Lifeboat Foundation

Editor’s note: Geoff Woollacott is Senior Strategy Consultant and Principal Analyst at Technology Business Research. IBM and NC State are coperating on quantum computing development.

HAMPTON, N.H. – JPMorgan Chase announced on Jan. 22 the hiring of Marco Pistoia from IBM. A 24-year IBM employee with numerous patents to his credit, Pistoia most recently led an IBM team responsible for quantum computing algorithms. Algorithm development will be key to developing soundly engineered quantum computing systems that can deliver the business outcomes enterprises seek at a faster and more accurate pace than current classical computing systems.

A senior hire into a flagship enterprise in the financial services industry is the proverbial canary in the coal mine, as TBR believes such actions suggest our prediction of quantum achieving economic advantage by 2021 remains on target. Quantum executives discuss the three pillars of quantum commercialization as being:

Grey hair seems to be driven by stem cell exhaustion, one of the suggested reasons we age. One researcher believes we can turn back the clock on greying hair.

Melissa Harris’s research points to a new paradigm for hair graying. “We thought that once you go gray the stem cells are all lost — there’s no going back,” Harris said. “But presumably they can be reactivated.”

Continue reading “Going gray isn’t a one-way trip? UAB researcher exploring ways to ‘rejuvenate’ gray hairs” »

Artificial intelligence helped detect an outbreak of the coronavirus one week before the CDC issued a warning.

The BlueDot algorithm scours news reports and airline ticketing data to predict the spread of diseases like those linked to the flu outbreak in China.

The algorithm lets robots find the shortest route in unfamiliar environments, opening the door to robots that can work inside homes and offices.

The news: A team at Facebook AI has created a reinforcement learning algorithm that lets a robot find its way in an unfamiliar environment without using a map. Using just a depth-sensing camera, GPS, and compass data, the algorithm gets a robot to its goal 99.9% of the time along a route that is very close to the shortest possible path, which means no wrong turns, no backtracking, and no exploration. This is a big improvement over previous best efforts.

Why it matters: Mapless route-finding is essential for next-gen robots like autonomous delivery drones or robots that work inside homes and offices. Some of the best robots available today, such as Spot and Atlas made by Boston Dynamics and Digit made by Agility Robotics, are packed with sensors that make them pretty good at keeping their balance and avoiding obstacles. But if you dropped them off at an unfamiliar street corner and left them to find their way home, they’d be screwed. While Facebook’s algorithm does not yet handle outside environments, it is a promising step in that direction and could probably be adapted to urban spaces.

A method and apparatus for ameliorating the aging process and the effects of aging and maintaining the integrity of health is provided. The method includes subjecting biological systems to alternating and steady magnetic fields having flux densities ranging from 10^-6 gauss to 10^-20 gauss and frequencies from 0 Hertz to 10¹⁴ Hertz. The calculation is made with reference to the equation mc² =Bvlq, where m=mass; c=speed of light; B=magnetic flux density; v=inertial velocity of the mass contained in l; l=length of the conductive body; q=unity. The process begins by targeting the larger targets first and then diminishing the field magnitude slowly and incrementally according to the targets. The frequency when AC is indicated is calculated with the cyclotron resonance formula, f_c =qB/(2πm). The apparatus includes a specially constructed pool or tub for generating the specific magnetic flux necessary for treatment. Orientation of the patient with reference to North, South, East and West is varied. The earth’s position in relation to the sun is taken into account. The patient may be in an upright, prone or swimming position depending on the specific treatment scheme.

A new Facebook algorithm could lead to safer and more efficient bots.

Something to look forward to: Some of the biggest problems that need solving in the enterprise world require sifting through vast amounts of data and finding the best possible solution given a number of factors and requirements, some of which are at.

SAN FRANCISCO – Radar satellite operator Iceye released a product Jan. 20 to detect dark vessels, ships at sea that are not identifying themselves with Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders.

Iceye combines observations from its constellation of three synthetic aperture radar satellites with other data sources to provide customers with radar satellite images of vessels that are not broadcasting their identification, position and course with AIS transponders. The technology is designed to help government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and commercial customers curb drug and human trafficking, find illegal fishing vessels and enforce rules against illegal transshipment of goods, Finland-based Iceye said in a Jan. 20 news release.

Dark vessel detection is a popular application for radar satellites which gather data day, night and in all weather conditions, Pekka Laurila, Iceye co-founder and chief strategy officer told SpaceNews. With three satellites in orbit, Iceye offers customers the ability to frequently revisit areas of interest. In addition, the company has developed machine learning algorithms to speed up dark vessel detection, he added.

Activists fret about armies relying on killer robots, but some forms of artificial intelligence that don’t actually pull the trigger could still be a nightmare.