Bizarre Things: Computers & Math

May 16, 2024

Top Headlines

May 13, 2024 — Today, there are dozens of large language model (LLM) chatbots aimed at mental health care -- addressing everything from loneliness among seniors to anxiety and depression in teens. But the efficacy of these apps is unclear. Even more unclear is how ...

Jet-Propelled Sea Creatures Could Improve Ocean Robotics

May 15, 2024 — Scientists have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion, an unusual kind of locomotion that could inspire new designs for efficient underwater ...

Robotic 'SuperLimbs' Could Help Moonwalkers Recover from Falls

May 15, 2024 — SuperLimbs, a system of wearable robotic limbs, can physically support an astronaut and lift them back on their feet after a fall, helping them conserve energy for other essential ...

Wavefunction Matching for Solving Quantum Many-Body Problems

May 15, 2024 — Strongly interacting systems play an important role in quantum physics and quantum chemistry. Stochastic methods such as Monte Carlo simulations are a proven method for investigating such systems. However, these methods reach their limits when ...

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Animal Brain Inspired AI Game Changer for Autonomous Robots

May 15, 2024 — A team of researchers has developed a drone that flies autonomously using neuromorphic image processing and control based on the workings of animal brains. Animal brains use less data and energy ...

Robots' and Prosthetic Hands' Sense of Touch Could Be as Fast as Humans

May 15, 2024 — Research could pave the way for a prosthetic hand and robot to be able to feel touch like a human hand. The technology could also be used to help restore lost functionality to patients after a ...

A Simple Quantum Internet With Significant Possibilities

May 15, 2024 — It's one thing to dream up a quantum internet that could send hacker-proof information around the world via photons superimposed in different quantum states. It's quite another to physically show ...

Virtual Reality Becomes More Engaging When Designers Use Cinematic Tools

May 14, 2024 — Cinematography techniques can significantly increase user engagement with virtual environments and, in particular, the aesthetic appeal of what users see in virtual ...

Cats Purrfectly Demonstrate What It Takes to Trust Robots

May 13, 2024 — Would you trust a robot to look after your cat? New research suggests it takes more than a carefully designed robot to care for your cat, the environment in which they operate is also vital, as well ...

A Better Way to Control Shape-Shifting Soft Robots

May 9, 2024 — A new machine-learning technique can train and control a reconfigurable soft robot that can dynamically change its shape to complete a task. The researchers also built a simulator that can evaluate ...

AI Systems Are Already Skilled at Deceiving and Manipulating Humans

May 10, 2024 — Many artificial intelligence (AI) systems have already learned how to deceive humans, even systems that have been trained to be helpful and honest. Researchers describe the risks of deception by AI ...

Good Vibrations: New Tech May Lead to Smaller, More Powerful Wireless Devices

May 9, 2024 — What if your earbuds could do everything your smartphone can, but better? A new class of synthetic materials could allow for smaller devices that use ...

'Digital Afterlife': Call for Safeguards to Prevent Unwanted 'Hauntings' by AI Chatbots of Dead Loved Ones

May 8, 2024 — Researchers lay out the need for design safety protocols that prevent the emerging 'digital afterlife industry' causing social and psychological ...

Generative AI That Imitates Human Motion

May 9, 2024 — Walking and running is notoriously difficult to recreate in robots. Now, a group of researchers has overcome some of these challenges by creating an innovative method that employs central pattern ...

Discover Optimal Conditions for Mass Production of Ultraviolet Holograms

May 9, 2024 — Scientists delve into the composition of nanocomposites for ultraviolet metasurface ...

Stilling the Quantum Dance of Atoms

May 8, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a way to stop the quantum dance of atoms 'seen' by electrons in carbon-based organic molecules. This development will help improve the performance of light ...

Caterbot? Robatapillar? It Crawls With Ease Through Loops and Bends

May 6, 2024 — Engineers created a catapillar-shaped robot that splits into segments and reassembles, hauls cargo, and crawls through twisting ...

