MIT's AI can reproduce images of objects in poorly lit scenes

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can isolate small, nearly transparent imperfections in poorly lit images in order to reproduce objects. A blog post published by MIT News today describes a deep neural network -- layered mathematical functions loosely mimicking the behavior of neurons in the brain -- that can erase target artifacts from grainy images. George Barbastathis, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, believes this might have applications in medicine. "In the lab, if you blast biological cells with light you burn them, and there is nothing left to image," he told MIT News. "When it comes to X-ray imaging, if you expose a patient to X-rays, you increase the danger they may get cancer. What we're doing here is -- you can get the same image quality but with a lower exposure to the patient. And in biology, you can reduce the damage to biological specimens when you want to sample them."