Aurelia Butler

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  • 75 Shares169 Views

    in Computers Math

    Robot stand-in mimics movements in VR

    Researchers from Cornell and Brown University have developed a souped-up telepresence robot that responds automatically and in real-time to a remote user’s movements and gestures made in virtual reality.
    The robotic system, called VRoxy, allows a remote user in a small space, like an office, to collaborate via VR with teammates in a much larger space. VRoxy represents the latest in remote, robotic embodiment.
    Donning a VR headset, a user has access to two view modes: Live mode shows an immersive image of the collaborative space in real time for interactions with local collaborators, while navigational mode displays rendered pathways of the room, allowing remote users to “teleport” to where they’d like to go. This navigation mode allows for quicker, smoother mobility for the remote user and limits motion sickness.
    The system’s automatic nature lets remote teammates focus solely on collaboration rather than on manually steering the robot, researchers said.
    “The great benefit of virtual reality is we can leverage all kinds of locomotion techniques that people use in virtual reality games, like instantly moving from one position to another,” said Mose Sakashita, a doctoral student in the field of information science at Cornell. “This functionality enables remote users to physically occupy a very limited amount of space but collaborate with teammates in a much larger remote environment.”
    Sakashita is the lead author of “VRoxy: Wide-Area Collaboration From an Office Using a VR-Driven Robotic Proxy,” to be presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST), held Oct. 29 through Nov. 1.
    VRoxy’s automatic, real-time responsiveness is key for both remote and local teammates, researchers said. With a robot proxy like VRoxy, a remote teammate confined to a small office can interact in a group activity held in a much larger space, like in a design collaboration scenario. More

  • 125 Shares179 Views

    in Computers Math

    Certain online games use dark designs to collect player data

    Gaming is a $193 billion industry — nearly double the size of the film and music industries combined — and there are around three billion gamers worldwide. While online gaming can improve wellbeing and foster social relations, privacy and awareness issues could potentially offset these benefits and cause real harm to gamers.
    The new study, by scientists at Aalto University’s Department of Computer Science, reveals potentially questionable data collection practices in online games, along with misconceptions and concerns about privacy among players. The study also offers risk mitigation strategies for players and design recommendations for game developers to improve privacy in online games.
    ‘We had two supporting lines of inquiry in this study: what players think about games, and what games are really up to with respect to privacy,’ says Janne Lindqvist, associate professor of computer science at Aalto. ‘It was really surprising to us how nuanced the considerations of gamers were. For example, participants said that, to protect their privacy, they would avoid using voice chat in games unless it was absolutely necessary. Our game analysis revealed that some games try to nudge people to reveal their online identities by offering things like virtual rewards.’
    The authors identified instances of games using dark design — interface decisions that manipulate users into doing something they otherwise wouldn’t. These could facilitate the collection of player data and encourage players to integrate their social media accounts or allow data sharing with third parties.
    ‘When social media accounts are linked to games, players generally can’t know what access the games have to these accounts or what information they receive,’ says Amel Bourdoucen, doctoral researcher in usable security at Aalto. ‘For example, in some popular games, users can log in with (or link to) their social media accounts, but these games may not specify what data is collected through such integration.’
    The global gaming community has been subject to increased scrutiny over the past decade because of online harassment and the industry’s burnout culture. While these issues still linger, the push for more tech regulation in the EU and US has also brought privacy issues to the forefront.
    ‘Data handling practices of games are often hidden behind legal jargon in privacy policies,’ says Bourdoucen. ‘When users’ data are collected, games should make sure the players understand and consent to what is being collected. This can increase the player’s awareness and sense of control in games. Gaming companies should also protect players’ privacy and keep them safe while playing online.’ More

  • 125 Shares199 Views

    in Computers Math

    Controlling waves in magnets with superconductors for the first time

    Quantum physicists at Delft University of Technology have shown that it’s possible to control and manipulate spin waves on a chip using superconductors for the first time. These tiny waves in magnets may offer an alternative to electronics in the future, interesting for energy-efficient information technology or connecting pieces in a quantum computer, for example. The breakthrough, published in Science, primarily gives physicists new insight into the interaction between magnets and superconductors.
    Energy-efficient substitute
    “Spin waves are waves in a magnetic material that we can use to transmit information,” explains Michael Borst, who led the experiment. “Because spin waves can be a promising building block for an energy-efficient replacement for electronics, scientists have been searching for an efficient way to control and manipulate spin waves for years.”
    Theory predicts that metal electrodes give control over spin waves, but physicists have barely seen such effects in experiments until now. “The breakthrough of our research team is that we show that we can indeed control spin waves properly if we use a superconducting electrode,” says Toeno van der Sar, Associate Professor in the Department of Quantum Nanoscience.
    Superconducting mirror
    It works as follows: a spin wave generates a magnetic field that in turn generates a supercurrent in the superconductor. That supercurrent acts as a mirror for the spin wave: the superconducting electrode reflects the magnetic field back to the spin wave. The superconducting mirror causes spin waves to move up and down more slowly, and that makes the waves easily controllable. Borst: “When spin waves pass under the superconducting electrode, it turns out that their wavelength changes completely! And by varying the temperature of the electrode slightly, we can tune the magnitude of the change very accurately.”
    “We started with a thin magnetic layer of yttrium iron garnet (YIG), known as the best magnet on Earth. On top of that we laid a superconducting electrode and another electrode to induce the spin waves. By cooling to -268 degrees, we got the electrode into a superconducting state,” Van der Sar says. “It was amazing to see that the spin waves got slower and slower as it got colder. That gives us a unique handle to manipulate the spin waves; we can deflect them, reflect them, make them resonate and more. But it also gives us tremendous new insights into the properties of superconductors.”
    Unique sensor More

