A metalens for virtual and augmented reality
In 2018, the Capasso’s team developed achromatic, aberration-free metalenses that work across the entire visible spectrum of light. But these lenses were only tens of microns in diameter, too small for practical use in VR and augmented reality systems.
Now, the researchers have developed a two-millimeter achromatic metalenses that can focus RGB (red, blue, green) colors without aberrations and developed a miniaturized display for virtual and augmented reality applications.
The research is published in Science Advances.
“This state-of-the-art lens opens a path to a new type of virtual reality platform and overcomes the bottleneck that has slowed the progress of new optical device,” said Capasso, the senior author of the paper.
“Using new physics and a new design principle, we have developed a flat lens to replace the bulky lenses of today’s optical devices,” said Zhaoyi Li, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and first author of the paper. “This is the largest RGB-achromatic metalens to date and is a proof of concept that these lenses can be scaled up to centimeter size, mass produced, and integrated in commercial platforms.”
...In a VR or AR platform, the metalens would sit directly in front of the eye, and the display would sit within the focal plane of the metalens. The patterns scanned by the display are focused onto the retina, where the virtual image forms, with the help of the metalens. To the human eye, the image appears as part of the landscape in the AR mode, some distance from our actual eyes.
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Next, the team aims to scale up the lens even further, making it compatible with current large-scale fabrication techniques for mass production at a low cost.
The Harvard Office of Technology Development has protected the intellectual property relating to this project and is exploring commercialization opportunities.
See the full story here: https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/01/metalens-virtual-and-augmented-reality
Disinfection robot developed to halt COVID-19 spread
A team of USC master’s students created a disinfection robot called LASER-D to use on COVID-19 prevention. See video.
Said master’s student Ruiqi Wang: “This is the first time I worked on a team of complete strangers. It was pretty hard to bond without any face-to-face interactions, but our shared and ambitious goal helped us to bond. We ended up being a really great team.”
Even remotely, students were exposed to skill areas they counted themselves novices in. Anthony Nguyen worked on the simulation software and robot’s operating system. He said he felt like with a big vision and time constraints, they had to hit the ground running as a team. “As a mechanical engineering student, I had no background in C++ coding or anything like that. I was lucky—there was open source code and a lot of resources I could use to learn. The project relied on a lot of coding—we had to use what was available and then engineer further solutions.”
New MIT Study Says Artificial Intelligence (AI) Can Help Us Map Consciousness
According to The Next Web, the team was able to observe patterns formed by the brain neurons that help us consider what other people could be feeling and thinking. In short, they are trying to track empathy in real-time, as it happens.
If expanded, this research could play an instrumental role in researching mental illness and social anxiety disorders. It can even be helpful in developing targeted, personalised treatments for people on the autism spectrum disorder.
But the most fascinating aspect of the study is it could finally offer some insight into understanding consciousness.
See the full story here: https://thenextweb.com/neural/2021/01/27/new-mit-brain-research-shows-how-ai-could-help-us-understand-consciousness/
and here: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-scientists-individual-neurons-responsible-complex.html
THERE’S NOW A VIRTUAL REALITY MUSEUM DEDICATED TO VEGAN MILK
A virtual reality pop-up museum that is dedicated to the history and future of plant-based milk is launching for the month of February. Milk Futurewill allow visitors to experience a multi-room, interactive virtual-reality exhibition featuring profiles on prominent plant-based milk innovators, such as Califia Farms and Miyoko’s Creamery, facts and figures about the environmental impacts of dairy farming, as well as photography from participating animal sanctuaries in the United States, Canada, England, and Israel. Special events will include “Doctors Talk Dairy: A Conversation About Dairy and Your Health” in partnership with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a dairy-free cook-off, and a milk mixology workshop.
See the full story here: https://vegnews.com/2021/1/virtual-reality-museum-vegan-milk
Virtual reality and simulation see an uptick during the pandemic
As the health crises forces engineers, designers, and researchers to build and simulate physical worlds to test their designs, the big question for a growing number of executive decision-makers is whether these changes are here to stay — and what their implications might be.
Richard Kerris, an industry general manager for media and entertainment at Nvidia, said he’s seen an uptick in use of Omniverse, Nvidia’s cloud platform designed to support design workflows and real-time coordination. Omniverse, which Nvidia announced during its GTC 2020 keynote event, launched in open beta in October after a yearlong early access program in which Ericsson, Foster + Partners, ILM, and over 40 other companies evaluated the platform and provided feedback to the Nvidia engineering team.
