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Fusion magnets could lead to improved microchip production

Swooping magnetic fields that confine plasma in doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks could help improve the efficiency of complex machines that produce microchips. This innovation could lead to more powerful computers and smart phones, near-essential devices that make modern society possible.

Engineers use high-energy light emitted by plasma, the electrically charged fourth state of matter, to create small structures on the surfaces of silicon wafers during their transformation into microchips. These tiny components enable a range of devices, including consumer electronics, video games, medical machinery, and telecommunications. Improving the generation of this light could extend the life of vital parts within the machines and make the manufacture of microchips more efficient.

“These findings could change the microchip industry,” said Ben Israeli, lead author of the paper publishing the results in Applied Physics Letters. Israeli is a graduate student in the Princeton Program in Plasma Physics, based at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), which is managed by Princeton University.

AI-powered headphones let users choose what they hear

The devices are controlled via voice commands or a smartphone app.


Active noise control technology is used by noise-canceling headphones to minimize or completely block out outside noise. These headphones are popular because they offer a quieter, more immersive listening experience—especially in noisy areas. However, despite the many advancements in the technology, people still don’t have much control over which sounds their headphones block out and which they let pass.

Semantic hearing

Now, deep learning algorithms have been developed by a group of academics at the University of Washington that enable users to select which noises to filter through their headphones in real-time. The system has been named “semantic hearing” by its creators.

Longevity Neurotech report

DBS delivers electric currents to an electrode implanted in the brain.


Neurotechnology – or – while still an emerging industry, has attracted both major capital investments, and extensive media coverage in recent years. As tech relentlessly searches for the next “big tech platform” in the aftermath of the smartphone era [1], we propose that the answer may lie within our own minds. At NTX Services, we definenology as any technological intervention that interacts with the brain or central nervous system either directly or indirectly, and as attempts to integrate human and machine to enhance both, applications of the technology are broad ranging.

Often described as a new field, is actually based on decades of academic research, previously held back from commercialization at scale due to technological limitations, and slow changes in government policies and regulations. Although humans have been researching the brain and its bioelectrical signals since the 1600s [2], the first major breakthrough in was the invention of the electroencephalogram (EEG) by Hans Berger in 1929 [3]. Since this initial invention, several key developments have influenced the evolution of the industry until 2016, when Neuralink was founded [4].

Former Apple designers launch $700 Humane AI Pin as smartphone replacement

The Humane AI Pin is designed to replace your smartphone, allowing the user to make calls, send texts and look up information through voice controls. It also has a laser display, turning your palm into a mini screen that can show the time, date or what’s nearby.

“There are no wake words so it’s not always listening or always recording,” Chaudhri said at the beginning of a 10-minute launch video on the company’s website. “In fact, it doesn’t do anything until you engage with it, and your engagement comes through your voice, touch, gesture or the laser ink display.”

In addition to the upfront cost of the device, customers will have to pay a $24 monthly data subscription to T-Mobile, the company said. Having a separate phone number means that, unlike smart watches, the pin isn’t tethered to a smartphone.

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