NEWS
► Watch Tesla's Optimus robot fold clothes. Elon Musk has shared a new video of the Optimus Humanoid robot folding clothes. Milan Kovac, one of the lead engineers on the project, commented saying that the robot is going to be able to handle increasingly complex tasks.
► UK Royal Air Force enhances helicopter training with VR tech. The Royal Air Force says it’s leveraging advanced VR tech to enhance the training of helicopter aircrew for Puma and Chinook helicopters.
► Nuclear battery produces power for 50 years without needing to charge. A Chinese startup has unveiled a new battery that it claims can generate electricity for 50 years without charging or maintenance. Beijing-based Betavolt said its nuclear battery is the first in the world to realise the miniaturisation of atomic energy, placing 63 nuclear isotopes into a module smaller than a coin.
► AI-powered software offers breakthrough dyslexia treatment. Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental learning disorder that makes it challenging for children and adults to read, write, and spell. The new Dysolve AI program can correct dyslexia, a task beyond even the most qualified of human specialists, according to Coral Pau-San Hoh, Dysolve’s CEO and co-founder of the AI platform that generates interactive verbal games customised to evaluate each student. While Dysolve uses gamification techniques, it is not an entertainment platform. The students’ responses generate new evaluative and corrective game content. Through daily correction, the AI system resolves students’ underlying processing difficulties.
► OpenAI changes policy to allow military applications. In an unannounced update to its usage policy, OpenAI has opened the door to military applications of its technologies. While the policy previously prohibited use of its products for the purposes of “military and warfare,” that language has now disappeared, and OpenAI did not deny that it was now open to military uses. In an additional statement, OpenAI has confirmed that the language was changed in order to accommodate military customers and projects that the company approves. ‘Our policy does not allow our tools to be used to harm people, develop weapons, for communications surveillance, or to injure others or destroy property. There are, however, national security use cases that align with our mission.’
► Digital replicas of patients can help them get healthy. In a lab in Rome, Marco Evangelos Biancolini and his team are poking patients to gauge the effectiveness of different surgical procedures. But rather than actual people, it’s their digital double projected on a computer screen, each reflecting the person’s individual biochemical makeup. And it could open the door to the next frontier of medicine: personalised healthcare. By testing methods and drugs on “digital twins”, medical staff can determine the best courses of treatment for the patients themselves. In Biancolini’s case, his team is investigating aneurysms, which are abnormal bulges or swellings in blood-vessel walls.
► YouTube and Spotify won’t launch Apple Vision Pro apps, joining Netflix. Google’s YouTube and Spotify Technology SA, the world’s most popular video and music services, are joining Netflix Inc. in steering clear of Apple Inc.’s upcoming mixed-reality headset. Users of those services will be steered toward the web.
► Virtual worlds: ensuring EU leadership and consistently applying existing rules. Members of European Parliament (MEPs) emphasise that EU should take a leading role in the development of virtual worlds that respect and promote EU values and fundamental rights, including fighting hate speech, child protection or fraud prevention and the highest standards of consumer protection. MEPs believe that current tools under private international, civil and intellectual property law are appropriate and should be applied to face challenges represented by the virtual worlds.
► VividQ announces two commercial partnerships to bring its ‘retina-resolution’ holograms to XR devices. VividQ shared images of real holograms projected through high-performance 4K display hardware. According to the company, the ability to deliver these retina resolution computer-generated holograms means that next-generation VR headsets will be able to offer users unparalleled immersion and realism.
PERSPECTIVE
► The Robotic Wave at CES. The event showcased great advancements in robotic vacuums and mobile digital assistants.
►20 Great VR Games for Relaxation & Meditation. If you have a VR headset, you’re one of the lucky people who can enter other realities from the confines of your living room, so why not use it for your wellbeing?
