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    Category Physics

    Robot Learns to follow orders like Alexa

    September 1, 2017, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Physics

    ComText allows robots to understand contextual commands such as, “Pick up the box I put down.” Credit: Tom Buehler/MIT CSAIL

    ComText allows robots to understand contextual commands such as, “Pick up the box I put down.” Credit: Tom Buehler/MIT CSAIL

    ComText, from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, allows robots to understand contextual commands. Computer scientists have developed an Alexa-like system that allows robots to understand a wide range of commands that require contextual knowledge about objects and their environments. They’ve dubbed the system ‘ComText,’ for ‘commands in context.’ Despite what you might see in movies, today’s robots are still very limited in what they can do. They can be great for many repetitive tasks, but their inability to understand the nuances of human language makes them mostly useless for more complicated requests.

    For example, if you put a specif...

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    Artificial Intelligence Analyzes Gravitational Lenses 10 million Times Faster

    August 31, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Astronomy/Space

    Neural Nets and Gravitational Lenses

    KIPAC scientists have for the first time used artificial neural networks to analyze complex distortions in spacetime, called gravitational lenses, demonstrating that the method is 10 million times faster than traditional analyses. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

    Brain-mimicking ‘neural networks’ can revolutionize the way astrophysicists analyze their most complex data. Researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have for the first time shown that neural networks – a form of artificial intelligence — can accurately analyze the complex distortions in spacetime known as gravitational lenses 10 million times faster than traditional methods...

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    Researchers validate UV light’s use in improving Semiconductors

    August 30, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Schematic of the epitaxial growth procedure of ZnSe/GaAs heterostructure growth using either light-start or dark-start growth procedures. (a) Prior to ZnSe epilayer growth, the GaAs epilayer was grown in a dedicated III-V MBE chamber and was covered with an amorphous arsenic film prior to transferring it to a dedicated II-VI chamber. (b) The amorphous arsenic film was then thermally desorbed and the interface growth was initiated with a Zn pre-treatment under either a light-start or dark-start condition. During light-start sample growth, UV light was directed onto the growth surface from the beginning of Zn pre-treatment until the end of the ZnSe growth (f–h). During dark-start sample growth, UV light was directed onto the growth surface only during ZnSe epilayer growth (c–e).

    Schematic of the epitaxial growth procedure of ZnSe/GaAs heterostructure growth using either light-start or dark-start growth procedures. (a) Prior to ZnSe epilayer growth, the GaAs epilayer was grown in a dedicated III-V MBE chamber and was covered with an amorphous arsenic film prior to transferring it to a dedicated II-VI chamber. (b) The amorphous arsenic film was then thermally desorbed and the interface growth was initiated with a Zn pre-treatment under either a light-start or dark-start condition. During light-start sample growth, UV light was directed onto the growth surface from the beginning of Zn pre-treatment until the end of the ZnSe growth (f–h). During dark-start sample growth, UV light was directed onto the growth surface only during ZnSe epilayer growth (c–e).

    A discov...

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    A Low-Cost method for Solar-Thermal Conversion that’s Simpler and Greener

    August 29, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    1. The selective solar absorber (SSA) developed by the researchers appears black, and thus absorptive, under sunlight (as shown on the photograph on the left). However, for thermal radiation, it behaves like a non-emissive metal mirror (reflecting the dark blue sky, as shown on the thermograph on the right), and prevents the absorbed solar energy from being radiated away and lost. —Figure courtesy of Jyotirmoy Mandal and Yuan Yang/Columbia Engineering 2. The researchers make their SSAs using a dip-and-dry technique which is considerably simpler than common manufacturing methods for SSAs. —Photo courtesy of Jyotirmoy Mandal and Yuan Yang/Columbia Engineering

    1. The selective solar absorber (SSA) developed by the researchers appears black, and thus absorptive, under sunlight (as shown on the photograph on the left). However, for thermal radiation, it behaves like a non-emissive metal mirror (reflecting the dark blue sky, as shown on the thermograph on the right), and prevents the absorbed solar energy from being radiated away and lost.
    —Figure courtesy of Jyotirmoy Mandal and Yuan Yang/Columbia Engineering
    2. The researchers make their SSAs using a dip-and-dry technique which is considerably simpler than common manufacturing methods for SSAs.
    —Photo courtesy of Jyotirmoy Mandal and Yuan Yang/Columbia Engineering

    Dip-and-dry’ approach for selective solar absorbers exhibit high-performance and durability...

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