Electrical engineering and computer science (EECS)

“Researchers have developed an algorithm that can use visual signals from videos to reconstruct sound and have used it to recover intelligible speech from a video,” writes Katie Collins for Wired about an algorithm developed by a team of MIT researchers that can derive speech from material vibrations.

Rachel Feltman of The Washington Post examines the new MIT algorithm that can reconstruct sound by examining the visual vibrations of sound waves. “This is a new dimension to how you can image objects,” explains graduate student Abe Davis. 

In a piece for Popular Science, Douglas Main writes on the new technique developed by MIT researchers that can reconstruct speech from visual information. The researchers showed that, “an impressive amount of information about the audio (although not its content) could also be recorded with a regular DSLR that films at 60 frames per second.”

Hal Hodson of New Scientist reports on the new algorithm developed by MIT researchers that can turn visual images into sound. "We were able to recover intelligible speech from maybe 15 feet away, from a bag of chips behind soundproof glass," explains Abe Davis, a graduate student at MIT. 

Michael Morisy writes for BetaBoston about an algorithm developed by MIT researchers that can recreate speech by analyzing material vibrations. “The sound re-creation technique typically required cameras shooting at thousands of frames per second,” writes Morisy.

Jane Porter writes for Fortune about WiTricity, an MIT spinout focused on the development of wireless power-transfer technology. By using vibrational frequencies, electricity can be transferred over distances of up to four feet.

Boston Magazine reporter Steve Annear writes about a new robot, designed by MIT undergraduate Patrick McCabe, that can play the game Connect Four. “It’s kind of a magical thing with computer science and technology, being able to leverage that to actually make something smarter than you are,” said McCabe of the device, which can beat its creator.

Wired reporter Margaret Rhodes writes about a new system developed by MIT researchers that uses drones as lighting assistants for photographs. The system operates by examining, “how much light is hitting the subject, and where the drone needs to move to adjust that light.”

Ben Coxworth of Gizmag writes about the new system developed by MIT researchers that allows photographers to achieve rim lighting during photo shoots. “Their system not only does away with light stands, but the light-equipped aircraft automatically moves to compensate for movements of the model or photographer,” writes Coxworth.

In a piece for Fortune, Benjamin Snyder writes about how MIT researchers have developed a new system to help achieve the perfect lighting for photo shoots. Flying robots are programmed to produce rim lighting, which illuminates the edge of the subject in a photograph. 

Katie Collins writes for Wired that MIT researchers have developed a system that allows people to choose exactly what information they share online. “The primary benefit of this is that you as an individual would not be able to be identified from an anonymised dataset,” writes Collins.

“They've created an app which recasts mediocre headshots in the styles of famous portrait photographers like Richard Avedon and Diane Arbus- and in the process reveals how subtle shifts in lighting can completely change the way we perceive a face,” writes Boston Globe reporter Kevin Hartnett. 

Boston Globe reporter Kevin Hartnett writes about a new algorithm developed by a team of MIT researchers that can camouflage eyesores. The algorithm, “analyzes pictures of incongruous objects and creates custom camouflage that makes them fade into their surroundings,” Hartnett explains. 

Live Science reporter Tanya Lewis highlights Shigeru Miyagawa’s work exploring the origins of human language. Miyagawa's hypothesis, “could explain how human language, which can theoretically produce infinite meanings, developed from the limited forms of communication seen in the rest of the animal world,” Lewis reports. 

Jeremy Hobson interviews Prof. Sangeeta Bhatia about her work 3-D printing tiny human livers on NPR’s Here and Now. The livers are, “about the size of the pin of a needle, and they allow us to do drug testing to test if drugs would be safe when they got into humans,” Bhatia explains.