e former Apple employees have been arrested in the United States on suspicion of trade secrets to a Chinese company. Xiaolang Zhang is due during his parental leave Apple He has downloaded carefully-guarded information about a self-driving car onto his laptop and shared it with start-up Xiaopeng Motors, according to the FBI’s indictment. In addition,… Continue reading Apple developer is spied on for Chinese company
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We Grew Algae and Asked Spectrum Editors to Taste It
Algae could be the environmentally-friendly superfood we’ve all been waiting for. But will anyone actually eat it? When was the last time you sipped algae? Chances are, you’ve never done that. But while working on a special report about potential climate-saving technologies, IEEE Spectrum decided to try to grow Spirulina, which proponents have pitched as… Continue reading We Grew Algae and Asked Spectrum Editors to Taste It
Facebook’s DensePose Tech Raises Concerns About Potential Misuse
Image: Facebook In early 2018, Facebook’s AI researchers unveiled a deep learning system that can transform 2D photo and video images of people into 3D mesh models of those human bodies in motion. Last month, Facebook publicly shared the code for its “DensePose” technology, which could be used by Hollywood filmmakers and augmented reality game… Continue reading Facebook’s DensePose Tech Raises Concerns About Potential Misuse
Chip Hall of Fame: RCA CDP 1802
Photo: Paul Rautakorpi/Wikipedia CDP 1802 Manufacturer: RCA Category: Processors Year: 1976 If the RCA Corp. had made different decisions in the 1970s, the name Joe Weisbecker could be as revered as Steve Wozniak’s is today. Weisbecker was the architect of the RCA CDP 1802 microprocessor, also known as the Cosmac. Part of what made the 1802 special… Continue reading Chip Hall of Fame: RCA CDP 1802
Microbots Deliver Stem Cells in the Body
Image: University of Hong Kong/Science RoboticsMicrorobots designed to carry stem cells (fluorescent green) throughout the body are shown here on a cell culture plate. The astonishing thing about stem cells is that they can be coaxed, in the laboratory, into becoming nearly any kind of cell—from bone marrow to heart muscle. That remarkable capability has for… Continue reading Microbots Deliver Stem Cells in the Body
Asimo Still Improving Its Hopping and Jogging Skills
Image: Honda Research We learned last week that Honda is putting Asimo out to pasture, so to speak, which is a little sad, but not too sad: Honda is doing this because they want to instead focus on the other, more useful humanoid robots that they’ve been working on recently, like E2-DR. Honda learned a… Continue reading Asimo Still Improving Its Hopping and Jogging Skills
Experts Disagree on Top Applications for 5G
In the world of emerging technologies, you often see industry and academic experts take on the roles of “good cop” or “bad cop.” Whether someone plays a particular role depends largely on their own interests. When it comes to the rollout of 5G networks, carriers and equipment suppliers are all in. On the other hand,… Continue reading Experts Disagree on Top Applications for 5G
Don Eyles: Space Hacker
This programmer saved the Apollo 14 mission with 61 keystrokes In the early hours of 5 February 1971, Don Eyles had a big problem. Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell orbiting the Moon, preparing to land. But it looked like they were going to have to come home without putting so much as footprint… Continue reading Don Eyles: Space Hacker
Sprawling Wheel Leg Robot Crawls and Climbs
Photo: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev We’re always impressed by the way David Zarrouk (a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev by way of UC Berkeley’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab) manages to extract a ton of functionality from the absolute minimum of hardware in his robots. In the past, we’ve seen clever designs like a… Continue reading Sprawling Wheel Leg Robot Crawls and Climbs
New Optimization Algorithm Exponentially Speeds Computation
Image: iStockphoto A new algorithm could dramatically slash the time it can take computers to recommend movies or route taxis. The new algorithm, developed by Harvard University researchers, solves optimization problems exponentially faster than previous algorithms by cutting the number of steps required. Surprisingly, this approach works “without sacrificing the quality of the resulting solution,” says… Continue reading New Optimization Algorithm Exponentially Speeds Computation