most of us default to one of two strategies: find someone stronger, or shove it along the floor instead. Researchers from the University of Tokyo's JSK Laboratory are now teaching robots to do the latter. The latest version of its HRP-2 is able to analyse an object, say a heavy crate on tiny rollers, and try different methods of exerting force. Much like a human, lower force strategies mean pushing or pulling with its hands, while higher strength methods include leaning in with a single shoulder or its back. The robot will monitor each attempt and automatically switch to increasingly higher force strategies if it finds the object still isn't moving. Depending on its progress, the HRP-2 will also alter its footwork to ensure it doesn't fall over; a slow-moving object might require shorter steps, for instance, to make sure it's not caught off guard by a sudden change in resistance. It can't replace your local moving company (yet), but it's nice to see a robot finally putting its back into something.
Basics of quantum teleportation now fit on a single chip
Until now, quantum teleportation (that is, sending quantum data from one place to another) has required a room-filling machine. That's not going to usher in a brave new era of quantum computing, is it? However, a team of British and Japanese researchers has shrunk things down to a much more reasonable size. They've stuffed the core optical circuits for quantum teleportation into a single silicon chip that's just slightly longer than a penny -- in contrast, an experimental device from 2013 was nearly 14 feet long. While scientists built the chip using "state-of-the-art nano-fabrication," it should be more practical to make than its ancestors, which took months.
'Spooky' experiment proves quantum entanglement is real
Einstein was wrong -- about the quantum mechanical phenomena known as superpositioning and wave form collapse, at least. A team from Australia's Griffith University and Japan's University of Tokyo, have proven that both are tangible phenomena, not simply mathematical paradoxes. See, back when he was still reigning "smartest guy on the planet," Einstein just couldn't wrap his massive intellect around the theory of superpositioning (or as he called it, "spooky action across distance"). That is, a particle in superposition effectively exists in both places at once (not unlike Schroedinger's Cat) until you observe it at either location. At which time the particle you aren't looking at ceases to exist (a process known as wave function collapse). What's more, the disappearing particle seems to know that its twin has been discovered through some mechanism that happens instantly, literally traveling faster than the speed of light -- a clear violation of Einstein's theory of relativity.
This camera can snap chemical reactions at a trillionth of a second
You know those high-speed cameras used to film mesmerizing ultra slo-mo videos? They're downright slow compared to this one developed by researchers from The University of Tokyo and Keio University in Japan. The 12-man science team has just revealed an extremely speedy camera that can take pictures of chemical reactions (in burst mode, as those are impossible to capture in a single shot) at 450 x 450 pixels. It's called the Sequentially Timed All-optical Mapping Photography or STAMP cam, and it can capture consecutive images at a rate of one per every one-trillionth of a second. To note, other high-speed cameras capture one image per every one-billionth of a second. The device is supposed to be 1,000 times faster than comparable models and has even managed to snap a picture of heat conduction (a process that takes, oh, 1/6th the speed of light) during a test.
Ultra-thin e-skin could lead to advances in medicine, cool wearable computing (video)
Remember the names Martin Kaltenbrunner and Takao Someya -- that way, you'll have someone to blame when kids start pointing and laughing at gadgets we consider high-tech today. Leading a team of University of Tokyo researchers, they have recently developed a flexible, skin-like material that can detect pressure while also being virtually indestructible. Think of the possibilities: with a thickness of one nanometer, this could be used to create a second skin that can monitor your vital signs or medical implants that you can barely feel, if at all. Also, temperature sensors could be added to make life-like skin for prosthetics... or even robots! Like other similar studies, however, the researchers have a long journey ahead before we see this super-thin material in medicine. Since it could lead to bendy gadgets and wearable electronics first, don't be surprised if your children call iPhones "so 2013" in the not-too-distant future.
3D book scanner blows through tomes at 250 pages per minute
Dai Nippon Printing probably isn't a company you're terribly familiar with, but you might feel inclined to keep closer tabs on the Japanese outfit. With help from the University of Tokyo, Dai Nippon has created a book scanner that can plow through texts at up to 250 pages each minute. A mechanism flips through pages at lightning speeds while a pair of cameras overhead snap detailed images of each sheet as it flies by. Special software then flattens out the photos and turns the picture into a machine readable, 400 pixel-per-inch scan that can easily be converted to PDF, EPUB or other format. Unlike many other high-speed scanners, this doesn't require a book be damaged by removing the pages. In fact, it's quite similar to Google's creation that powers Books. Dai Nippon is actually planning to bring this beast to market sometime in 2013, but it has yet to announce a price.
University of Tokyo builds a soap bubble 3D screen, guarantees your display stays squeaky clean (video)
There are waterfall screens, but what if you'd like your display to be a little more... pristine? Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a display that hits soap bubbles with ultrasonic sound to change the surface. At a minimum, it can change how light glances off the soap film to produce the image. It gets truly creative when taking advantage of the soap's properties: a single screen is enough to alter the texture of a 2D image, and multiple screens in tandem can create what amounts to a slightly sticky hologram. As the soap is made out of sturdy colloids rather than the easily-burst mixture we all knew as kids, users won't have to worry about an overly touch-happy colleague popping a business presentation. There's a video preview of the technology after the jump; we're promised a closer look at the technology during the SIGGRAPH expo in August, but we don't yet know how many years it will take to find sudsy screens in the wild.
Researchers create incredibly thin solar cells flexible enough to wrap around a human hair
You've probably heard that the sun is strong enough to power our planet many times over, but without a practical method of harnessing that energy, there's no way to take full advantage. An incredibly thin and light solar cell could go a long way to accomplishing that on a smaller scale, however, making the latest device from researchers from the University of Austria and the University of Tokyo a fairly significant discovery. Scientists were able to create an ultra-thin solar cell that measures just 1.9 micrometers thick -- roughly one-tenth the size of the next device. Not only is the sample slim -- composed of electrodes mounted on plastic foil, rather than glass -- it's also incredibly flexible, able to be wrapped around a single strand of human hair (which, believe it or not, is nearly 20 times thicker). The scalable cell could replace batteries in lighting, display and medical applications, and may be ready to be put to use in as few as five years. There's a bounty of physical measurement and efficiency data at the source link below, so grab those reading glasses and click on past the break.
Canon's 8-inch CMOS sensor can record SPACE at 60fps
For whatever reason, Canon seemed more concerned with showing off its engineering prowess than finding a use for the giant 8-inch CMOS sensor it created last year. Fortunately, the super-powerful snapper has found its way into the 105-centimeter Schmidt Telescope at the University of Tokyo's Kiso Observatory. The sensor's size makes it a perfect fit to record in low-light; capturing the wonders of the universe in 0.3 lux at 60 fps. The University will premiere footage from the experiment, possibly with nibbles, after September 19th -- presumably in a theater with a blanket ban on people muttering the introduction to Star Trek as it plays.