TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have developed a vibrating wearable device to help people with visual impairments navigate. “In a world where computers help us with everything from navigating space travel to counting the steps we take in a day, I think we can do better to support visually impaired people,” explains Prof. Daniela Rus.
Fortune reporter Aaron Pressman highlights how MIT researchers have developed a new wearable device to help visually impaired people navigate and avoid obstacles. Pressman writes that CSAIL researchers are, “combining cutting edge techniques from 3D cameras and image recognition software to build an automated navigation system for the visually impaired.”
Boston Herald reporter Jordan Graham writes that MIT researchers have developed a wearable device aimed at helping visually impaired users navigate their environments. The system is equipped with, “a 3-D camera, a vibration pack and an electronic braille screen that will tell users not just where things are — but what they are.”
Graduate student Joy Buolamwini speaks with Guardian reporter Ian Tucker about her work fighting algorithmic biases. Buolamwini explains that she is, “trying to identify bias, to point out cases where bias can occur so people can know what to look out for, but also develop tools where the creators of systems can check for a bias in their design.”
CSAIL researchers have developed a new system that allows camera-equipped drones to maintain certain framing parameters of an aerial shot, Sean O’Kane for The Verge. O’Kane explains that the system allows directors to define basic parameters of a shot and to alter the “settings on the fly and the drone will adjust how it’s filming accordingly.”
Boston Magazine reporter Jamie Ducharme writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a device that can measure walking speed using wireless signals. The device can “also measure stride length, which may come in handy when studying conditions that are characterized by small steps, such as Parkinson’s disease.”
Using an algorithm and a 3-D scan of a human body, Prof. Carlo Ratti designed a foldable stool that can conform to different shapes, writes Margaret Rhodes for Wired. Allowing algorithms to determine the form of each hinge, “allows you to create shapes and functions that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to,” Ratti explains.
Alumnus Peter Samson reminisces with New York Times reporter Sam Roberts about how as an MIT student he calculated the most efficient route to ride the New York City subway system. “I had previously used the computer to solve some small subway-network puzzles,” Samson recalled, “and suddenly saw a way to put all of my loves together: computers, trains and New York.”
Graduate student Carrie Cai speaks with BBC News reporter Gareth Mitchell about a tool named “WaitSuite” that can help users learn a foreign language during idle moments. Cai explains that WaitSuite, “might detect that you are waiting for WiFi and alert you to the fact that there is a word you could be learning.”
Prof. Daniela Rus speaks with Siti Rahil of Kyodo News about how researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) are working autonomous vehicles. Rus explains that a challenge facing the field is enabling driverless cars to operate in environments where "some of the cars are driven by people and some of the cars are driven automatically."
Graduate student Frank Wang speaks with WGBH reporter Ciku Theuri about an encryption system developed by MIT researchers that can provide web users more online privacy. Wang explains that the system hits a “sweet point where we can actually say … we have pretty good security and we're pretty practical.”
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee has been awarded the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Turing prize for his work developing the World Wide Web, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. “It is hard to imagine the world before Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s invention,” says ACM President Vicki Hanson.
Joel Brenner, former NSA inspector general and a research fellow at MIT, speaks to BBC reporter Gareth Mitchell about an MIT report that examines cyber security threats to the nation’s infrastructure. “You can have a digital network that’s not public,” says Brenner, “but you shouldn’t be able to get to the controls of critical infrastructure through the public internet.”
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee has been awarded the Turing Award for his work creating the World Wide Web and its underlying technology, reports Klint Finley for Wired. The web “succeeded because of the work he and so many other put into stewarding it as a platform,” writes Finley.
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee has won this year’s Turing Award, writes AP reporter Michael Liedtke. "It's a crowning achievement," says Berners-Lee of winning what is considered the Nobel prize for computing. "But I think the award is for the Web as a project, and the massive international collaborative spirit of all that have joined me to help."