New Atlas

Computers Audio available

Intel's next-gen supercomputer to usher in exascale era in 2021

Michael Irving March 18, 2019

Intel and the US Department of Energy will deliver the world’s first exascale supercomputer in 2021, boosting many different fields of research. Named Aurora, the new system will be a thousand times more powerful than the petascale generation that began in 2008 and is still in wide use today.

Intel's new supercomputer, named Aurora, will be the first of a new generation of exascale systems ...

Computers Audio available

NEC recognition tech can spot people even when their faces are obscured

David Nield February 8, 2019

You might think you're safe from being spotted by a camera if your face is covered or turned away, but the latest developments in AI-powered recognition tech are coming for you. NEC has announced a system that can identify people who are partially obscured, or even facing the other way.

NEC says that accuracy rates of up to 90 percent have been recorded during testing

Robotics Audio available

Engineers build robot arm with rudimentary self-awareness

Michael Irving January 31, 2019

Researchers from Columbia Engineering have gone and done it, giving a robot arm some form of self-awareness – at least in a rudimentary sense, which allows it to better adapt to changing conditions.

Researchers have given a robot arm a rudimentary form of self-awareness, to help it adapt to ...

Computers Audio available

AI neural network builds new virtual cities by studying real ones

Michael Irving December 3, 2018

To speed up the creation of virtual environments, researchers at Nvidia have taught artificial intelligence systems how to generate and detail new virtual cityscapes, by training neural networks on real video footage.

A Nvidia team has taught a neural network system to generate virtual worlds based on real ...

Drones

Jetson-equipped Teal One drone takes flight as a 60-mph Raspberry Pi in the sky

Loz Blain October 10, 2018

It's taken a couple of years, but 21-year-old drone entrepreneur George Matus has finally got his flagship Teal One drone into production. Fast, compact and smart, the Teal One packs an Nvidia Jetson TX processor and has its own app platform to enable AR, autonomy and deep learning applications.

It looks like a compact, fun drone much like any other, but the Teal One packs ...

Medical

Stanford AI can predict negative side effects of millions of drug combinations

Rich Haridy July 11, 2018

When a doctor prescribes a patient more than one drug they have no way to predict whether that combination will have an adverse side effect. A new system from Stanford University presents a novel solution – an AI-driven computer system than can predict the consequences of combining two drugs.

A new AI-based system can predict whether pairs of drugs will cause adverse side effects

Good Thinking

Animal-sorting AI tackles reams of camera trap photos

Ben Coxworth June 6, 2018

So-called "camera traps" – motion-activated cameras that automatically take photos of passing wildlife – are a great way of determining the type and number of animals present in a given area. Now, they could prove even more useful, thanks to a new artificial intelligence (AI) system.

A camera trap photo, which the AI system correctly reported as a picture of two impala ...

Science

Artificial intelligence lets smartphone microscopes produce lab-quality images

Ben Coxworth April 16, 2018

There are now attachments that let you capture microscope images with a smartphone. Unfortunately, the limitations of the phone's lens and image sensor mean that those images still won't be as good as those from a lab-grade microscope. That could change, however, thanks to a recent advance in AI.

Image of a blood smear from a smartphone camera (left), following enhancement by the algorithm (center), ...

Drones

Lifesaver drones will soon be auto-detecting sharks and shouting at swimmers from above

Loz Blain October 31, 2017

Drones with deep learning AI capabilities will soon be patrolling the beaches of Australian coastlines, constantly scanning and automatically detecting sharks around swimmers and surfers. They'll carry shark repellent, as well as loudspeakers for warning beachgoers.

Shark Spotter drones will carry loudspeakers, to tell swimmers and surfers to get the hell outta ...

Wearables

Microsoft's next-gen HoloLens will have custom AI chip for object recognition

Michael Irving July 24, 2017

Microsoft’s AR headset, the HoloLens, is an exciting prospect but isn't quite ready for the public. But as it inches closer to a consumer release, the company has revealed that the next version of the hardware will have an AI coprocessor built in, to help the headset recognize real-world objects.

Microsoft has reported that the second generation of its augmented reality headset, the HoloLens, will include ...