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Intel takes on Google and Amazon with 2 new AI-focused chips

Intel has unveiled two new processors as part of its Nervana Neural Network Processor (NNP) lineup with an aim to accelerate training and inferences drawn from artificial intelligence (AI) models.

Dubbed Spring Crest and Spring Hill, the company showcased the AI-focused chips for the first time on Tuesday at the Hot Chips Conference in Palo Alto, California, an annual tech symposium held every August.

Intel RealSense Depth Cameras and Intel Neural Compute Stick 2

Intel RealSense technologies offer a variety of vision‑based solutions to give your products the ability to understand and perceive the world in 3D. When combined with the Intel Neural Compute Stick 2, which re‑defined the AI at the edge development kit, you get low power, high performance intelligent computer vision at low cost for your prototype.


Depth sensing meets plug-and-play AI at the edge inferencing with Intel® RealSense™ stereo depth cameras bundled with the Intel® Neural Compute Stick 2.

Courses ® AI Developer Program

Learn AI theory and follow hands-on exercises with our free courses from the Intel® AI Academy for software developers, data scientists, and students. These lessons cover AI topics and explore tools and optimized libraries that take advantage of Intel® processors in personal computers and server workstations.


Access courses from Intel on artificial intelligence provide a foundation for software developers, data scientists, and students.

Ricostruito l’orecchio di un bimbo grazie alla stampa in 3D

In sala operatoria oltre ai chirurghi c’erano alcuni ingegneri. Il paziente, un ragazzino di 13 anni, ha un grave problema congenito, la microtia, che comporta il mancato sviluppo dell’orecchio esterno (colpisce 5 bambini su 10mila). Grazie alla stampa 3D i medici dell’ospedale pediatrico Meyer di Firenze gli hanno ricostruito l’orecchio da zero. Sei ore di operazione, partita da una Tac con cui è stata acquisita l’esatta forma delle cartilagini. Poi, grazie a un software, è stata realizzata una copia delle cartilagini: dal modello è stato possibile vedere la porzione di cartilagini da prelevare. Per essere più precisi sulla forma, cercando di ottenere un risultato il più naturale possibile, è stato usato come modello un orecchio della mamma del ragazzino.

Una volta in sala operatoria la copia è stata fondamentale per plasmare le cartilagini ottenendo un orecchio “normale”. L’intervento è stato simulato più volte dal team dell’ospedale pediatrico fiorentino. Questo, come spiega lo staff del Meyer, ha consentito di affinare la tecnica arrivando a un risultato di grandissima precisione, riducendo anche tempi di esecuzione e anestesia. Il bambino tra qualche mese verrà sottoposto a un secondo intervento per ricostruire con la stessa tecnica anche il secondo orecchio.

“Per un bambino con una malformazione che era così evidente, il recupero estetico acquista una grande valenza psicologica e sociale – spiega il capo dell’equipe chirurgica Flavio Facchini, specialista in chirurgia plastica e ricostruttiva -. Lui non aveva problemi di udito, ma la malformazione gli creava grande disagio”.

We Attended an AI’s First Art Exhibit in NYC — Future Blink

Art by AI update: not GAN but CAN (Creative Adversarial Networks)


Scientist Ahmed Elgammal went from doing artificial intelligence research to attending his first art exhibit in Chelsea. How? With the help of his creative partner AICAN, an nearly autonomous AI artist. Together they made stunning art that is molding the field of AI art and the art scene in general. We stopped by the Chelsea gallery to talk to Elgammal about how AICAN works, and of course, see the art.

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New Shape-Morphing, Self-Healing, Intelligent Material Developed for Soft Robotics

Advances in the fields of soft robotics, wearable technologies, and human/machine interfaces require a new class of stretchable materials that can change shape adaptively while relying only on portable electronics for power. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed such a material that exhibits a unique combination of high electrical and thermal conductivity with actuation capabilities that are unlike any other soft composite.

In findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, the researchers report on this intelligent new material that can adapt its shape in response to its environment. The paper is titled “A multifunctional shape-morphing elastomer with liquid metal inclusions.”

“It is not only thermally and electrically conductive, it is also intelligent,” said Carmel Majidi, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who directs the Soft Machines Lab at Carnegie Mellon. “Just like a human recoils when touching something hot or sharp, the material senses, processes, and responds to its environment without any external hardware. Because it has neural-like electrical pathways, it is one step closer to artificial nervous tissue.”

Predicting fruit harvest with drones and artificial intelligence

Outfield Technologies is a Cambridge-based agri-tech start-up company which uses drones and artificial intelligence, to help fruit growers maximise their harvest from orchard crops.

Outfield Technologies’ founders Jim McDougall and Oli Hilbourne have been working with Ph.D. student Tom Roddick from the Department’s Machine Intelligence Laboratory to develop their technology capabilities to be able to count the blossoms and apples on a tree via drones surveying enormous orchards.

“An accurate assessment of the blossom or estimation of the harvest allows growers to be more productive, sustainable and environmentally friendly”, explains Outfield’s commercial director Jim McDougall.

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