1. One Thing that Helps
Can we save our energy resources by making AI chips less perfect?
Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a novel fabrication technique to jet-print artificial "neuromorphic" neurons onto flexible polymer sheets. Contrary to the notion of perfection in silicon chips, the team left a stabilizing polymer ink usually burned off during fabrication. This caused “imperfections” in the resulting artificial neuron which allowed the chip to exhibit highly diverse, heterogeneous spiking behaviors that closely mimic organic neurons.
To test their research, the team hooked the artificial neurons up to a piece of mouse cerebellum tissue. They then fired signals to the mouse brain cells, which fired in response to the artificial stimulation.
While this tech will be useful in areas like body-computer interfaces, it is hoped that using artificial neurons on chips will allow AI energy use to drop significantly. By mirroring how our brains work, neuromorphic chips can work faster and more efficiently.
2. One to be Wary of
AI + Wi-Fi can now be used as surveillance, and it doesn’t need a camera.
Researchers in Germany have demonstrated how the Wi-Fi routers we have at home can be used to accurately identify specific individuals based entirely on how ambient radio waves reflect off their bodies. They developed a system that uses AI to analyze Beamforming Feedback Information or BFI for short. It is information sent by a device to a Wi-Fi router to tell the router about the surroundings. This allows it to adjust how it sends signals to the device.
BFI is unencrypted so anyone can intercept it as long as they’re in range. Using AI, researchers analyzed distinct spatial reflection patterns to create an identifier for specific bodies. You don’t need to carry a phone with you. A router and another Wi-Fi device is enough to identify you. Accuracy rate is almost 100%!
Wi-Fi routers are everywhere, so even if you don’t carry any device with you (unlikely I think), the moment you pass by a cafe to pick up your morning coffee, anyone can know you’ve been there. This is why there are calls for the next Wi-Fi standards to implement stronger privacy safeguards and protections.
3. One to Amaze
Holograms, like Hoverboards, have been long promised and never delivered.
A breakthrough from the University of St Andrews late last year is still making waves. They aim to bring holograms to smartphones without additional hardware - one pixel at a time. They have developed a method for integrating holographic metasurfaces directly into OLED display panels. Your smartphone display itself becomes a holographic projector!
This has been made possible using a flat array of sub-microscopic structures called meta-atoms that manipulate the properties of light waves as they pass through. Traditional OLED displays require thousands of individual pixels to build a simple picture. With this new architecture, the interference patterns created by the metasurface allow an entire pre-designed 3D image to project from a single OLED pixel.
We can't finish a discussion about holograms without a reference to one of the funniest scenes ever from the Silicon Valley TV show. Enjoy it here (language warning!).