Welcome to the December 16, 2022, edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.
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Fossil-Sorting Robots Could Advance Ocean Studies
The Engineer
December 13, 2022
The Forabot developed by researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and the University of Colorado, Boulder can sort, handle, and classify microscopic marine fossils. The device uses robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to manipulate remnants of organisms called forams for isolation, imaging, and identification. NCSU's Edgar Lobaton said the robot can identify six different foram varieties with 79% accuracy and can process 27 forams an hour. Forabot is assembled from relatively inexpensive commercially available components, and Lobaton said the researchers are open sourcing its designs and AI software "so that [Forabot] can be used by as many researchers as possible to advance our understanding of oceans, biodiversity, and climate."
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Blockchain Fails to Gain Traction in the Enterprise
The Wall Street Journal
Isabelle Bousquette
December 15, 2022
Blockchain technology's widespread enterprise adoption has failed to materialize, with a project by Danish shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk and IBM's TradeLens to create a shipment-tracking platform the latest to be discontinued. Blockchain's complexity, the time needed to get a blockchain running, and problems recruiting participants have stymied major initiatives. IBM's Kathryn Guarini said blockchain demands changes to technology and business models that are difficult to drive forward, adding that enterprise blockchain has taken longer to bring change to business than originally predicted. Some experts maintain smaller projects involving fewer participants, with definite returns on investment and no sector-wide transformative ambitions, could reap greater success.
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Noisy Flashing Drone Could Stop Bats Crashing into Wind Turbines
New Scientist
Jeremy Hsu
December 14, 2022
Yuval Werber and colleagues at Israel's University of Haifa invented a drone that makes noise and flashes lights to prevent bats from colliding with turbine blades at wind farms. In a 2020 test in Israel’s Hula Valley, the drone, which features lights and speakers that emit high-frequency chirps, proved effective in warding off bats. Said Werber, "We wanted [the drone's movements and cacophony] to be as random as possible and as dynamic as possible to avoid habituation, where animals just get used to it." The researchers combined radar and LiDAR to monitor the number of flying objects that were about as big as bats. Bat activity declined by roughly 40% below the drone's flight altitude and increased 50% above the drone over a three-week period.
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Light Years Ahead: Advanced Chip Shaping Ultrafast Tech Future
Monash University (Australia)
December 13, 2022
Researchers at Australia's Monash University, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and the University of Adelaide have created a technique for controlling optical circuits on photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Monash's Mike Xu said the fractional delay method helps calibrate PICs of increasing scale and complexity by adding "a common reference path to the chip, which enables stable and accurate measurements of the lengths and losses of the 'workhorse' paths." Explained Monash's Arthur Lowery, "This means we can get reliable measurements of the chip's status, so are able to accurately program it for a desired application, such as pattern recognition in an optical computer, or squeezing extra capacity from an optical communications network."
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Big Tech Companies Join Linux in Effort to Kill Google Maps
Gizmodo
Kyle Barr
December 15, 2022
Major technology companies are backing the Linux Foundation's effort to establish new open source mapping services. The Overture Maps Foundation aims to curate and collate map projects through available datasets; its supporters include Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Dutch geolocation firm TomTom. The project basically pledges to use these companies' global datasets, as well as outside resources, to compile up-to-date maps for use by developers. Linux also promised the project will put any geolocation service or map developer on an equitable level without needing to rely on costly and possibly inaccurate commercial data. "Overture's standardization and interoperable base map is fundamental to bringing geospatial information from the world together," said TomTom's Harold Goddijn.
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An Automated Way to Assemble Thousands of Objects
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Rachel Gordon
December 6, 2022
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Autodesk Research, and Texas A&M University have developed an algorithm to guide the automated assembly of thousands of objects. The model was able to resolve nearly all industrial assemblies and motions it was tested on, outperforming previous techniques on rotational assemblies such as screws and puzzles. The algorithm identifies an assembly strategy by finding a collision-free path to disassemble a structure, then reversing this pathway to produce an assembly solution from individual components. "Instead of one assembly line specifically designed for one specific product, if we can automatically figure out ways to sequence and move, we can use a fully adaptive setup," explained CSAIL's Yunsheng Tian.
