Writing for Popular Mechanics, Eric Limer highlights how the updated Cheetah 3 robot can navigate by feeling its way around its environment and can leap up onto tables. Limer explains that the robotic cheetah is, “able to rear back on its hind legs, leap into the air, and make a solid landing on a platform much taller than it is.”
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that Prof. Sangbae Kim and his research group robotic cheetah can now run up the stairs and walk over debris without the use of cameras or sensors. Heater explains that the robot, “utilizes a pair of new algorithms — contact detection and model-predictive control — which help it recover its balance in the case of slippage.”
CSAIL researchers have created a deep learning system that can isolate individual musical instruments in a video by clicking on the specific instrument, writes Andrew Liszewski for Gizmodo. The researchers suggest the system, “could be a vital tool when it comes to remixing and remastering older performances where the original recordings no longer exist,” explains Liszewski.
Researchers from MIT’s Little Devices Lab have developed Lego-like devices that can perform diagnostic tests, writes UPI reporter Allen Cone. The devices could significantly reduce the cost of diagnostic tests and as they don't require refrigeration or special handling, “they could be particularly useful in the developing world.”
Verge reporter Rachel Becker writes that MIT researchers have developed a robotic cheetah that can run up the stairs and navigate without the use of cameras. Becker explains that the Cheetah 3 robot navigates its environment by touch, which could allow it to, “venture where humans can’t — like deep inside power plants for inspections.”
Katharine Schwab of Co.Design highlights graduate student Joy Buolamwini and Visiting Scholar J. Nathan Matias as “design heroes” for their commitment to keep technology fair. Schwab writes that Buolamwini has forced companies “to develop better, more equitable technology” while Matias helped “reduced the prevalence of fake news.”
BBC Click reporter Gareth Mitchell speaks with postdoc Oggi Rudovic about his work developing a system that allows autism therapy robots to help teach children how to decipher different emotions. Rudovic explains that the technology can “assist the therapist and also to make the whole therapy process engaging for the child.”
In an article for The Boston Globe about the growing interest in space exploration, Hiawatha Bray highlights how MIT researchers have pushed the field forward. Bray notes that places like MIT helped the US win the space race and, “continue as major centers of space research. And the ideas emerging from their labs may help our region punch above its weight.”
BBC News reporter Jane Wakefield writes about Dormio, a new device developed by Media Lab researchers that awakens users before they enter deep sleep in an attempt to study the period between wakefulness and deep sleep. “I see a future in which sleep is more useful and more accessible to us, where we understand it better," says graduate student Adam Haar Horowitz.
In this video, Prof. Canan Dagdeviren speaks with STAT about her group’s work developing a new, self-powered implantable device that can be used to relay information about the human body. “The physical patterns of human beings contain information in coded ways, and we would like to decode and understand what these patterns are telling us,” Dagdeviren explains.
Popular Mechanics reporter David Grossman writes that MIT researchers have developed a new system that helps robots used in autism therapy better estimate how engaged a child is during an interaction. Grossman explains that, “using the personalized algorithm, the robot was able to correctly interpret a child's reaction 60 percent of the time.”
MIT researchers have developed a new waterproof coating method that is safer for both the environment and humans, reports Brooks Hays for UPI. Lab tests showed the coating, “works to waterproof a variety of fabrics and materials against a variety of liquids,” Hays explains.
Prof. Amy Finkelstein speaks with WBUR’s Carey Goldberg about her study showing only a small amount of Medicare spending goes end-of-life care. Finkelstein explains, “there is very little Medicare spending on people with high probability of dying. And part of that is just that it's very, very hard to predict who is going to die.”
STAT reporter Orly Nadell Farber writes about a new study by Prof. Amy Finkelstein that challenges the widely held assumption that a large portion of Medicare spending goes towards end-of-life care. “We spend money on sick people — some of them die, some of them recover,” says Finkelstein. “Maybe some recover, in part, because of what we spent on them.”
In an article for Wired about distracted driving, Aarian Marshall highlights how MIT researchers are studying how drivers use new automated driving systems. “This is about human-centered development: leveraging the human element and integrating it with advances in automation,” explains Research Engineer Bryan Reimer.