CINVESTAV: Artificial intelligence lenses for the blind created

Combining computational geometry, artificial intelligence, geo and ultrasound techniques, among others, scientists from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV) created a device to help people with low vision or blindness to navigate more easily.

This project, developed in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, began formally in 2009, and in less than five years a prototype was created and is about to be transferred to the technology company Qualtop, said Eduardo José Bayro Corrochano, project leader.

The navigation device consists of glasses with stereo sound sensors, GPS technology and a tablet, which guides the blind person to a specific point and avoids hitting static or moving obstacles, also recognizes money bills of various denominations, and color of clothing.

The expert, who also developed the first inexpensive humanoid robot in Mexico called Mexone, said it was from progress made during his research in robotics that he considered using stereoscopic vision algorithms in a guiding device for people with visual disability.

The idea came from a doctoral thesis at the CINVESTAV on the use of stereoscopic vision lenses designed for people with blindness.

To do this, the researchers went to the School for Blind Girls in Guadalajara, which addresses this type of disabilities, in order to meet the needs of the visually impaired.

It was after the financial support of the National Council for Science and Technology (CINVESTAV) in 2012 and 2013 when they could accelerate the development of the lens, set the hardware, adapt processors and try different types of sensors used in the device.

"We currently have a light weight, ergonomically acceptable prototype since it almost looks like a normal pair of glasses and can work in real time with batteries that last approximately four hours in continuous use."

"We hope to have a commercial prototype by next August at the latest, and being able to market it in early 2015," Bayro Corrochano said, who is also a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences.

Researcher at the CINVESTAV estimate that the commercial product would cost between ten and fifteen hundred dollars ($13,000- $19,500 Mexican pesos), and consist of the glasses with sensors and a tablet from which a voice would tell directions and/or warnings.

Bayro Corrochano

Although globally there are similar devices, says Bayro Corrochano, the development at CINVESTAV combines new algorithms and technology which makes it unique.

For example, the use of ultrasound techniques to detect translucent obstacles, like glass, or the use of artificial intelligence (machine learning) in order to recognize places, signs and objects.

These glasses are also useful for those with poor eyesight, as they help to improve perception.

The project has generated two patents at the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, and the developers are looking for investors interested in participating in large-scale production.

ILLUSTRIS: Astronomers create first realistic virtual universe

Move over, Matrix - astronomers have done you one better. They have created the first realistic virtual universe using a computer simulation called "Illustris."

Illustris can recreate 13 billion years of cosmic evolution in a cube 350 million light-years on a side with unprecedented resolution.

Mark Vogelsberger

"Until now, no single simulation was able to reproduce the universe on both large and small scales simultaneously," says lead author Mark Vogelsberger (MIT/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), who conducted the work in collaboration with researchers at several institutions, including the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies in Germany.

These results are being reported in the May 8th issue of the journal Nature.

Previous attempts to simulate the universe were hampered by lack of computing power and the complexities of the underlying physics.

As a result those programs either were limited in resolution, or forced to focus on a small portion of the universe.

Earlier simulations also had trouble modeling complex feedback from star formation, supernova explosions, and supermassive black holes.

Illustris employs a sophisticated computer program to recreate the evolution of the universe in high fidelity. It includes both normal matter and dark matter using 12 billion 3-D "pixels," or resolution elements.

Large scale projection through the Illustris volume at z=0, centered on the most massive cluster, 15 Mpc/h deep. 

Shows dark matter density (left) transitioning to gas density (right). 

Credit: Illustris Collaboration

The team dedicated five years to developing the Illustris program.

The actual calculations took 3 months of "run time," using a total of 8,000 CPUs running in parallel.

If they had used an average desktop computer, the calculations would have taken more than 2,000 years to complete.

The computer simulation began a mere 12 million years after the Big Bang. When it reached the present day, astronomers counted more than 41,000 galaxies in the cube of simulated space.

Importantly, Illustris yielded a realistic mix of spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and football-shaped elliptical galaxies.

It also recreated large-scale structures like galaxy clusters and the bubbles and voids of the cosmic web. On the small scale, it accurately recreated the chemistries of individual galaxies.

Large scale projection through the Illustris volume at z=0, centered on the most massive cluster, 15 Mpc/h deep. 

Shows dark matter density overlaid with the gas velocity field. 

Credit: Illustris Collaboration

Since light travels at a fixed speed, the farther away astronomers look, the farther back in time they can see.

A galaxy one billion light-years away is seen as it was a billion years ago.

Telescopes like Hubble can give us views of the early universe by looking to greater distances.

However, astronomers can't use Hubble to follow the evolution of a single galaxy over time.

"Illustris is like a time machine. We can go forward and backward in time. We can pause the simulation and zoom into a single galaxy or galaxy cluster to see what's really going on," says co-author Shy Genel of the CfA.

