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Researchers have developed stretchable, pocket-sized robots which could crawl up walls and across ceiling to clean them, for environmental monitoring and deployment in hazardous environments. Published in the journal Soft Robotics, the study from University of Bristol in the UK describe how a robot made from the skin, called "ElectroSkin", can be scrunched up, put in one's pocket and then later pulled out and thrown on a surface where it moves. "ElectroSkin" is a new fundamental building block for a range of soft next-generation robots. "'ElectroSkin' is an important step toward soft robots that can be easily transported, deployed and even worn. The combination of electrical artificial muscles and electrical gripping replicated the movements of animals like slugs and snails, and where they can go, so could our robots!," said study researcher Jonathan Rossiter, Professor at University of Bristol. The thin and light robots have been developed using a new way of embedding artificial … [Read more...] about Researchers develop pocket-sized robot to clean walls and ceilings

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence-enabled machine that can beat human players in a tricky online multiplayer game where player roles and motives are kept secret, says a study. It was presented at International Conference on Information Systems. The machine called "DeepRole" is the first gaming bot that can win online multiplayer games in which the participants' team allegiances are initially unclear, according the study from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US. The bot is designed with novel "deductive reasoning" added into an AI algorithm commonly used for playing poker. This helps it reason about partially observable actions, to determine the probability that a given player is a teammate or opponent. In doing so, it quickly learns whom to ally with and which actions to take to ensure its team's victory. "If you replace a human teammate with a bot, you can expect a higher win rate for your team. Bots are better partners," said study first … [Read more...] about AI bots can beat humans in multiplayer game

Back in the day, the annual SC supercomputing conference was filled with tabletops hung with research posters. Three decades on, the show’s Denver edition this week was a sea of sharp-angled booths, crowned with three-dimensional signage, promoting logos in a multitude of blues and reds. But nowhere on the SC19 show floor drew more of the show’s 14,000 attendees than NVIDIA’s booth, built around a broad, floor-to-ceiling triangle with 2,500 square feet of ultra-high def LED screens. With a packed lecture hall on one side and HPC simulations playing on a second, it was the third wall that drew the most buzz. Cycling through was a collection of AI-enhanced photos of several hundred GPU developers — grad students, CUDA pioneers, supercomputing rockstars — together with descriptions of their work. Like accelerated computing’s answer to baseball cards, they were rendered into art using AI style transfer technology inspired by various painters — from … [Read more...] about Smart into Art: NVIDIA SC19 Booth Turns Computer Scientists into Art at News-Filled Show

Apple and Google are often locked in battle in several products, services and apps. While in some they are often neck-and-neck but if there’s one app where Google enjoys a commendable lead, then its Maps. Apple has had a Maps app for a while now but it’s often the second choice, even for iPhone users. However, it looks like Apple is spending big to catch up with Google in the navigation race. Currently, there’s an antitrust probe going on in America tech companies — Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google — dealings. Apple responded to questions from the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and one question was related to how much Apple spends on maps. Without giving a specific number, Apple replied that it is spending “billions” of dollars on Maps. In the last couple of iterations of iOS, Apple has made improvements to the whole Maps experience.Apple has added a new Look Around feature that gives an access to street views, then there’s … [Read more...] about How Apple is spending billions of dollars to beat Google

Apple’s latest iPhones, the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max might not have the best battery performance in the sea of smartphones but they are definitely better than their predecessors. However, it often happens that iPhones die mid-way on heavy usage that makes you reach for either a socket to plug the handset or a power bank. To solve that issue, Apple today launched the ‘Smart Battery Cases’ for its iPhone 11 series. These can be purchased from the US for now at $129, which roughly means Rs 9,000. Although launching a battery cover case for iPhones is not new for Apple as it did the same for the previous year’s iPhones as well. What, however, may catch the users’ eye is the dedicated button for clicking images, which is not there in the iPhone 11 models itself. The extra button is placed on the lower right side so if one wants to click an image in the landscape or portrait mode single-handedly, it’s easier. But that’s not the only thing … [Read more...] about Apple launches battery cases for iPhone 11 series with an extra button, here’s what it is for