Future and Emerging Technologies

Intelligent Vision Sensor The world's first image sensor with built-in AI comes out. This is the heavy news from Sony recently: Announced that two intelligent vision sensors will be released soon that is IMX500 and IMX501. They integrate a logical processor and memory, so each module can work as a microcomputer. At present, this sensor can capture still images with 12 million pixels and supports 4K @ 60fps video shooting. The shipment time of IMX500 and IMX501 is April and June this year, respectively, and the after-tax prices are 10,000 yen (approximately 93.02 US dollars) and 20,000 yen (approximately US dollars). The new sensor has the following characteristics: The stacked structure consisting of a pixel chip and a logic chip is equipped with an image sensor with AI image analysis and processing functions on the logic chip. The signal acquired by the pixel chip is processed by the AI ​​on the sensor without the need for a high-performance processor or external storage, which ca...

Thunderspy PoC demo 1: Unlocking Windows PC in 5 minutes In Hollywood movies, no matter how high the level of computer encryption is, a hacker can copy everything on your computer in just a few minutes, which seems unrealistic. If my computer has set a complex system password, is in a locked state, BIOS encryption, hard disk full disk encryption, under such a high-security level, can hackers easily steal my files? It is indeed possible now! Because of a vulnerability called Thunderspy. It is on the Thunderbolt interface that is equipped on high-end computers. We generally call it "Thunderbolt", and Apple officially calls it "Thunderbolt". Ruytenberg, a security researcher at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, discovered that all computers with a lightning interface have this vulnerability, and it is a hardware-level vulnerability that can be broken by only a few hundred dollars in equipment. Once you leave your computer for a few minutes, hac...

Magic becomes reality, cool, and practical. Not only did he jump out of a cell phone directly from the paper, but he also threw it directly into the computer to form a virtual page. Now, no need to envy the wizard, everyone can "throw" things around into the computer, and a mobile phone can do it! This is the latest AR black technology from the 34-year-old French designer Cyril Diagne that is AR Cut & P aste, copy and paste the things around you to the computer with "one key", and the entire completion time is less than 10s. Faster than Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V!  For example , take a mobile phone and scan the pictures of the model on the book, and then point the mobile phone at the computer screen, and the model is copied to the computer instantly . The characters in the book are air copied and pasted. Even the hair of this dark-haired brother can be recognized, which is amazing. Of course, handwritten notes can also be copied and pasted into the computer. The aut...

How many steps does it take to draw animation and let it shoot a close-up of "dunning"?Just put a skeleton on Rick and drag the exported SVG file into the browser, and you are all done. Just like this, if you move towards the camera, Rick moves just like this.This TensorFlow.js project is called Pose Animator. For example, a  lady dance and her illustrations are perfectly integrated. Implementation details So, how do the 2D images  move? The author introduces that Pose Animator is based on the recognition results of the two TensorFlow.js models of PoseNet and FaceMesh to perform real-time animation on 2D vector graphics and their skeletons. Among them, borrow the idea of skeleton animation in computer graphics and apply it to vector characters. In skeletal animation, a character consists of two parts. One is the skin used to draw the model, and the other is the key to control the movement of the skeleton. In Pose Animator, the skin is defined by the 2D vector path in the inp...

First, a 3D dog head cartoon character selected: Draw a skeleton on it: You can move: In the same way, the 3D boy can also be moved: Let the 3D tall big girl move: Let 3D cats live and jump: In short, everything should be just a static 3D character model. Whether it is a human being or an animal, or a cartoon creative character that does not exist in nature, you can see the bones from the static to the dynamic. Even the shadow works very well!  I only know boneless chicken and boneless duck's paw. All this is done automatically by an AI called RigNet . As long as the character's 3D dynamic shape is designed, it can automatically predict the character's skeleton, estimate the weight of the skin outside the skeleton, and generate an image of the character's movement. This is much more convenient than manual animation. If it can be used in 3D animation or 3D game production, there is no need to worry about dragging or ticket jumping in the...

In recent years, from the permafrost that thawed in Siberia, to the ice deep in Antarctica, scientists have discovered some mysterious prehistoric giant viruses. Thousands of years after being locked in ice and frozen in time capsules, they have revived and rejuvenated because of the opportunities brought about by climate warming. The giant virus found in Siberia, Russia, even after being frozen in permafrost for 30,000 years, still has the ability to infect. So how do these viruses infect the host, will humans be infected? A team of scientists from Michigan State University in the United States conducted a study on this and found the environmental conditions in which the virus stargate was opened. The size of the giant virus exceeds 300 nanometers, while common viruses, such as the rhinovirus that causes the common cold, are only about 30 nanometers. The giant virus shell is durable and able to withstand harsh environmental conditions, protecting the virus genome inside. In ...