The team is releasing a high-definition video, which morphs between different components of the simulation to highlight various layers (e.g. dark matter density, gas temperature, or chemistry).

They also are releasing several smaller videos and associated imagery online

More information: Paper: dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13316

Shipping Alert: Underwater volcano creates huge floating islands of rock

Havre pumice raft drifting in the Pacific. The scale bar is 20km. 

Credit: Nature Communications

A team of scientists from the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand have modelled the fate of a huge floating raft of volcanic rocks that formed in 2012 during a submarine eruption of a Pacific volcano.

Described in this month's edition of Nature Communications, they show how satellite images of the floating-rock raft's passage across the Pacific can be used to test models of ocean circulation.

Their results could be used to forecast the dispersal of future pumice (volcanic rock) islands, and protect shipping from the hazards they pose.

The eruptions of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, in 2010 brought the hazards associated with volcanic ash sharply into focus.

Air routes across northern Europe were disrupted, leaving many passengers stranded and far from home for days on end.

Ocean hazard
Hazards of floating islands of pumice spewed into the ocean from erupting volcanoes, are less well-known as a shipping hazard.

One such island grew from an explosion of the Havre volcano (seamount) in the South Pacific, between Tonga and New Zealand, in July 2012.

The volcano threw out a cubic kilometre of molten magma, which suddenly froze to form bubble-filled pumice.

Floating pumice. 

Credit: Jeff Butterworth

It is the bubbles trapped in pumice that make it so light, half the density of water, so the rock floats on water.

Like natural flotsam, pebble to boulder-sized lumps of pumice clump together.

This can create huge floating rafts in the seas around erupting volcanoes, and they can be tens of centimetres thick but thousands of kilometres in length.

Records of the use of pumice exist since the time of the Romans and Ancient Greeks. Its rough texture made them effective abrasives to remove dead skin from calluses and corns.

However, now, such floating pumice can pose a hazard for shipping. Hulls can be damaged by abrasion from the hard but light pumice, and when it approaches land these pumice rafts can block harbours and disrupt navigation.

Havre's pumice island affected an area of ocean twice as big as both islands of New Zealand put together, floating atop the sea.

Boats entering the volcanic debris reported engine problems, as the rock and dust clogged their water cooling intakes.

The study, led by Martin Jutzeler at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK, shows how the rafts eventually break up into ribbons of rock that can cover a wide area.

The simulation techniques that the team has developed will allow the progress of future volcanic rafts to be predicted, and warnings issued to shipping, in the same way as volcanic ash clouds can be forecast for aircraft approaching stratospheric eruptions.

Read the full article here

ESO MUSE: Creates 3D Views of the Universe - Video

A new telescope tool for peering into the cosmos and creating three-dimensional views of the universe has passed its first major test at the ESO observatory in Chile's Atacama desert.

After a decade of design and development, the tool, called the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), successfully captured its first images of deep space to create 3D views of the early universe.

Installed on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, MUSE can both study and image the depths of space.

"It has taken a lot of work by many people over many years," principle investigator Roland Bacon of the Lyon Astrophysics Research Center (CRAL) in France said in a statement.

"This seven-ton collection of optics, mechanics, and electronics is now a fantastic time machine for probing the early universe."

This colour composite of the unusual polar ring galaxy NGC 4650A was created from data from the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile.

The MUSE instrument, which went online in March 2014, splits the light from each part of the galaxy into component colors to show the chemical and physical properties of each point.

Credit: ESO/MUSE consortium/R. Bacon

MUSE uses 24 spectrographs to split light into its component colours (spectra) to assemble images and spectra of different regions of the sky.

Studies of these spectra can provide insight to astronomers about the composition and movements of various objects.

MUSE also creates a 3D image of objects from the light waves it receives. Known as Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS), the technique allows astronomers to study the properties of different regions of an object at the same time.

Applying the technique to galaxies, for instance, can reveal not only their chemical composition but also details about their rotation.

Does a planet need life to create continents?

Earth may not have possessed the continents it does now if not for life, instead becoming a planet covered nearly entirely in ocean.

If not for life, Earth may not have possessed the continents it does now, instead becoming a planet covered nearly entirely in ocean, researchers say.

These new findings suggest that any continents astronomers may one day see on alien worlds may potentially be signs of extraterrestrial life, scientists added.

Earth is currently the only known planet in the universe that has liquid water on its surface.

There is life virtually wherever there is liquid water on Earth, so one main focus of the search for extraterrestrial life as we know it is the region around a star where it is neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on a planet, an area known as the star's habitable zone.

Although water covers most of Earth's surface, nearly 30 percent of the planet is covered by land, sustaining a dazzling variety of life.

Scientists might one day be capable of telling if distant planets are similarly covered by land, oceans and clouds by looking for reddish, bluish or grayish tints in the colour of those worlds.

