A small device senses sounds using a spiderweb-like design—a strategy that could lead to chip-size microphones that are less affected by thermal noise.
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Data-driven model generates natural human motions for virtual avatars
Humans can innately perform a wide range of movements, as this allows them to best tackle various tasks in their day-to-day life. Automatically reproducing these motions in virtual avatars and 3D animated human-like characters could be highly advantageous for many applications, ranging from metaverse spaces to digital entertainment, AI interfaces and robotics.
Researchers at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and ETH Zurich recently developed WANDR, a new model that can generate natural human motions for avatars. This model, to be introduced in a paper presented at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2024) in June, unifies different data sources under a single model to attain more realistic motions in 3D humanoid characters. The paper is also posted to the arXiv preprint server.
“At a high-level, our research aims at figuring out what it takes to create virtual humans able to behave like us,” Markos Diomataris, first author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. “This essentially means learning to reason about the world, how to move in it, setting goals and trying to achieve them.
‘Metaholograms’: Researchers develop a new type of hologram
This innovation has the potential to significantly improve AR/VR displays by enabling the projection of more complex and realistic scenes. It also holds promise for applications in image encryption, where the information is encoded into multiple holographic channels for enhanced security.
The research is a significant step forward in developing high-performance metaholograms with a vastly increased information capacity. This study paves the way for exciting new possibilities in various fields, from advanced displays to information encryption and information storage.
Novel crystals enhance mid-infrared laser performance
A research group led by Prof. Sun Dunlu from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences, has successfully synthesized novel mid-infrared Ho, Pr: YAP and Er: YGGAG crystals using the Czchralski (Cz) method, and improved the continuous-wave laser performance of laser diode (LD) side-pumped Er: YSGG crystal through thermal bonding technology.
