Boston.com reporter Ross Cristantiello writes that MIT researchers have developed a new augmented reality headset that combines computer vision and wireless perception to allow users to track and find objects hidden from view. “The system relies on radio frequency signals that can pass through everyday materials like cardboard, plastic, and wood,” Cristantiello explains.
A new study conducted by Prof. Albert Saiz and his colleagues has found “for housing access to improve in Mexico, financial support such as mortgages or subsidies, along with greater buy-in from local governments and the private sector, is key,” writes Kylie Madry for Reuters.
MIT engineers have developed an augmented reality headset that uses RFID technology to allow wearers to find objects, reports Tony Ho Tran for The Daily Beast. “The device is intended to assist workers in places like e-commerce warehouses and retail stores to quickly find and identify objects,” writes Tran. “It can also help technicians find tools and items they need to assemble products.”
An augmented reality headset developed by MIT engineers, called X-AR, uses RFID technology to help users find hidden objects, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. “X-AR’s creators were able to guide users with nearly 99 percent accuracy to items scattered throughout a warehouse testing environment,” writes Paul. “When those products were hidden within boxes, the X-AR still even boasted an almost 92 percent accuracy rate.”
Washington Post reporter Michael Andor Brodeur spotlights Prof. Tod Machover’s work exploring the concepts and techniques needed to advance the future of music, including using AI to help “exponentially increase access to music and creative tools for making it.” Machover explains that to him “pieces of music aren’t just pieces of sound. They’re because some human being thought something was important to communicate and express.”
Associate Prof. Sarah Williams speaks with Erin Langer at Metropolis about the Civic Data Design Lab’s Motivational Tapestry, a large woven art piece that uses data from the United Nations World Food Program to visually represent the individual motivations of 1,624 Central Americans who have migrated to the U.S. “By allowing a dialogue to open up and be less defensive, art allows us to understand and conceptualize an issue from a different vantage point,” explains Williams.
Researchers from the MIT Center for Real Estate Research and elsewhere have found that high carbon dioxide levels can contribute to students achieving lower scores on standardized tests, reports Brandon Kochkodin for Forbes. “Poor air quality is a widespread issue that seems to affect the bulk of the student population,” says Prof. Juan Palacios.
Postdoctoral Fellow Lydia Harrington and Boston University Postdoctoral Associate Chloe Bordewich speak with WBUR reporter Yasmin Amer about their exhibit at the MIT Rotch Library on Boston's former Little Syria neighborhood. “We want to show very positive things that Syrians brought with them, as well as their contributions to Boston,” says Harrington. “We wanted to show things in the exhibit that showed everyday life and well-known people in the neighborhood.”
Researchers at MIT have developed underwater robotic structures that can contort into different shapes, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. “This ability is key in submersible robots, since it allows them to move through the water much more efficiently, as countless varieties of fish do in rivers, lakes, and the open ocean,” explains Paul.
MIT AgeLab director Joseph Coughlin writes for Forbes that Tom Brady’s second retirement from the NFL demonstrates how those planning for retirement “need to plan for longevity, not the one-and-done retirement we think of today.” Coughlin adds: “Planning for your retirement years means identifying the many different retirements you may have in what has been incorrectly defined as a single life stage and experience. Maybe it will be a traditional retirement, but maybe it won’t.”
MIT researchers have developed a new system for creating deformable underwater robots that can be used to build robots of varying shapes and sizes with both hard and soft elements, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. “The robot is largely hollow, built of modular voxels that can be assembled to create systems that are rigid in certain directions and soft in others,” Heater explains.
MIT researchers have found that air pollution can impact the performance of chess players, reports Sharon Udasin for The Hill. "With just a modest rise in pollution levels, the researchers saw that a player’s probability of making an error increased by 2.1 percentage points,” Udasin writes.
Prof. Juan Palacios speaks with The Guardian reporter Helena Horton about how air pollution can lead to more mistakes in chess players. “We find that when individuals are exposed to higher levels of air pollution, they make more mistakes, and they make larger mistakes,” says Palacios.
Prof. David Hsu speaks with WBUR reporter Paula Moura about the importance of providing equitable access to electric vehicle charging stations. “The city definitely should provide equal access to services to everybody,” says Hsu. “There are barriers to doing that, but the government’s job is to overcome those barriers for everybody.”
Postdoctoral fellow Timur Abbiasov speaks with Guardian reporter Henry Grabar about his research examining the relationship in neighborhoods between local errands and the geography of amenities. Abbiasov and his colleagues found that “the more commerce, parks and services in a neighborhood, the more people travelled locally, whether in the country’s most walkable cities or its least.”