Researchers have already developed maps of clouds on a giant planet orbiting a distant star.

Now researchers suggest Earth would have been a water world with very few continents, if any at all, without the presence of life.

A great deal of research has shown that life has had a major impact on the evolution of Earth's atmosphere and oceans.

Plants and other photosynthetic life generate oxygen, giving Earth the only known atmosphere in the universe with significant levels of oxygen.

Life also greatly influences how much carbon is in the atmosphere and oceans in the form of carbon dioxide and methane.

These greenhouse gases trap heat and can dramatically affect Earth's climate, which in turn has an effect on how much of Earth's water is frozen as ice.

Oxygen can also indirectly cool Earth's climate by removing methane from the atmosphere—in fact, the dramatic rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere about 2.4 billion years ago, known as the Great Oxidation Event, may have cooled the planet enough to for it become a frozen "Snowball Earth."

"However, much less is known about whether life has had any effects on the deeper interior of Earth," said study author Tilman Spohn, a planetary scientist at DLR, the German Aerospace Center's Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin.

Past research noted the oldest signs of life found so far are roughly 3.5 billion years old, about the same time continents began growing, and suggested a potential link between these events.

The scientists then explored whether or not the evolution of life on Earth could have influenced the evolution of the planet.

The investigators focused on biological weathering, by which life breaks down rock.

This crumbled rock gets blown and washed away by wind and water, sediment that eventually makes its way to subduction zones, the areas where one tectonic plate of the Earth's crust dives or subducts under another.

ESA Arianespace VEGA Launcher: An Italian creation

The name "VEGA" is an acronym for Vettore Europeo di Generazione Avanzata, which translates to "Advanced Generation European Carrier Rocket." 

VEGA is the new, expendable space launch vehicle now in use by Arianespace, launching from the Guiana Space Centre located in Kourou, French Guiana.

This vehicle is an Italian creation that was jointly developed by the Italian Space Agency (ISA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Although the concept began as a pure Italian venture, serious development started in 1998 after ISA and ESA joined forces. The first VEGA launch took place on February 13, 2012.

The design provides for payloads in the range of 300 to 2,500 kg. This satisfies many satellite applications such as scientific experiments and Earth observation missions.

Orbital destination options include polar and other low Earth orbits. The reference VEGA mission is placing a 1,500-kg satellite into a 700-km polar orbit.

VEGA consists of three solid rocket stages: P80 first stage; Zefiro 23 second stage; Zefiro 9 third stage.

In addition, there is a liquid rocket upper module called AVUM (Attitude Vernier Upper Module).

This module consists of a propulsion unit and an avionics package. AVUM uses the Ukrainian RD-869 rocket engine which burns pressure-fed UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide.

The first VEGA launch about 14 months ago carried several small satellites to low Earth orbits.

The second launch (VV02), scheduled for this week, will demonstrate extended capabilities partially due to the addition of the VESPA (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter).

This will allow the release of three satellites into two different orbits.

Proba-V is the prime payload on VV02 and is the first of four ESA missions that will use Vega. This satellite carries a reduced version of the Vegetation camera currently flying on the Spot satellites to provide a daily overview of global vegetation growth.

The other two payloads are the Vietnam Natural Resources, Environment and Disaster Monitoring Satellite (VNRedsat) and ESTCube-1, a test of advanced solar sail technologies

LHC Colliderscope: Witness to creation

The building you see in the video above is the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and the light show blinking across its facade depicts tracks of subatomic particles born in energies approaching those at the creation of the universe occurring in close to real time 175 meters beneath the Franco-Swiss border.

There, in CERN's Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS experiment, protons traveling close to the speed of light are being smashed together, releasing enormous concentrations of energy that in turn give birth to new particles. The new particles travel through ATLAS's Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT), a detector composed of 500,000 detector straws that signal when a charged particle passes through.

Full article here ....

Quantum gods: Creation and everything beyond

Quantum Gods: Creation, chaos and the search for cosmic consciousness by Victor J. Stenger

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of transcendental meditation, claimed his techniques gave practitioners access to the "quantum field of cosmic consciousness" (Image: CSU Archives / Everett Collection / Rex)

QUANTUM mechanics is remarkably weird: even though it is well understood mathematically and can produce accurate, ultra-precise predictions, nobody really knows what it means. This leaves lots of room for people in search of the spiritual - and who are not burdened by any knowledge of mathematics - to impose on it whatever quasi-religious beliefs or interpretations they like.

In this much-needed book, physicist Victor Stenger isolates and then debunks the claims of two kinds of "quantum belief". One he calls "quantum theology" because it offers quantum physics as a way for God to act in the world without violating natural laws. The second is "quantum spirituality", which is rooted in the even vaguer notion that quantum physics connects the human mind to the universe, allowing us to create our own reality.

If I could choose my own reality, would I be wearing these shoes?