Christoph Fleischmann, the founder of Arthur Technologies, said he’s seen “huge adoption” of his company’s virtual reality technologies that provide virtual office spaces allowing teams to meet and manage work.
“I think that in 20 years, we’ll tell our children that this is how we lived and how we made decisions, but it’ll sound barbaric to them — that geography dictated so much about our life,” Fleischmann said. “While I think there’s one way of looking at this in a really dystopian way — that we’re submitting ourselves to the matrix — I think the very, very positive way of seeing that is that you just make the landscape of opportunities really flat around the world, and you allow anyone to work with anyone in these virtual spaces. You can physically be wherever you want with your loved ones, or are at the beach.”
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/28/virtual-reality-and-simulation-see-an-uptick-during-the-pandemic/
Heidelberg-based Aleph Alpha raises €5.3 million to lead “Made in Europe” AI development
Today AI startup Aleph Alpha announces having raised a €5.3 million seed funding round to research, develop and operationalize European Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
Headquartered in Germany, Aleph Alpha aims to revolutionize the accessibility and usability of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in Europe. Founded in 2019, by experts at the forefront of international AI research, Aleph Alpha develops strong AI technology for partners in academia, government and industry.
The fresh funding enables Aleph Alpha to attract more European AI scientists and engineers from around the world for top AI development “Made in Europe”.
See the full story here: https://www.eu-startups.com/2021/01/heidelberg-based-aleph-alpha-raises-e5-3-million-to-lead-made-in-europe-ai-development/
WE by West adds Qloo “cultural AI” to in-flight content recommendation engine
What does it take to better predict passenger demand for in-flight content? West Entertainment and AI powerhouse Qloo teamed up to enhance the WE by West platform crunching more than 750 billion cultural correlations to help the system deliver recommendations. Ultimately the companies expect to better tune the selections available on board and improve passenger satisfaction and, ideally, revenue for the airlines as well.
Qloo’s AI system examined a catalog of more than 150 million cultural entities and over 4 billion individual opinions to generate the broad range of correlations. With that data set the company aims for its Jetset AI solution to predict consumer tastes across over a dozen major categories, including music, film, television, podcasts, dining, nightlife, fashion, consumer products, books and travel.
See the full story here: https://paxex.aero/west-entertainment-qloo-artificial-intelligence/
Netflix CEO gifts $3 million to RMU to fund 20 full scholarships
The 20 scholarships will be open to qualified applicants pursuing degrees in computer and information systems; cybersecurity; data analytics; actuarial science; mathematics; statistics and predictive analysis; computer science; and user experience user interface design (UX-UI).
See the full story here: https://www.timesonline.com/story/news/2021/01/26/netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-funds-20-full-scholarships-robert-morris-university/4264950001/
Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz creates startup Sun and Thunder to build synthetic beings
Abovitz said the whole project involves both left brain and right brain people. The inspiration came from early animation studios, mythopoeia concepts pioneered by the Inklings, and the freewheeling and creative spirit of music labels such as Island Records. And part of the job is creating “synthetic beings.”
Our Pinocchio right now has strings. But over time, we keep cutting those strings over 10 to 15 years. Our Pinocchio will be in a movie in the world and will also work with us to create things as well. We are making our co-creators.”
The first AI character is Jako Vega (also known as Yellow Dove). Abovitz said he is like Woody Guthrie, a vagabond singer who moves across space and time. The first film is in production.
Right now, Abovitz said he is funding the venture himself but is in discussions with possible investors. As for Magic Leap itself, Abovitz said he was pleased that Peggy Johnson is now leading the company, like a relief pitcher, after he led the company for the first nine years. He acknowledged that a lot of people thought Magic Leap was overhyped and was disappointing. But he has confidence in Johnson, and he is proud to have been a leader in spatial computing work that all of the tech giants are now pursuing.
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/27/magic-leap-founder-rony-abovitz-creates-startup-sun-and-thunder/?fbclid=IwAR0ST4E79gBHb70-GqvCV-hcwbyugUCEABlWke4I9ei_J_tlbvlUUTnfiQE
‘Grow trees with your brain’: New augmented reality project combines meditation with technology
Alex Castillo@castillo__ioMy first
Brain + AR project. The deeper she meditates, the farther the trees grow. Built with the Neurosity SDK + @the8thwall.