  • 88 Shares149 Views

    in Computers Math

    A superatomic semiconductor sets a speed record

    The search is on for better semiconductors. Writing in Science, a team of chemists at Columbia University led by Jack Tulyag, a PhD student working with chemistry professor Milan Delor, describes the fastest and most efficient semiconductor yet: a superatomic material called Re6Se8Cl2.
    Semiconductors — most notably, silicon — underpin the computers, cellphones, and other electronic devices that power our daily lives, including the device on which you are reading this article. As ubiquitous as semiconductors have become, they come with limitations. The atomic structure of any material vibrates, which creates quantum particles called phonons. Phonons in turn cause the particles — either electrons or electron-hole pairs called excitons — that carry energy and information around electronic devices to scatter in a matter of nanometers and femtoseconds. This means that energy is lost in the form of heat, and that information transfer has a speed limit.
    The search is on for better options. Writing in Science, a team of chemists at Columbia University led by Jack Tulyag, a PhD student working with chemistry professor Milan Delor, describes the fastest and most efficient semiconductor yet: a superatomic material called Re6Se8Cl2.
    Rather than scattering when they come into contact with phonons, excitons in Re6Se8Cl2 actually bind with phonons to create new quasiparticles called acoustic exciton-polarons. Although polarons are found in many materials, those in Re6Se8Cl2 have a special property: they are capable of ballistic, or scatter-free, flow. This ballistic behavior could mean faster and more efficient devices one day.
    In experiments run by the team, acoustic exciton-polarons in Re6Se8Cl2 moved fast — twice as fast as electrons in silicon — and crossed several microns of the sample in less than a nanosecond. Given that polarons can last for about 11 nanoseconds, the team thinks the exciton-polarons could cover more than 25 micrometers at a time. And because these quasiparticles are controlled by light rather than an electrical current and gating, processing speeds in theoretical devices have the potential to reach femtoseconds — six orders of magnitude faster than the nanoseconds achievable in current Gigahertz electronics. All at room temperature.
    “In terms of energy transport, Re6Se8Cl2 is the best semiconductor that we know of, at least so far,” Delor said.
    A Quantum Version of the Tortoise and the Hare
    Re6Se8Cl2 is a superatomic semiconductor created in the lab of collaborator Xavier Roy. Superatoms are clusters of atoms bound together that behave like one big atom, but with different properties than the elements used to build them. Synthesizing superatoms is a specialty of the Roy lab, and they are a main focus of Columbia’s NSF-funded Material Research Science and Engineering Center on Precision Assembled Quantum Materials. Delor is interested in controlling and manipulating the transport of energy through superatoms and other unique materials developed at Columbia. To do this, the team builds super-resolution imaging tools that can capture particles moving at ultrasmall, ultrafast scales. More

  • 100 Shares189 Views

    in Computers Math

    Major milestone achieved in new quantum computing architecture

    Coherence stands as a pillar of effective communication, whether it is in writing, speaking or information processing. This principle extends to quantum bits, or qubits, the building blocks of quantum computing. A quantum computer could one day tackle previously insurmountable challenges in climate prediction, material design, drug discovery and more.
    A team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has achieved a major milestone toward future quantum computing. They have extended the coherence time for their novel type of qubit to an impressive 0.1 milliseconds — nearly a thousand times better than the previous record.
    In everyday life, 0.1 milliseconds is as fleeting as a blink of an eye. However, in the quantum world, it represents a long enough window for a qubit to perform many thousands of operations.
    Unlike classical bits, qubits seemingly can exist in both states, 0 and 1. For any working qubit, maintaining this mixed state for a sufficiently long coherence time is imperative. The challenge is to safeguard the qubit against the constant barrage of disruptive noise from the surrounding environment.
    The team’s qubits encode quantum information in the electron’s motional (charge) states. Because of that, they are called charge qubits.
    “Among various existing qubits, electron charge qubits are especially attractive because of their simplicity in fabrication and operation, as well as compatibility with existing infrastructures for classical computers,” said Dafei Jin, a professor at the University of Notre Dame with a joint appointment at Argonne and the lead investigator of the project. “This simplicity should translate into low cost in building and running large-scale quantum computers.”
    Jin is a former staff scientist at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne. While there, he led the discovery of their new type of qubit, reported last year. More

  • 150 Shares169 Views

    in Heart

    See the wonders of two newfound deep-sea coral reefs off the Galápagos

    Four decades ago, warm waters from an El Niño event killed off nearly all the corals surrounding the Galápagos. Most coral reefs never recovered (SN: 1/9/15). But in recent months, researchers have discovered vast landscapes of thriving corals in deeper waters surrounding the equatorial islands.

