Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers at Trinity College Dublin and University of Bath have recently developed a model based on deep neural networks that could help to improve the quality of animations containing quadruped animals, such as dogs. The framework they created was presented at the MIG (Motion, Interaction & Games) 2021 conference, an event where researchers present some of the latest technologies for producing high-quality animations and videogames.

“We were interested in working with non-human data,” Donal Egan, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. “We chose dogs for practicality reasons, as they are probably the easiest animal to obtain data for.”

Creating good quality animations of dogs and other quadruped animals is a challenging task. This is mainly because these animals move in complex ways and have unique gaits with specific footfall patterns. Egan and his colleagues wanted to create a framework that could simplify the creation of quadruped animations, producing more convincing content for both animated videos and videogames.

Back in April, it was reported that Akon planned to build a futuristic “Akon City” in Uganda. Along with Akon City, Akon launched AKOIN, his very own cryptocurrency.

According to the AKOIN website, which includes Akon City details and explains how it fits into the “I’m So Paid” singer’s efforts to bring resources and technological opportunities to Africa, AKOIN is “a cryptocurrency powered by a blockchain based eco-system of tools and services designed for entrepreneurs in the rising economies of Africa.”

Circa 2013

A device just a few square metres in size can churn out bursts of energetic positrons that rival ones made by huge accelerators.

Solid-solution organic crystals have been brought into the quest for superior photon upconversion materials, which transform presently wasted long-wavelength light into more useful shorter wavelength light. Scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology have revisited a materials approach previously deemed lackluster—using a molecule originally developed for organic LEDs—and have achieved outstanding performance and efficiency. Their findings pave the way for many novel photonic technologies, such as better solar cells and photocatalysts for hydrogen and hydrocarbon productions.

Light is a powerful source of energy that can, if leveraged correctly, be used to drive stubborn chemical reactions, generate electricity, and run optoelectronic devices. However, in most applications, not all the wavelengths of light can be used. This is because the energy that each photon carries is inversely proportional to its wavelength, and chemical and physical processes are triggered by light only when the energy provided by individual photons exceeds a certain threshold.

This means that devices like solar cells cannot benefit from all the color contained in sunlight, as it comprises a mixture of photons with both high and low energies. Scientists worldwide are actively exploring materials to realize photon upconversion (PUC), by which photons with lower energies (longer wavelengths) are captured and re-emitted as photons with higher energies (shorter wavelengths). One promising way to realize this is through triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA). This process requires the combination of a sensitizer material and an annihilator material. The sensitizer absorbs low energy photons (long-wavelength light) and transfers its excited energy to the annihilator, which emits higher energy photons (light of shorter wavelength) as a result of TTA.

The chance that ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft will encounter space debris during its upcoming Earth flyby is very, very low. However, the risk is not zero and is greater than any other flyby ESA has performed. That there is this risk at all highlights the mess we’ve made of space – and why we need to take action to clean up after ourselves.

On November 27, after a year and eight months flying through the inner Solar System, Solar Orbiter will swing by home to ‘drop off’ some extra energy. This will line the spacecraft up for its next six flybys of Venus.

Continue reading “ESA’s Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Is Skimming Earth for a Gravity Assist — And It’s One of the Riskiest Planetary Flybys Ever” »

Exposure to deep red or near-infrared light can improve the function of the eye’s mitochondria, the powerhouses in cells, resulting in slight but lasting improvement to declining eyesight.

NASA has asked the private sector to design new spacesuits that can be used on the Moon.

Circa 2010

Most massive antimatter nucleus yet identified in particle experiments.

A group of researchers has outlined a surprisingly simple method for recreating the conditions near a neutron star, a breakthrough that could lead to new unimagined scientific discoveries revolving around the mysterious role of antimatter, a report from New Atlas explains.

The team of physicists designed a device, detailed in a paper in the journal Communications Physics, that fires two lasers at each other. The result is that the energy from the two lasers is simultaneously converted into matter, in the form of electrons, as well as antimatter, in the form of positrons.