Friends who often surf the Internet must know that public transport in many cities has begun to gradually accept guide dogs. A set of widely circulated data is that as of 2017, the number of domestic guide dogs was only 116, which is rarer than giant pandas, while the number of blind people who need guide dog services is about 8 million. A series of high difficulties and high costs, such as breeding, training, internships, and employment, determine that the guide dog is a "luxury product" for the blind. Each guide dog costs between 120,000 and 150,000 yuan, and its life span is only a dozen years. Even if it is fortunate to have one, when it is retired, how should the visually impaired go out? This is probably a hot search. After fading away, it is still a topic worthy of continuous consideration and improvement by a civilized society. Recently, a blind man in Turkey, Kürşat Ceylan, based on Arm's latest processor and NPU, created an AI blind stick that may be a...

According to foreign media reports, geckos have always been an important research object. Due to the natural adhesion of its feet, it allows it to grab almost any surface. Although researchers have been able to imitate the gecko's stickiness, that is, use rubber strips to grab and release objects, mass production is still not possible. Now, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a completely new method to make gecko-inspired adhesive materials, which is more cost-effective than current methods. This new discovery will enable large-scale production and introduce adhesive strips based on gecko adhesives to manufacturing and consumers. Researchers say the polymer is made with a gecko's attached surface, which can be used to make a wide range of pliers that can hold various objects on the same assembly line. In addition, this adhesive material can also make painting easier. Scientists also believe that one day, gecko robots can replace humans to clean t...

Mars, as we know it, is a dry and cold planet. All along, some scientists believe that Mars also owned water and atmosphere billions of years ago, and tried to find evidence of the evolution of liquid water and atmosphere on Mars. After the white object was photographed by NASA's Phoenix Mars probe in 2008, and the scientist judged that this white object might be ice, the long path of exploring water on Mars began. Recently, an international research team composed of Utrecht University and British and French scientists published the high-resolution image research results on the surface of the Martian rock cliff in the "Nature News" magazine, which revealed that the surface of Mars existed 3.7 billion years ago. Evidence of ancient rivers over 100,000 years old. This is the first time that scientists have been able to observe these rock outcrops up close through orbital data and high-resolution structural analysis, and based on sedimentary stratigraphic evidence, have deri...

Although we have heard of various "mini-robots" before, scientists have developed a new type of micro-electronic robot, and claim to be the smallest micro-electronic robot in the world. More importantly, its movement is achieved by ejecting double jet bubbles. The device uses the propulsion system which was developed by an international team led by Professor Oliver G. Schmidt of the Technical University of Chemnitz in Germany. The flat miniature robot is 0.8 mm long, 0.8 mm wide, and 0.14 mm high , and is wirelessly controlled by an external transmitter. After receiving the electrical signal from the transmitter, the induction coil in the center of the robot heats one of the two rolled polymer tubes, which run longitudinally along the two sides of the top of the robot. The two tubes continuously sucked in the hydrogen peroxide/water solution. A small amount of platinum in each tube will cause a catalytic reaction, generating oxygen bubbles, which are discharged from the rear ...

Picture from the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology One of the direct and effective ways to save fuel is to reduce the weight of the car body, and the engine is the heaviest assembly in car parts. With this in mind, European researchers have now created a plastic camshaft module that not only significantly reduces the weight of the car, but also has many advantages. This prototype part was designed in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute of Chemical Technology in Germany, the auto parts manufacturer MAHLE Group, Daimler Automotive, the Belgian plastics manufacturer SBHPP / Vyncolit, and the French plastics company and the Georges Pernoud Group. This new module does not use the common die-cast aluminum but is made of fiber-reinforced thermosetting polymer. The finished camshaft module is indeed lighter than similar aluminum products. Considering that it is located on the top of the engine, this is a particularly important consideration because it reduces not only the to...

According to foreign media reports, Northwestern University announced a new wearable device for monitoring the symptoms of new coronavirus patients. This device used on the skin looks like a big switch or a small bandage. It is designed to cooperate with data algorithms to enable it to monitor patients and medical staff for new coronavirus symptoms-including symptoms after they are discharged from the hospital. According to a statement from the agency, the wearable device was jointly developed by researchers from Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. It is specifically used to monitor patients with new coronavirus and assist doctors to identify early symptoms of respiratory diseases. As shown in the figure above, the wearable device is designed to be placed at the bottom of the patient's neck, where it is responsible for monitoring the wearer's breathing activity and cough. The researchers explained that the way their wearable devices analyze these data is beyond...

In particular, CEO Radoslav Danilak, who has 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, was founded by SandForce, a once-popular SSD control giant. He also personally served as CEO, was later acquired by Seagate, and later founded Skyera, and continued to study SSD control. Technology and then acquired by Western Digital in 2014. Tachyum Prodigy claims to be the world's first "universal processor" (universal processor) because it integrates for high-performance computing, AI artificial intelligence, DML deep mechanical learning, and interpretable in a single silicon chip based on a parallel multi-processor environment and can simplify the programming model and environment. The latest top model is Prodigy T6128, a single-channel single chip integrates 128 physical cores, out-of-order execution architecture, 4 instructions per clock cycle , supports 64-bit addressing, 512-bit vector operations, AI / ML vector and matrix multiplication acceleration, Virtualizatio...