CSAIL researchers have found that if drivers could maintain an equal distance between cars they would be able to reduce the number of traffic jams, reports Matt Burgess for Wired. The researchers found that, “by adding sensors to the back of cars that take into account the speed of following vehicles, it will be possible to better regulate traffic.”
Researchers in the MIT Senseable City Lab have partnered with the City of Cambridge to gather information about air pollution, infrastructure decay, and traffic, writes Haniya Rae for CityLab. The researchers have outfitted five garbage trucks with “accelerometers, air-quality sensors, infrared cameras, and wireless signal monitors,” in an effort to “collect data on the state of the city.”
In an article for Scientific American about the future of robotics, Prof. Emeritus Rodney Brooks highlights Prof. Dina Katabi’s work developing devices that use wireless signals to detect a person’s emotions.
STAT reporter Eric Boodman writes that MIT researchers have engineered living materials that glow when they detect certain chemicals. Boodman notes that the researchers hope the living sensors “could at some point be used to pick up dangerous toxins or the chemical signs of disease.”
Prof. Daniela Rus speaks to the BBC’s Gareth Mitchell about the robots developed by CSAIL that can modify their behavior based on brain waves detected by a human operator. “We imagine operating prosthetic devices, a wheelchair, even autonomous vehicles,” says Prof. Rus.
CSAIL researchers have developed a system that allows robots to correct their mistakes based on input from the brainwaves of human operators, reports Wired’s Matt Simon. “It’s a new way of controlling the robot,” explains Prof. Daniela Rus, “in the sense that we aim to have the robot adapt to what the human would like to do.”
Anthony Cuthbertson of Newsweek writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a system that allows robots to change their actions based on feedback from the brain waves of a human operator. “Imagine robots or smartphones that could immediately correct themselves when you realize they’re making a mistake,” says PhD candidate Joseph DelPreto.
CSAIL researchers have developed a system that allows robots to detect brain signals generated by human operators, writes Oscar Williams of Huffington Post. The researchers hope the new system could “pave the way for more seamless interactions between robots and humans.”
A feedback system developed by CSAIL researchers allows humans to correct a robot’s mistakes using brain signals, writes Janet Burns for Forbes. The system could be used as a “communication method for those who can't use verbal means, such as immobilized or even 'locked in' victims of paralysis,” explains Burns.
MIT researchers have developed a device that allows humans to guide robots using brainwaves, reports Clive Cookson for the Financial Times. The prototype brain-computer interface “enables a human observer to transmit an immediate error message to a robot, telling it to fix a mistake when it does something wrong.”
New Scientist reporter Matt Reynolds writes that MIT researchers have developed a new brain-computer interface that enables people to correct robots’ mistakes using brain signals. “We’re taking baby steps towards having machines learn about us, and having them adjust to what we think,” explains Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL.
Nima, a startup founded by alumni Shireen Yates and Scott Sundvor, has been named to CNBC’s list of 25 promising start-ups for its portable food allergy detector, reports Ashley McHugh-Chiappone. “I just wanted a quick, easy way to test a piece of the dish and see for myself if it was gluten-free," says Yates of her inspiration for the device.
Daniel Akst of The Wall Street Journal writes about the wearable device developed by CSAIL researchers that can detect the emotional tone of a conversation. The researchers “are pushing the boundaries by training a computer to take account of such a wide range of factors in making judgments about emotion,” writes Akst.
Science Friday reporter Ira Flatow and Motherboard reporter Daniel Oberhaus discuss a wearable device developed by CSAIL researchers that can detect the emotional tone of a conversation. Oberhaus explains that the researchers hope the device could one day be “applied with much finer emotional granularity, to the point where you can tell if the story was exciting or funny.”
Researchers at MIT have designed a new living material infused with cells that could one day be used as a wearable sensor, writes Brooks Hays for UPI. The researchers used the new material to “design gloves and bandages that light up when they come in contact with target chemicals.”