Important Innovations

MIT Scientists' Antibiotic Breakthrough Source: AI enabled molecule research stock image Drug Kills Antibiotic Resistant, Killer Bacteria MIT scientists have achieved a world first.  They've used artificial intelligence (AI) to discover what may be the world's most powerful antibiotic.  The power and promise of the drug is its ability to fight the growing global epidemic of deadly bacteria  resistant to antibiotics.  The World Health Organization calls these bacteria one of the biggest threats to global health.  The MIT discovered molecule kills antibiotic resistant, killer bacteria. Machine Learning Algorithm The key to the MIT team's success is artificial intelligence and the powerful algorithm they created.  The MIT scientists say the algorithm was inspired by the architecture of the human brain.  The algorithm analyzed millions of chemical compounds and thousands of drugs to identify those with enough attributes to kill e-coli.  Through the p

AI Helping to Develop Super Fast Charging, Longer Lasting Batteries for EV's Source:  E-Cars Charging stock image Breakthrough Approach by Toyota, Stanford University & MIT Using AI, researchers at Stanford, MIT and Toyota have developed a vastly accelerated approach to fast-charging, long lasting batteries for electric vehicles.  The team is using a new AI machine learning method.  It slashed battery testing times by 98% and the researchers say that is a key to creating the EV Holy Grail of supercharging batteries.  The researchers say their AI approach may make a recharge take a couple of minutes like refueling your car at a gas station. AI Trial and Error at Warp Speeds The AI method is enabling the team to quickly identify what's working to create ultra-fast and long range batteries.  In fact, they've been able to cut the trial and error of experimenting with different battery development approaches from 2 years to 16 days. 

New Tech from MIT Enables Self-Driving Cars to See Around Corners Early Warning System to Prevent Accidents MIT engineers and computer scientists have invented an advanced early warning system to make autonomous cars safer and prevent collisions.  The device is called ShadowCam and can read tiny changes in shadows on the ground to detect an oncoming car or pedestrian that isn't yet visible. This is an advanced early warning system that's been successfully tested on autonomous vehicles in enclosed parking garages.  It's capable of alerting an autonomous vehicle to slowdown or stop for oncoming vehicles and walking pedestrians in blind-spots.  For a great news blog on this, go to Important Innovations Collection: Making Autonomous Cars Safer : ShadowCam - New MIT Technology Source:  MIT Cars That See Around Corners MIT engineers and computer scientists have invented a new d...

New System to Fight Climate Change Source:  MIT image of the system New Carbon Capture Technology from MIT Engineers This new technology is from MIT engineers to clean the air of CO2 and fight climate change.  Their invention removes CO2 from air streams at almost any concentration levels from the open air to emissions from power plants.  MIT says it works like a large battery and it requires low energy and low money to operate when compared to other approaches. Like a Battery Like a very large battery, the MIT system absorbs CO2 from a gas stream that passes over its electrodes as it charges up.  While going through the process, the device alternates between charging and discharging.  During the charging cycle, fresh air blows through the system.  During discharging, concentrated carbon dioxide blows through.  As the process is done, pure carbon dioxide is discharged.  The MIT engineers say their carbon capture tech shows the power of electrochemical approaches

MIT's Roboats Source:  MIT Roboat Test World's First Bridge Composed of Autonomous Boats This is the world's first bridge composed of autonomous boats that disconnect and reassemble into various configurations.  It's the invention of engineers and other scientists at MIT and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions.  The city of Amsterdam has big plans for them in their canals to reduce busy traffic on congested city streets. Amsterdam Deployment Amsterdam wants the roboats to cruise its 165 canals to transport people and goods, collect trash and self-assemble into popup platforms like bridges and stages as needed. The roboats are equipped with sensors, thrusters, GPS modules, cameras, microcontrollers and other hardware.  They are far less expensive and far more versatile than traditional bridges. New Algorithm Upgrade The roboats have just been upgraded with a new control algorithm that enables them to be "shapeshifting", auto

MIT's Underwater Sensor Network to Take the Ocean's Pulse Source:  MIT Powered Solely by Sound Waves To investigate the vast unexplored areas of the oceans, MIT engineers are building a submerged network of interconnected sensors that send data to the surface.  It's an underwater internet of things to monitor temperature changes from climate change, ocean pollution and marine life over long time periods.  The MIT team has invented a battery-free sensor, powered by sound waves. The device can monitor the ocean environment at great depths over long periods of time with no battery.  The submerged system uses the vibration of piezoelectric materials to generate power and send and receive data. Underwater Communications System This MIT invention appears to be a major breakthrough.  Up until now, the difficulty of deploying deep water sensors to study ocean conditions has been greatly limited by their battery life.  It's very difficult to change batteries at great

Not Your Ordinary Pizza: New AI that Goes Way Beyond Pizzas MIT Breakthrough Neural Network MIT's breakthrough AI neural network is called PizzaGAN.  It can look at a photo of a pizza, determine the ingredients and the order of the layering.  This is not just about pizzas.  The AI was developed by MIT's CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Lab) and it has a very wide application from domestic robots to construction robotic systems using AI to understand pictures and execute on tasks.  For more details go to Important Innovations Collection: MIT's AI Pizzas : Artificial Intelligence Goes From Looking at Pizza Photos to Perfect Pizza Cooking with AI MIT's prestigious Computer Science and...