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NIST Retires SHA-1 Cryptographic Algorithm
U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
December 15, 2022
Security experts at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) say the agency has retired the secure hash algorithm (SHA)-1 and recommends information technology professionals switch to more secure algorithms. SHA-1 has been in use for nearly 30 years as part of the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-1, but as it is increasingly vulnerable to ever-more-powerful computers, NIST's Chris Celi said users should migrate to the SHA-2 and SHA-3 groups of algorithms as soon as possible. NIST will discontinue use of SHA-1 in its last remaining specified protocols by Dec. 31, 2030, by which time the agency intends to publish FIPS 180-5 to remove the specification; amend NIST publications to reflect the algorithm’s phase-out, and develop and publish a transition process for validating cryptographic modules and algorithms.
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VULCAN Forges New Science for the Future of 3D-Printed Metal
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
December 8, 2022
The operando neutrons-additive manufacturing (OPeN-AM) automated robotic platform under development by the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) enables researchers to study three-dimensionally (3D)-printed metals. Installed in ORNL's VULCAN engineering diffraction instrument, OPeN-AM features a six-axis articulating robotic arm that can create welds with a welding torch or a laser, while a computer numerical control machine removes material. OPeN-AM is mounted on an adjustable platform that raises and rotates to open additional degrees of freedom in order to capture data along the X, Y, and Z axes. Cooling channels can reduce the metal's temperature to study varying conditions and to accelerate weld characterization at room temperature.
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Humans vs. Robots: The Battle Reaches a 'Turning Point'
The Washington Post
Pranshu Verma
December 10, 2022
Warehouse robots increasingly are able to grasp and sort objects of various shapes and sizes with the dexterity of human hands, thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, three-dimensional cameras, and engineering. As the technology becomes more reliable, more companies are rolling it out. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Kris Hauser characterized warehouse robots as "competent enough at this point.” Amazon has deployed its Sparrow picking-and-sorting robotic arm at a Dallas warehouse, while FedEx and Pitney Bowes are among the companies that have purchased similar robots. Yet concerns remain that robots are being used to replace human workers, and that having robots work alongside human employees can boost injury rates.
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Security Researchers Cite Theorem of Infinitely Typing Monkeys
Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany)
Julia Weiler
December 14, 2022
An international team of scientists led by Germany's Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) is developing new techniques to efficiently identify coding errors in embedded systems via a system called Fuzzware. The researchers use fuzzing algorithms to feed random inputs to software to try to crash the application. The researchers expedite the fuzzing process by narrowing down possible inputs, which RUB's Thorsten Holz said involves employing only those inputs "that the firmware expects and can handle." Holz explained the process resembles the Infinite Monkey Theorem in that the fuzzer eventually, by chance, will use meaningful inputs after enough attempts. The team tested 77 firmwares with Fuzzware, checking up to three times more code than conventional fuzzing methods in the same amount of time.
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TikTok Self-Harm Study Results 'Every Parent's Nightmare'
The Guardian
Dan Milmo; Alex Hern
December 15, 2022
A study by the U.K. non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate found that TikTok's recommendation algorithm displays content promoting self-harm and eating disorders to teens under 18. The researchers created accounts considered "standard" and "vulnerable" (those with usernames containing the term "loseweight") with the minimum age of 13, then used those accounts to "like" videos on body image, eating disorders, and mental health. They found TikTok's recommendation algorithm, in response, offered up content about suicide within three minutes, and content about eating disorders within eight minutes, on standard accounts. In comparison, the researchers found vulnerable accounts were shown such videos three times more frequently and were given 12 times as many recommendations for videos about self-harm and suicide.
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Handheld 3D Scanning of Oxford's Sheldonian Theater
University of Oxford (U.K.)
December 12, 2022
Next-generation digital mapping technology is advancing via a project that three-dimensionally (3D) scanned the Sheldonian Theater at the U.K.'s University of Oxford. Researchers at the Oxford Robotics Institute (ORI), the theater, and Liechtenstein-based construction equipment company Hilti undertook the project using a handheld scanner that can map entire buildings in hours. The device combines different sensors so simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms can work in diverse environments. The ORI researchers took four days to produce a high-resolution map of the Sheldonian with a standard survey-grade 3D laser scanner, while the handheld scanner accomplished the job in about 30 minutes.
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Using ML to Improve Toxicity Assessment of Chemicals
University of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
December 13, 2022
Researchers at the Netherlands' University of Amsterdam, Australia's University of Queensland, and the Norwegian Institute for Water Research have formulated a machine learning model to better evaluate chemical toxicities. The model forgoes Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) prediction to directly classify the acute aquatic toxicity of chemicals based on molecular descriptors. The researchers trained and tested the model with data on 907 chemicals for acute fish toxicity. The model characterized about 90% of the variance in the training set data and roughly 80% for the test set data. This decreased incorrect categorization fivefold compared to a QSAR regression model-based approach.
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