Country
Our daily tech podcast
The Talking Tech podcast is available for you every day with a quick hit on the latest tech news, gadget reviews, opinion on tech trends and interviews with insiders. On this page, you'll find quick links to all of our shows. Please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and "Favorite" us on Stitcher to help Talking Tech reach a wider audience. We have a new Alexa/Talking Tech skill! Follow USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Toyota reveals update of 'avatar' humanoid robot
Toyota has revealed the next update of its T-HR3 humanoid'avatar' service robot ahead of next year's Olympic Games. The robot is capable of flexible movements that mirror the actions of its human operators up to six miles away, almost in real time. Using a 5G connection and a human controller connected to wiring and a VR headset, the new T-HR3 is now able to execute more difficult tasks than before. This includes walking in a smoother, more natural manner and even preparing drinks, as demonstrated at this year's International Robotic Exhibition in Tokyo. The new and improved T-HR3 โ which was first launched in 2017 โ grasps a cocktail shaker at this year's International Robotic Exhibition in Tokyo'Avatar robots like T-HR3, which possess an actual body, are capable of going beyond VR to physically influence the real world,' said T-HR3 Development Team Leader Tomohisa Moridaira.
Tiny robotic insect can withstand multiple heavy hits from a fly swatter
Scientists have pulled inspiration from insects in order to create a tiny, resilient robot. Referred to as'DEAnsect', this bug-like robot is made of soft materials, carries five times its weight and moves its artificial muscles 400 times a second. What makes this creation so unique that it is able to withstand multiple hits from a fly swatter, being folded or squashed without being damaged โ making this robot design ideal for performing various tasks. DEAnsect was developed by a team from รcole Polytechnique Fรฉdรฉrale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland working with the Integrated Actuators Laboratory (LAI) and colleagues from the University of Cergy-Pontoise, France. DEAnsect is designed with dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs),which is a type of hair-thin artificial muscle that propels it forward through vibrations. Scientists have pulled inspiration from insects in order to create a tiny, resilient robot.
'Equivalent' words used to express emotions in different languages vary greatly in their meanings
People's understanding of supposedly'equivalent' words used to express emotions -- such as love, fear or anxiety -- vary greatly between different languages, a study found. Researchers studied words describing emotion in more than 2,000 languages and found'significant variation' in how emotions are expressed across cultures. For example, the researchers found that among the languages of the Pacific Islands, the words equivalent to the English word'surprise' are closely associated with'fear'. In contrast, the words for surprise in the languages of south-east Asia are more closely connected to concepts like'hope' and'wanting'. The team also found words with no equivalent in other languages, like Portuguese's'saudade', a deep melancholy for something lost, which has no English counterpart.
Who owns what Artificial Intelligence creates?
In October last year, for example, AI-generated art hit the headlines when auction house Christie's New York sold an AI-created artwork for $432,000. AI is also being used in music production, with a new industry being built around the use of AI in music. The musician Taryn Southern has used an artificial intelligence platform called Amper to create an entire album, called I AM AI. The album was the first LP to be entirely composed and produced using AI. A patented AI system called "DABUS", created by Dr Stephen Thaler, can devise and develop new ideas.
AI Is Biased. Here's How Scientists Are Trying to Fix It
Computers have learned to see the world more clearly in recent years, thanks to some impressive leaps in artificial intelligence. But you might be surprised--and upset--to know what these AI algorithms really think of you. As a recent experiment demonstrated, the best AI vision system might see a picture of your face and spit out a racial slur, a gender stereotype, or a term that impugns your good character. Now the scientists who helped teach machines to see have removed some of the human prejudice lurking in the data they used during the lessons. The changes can help AI to see things more fairly, they say.
California Now Ready For Self-Driving Commercial Vehicles On Public Roads
HOUSTON, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 1: A Nuro delivery vehicle completes training routes around the Meyerland ... [ ] neighborhood on Nov. 1, 2019, in Houston, TX. (Photo by Annie Mulligan for The Washington Post via Getty Images) The California Department of Motor Vehicles will soon allow light-duty autonomous vehicles to be tested in a commercial setting on public roads. That means that delivery vehicles weighing less than 10,001 pounds (which includes Class 1 and 2 passenger trucks and vehicles, small delivery vans, scooters and the like) will soon be delivering groceries, pizza and who knows what else in the Golden State. Obviously, Arizona has been cool with this for a while, which is why we've seen fully autonomous Waymo rides in that state already. KRCR reports that California's new rules are similar to what's been allowed in the state so far, with distinctions for testing with a safety driver in the car, without anyone inside and whether or not the vehicles can be tested on public roads. As of December 5th, there are 65 companies that have a permit to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in California with a safety driver in the vehicle.
Pivot3, Scale Computing HCI appliances zoom in on AI, edge
Hyper-converged vendors Pivot3 and Scale Computing this week expanded their use cases with product launches. Scale formally unveiled HE150 all-flash NVMe hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) appliances for space-constrained edge environments. Scale sells the compute device as a three-node cluster, but it does not require a server rack. The new device is a tiny version of the Scale HE500 HCI appliances that launched this year. Scale said select customers have deployed proofs of concept.
MOHAI's new exhibit will transport you, via Microsoft device, to Mont-Saint-Michel in France
Don a mixed-reality viewer and you see the sun-dappled altar under a sweeping tower of windows. Turn around, and the cathedral's pews march off into the distance, two by two. Now, for the best part, look up. And for a few moments at the Museum of History & Industry's new "Mont-Saint-Michel: Digital Perspectives on the Model" Microsoft AI-powered exhibit, you get that dizzy feeling you get when you stare straight up into lofty spaces. It's as close as you can come to looking up into the towering vaults of the stunning island-bound cathedral without visiting France.
NVIDIA Announces DRIVE AXG Orin, One of the Most Advanced Platforms for Autonomous Vehicles
At Nvidia's GTC Technology Conference in China this week, the chipmaker unveiled its latest NVIDIA DRIVE platform the AGX Orin. Orin is an advanced processor for autonomous vehicles or robots that was a result of four years of R&D investment by Nvidia. The new platform is powered by a new system-on-a-chip (SoC), which consists of 17 billion transistors. The Orin SoC integrates NVIDIA's next-generation GPU architecture and Arm Hercules CPU cores, combined with new deep learning and computer vision accelerators that can deliver 200 trillion operations per second (200 TOPS), which Nvidia says is 7 times better performance than the company's previous generation Xavier SoC, which delivers 30TOPS of performance. Orin can transmit over 200 gigabytes of data per second of data using just 60 to 70 Watts of power, according to Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's senior director of automotive.