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You can probably complete an amazing number of tasks with your hands without looking at them. But if you put on gloves that muffle your sense of touch, many of those simple tasks become frustrating. Take away proprioception — your ability to sense your body’s relative position and movement — and you might even end up breaking an object or injuring yourself. “Most people don’t realize how often they rely on touch instead of vision

With a more efficient method for artificial pollination, farmers in the future could grow fruits and vegetables inside multilevel warehouses, boosting yields while mitigating some of agriculture’s harmful impacts on the environment. To help make this idea a reality, MIT researchers are developing robotic insects that could someday swarm out of mechanical hives to rapidly perform precise pollination. However, even the best bug-sized robots are no match for natural pollinators like bees when it comes

Facing high employee turnover and an aging population, nursing homes have increasingly turned to robots to complete a variety of care tasks, but few researchers have explored how these technologies impact workers and the quality of care. A new study from a University of Notre Dame expert on the future of work finds that robot use is associated with increased employment and employee retention, improved productivity and a higher quality of care. The research has

The melding of visual information (microscopic and X-ray images, CT and MRI scans, for example) with text (exam notes, communications between physicians of varying specialties) is a key component of cancer care. But while artificial intelligence helps doctors review images and home in on disease-associated anomalies like abnormally shaped cells, it’s been difficult to develop computerized models that can incorporate multiple types of data. Now researchers at Stanford Medicine have developed an AI model able

Human skin can feel a wide variety of sensations, such as a gentle squeeze, quick taps, or the thud-thud of a heartbeat. In contrast, phones, game controllers, and watches often output only vibrations to get the user’s attention. Unfortunately, this sudden fast shaking feels different from most everyday touch interactions, and it can quickly become annoying. Researchers at MPI-IS in Stuttgart have developed cutaneous electrohydraulic (CUTE) wearable devices to greatly expand the haptic sensations that

Hula hooping is so commonplace that we may overlook some interesting questions it raises: “What keeps a hula hoop up against gravity?” and “Are some body types better for hula hooping than others?” A team of mathematicians explored and answered these questions with findings that also point to new ways to better harness energy and improve robotic positioners. The results are the first to explain the physics and mathematics of hula hooping. “We were specifically

Professor Sangmin Lee from POSTECH’s Department of Chemical Engineering, in collaboration with 2024 Nobel Chemistry Laureate Professor David Baker from the University of Washington, has developed an innovative therapeutic platform by mimicking the intricate structures of viruses using artificial intelligence (AI). Their pioneering research was published in Nature on December 18. Viruses are uniquely designed to encapsulate genetic material within spherical protein shells, enabling them to replicate and invade host cells, often causing disease. Inspired

A research group led by Osaka University has developed a technology that allows androids to dynamically express their mood states, such as “excited” or “sleepy,” by synthesizing facial movements as superimposed decaying waves. Even if an android’s appearance is so realistic that it could be mistaken for a human in a photograph, watching it move in person can feel a bit unsettling. It can smile, frown, or display other various, familiar expressions, but finding a

Artificial intelligence can provide critical insights into how complex mixtures of chemicals in rivers affect aquatic life — paving the way for better environmental protection. A new approach, developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham, demonstrates how advanced artificial intelligence (AI) methods can help identify potentially harmful chemical substances in rivers by monitoring their effects on tiny water fleas (Daphnia). The team worked with scientists at the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), in

Artificial intelligence that is as intelligent as humans may become possible thanks to psychological learning models, combined with certain types of AI. This is the conclusion of Robert Johansson, who in his dissertation from Linköping University has developed the concept of Machine Psychology and how it can contribute to AI development. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has been the holy grail of AI research since the 1950s. So far, humanity has not managed to create an