    In April, scientists documented the first pristine deep coral reef found in the region, dubbed Cacho De Coral, which sits atop the ridge of an underwater volcano and stretches about 250 meters. On October 26, a second team announced the discovery of an even bigger reef, this one more than 800 meters long, spanning the length of eight football fields.  

    With coral reefs around the globe in peril due to climate change, the finds are a small piece of good news (SN: 8/9/23). These newfound reefs within the Galápagos Islands Marine Reserve have so far been protected from human influence and the direct impacts of warming waters.

    Brittle stars and shrimps are among the creatures living in and around a newly discovered reef west of the Galápagos’ Fernandina Island.Schmidt Ocean Institute

    The newest reef was discovered when oceanographer Stuart Banks and colleagues set out on a 30-day expedition to explore parts of the ocean using a remotely operated robot named SuBastian. While in the Galápagos Islands Marine Reserve, which included a visit to Cacho De Coral, the team spotted a second reef.

    “It’s like coming into your house and realizing that you’ve got a basement that you never knew was there,” says Banks, of the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos. “And it’s full of really cool stuff.”

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    The newly identified reefs are in cold waters up to 420 meters below the surface, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a nonprofit based in Palo Alto, Calif., that operates ocean research vessels, announced in a news release. Such a location probably helped corals living there remain pristine. Unlike corals that flourish in warm, shallow water with lots of sunlight to fuel symbiotic algae, deep-sea corals survive in darker parts of the ocean that don’t warm up as quickly under climate change (SN: 12/11/18).

    It’s rare to find so much living coral in one spot, and scientists often need to get close to glimpse everything that’s hiding inside rocky reefs, Banks says. “Seeing these things for the first time is always a big ‘wow.’”

    [embedded content]
    Using a remotely operated vehicle, researchers captured the marvels of pristine coral reefs found hundreds of meters below the surface of the ocean. Shown are various creatures the team observed on deep-sea reefs in the Galápagos Islands Marine Reserve, including one dubbed Cacho De Coral. More

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    in Computers Math

    Energy-saving AI chip

    Hussam Amrouch has developed an AI-ready architecture that is twice as powerful as comparable in-memory computing approaches. As reported in the journal Nature, the professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) applies a new computational paradigm using special circuits known as ferroelectric field effect transistors (FeFETs). Within a few years, this could prove useful for generative AI, deep learning algorithms and robotic applications.
    The basic idea is simple: unlike previous chips, where only calculations were carried out on transistors, they are now the location of data storage as well. That saves time and energy. “As a result, the performance of the chips is also boosted,” says Hussam Amrouch, a professor of AI processor design at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The transistors on which he performs calculations and stores data measure just 28 nanometers, with millions of them placed on each of the new AI chips. The chips of the future will have to be faster and more efficient than earlier ones. Consequently, they cannot heat up as quickly. This is essential if they are to support such applications as real-time calculations when a drone is in flight, for example. “Tasks like this are extremely complex and energy-hungry for a computer,” explains the professor.
    Modern chips: many steps, low energy consumption
    These key requirements for a chip are summed up mathematically by the parameter TOPS/W: “tera-operations per second per watt.” This can be seen as the currency for the chips of the future. The question is how many trillion operations (TOP) a processor can perform per second (S) when provided with one watt (W) of power. The new AI chip, developed in a collaboration between Bosch and Fraunhofer IMPS and supported in the production process by the US company GlobalFoundries, can deliver 885 TOPS/W. This makes it twice as powerful as comparable AI chips, including a MRAM chip by Samsung. CMOS chips, which are now commonly used, operate in the range of 10-20 TOPS/W. This is demonstrated in results recently published in Nature.
    In-memory computing works like the human brain
    The researchers borrowed the principle of modern chip architecture from humans. “In the brain, neurons handle the processing of signals, while synapses are capable of remembering this information,” says Amrouch, describing how people are able to learn and recall complex interrelationships. To do this, the chip uses “ferroelectric” (FeFET) transistors. These are electronic switches that incorporate special additional characteristics (reversal of poles when a voltage is applied) and can store information even when cut off from the power source. In addition, they guarantee the simultaneous storage and processing of data within the transistors. “Now we can build highly efficient chipsets that can be used for such applications as deep learning, generative AI or robotics, for example where data have to be processed where they are generated,” believes Amrouch.
    Market-ready chips will require interdisciplinary collaboration
    The goal is to use the chip to run deep learning algorithms, recognize objects in space or process data from drones in flight with no time lag. However, the professor from the integrated Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI) at TUM believes that it will be a few years before this is achieved. He thinks that it will be three to five years, at the soonest, before the first in-memory chips suitable for real-world applications become available. One reason for this, among others, lies in the security requirements of industry. Before a technology of this kind can be used in the automotive industry, for example, it is not enough for it to function reliably. It also has to meet the specific criteria of the sector. “This again highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers from various disciplines such as computer science, informatics and electrical engineering,” says the hardware expert Amrouch. He sees this as a special strength of MIRMI. More