Stretchable E-Skin Could Give Robots Human-Level Touch Sensitivity

May 3, 2024 — A stretchy electronic skin could equip robots and other devices with the same softness and touch sensitivity as human skin, opening up new possibilities to perform tasks that require a great deal of ...

Random Robots Are More Reliable

May 2, 2024 — New algorithm encourages robots to move more randomly to collect more diverse data for learning. In tests, robots started with no knowledge and then learned and correctly performed tasks within a ...

Significant New Discovery in Teleportation Research -- Noise Can Improve the Quality of Quantum Teleportation

May 2, 2024 — Researchers succeeded in conducting an almost perfect quantum teleportation despite the presence of noise that usually disrupts the transfer of quantum ...

This Highly Reflective Black Paint Makes Objects More Visible to Autonomous Cars

May 2, 2024 — Driving at night might be a scary challenge for a new driver, but with hours of practice it soon becomes second nature. For self-driving cars, however, practice may not be enough because the lidar ...

Trotting Robots Reveal Emergence of Animal Gait Transitions

Apr. 30, 2024 — A four-legged robot trained with machine learning has learned to avoid falls by spontaneously switching between walking, trotting, and pronking -- a milestone for roboticists as well as biologists ...

The End of the Quantum Tunnel

Apr. 26, 2024 — Quantum mechanical effects such as radioactive decay, or more generally: 'tunneling', display intriguing mathematical patterns. Researchers now show that a 40-year-old mathematical ...

Why Can't Robots Outrun Animals?

Apr. 26, 2024 — Robotics engineers have worked for decades and invested many millions of research dollars in attempts to create a robot that can walk or run as well as an animal. And yet, it remains the case that ...

Holographic Displays Offer a Glimpse Into an Immersive Future

Apr. 24, 2024 — Researchers have invented a new optical element that brings us one step closer to mixing the real and virtual worlds in an ordinary pair of eyeglasses using high-definition 3D holographic ...

Researchers Show It's Possible to Teach Old Magnetic Cilia New Tricks

Apr. 24, 2024 — Magnetic cilia -- artificial hairs whose movement is powered by embedded magnetic particles -- have been around for a while, and are of interest for applications in soft robotics, transporting ...

Hey Dave, I've Got an Idea for You: What's the Potential of AI-Led Workshopping?

Apr. 23, 2024 — Sure, ChatGPT can write a poem about your pet in the style of T.S Eliot, but generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have a potentially more useful role to play in idea generation according ...

Octopus Inspires New Suction Mechanism for Robots

Apr. 18, 2024 — A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved and heavy stone, has been developed by ...

How 3D Printers Can Give Robots a Soft Touch

Apr. 17, 2024 — Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult to make. A ...

Star Trek's Holodeck Recreated Using ChatGPT and Video Game Assets

Apr. 11, 2024 — Star Trek's Holodeck is no longer just science fiction. Using AI, engineers have created a tool that can generate 3D environments, prompted by everyday ...

Breakthrough Promises Secure Quantum Computing at Home

Apr. 11, 2024 — The full power of next-generation quantum computing could soon be harnessed by millions of individuals and companies, thanks to a breakthrough guaranteeing security and privacy. This advance promises ...

Engineers Design Soft and Flexible 'Skeletons' for Muscle-Powered Robots

Apr. 8, 2024 — Engineers designed modular, spring-like devices to maximize the work of live muscle fibers so they can be harnessed to power biohybrid ...

'Smart Swarms' of Tiny Robots Inspired by Natural Herd Mentality

Apr. 3, 2024 — Researchers gave nanorobots a trait called adaptive time delay, which allows them to better work ...

AI Writing, Illustration Emits Hundreds of Times Less Carbon Than Humans, Study Finds

Apr. 2, 2024 — A group of scholars calculated the amount of energy used by AI tools for the tasks of writing and illustrating and compared it to the average amount of energy humans use for the same processes. Their ...