Welcome to the February 10, 2023, edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.
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Israel First Responders in Turkey Use Real-Time Tech for Remote Victim Care
Times of Israel
Sharon Wrobel
February 9, 2023
Emergency responders from Israel dispatched to Turkey following the recent earthquake are using cloud-based technology created by Israeli-founded startup Carbyne to share real-time location data, video, and images with remote medical teams in Israel. Zohar Eli at Israeli emergency response nonprofit United Hatzalah said volunteers using Carbyne's system send accurate data to dispatchers, who employ the system's video capabilities "to get better visibility into events on the ground to conduct consultations and provide accurate remote assistance." Emergency responders and remote volunteers use real-time information displayed on a dashboard at the call center to consult with doctors and other Israel-based professional entities on rescue operations conducted in the field.
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Quantum Breakthrough Could Revolutionize Computing
BBC News
Pallab Ghosh
February 8, 2023
Scientists at the U.K.'s Sussex University have achieved new speed and accuracy records in transferring quantum information between computer chips, which marks a new step toward multitasking quantum computers. The system can transport information chip-to-chip with 99.999993% reliability at record speeds. The researchers said this demonstrates that chips could be fitted together to serve as a more powerful quantum computer. Said Sussex's Winifred Hensinger, "What we have achieved here is the ability to realize extremely powerful quantum computers capable of solving some of the most important problems for industries and society."
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AI Technology Could Benefit Future Super Bowl Opponents
BYU News
Todd Hollingshead
February 7, 2023
Brigham Young University (BYU) researchers have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm that eventually could help football teams predict an opposing team's strategy. The algorithm uses deep learning and computer vision to automate the process of analyzing and annotating game footage. The researchers used 1,000 images and videos from the Madden 2020 video game to train a deep-learning algorithm to locate players. The data was then fed into a Residual Network framework to identify the players' positions. The location and position information is used by the neural network to identify the offensive team's formation. BYU's D.J. Lee said that with correct player location and labeling information, the algorithm is 99.5% accurate in identifying formations.
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Cosmic Rays Can 3D-Scan Nuclear Reactors
IEEE Spectrum
Charles Q. Choi
February 8, 2023
Researchers at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission found that muography can be used to generate three-dimensional (3D) images of the internal structures of nuclear reactors. Muography, which involves capturing muons (particles generated by cosmic rays hitting Earth's atmosphere) as they pass through an object, previously was limited to producing two-dimensional (2D) images of complex objects. The researchers used muography to scan the G2 reactor in Marcoule, France, using four muon telescopes. They produced 27 scans from over 20 locations around the reactor, then employed a tomography reconstruction algorithm to assemble the 2D scans into a 3D map of the reactor's internal structure, which closely matched known models of the reactor in terms of dimensions and shapes.
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The People Onscreen Are Fake. The Disinformation Is Real.
The New York Times
Adam Satariano; Paul Mozur
February 7, 2023
Two news anchors for an outlet called Wolf News that were featured in videos posted last year by social media bot accounts were computer-generated avatars used for a pro-China disinformation campaign, according to Graphika, a research firm that studies disinformation. Graphika's Jack Stubbs said, "This is the first time we've seen this in the wild." Stubbs said the availability of easy-to-use and inexpensive artificial intelligence (AI) software "makes it easier to produce content at scale." The fake anchors were created using Synthesia's AI software, which generates "digital twins" primarily used for human resources and training videos. Synthesia's Victor Riparbelli said it is increasingly difficult to detect disinformation and that deepfake technology eventually will be advanced enough to "build a Hollywood film on a laptop."
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Clearing Up Cloudy Data for Satellite Imagery
UConn Today
Anna Zarra Aldrich
February 6, 2023
An image-compositing algorithm developed by University of Connecticut (UConn) researchers fills data gaps in satellite images created by cloud cover. Using a ratio index of two spectral bands, the algorithm fills the holes in the data by choosing the "best" observation from several options for the same location. The researchers also developed a framework to evaluate various methods for filling in gaps based on what is being measured. They evaluated their algorithm against nine other methods by determining how closely each algorithm's composite image matched a hidden cloud-free image based on spectral, spatial, and application fidelity. The new algorithm was found to be the best for generating composite images for a short time span.
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Exascale Supercomputer Can Do a Quintillion Calculations a Second
Scientific American
Sarah Scoles
February 9, 2023
Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Frontier supercomputer, the world's first declared exascale computer, can perform one quintillion calculations per second and is 2.5 times faster than the world's second-fastest computer. Frontier, which came online last year, will soon be joined by exascale supercomputers El Capitan at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory. While the primary goal of these devices is to run calculations to help maintain the nuclear weapons stockpile overseen by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, they also will be used to solve intractable problems in pure science.
