Computers

Microphones are perhaps the most common electronic sensor in the world, with an estimated 320 million listening for our commands in the world's smart speakers. The trouble is that they're capable of hearing everything else, too. But now, a team of University of Michigan researchers has developed a system that can inform a smart home -- or listen for the signal that would turn … [Read more...] about ‘PrivacyMic’: For a smart speaker that doesn’t eavesdrop: Prototype technology could enable smart home systems that don’t record speech

Research, development, and production of novel materials depend heavily on the availability of fast and at the same time accurate simulation methods. Machine learning, in which artificial intelligence (AI) autonomously acquires and applies new knowledge, will soon enable researchers to develop complex material systems in a purely virtual environment. How does this work, and … [Read more...] about Machine learning speeds up simulations in material science: Faster and more accurate methods come in useful in various applications from energy storage to medicines

The movement of electrons can have a significantly greater influence on spintronic effects than previously assumed. This discovery was made by an international team of researchers led by physicists from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). Until now, a calculation of these effects took, above all, the spin of electrons into consideration. The study was published … [Read more...] about Important contribution to spintronics has received little consideration until now

How do you spot a subatomic neutrino in a "haystack" of particles streaming from space? That's the daunting prospect facing physicists studying neutrinos with detectors near Earth's surface. With little to no shielding in such non-subterranean locations, surface-based neutrino detectors, usually searching for neutrinos produced by particle accelerators, are bombarded by cosmic … [Read more...] about Physicists achieve significant improvement in spotting neutrinos in a cosmic haystack

In the modern day, our interactions with voice-based devices and services continue to increase. In this light, researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology and RIKEN, Japan, have performed a meta-synthesis to understand how we perceive and interact with the voice (and the body) of various machines. Their findings have generated insights into human preferences, and can be used … [Read more...] about The role of computer voice in the future of speech-based human-computer interaction

A research team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has created an electronic microsystem that can intelligently respond to information inputs without any external energy input, much like a self-autonomous living organism. The microsystem is constructed from a novel type of electronics that can process ultralow electronic signals and incorporates a device that can … [Read more...] about Researchers create intelligent electronic microsystems from ‘green’ material

Difficulty sleeping, sleep apnea and narcolepsy are among a range of sleep disorders that thousands of Danes suffer from. Furthermore, it is estimated that sleep apnea is undiagnosed in as many as 200,000 Danes. In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Department of Computer Science have collaborated with the Danish Center for Sleep Medicine at the danish … [Read more...] about Artificial intelligence enhances efficacy of sleep disorder treatments

Anyone who collects mushrooms knows that it is better to keep the poisonous and the non-poisonous ones apart. Not to mention what would happen if someone ate the poisonous ones. In such "classification problems," which require us to distinguish certain objects from one another and to assign the objects we are looking for to certain classes by means of characteristics, computers … [Read more...] about Early endeavors on the path to reliable quantum machine learning

Researchers have discovered a new electronic property at the frontier between the thermal and quantum sciences in a specially engineered metal alloy -- and in the process identified a promising material for future devices that could turn heat on and off with the application of a magnetic "switch." In this material, electrons, which have a mass in vacuum and in most other … [Read more...] about A quantum step to a heat switch with no moving parts: Study confirms unusual electron behavior in a quantum material

Math continues to be a powerful force against COVID-19. Its latest contribution is a sophisticated algorithm, using municipal wastewater systems, for determining key locations in the detection and tracing of COVID-19 back to its human source, which may be a newly infected person or a hot spot of infected people. Timing is key, say the researchers who created the algorithm, … [Read more...] about Early warning system for COVID-19 gets faster through wastewater detection and tracing