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New Infineon chip enables Lenovo to build world’s smallest 3D camera, bringing augmented reality to smartphones

June 10, 2016 by Abdul Montaqim

Lenovo is the first manufacturer worldwide to bring Tango technology to a consumer product.

Google’s technology that allows devices to understand spatial information is an exclusive feature in the Phab2 Pro smartphone.

Based on the Time-of-Flight principle, the Real3 image sensor chip from Infineon Technologies equips the smartphone with a 3-dimensional perception of the surroundings in real-time.

Infineon provides the only image sensor chip in the world meeting Google’s specifications. [Read more…] about New Infineon chip enables Lenovo to build world’s smallest 3D camera, bringing augmented reality to smartphones

Infineon develops breakthrough radar technology for cars and devices

May 25, 2016 by Sam Francis

Infineon has developed radar technology for cars and devices. The company has reached separate agreements with Google and Imec on applications for the technology.

With Google, Infineon has developed gesture control technology, which would allow users to control their devices by waving their arms about, and more subtle movements.

The radar technology – called “Soli” – was demonstrated at Google I/O through a smartwatch and a wireless speaker. [Read more…] about Infineon develops breakthrough radar technology for cars and devices

Audi says autonomous cars could cut traffic accidents by 90 per cent

May 17, 2016 by Sam Francis

Autonomous and connected cars have the potential to reduce the number of traffic accidents by up to 90 percent, according to Audi’s chairman.

In a report about corporate responsibility, Professor Rupert Stadler says Audi will be making driving a car “much safer” in the future with the help of algorithms.

Prof Stadler says: “Piloted driving has the potential to cut the number of accidents and road deaths by up to 90 per cent in the long term.” [Read more…] about Audi says autonomous cars could cut traffic accidents by 90 per cent

Fiat Chrysler Pacifica to include Google driverless car technology in software giant’s first auto partnership

May 10, 2016 by Sam Francis

Google driverless car technology set to take to the streets next year

The Google Self-Driving Car Project and Fiat Chrysler have entered into what they are calling a “first-of-its-kind collaboration”, saying that they will integrate Google’s self-driving technology into all new 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to expand Google’s existing self-driving test program.

This marks the first time that Google has worked directly with an automaker to integrate its self-driving system, including its sensors and software, into a passenger vehicle.

The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans will be used later this year for Google’s self-driving testing, more than doubling Google’s current fleet of self-driving test vehicles. Engineering responsibilities will be shared based on each company’s respective expertise. [Read more…] about Fiat Chrysler Pacifica to include Google driverless car technology in software giant’s first auto partnership

Google boss downplays devices and talks up artificial intelligence

May 9, 2016 by Abdul Montaqim

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, says the days of the ‘device’ are numbered

The chief executive of Google, Sundar Pichai, says he can foresee the day when the “device” as we know it will be no more.

In a blog post on Google’s website, Pichai says: “Looking to the future, the next big step will be for the very concept of the ‘device’ to fade away.”

The reason, Pichai writes, is because artificial intelligence will make all devices work seamlessly and, therefore, make devices less important than the AI software behind them.

“Over time, the computer itself – whatever its form factor – will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day,” says Pichai. “We will move from mobile first to an AI first world.”

Full story on Google’s blog.

Google gives TensorFlow distributed computing support

April 20, 2016 by David Edwards

Google is running TensorFlow across hundreds of machines, and now you can run it on as many machines as you want in your office

Google has introduced distributed computing support to the latest version of its machine learning software TensorFlow.

TensorFlow 0.8 can now be run on small clusters of machines in your office using Google’s new Inception image classification neural network. [Read more…] about Google gives TensorFlow distributed computing support

Google to sell robotics business

March 19, 2016 by Sam Francis

Google appears to be looking to leave the robotics business if a report on the Bloomberg website is anything to go by.

The search giant created Alphabet as a sort of parent company that manages all of its many business units and diverse interests. It is Alphabet’s management which seems to have made the decision to sell.

Boston Dynamics, which created some of the most impressive robots seen so far, in the form of the humanoid Atlas and the four-legged machine that walks like a dog or other small animal.

Bloomberg reports that the reason for the sale is that Boston Dynamics product, however fascinating, are not commercially viable, in that there is apparently no customers for them.

Full story at Bloomberg.com.

Humanity’s loss at the hands of artificial intelligence is no big deal, says top robotics expert

March 13, 2016 by Abdul Montaqim

The current struggles human player Lee Seedol is facing while playing the ancient Chinese board game Go against an artificially intelligent machine learning program is being watched with interest by the world’s media as well as computer scientists everywhere, probably.

One of those computer scientists, however, says he’s not that bothered. Professor Alois Knoll, co-ordinator of the European Clearing House for Open Robotics Development (Echord), says Google DeepMind AlphaGo is essentially just a software program inside a computer, which is much easier to develop than a mechatronics system.

“A machine or helper that can only help you play Go probably not something on which you’d spend much money,” says Knoll, who is one of the key scientists involved in the $1.5 billion-dollar Human Brain Project. [Read more…] about Humanity’s loss at the hands of artificial intelligence is no big deal, says top robotics expert

Germans developing car wheels that can be steered individually

February 29, 2016 by Sam Francis

When first learning to drive, many people find steering a bit tricky. You realise the roads maybe aren’t as straight as you thought they were and you constantly have to turn an inch this way, and an inch that way. Not being used to the relationship between the wheel in your hands and the wheels on the road, you’re not quite sure if the unsteady minute manoeuvers you’re having to make is because you lack the skill, or if the road is wrong, or if the wheels are not all connected up properly. Many cars seem to have some slack between the steering wheel and the road wheels.

With autonomous cars of course you no longer have to worry about your steering skills. In fact, if Google has its way, you may not even see a steering wheel. For not only did the self-styled archiver of all human knowledge stupefy everyone by presenting us with the crazy idea of driverless cars and actually persuade everyone it’s actually quite a good idea when you think about it, the modern equivalent of Big Brother is now telling us it wants to do away with the steering wheel, the acceleration pedal, the clutch and brake. The weird thing is that their mad ideas make sense to us, even though we have a sneaky suspicion that they really shouldn’t. But paranoia aside, why would you need a steering wheel or anything like that in a car that you don’t have to operate, that moves around by itself? On this evidence, Google will continue to drive people out of their minds, and we will accept it, probably.

Now, of course, everyone and their grannies are developing autonomous car technologies in anticipation of some brave new world where all cars have the same rights as humans. And who better to help us innovate our way into inconsequence than the Germans? Their long tradition of automotive engineering excellence would demand that they come up with at least one screwball idea that people may think is actually quite practical. So in keeping with Google’s continual challenges to conventional thinking, the Germans have been pushing the idea of car wheels all turning and moving independently of each other, theoretically in any direction the autonomous, cloud-connected robot chooses for each one. [Read more…] about Germans developing car wheels that can be steered individually

Art created with Google DeepDream neural networks to feature in exhibition

February 22, 2016 by Abdul Montaqim

Artists who have been experimenting with Google’s DeepDream source code – designed for visualisation using artificial intelligence techniques – are to display their work at an art exhibition.

Entitled DeepDream: The Art of Neural Networks, all the artworks in the exhibition are made using artificial neural networks, which are “a biologically inspired form of computing which, unlike classical computer algorithms, aren’t programmed directly by human operators but instead learn from large amount of example data”, according to the blurb on the website.

And the artworks do look computer-generated, although probably recognisable as being distinct from what you might achieve with a few filters in Photoshop. The exhibition will also feature an auction. [Read more…] about Art created with Google DeepDream neural networks to feature in exhibition