MIT's New Robot that Helps Humans Lift Heavy Loads Sourc:  MIT Human-Machine Collaboration This is a leading edge example of an AI enabled robot helping humans lift heavy objects.  The robot has just been unveiled at MIT and it points the way to the future of human and robots collaborating to get jobs done more quickly and easily.  For details, go to Important Innovations Collection: Robot Helps You Lift Objects : New MIT Robot Shares Lifting Objects with Humans Source:  MIT Sharing the Load with a Robot MIT's latest robot helps you lift he...

Shape-Changing Wing that Adjusts to Flight Conditions Game-changing Aviation Technology and Fabrication Engineers at NASA and MIT have created a radical, new airplane wing that changes shape for optimal functionality during takeoff, landing, cruising and maneuvering.  Behind the innovation is a new fabrication process that holds promise for other engineering construction such as bridges and blades for wind turbines.  This is important new innovation.  For more details go to Important Innovations Collection: NASA-MIT Radical Airplane Wing : Shape-Shifting in Flight Source:  NASA New Way of Fabricating NASA and MIT engineers have created a radically new kind of airplane ...

New Innovation from MIT, DARPA and Harvard's Wyss Institute Source:  MIT Magic Ball Soft Robotic Gripper New Soft Gripper Robotic Hand The team from MIT, DARPA and Harvard's Wyss Institute have innovated a new piece of robotic soft gripping.  A technology that can pick up a tiny piece of broccoli to a much more heavy drone.  The soft, Magic Ball Robot gripper gently lifts objects up to 100 times its weight.  The concept that inspired the team comes from origami. Components Magic Ball is a soft, flexible cone structure with airtight skin and attached to a vacuum pump.  The cone flexes to fit around the object and the vacuum tightens it.  It's worked well in testing. Potential uses include packing and shipping.

MIT-Harvard Smart Pill Source:  MIT Radical New Technology:  a Pill that Delivers Insulin A small pill has been invented by an MIT-Harvard research team that attaches to the lining of the stomach and delivers insulin.  Designed for those with Type One diabetes, the pill has been tested and performs as well as insulin injections.  It could be a very attractive alternative to insulin injections for diabetics.  Global experts are calling it exciting, "radical new technology".  For a news blog on it, go to my journalist colleague Ed Kane's blog at Important Innovations Collection: MIT-Harvard Smart Pill : Pill Microneedle Source:  MIT Radically New Technology Delivers Insulin Harvard, MIT and insulin manufacturer Novo Nordisk have inven...

Expands and Monitors Stomach Health MIT E-Pill MIT has developed an ingestible e-pill that is jello-like and expands just like a pufferfish.  It stops in the stomach in place to take readings overtime. This new e-pill overcomes the limits of other e-pills that just past through the system. New, Expanding E-Pill  Monitor This is a medical device at the cutting edge.  Composed of two types of hydrogels, the pill expands to take stomach readings for thirty days.  It's a quickly expanding pill to monitor your stomach health.  It's been tested in animals and its sensors stay in place for 30 days to monitor the stomach. Other Potential Use The MIT team believes several e-pills expanding in the stomach could serve as a weight loss system.  The jello like substance would make the stomach feel full and reduce appetite.  This cutting edge innovation is under development and testing for commercial applications.

MIT Robot Plays Jenga Source:  MIT Remarkable Robotics MIT's latest robot is being called a new kind of intelligent robot.  It uses vision and touch to play Jenga, which requires an understanding of the forces of physics such as push, pull and spatial arrangement.  Through machine learning, the  new robot has interactive perception and sophisticated manipulation.  For a great news story on this, go to Important Innovations Collection: Jenga Playing Robot : Highly Advanced, New Kind of Robot Courtesy:  MIT MIT Robot Has Interactive Perception & Sophisticated Manipulation to Play Jenga ...

