After a recent car crash, John Murray-Bruce wished he could have seen the other car coming. The crash reaffirmed the USF assistant professor of computer science and engineering’s mission to create a technology that could do just that: See around obstacles and ultimately expand one’s line of vision.
Using a single photograph, Murray-Bruce and his doctoral student, Robinson Czajkowski, created an algorithm that computes highly accurate, full-color three-dimensional reconstructions of areas behind obstacles—a concept that can not only help prevent car crashes but help law enforcement experts in hostage situations search-and-rescue and strategic military efforts.
“We’re turning ordinary surfaces into mirrors to reveal regions, objects, and rooms that are outside our line of vision,” Murray-Bruce said. “We live in a 3D world, so obtaining a more complete 3D picture of a scenario can be critical in a number of situations and applications.”
Recent technological advances have enabled the development of increasingly sophisticated sensors, which can help to advance the sensing capabilities of robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, and other smart systems. Many of these sensors, however, rely on individual cameras, thus the accuracy of the measurements they collect is limited by the cameras’ field of view (FOV).
Researchers at Beihang University in China recently developed a new multi-camera differential binocular vision sensor with a wider FOV that could collect more accurate measurements. This sensor, introduced in a paper published in Optics & Laser Technology, could be integrated into a wide range of devices and smart robotic systems.
“Aiming at the high-precision requirements of environment perception for unmanned aerial vehicle detection, robot navigation, and autonomous driving, inspired by the multi-camera module of mobile phones, we introduced a visual perception mode based on the principle of high-precision binocular vision measurement,” Fuqiang Zhou, co-author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. “This principle involves a central high-resolution camera and peripheral auxiliary cameras that work together.”
If an asteroid that size hit Earth today, a shock wave two million times more powerful than a hydrogen bomb would flatten forests and trigger tsunamis. A seismic pulse equal to a magnitude 10 earthquake would crumble cities.
And long after the impact, a cloud of hot dust, ash, and steam would blot out the sun, plunging the Earth into freezing cold.
New plasma stealth device targets specific areas, not entire aircraft.
Chinese scientists develop plasma stealth device, hiding military aircraft from radar, focusing on shielding specific areas, potentially changing stealth technology.
In this study, a novel rapid diagnostic method was developed for optimizing the production of transplutonium isotope through high flux reactor irradiation. The proposed method was based on the concept of “Single Energy Interval Value (SEIV)” and “Energy Spectrum Total Value (ESTV)”, which significantly improved the production efficiency of isotopes such as 252Cf (by 15.08 times), 244Cm (by 65.20 times), 242Cm (by 11.98 times), and 238Pu (by 7.41 times). As a promising alternative to the traditional Monte Carlo burnup calculation method, this method offers a more efficient approach to evaluate radiation schemes and optimize the design parameters. The research discovery provides a theoretical basis for further refining the analysis of transplutonium isotope production, leading to more efficient and sustainable production methods. Future studies could focus on the implementation of energy spectrum conversion technology to further improve the optimal energy spectrum.
The production of transplutonium isotope, which are essential in numerous fields such as military and space technology, remains inefficient despite being produced through irradiation in a high flux reactor. Past studies on the optimization of transplutonium isotope production through irradiation in a high flux reactor have been limited by the computational complexity of traditional methods such as Monte Carlo burnup calculation. These limitations have hindered the refinement of the evaluation, screening, and optimization of the irradiation schemes. Hence, this research aimed to develop a rapid diagnostic method for evaluating radiation schemes that can improve the production efficiency of isotopes such as 252Cf, 244Cm, 242Cm, and 238Pu. The outcome of the study showed great potential in advancing the production of transplutonium isotope, which have numerous applications in fields such as military, energy, and space technology.
The limited production rate of transplutonium isotopes poses a significant challenge in meeting the growing demand for sustaining the nuclear industry (i.e. energy and military). This research provides a sustainable solution to improve the efficiency of transplutonium isotope production through a novel rapid diagnostic method. Thus, it fulfils UNSDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) by providing a sustainable source of energy, as well as UNSDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) by promoting technological innovation in the nuclear industry, especially for military use.
J. Robert Oppenheimer’s grandson is among the star-studded signatories of a new open letter about the dangers artificial intelligence poses to the planet.
Charles Oppenheimer, who founded the Oppenheimer Project to continue his grandfather’s mission of tempering scientific progress with “international cooperation and unity,” was joined by hundreds of others, including British billionaire Richard Branson, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, writer and Carl Sagan widow Ann Druyan, and musician Peter Gabriel. In it, they warn that the world “is in grave danger” as we face down the perils of AI.
Text-to-video has become the latest arms race in generative AI as OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and more look beyond text and image generation and seek to cement their position in a sector projected to reach $1.3 trillion in revenue by 2032 — and to win over consumers who’ve been intrigued by generative AI since ChatGPT arrived a little more than a year ago.
