“MIT's Mediated Matter Group has figured out a way to put molten glass through a 3D printer, creating beautiful sculptures,” writes Mary Beth Griggs for Popular Science. The printer lays down individual layers of melted glass, bringing it up to a finished sculpture.
MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm that can prevent overexposed photos, reports Devin Coldewey for NBC News. The algorithm reconstructs the “parts of the image that would have been too bright, recovering a blue sky or reflection on a shiny object.”
MIT researchers have developed a technique that can eliminate the washed-out spots found in overexposed images, reports Curt Woodward for BetaBoston. The technique could not only be used in photography, but could also be used for other applications like helping a “self-driving car stay on course despite quick light changes, such as entering a tunnel.”
Olga Khazan writes for The Atlantic about work being done at the MIT Media Lab to create “smart” office furniture that would transform to meet the needs of workers at different times during the day. “Maybe our two desks should get together and create a room for us,” hypothesizes research affiliate Hasier Larrea.
Catherine Pearson writes for The Huffington Post about the Gala Pump, a compression breast pump designed by Kohana Inc. at MIT’s “make the breast pump not suck” hackathon: “Kohana has run a small clinical trial with 30 moms and says the majority of those women preferred The Gala to their vacuum pumps.”
The Economist highlights Prof. César Hidalgo’s new book, which examines how economies grow. “His aim is nothing less than to lay out a universal theory of information—one that applies to everything, from the lifeless to the living, and to all scales, from atoms to economies.”
This Scientific American editorial revisits an op-ed by Professor César Hidalgo in which he argued against those who are critical of big data. Critics “ignore areas where big data has made substantial progress, such as data-rich Web sites, information visualization and machine learning,” wrote Hidalgo.
Liat Clark writes for Wired about Brian Forde, the Media Lab’s director for digital currency, and his speech at WIRED Money 2015 about the potential of digital currency for developing countries. "Today, in 2015, I still can't use Paypal to send money to friends in Nicaragua," said Forde. "But I can send them Bitcoin instantly."
Wired reporter Liat Clark writes that researchers at the MIT Media Lab have developed a 3-D printed biological wearable that “could theoretically generate drugs, fuel and food when exposed to sunlight.”
Professor César Hidalgo discusses his new book “Why Information Grows” with James Ball of The Guardian. “Most people think of information as messages that communicate the state of a system,” says Hidalgo. “Information actually is physical and it is not only involved in messages but is also involved in objects.”
Washington Post reporter Dominic Basulto features Professor César Hidalgo’s book, “Why Information Grows” on his recommended summer reading list for “innovation junkies.” Basulto writes that in his book Hidalgo explains that, “there’s an important correlation between information growth and economic growth, and between economic complexity and national competitiveness.”
Andy Greenberg of Wired writes that researchers from the MIT Media Lab have developed a system called “Enigma” designed to achieve “homomorphic” encryption. “You can see it as a black box,” says Guy Zyskind, one of Enigma’s creators. “You send whatever data you want, and it runs in the black box and only returns the result.”
Professor César Hidalgo writes for The Huffington Post about his new book “Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies.” Hidalgo explains his view that, “by understanding economies as computers we get much more than a predictive theory of future economic growth.”
Washington Post reporter Matt McFarland writes that researchers in the CityFARM group, which is devoted to developing scalable urban farming systems, hope to start an open-source movement for vertical farming. Caleb Harper, founder of CityFARM, explains that his focus “is on getting the tools out there.”
Graduate student Tristan Swedish has devised a concept for a device that allows patients to photograph their retinas, according to The Economist. Swedish hopes the device could allow, “people to monitor themselves and, if there are any warning signs, to be advised to see a doctor.”