Robot Explorers Enabled by MIT Algorithm to Calculate Risks vs. Opportunities Source:  MIT Breakthrough New Algorithm for Intelligent Robot Explorers MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute engineers have just created an algorithm that enables marine robots to calculate the risks versus the opportunity of exploring remote ocean regions for scientific research.  This is groundbreaking science.  The researchers believe it could enable fleets of explorer robots to pursue discoveries in the ocean, space and on earth, all the while calculating whether the risks are worth taking.  For a great news blog on this, go to Important Innovations Collection: MIT's New Robot Explorers Calculate Risk : Daring Bands of Robot Explorers for Ocean, Space and Earth Source:  MIT Algorithm Breakthrough by MIT and Woods Hole Oceanograp...

MIT's Laser Beam Speech Messaging to Your Targeted Ear Source:  Laser Beam Speech MIT Laser Beam Speech - Breakthrough Innovation It's being called Laser beam speech and is a revolutionary form of messaging.  It's just been developed by scientists at MIT's Lincoln Labs.  It is a new laser system that can send an audio message such as voice, music or tone, to a selected person's ear by laser light without anyone else detecting or receiving it. MIT scientists say it's safe and can target an individual in any location. It's an incredible innovation.  For a news blog on it, go to Important Innovations Collection: MIT Laser Sends Sound Messages : Transmitting Sound By Light to Your Selected Recipient Source:  MIT Breakthrough Laser System from MIT This is breakthrough technol...

Environmental Innovation - Ink & Paint Made from Exhaust System Pollution Source: Grafiky's  KAALINK System Retrofitted to a Diesel Generator MIT Spinoff Company's Tech has Cleaned Nearly 2 Trillion Liters of Air This is remarkable innovation, ingenuity and engineering.  MIT spinoff company Graviky Labs is rolling out a patent-pending device called Air-Ink.  The technology attaches to the exhaust system of cars, diesel generators, vehicles and machines and converts the captured pollution into ink and paints.  The bedrock technology underlying the system is called KAALINK.  It's extraordinary innovation, beneficial to the environment, in the advanced prototype stage.  For a detailed news blog by my journalist colleague Ed Kane on this, go to  https://importantinnovationscollection.blogspot.com/2018/12/air-ink-pollution-to-ink.html

Wireless, Ingestible E-Pill Controlled by Smart Phone Source:  MIT Electronic Capsule Delivers Drug Therapies and Monitors Body Environment with Sensors MIT researchers, along with scientists from Brigham & Women's Hospital and Draper Labs, have just invented an ingestible, wireless electronic pill that's controlled by smart phone.  This breakthrough device can deliver drug therapies, monitor body conditions and provide the information to both patient and doctors on their smart phones.  Journalist Ed Kane has just posted a fascinating blog on this breakthrough innovation  https://importantinnovationscollection.blogspot.com/2018/12/ingestible-electronic-pill-smartphone.html

Creates Highly Realistic 3D Images Source:  Google showing 2D & 3D images Google & MIT Research Team Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and Google have created a next generation AI system capable of creating 3D shapes with realistic texture, lighting and reflections. VON It's called VON or Visual Objects Network.  It not only generates images more realistic than most state of the art systems.  It also enables texture and shape editing, viewpoint shifts and other 3 dimensional tweaking. 3D & 2D Most systems focus on generating 2D images, which limits their practical use in many fields.  VON synthesizes 3D shapes and 2D images.  The researchers next step is fine modeling for producing shapes and images at a higher resolution, disentangling texture into lighting and appearance and synthesizing natural scenes.  Their research was just presented and accepted at NeurlPS 2018 in Montreal.

Robots Navigating Like Humans Photo:  Courtesy of  MIT Going from A to B with a Motion Plan MIT researchers have developed a way to enable robots to navigate environments in the same way that humans do.  In simulations the robot moves through a crowded room by exploring the environment, observing what others are doing and exploring what it's learned from other situations. Robot with Hybrid Brain They've done this by combining a  planning algorithm with a neural network that learns to identify paths to best outcomes and uses the knowledge to guide the robots actions.   It's a novel motion planning model.  Until now, robots have struggled with navigational concepts. CSAIL & McGovern Brain Institute Research The MIT researchers are from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab and the McGovern Institute for brain, mind and machine research.  They just presented their discoveries to the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Syst

Deep Angel Part Art, Tech & Philosophy MIT's Media Lab has created artificial intelligence that deletes.  It's called Deep Angel.  It erases objects from photographs.  MIT says it's part art, part technology and part Philosophy. Disappearing Act With this new artificial intelligence, you can explore the future of automated media manipulation by uploading your own photo or submitting a public Instagram account to the AI. As you can see in the photo, Deep Angel disappears things from  images.  It also detects fakes. Aesthetics of Absence To quote MIT:  "Beyond manipulation Deep Angel enables you to uncover the aesthetics of absence.  What happens when we can remove things from the world around us?"  Intriguing AI and a unique vision of the future.