This week we will discover a noise cancelling system for our living room windows, the protein that protects our brains from cognitive decline in old age and how the British spend their time online. We will also look at a fully robotic restaurant from China and yet another Image manipulation software driven by AI. Image manipulation is becoming simpler and faster every year.
Noise cancelling Windows
Have you ever wanted to open the window to let a fresh breeze into the house but didn’t do so due to all the noise outside. The choice is a little peace and quiet or fresh air. A team of researchers in Singapore have developed a window mounted noise canceling technology that can keep the indoors quiet when the windows are open.
Using the same technology as noise cancelling headphones, an array of speakers release sound waves sculpted to cancel out noise from the outside. Traffic, trains and planes will be heard no more. Active noise control systems use microphones to provide advance information of the primary noise to be attenuated. This is easy in a small space however it is a greater challenge in larger spaces such as homes.
To overcome this the team used an array of speakers across the opening of a full sized window.
The team was able to reduce external noise by up to 10 decibels with a fully opened window. One constraint of the system is the absence of active control below 300 Hz and restriction in control between 300 and 500 Hz due to the use of smaller loudspeakers to reduce the visual impact of the system. Most urban transportation noise is above 500 Hz thus able to be effectively reduced.
The technology struggles with one off sounds like a car horn and it can’t mute human voices. The sound of the neighbors fighting without the interruption of the traffic noise will still resonate loudly however you will however be able to cut down on the air-conditioning bills.
Brain Proteins and Exercise
It has long been known that exercise is good for the brain. Exercise has been shown to protect the brain from age-related cognitive decline and to improve cognition in individuals at risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. It was not known how the brain benefited from exercise.
Researchers from University of California San Francisco Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research have identified the Gpld1 protein that is secreted by the liver after exercise as the key to improved cognitive function.
The work was conducted on mice where the researchers discovered that simply increasing the amount of Gpld1 produced by the liver could manifest many of the benefits of regular exercise to the brain. Elderly humans who exercise regularly have elevated levels of Gpld1. The research suggests that one day we might be able to take a pill to gain the cognitive benefits of exercise.
A warning to those of you that are currently sitting on the couch rejoicing that you will no longer need to get out of bed early and hit the gym during your golden years. There are many other benefits to exercise in addition to improved cognitive function. In the immortal words of the goddess Nike “Just do it”.
Robot Restaurants
Country Garden (a massive restaurant chain in China) has opened their first Robot Restaurant in Shunde, a city in Guangdong Provence (in the South just north of Hong Kong). The restaurant caters to a wide variety of Chinese food and hot pots.
The restaurant is 2,000 square meters and has 20 robots that will produce food of different styles. The menu has 200 items and they claim that each dish can be served up in as little as 20 seconds after the order is taken (hmmm, I doubt that is cooked to order rather cooked in bulk and dispatched to order).
Food is also delivered by robot.
China released their technical specifications for robot safety certification in the food sector on 22 June 2020. Country Garden were very quick off the mark in opening this new restaurant on 25 June. They plan to open more in the Greater Bay Area (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau) in the coming year. They also believe that they will be able to achieve mass production of 5,000 robots per year during the same time frame.
How do the Poms spend their time Online?
Comscore has produced the following graphic to show how all Brits over the age of 6 for desktops and 13 for mobile spend their time online.
This graphic is from February 2020. Since the pandemic began Google and Facebook have increased their share to a total of 39%. Is it any wonder that your local newspaper or TV channel is struggling to gain a share of advertising revenue.
A comprehensive study of “Online platforms and digital advertising” in the UK has just been released and can be found here.
Robot Scientists
We have spoken before about the advantage of using robots in science. Many experiments can be carried out accurately, 24 hours a day, thus improving the speed at which scientific breakthroughs can be made.
A team at the University of Liverpool in the UK has created a robot chemist that is capable of working 1000 times faster than a human scientist. The robot uses laser scans and touch feedback for navigation, it is precise and its’ incredibly sensitive single arm can operate more smoothly than a human. To date most automated systems have been built to do a particular single thing. The team built an automated researcher that is able to use instruments like a human would.
The researchers used the robot to help discover a new photocatalyst. The project was completed in just over a week compared to the months it would have taken human researchers. The robot went through 98 million possible experiments and discovered a catalyst 6 times more reactive than those previously discovered. The robots work 21.5 hours per day (some time out is required to recharge the batteries).
The robot is not meant to replace the human scientist but to act as a collaborative partner. The team is now adding voice recognition to the robot to enable easier communication.
Another AI for creating Video
It is scary how quickly this field is developing. University of California Berkley and Adobe researchers have developed Swapping Autoencoder, a machine learning model designed for image manipulation.
The program can accurately embed high-resolution images in real-time and generate realistic output images. The system is lightweight and codes each image into a “structure” code and a “texture” code. The structure code learns to correspond to the layout of the structure of a scene whilst the texture code, captures properties about the scene’s overall appearance.
Other examples of image manipulation programs include MIT-IBM Watson AI labs’ tool that lets users customize the the appearance of buildings and Nvidia’s GauGAN which allows the user to create landscapes (featured in the 4 April 2019 edition of the newsletter). These programs (released last year) are more computationally intense and tend to be challenging to design.
As I have said before, don’t believe what you see or hear on the internet. It is too easy to fake nowadays. Take a few moments to research everything.
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.
If you have any questions or comments please email me via my website craigcarlyon.com or comment below.
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