Category Technology/Electronics

Software of Autonomous Driving Systems

Researchers at TU Graz and AVL are working to make autonomous driving systems safer. © Lunghammer – TU Graz

Researchers have been developing software systems of autonomous driving systems. They have now developed a method for generating safety-critical simulation scenarios and an adaptive control procedure for compensating for internal errors.

The future has already arrived. (Partially) autonomous cars are already on our roads today with automated systems such as braking or lane departure warning systems. As a central vehicle component, the software of these systems must continuously and reliably meet high quality criteria...

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Photon-based processing units enable more Complex Machine Learning

The photonic tensor core performs vector-matrix multiplications by utilizing the efficient interaction of light at different wavelengths with multistate photonic phase change memories. CREDIT: Mario Miscuglio
The photonic tensor core performs vector-matrix multiplications by utilizing the efficient interaction of light at different wavelengths with multistate photonic phase change memories. CREDIT: Mario Miscuglio

Using photons to create more powerful and power-efficient processing units for artificial intelligence. Machine learning performed by neural networks is a popular approach to developing artificial intelligence, as researchers aim to replicate brain functionalities for a variety of applications.

A paper in the journal Applied Physics Reviews, by AIP Publishing, proposes a new approach to perform computations required by a neural network, using light instead of electricity...

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Wrist-mounted FingerTrak continuously Tracks entire Human Hand in 3D

Wrist-mounted FingerTrak continuously tracks entire human hand in 3D.
Wrist-mounted FingerTrak continuously tracks entire human hand in 3D. Credit: Cornell University

The device could be used in sign language translation, VR, mobile health, human-robot interaction and and more. The bracelet, called FingerTrak, can sense and translate into 3D the many positions of the human hand, including 20 finger joint positions, using three or four miniature, low-resolution thermal cameras that read contours on the wrist.

“This was a major discovery by our team — that by looking at your wrist contours, the technology could reconstruct in 3D, with keen accuracy, where your fingers are,” said Cheng Zhang, assistant professor of information science and director of Cornell’s new SciFi Lab, where FingerTrak was developed...

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Shells and Grapefruits inspire first manufactured Non-Cuttable material

It is a ‘smart material’ that has been made from ceramic spheres that are encased in a cellular aluminium structure and could be used to create new lightweight armour

Engineers have taken their inspiration from shells and grapefruits to create what they say is the first manufactured non-cuttable material.

This new material, which could be used in the security and health and safety industries, can turn back the force of a cutting tool upon itself. The lightweight material – named Proteus after the shape-changing mythical god — is made of ceramic spheres encased in a cellular aluminium structure that in tests could not be cut by angle grinders, drills or high-pressure water jets.

An international research team, led by Durham University, UK, and Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tool...

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