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Brain-Inspired Computing System Based on Skyrmions 'Reads' Handwriting
RIKEN (Japan)
February 9, 2023
Researchers at Japan's RIKEN institute trained a computing device that processes data using tiny magnetic whirlpools called skyrmions to identify handwritten numbers. The brain-inspired device employs the reservoir computing model, whose output relies on both past and present inputs in a form of short-term memory. The skyrmions' structure and behavior mirror earlier exposure to magnetic fields, creating an inherent memory effect. The researchers fed the device more than 13,000 images of handwritten digits from 0 to 9 rendered as magnetic input signals. Tests on another 5,000 images showed the device could recognize the numbers with approximately 95% accuracy.
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TikTok's Secret Sauce Poses Challenge for U.S. Oversight
The Wall Street Journal
Ryan Tracy; Georgia Wells
February 8, 2023
U.S. policymakers are concerned that China could potentially influence the content Americans consume using the TikTok video application. TikTok says it has offered database management company Oracle the means to access its core algorithm's code to check for government interference, yet some officials and scientists say determining why the algorithm emphasizes or deemphasizes content is technically challenging. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) on the Senate Intelligence Committee said much of the program's code would still be produced in Beijing. Social media researchers said even if TikTok's overseers could keep pace with constant code revisions, they also would require detailed data on how the algorithm screened and rated the deluge of videos.
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Japan Rolls Out 'Humble, Lovable' Delivery Robots
France24
February 8, 2023
Japanese robotics companies are testing autonomous delivery robots to address a shortage of delivery workers, while hoping to eventually use the robots to help seniors in depopulated rural regions access goods. DeliRO robots deployed by Tokyo-based robotics company ZMP are remotely monitored by people ready to intervene when necessary; they sport large eyes that can look forlorn if pedestrians are in their way. ZMP's Hisashi Taniguchi said the robots must be "humble and lovable" so humans will trust them. Revised traffic laws will allow delivery robots to travel streets across Japan starting in April. Yutaka Uchimura at Japan's Shibaura Institute of Technology said traffic rules set a maximum speed of six kilometers (four miles) per hour for the robots, making the chances of injurious collision with them "relatively small."
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Digital Twin for Intense Weather Gives Scientists 'Control Loop'
ZDNet
Tiernan Ray
February 7, 2023
Scientists at artificial intelligence computing developer Cerebras and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) said they can model extreme weather by accelerating field equations. Said Cerebras' Andrew Feldman, "This is a real-time simulation of the behavior of fluids with different volumes in a dynamic environment." He explained this digital twin of real-world conditions basically enables a "control loop" for manipulating reality. Cerebras' CS-2 supercomputer can model the Rayleigh-Bénard convection process caused by fluids being heated from the bottom and cooled from the top, while the Cerebras-NETL Wafer Scale Engine field equation application programming interface describes scientific equations. The partners said, "The simulation is expected to run several hundred times faster than what is possible on traditional distributed computers, as has been previously demonstrated with similar workloads."
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Algorithm Detects Autism in Infants
USA Today
Karen Weintraub
February 8, 2023
Duke University researchers trained an algorithm on the electronic medical records of 45,000 children to detect signs of autism in infants. The algorithm predicts which babies would become autistic, differentiating them from those who developed attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or other neurodevelopmental conditions. Duke's Matthew Engelhard said the researchers focused on the model's performance in groups of children that traditional screening methods often miss, including girls, children of color, and children with combined autism/ADHD diagnoses. Duke's Geraldine Dawson said a computer collecting information as a child receives healthcare could alert a pediatrician that an autism diagnosis is more likely "based on the child's pattern of utilization."
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Compact, Non-Mechanical 3D LiDAR System Could Make Autonomous Driving Safer
Optica
February 9, 2023
Researchers at Japan's Kyoto University have developed a palm-sized non-mechanical three-dimensional (3D) LiDAR system that combines the capabilities of conventional beam-scanning LiDAR systems and flash LiDAR to improve the safety of autonomous driving. Comprised of a dually modulated photonic-crystal laser (DM-PCSEL) and a time-of-flight camera, the system can measure the distance and automatically track the motion of poorly reflective objects. Said Kyoto University's Susumu Noda, "The DM-PCSEL integrates non-mechanical, electronically controlled beam scanning with flash illumination used in flash LiDAR to acquire a full 3D image with a single flash of light. This unique source allows us to achieve both flash and scanning illumination without any moving parts or bulky external optical elements, such as lenses and diffractive optical elements."
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