Nicole Kobie, Author at ��è��Ƶ

Don’t be fooled by Elon Musk’s chatty Optimus robots

Nicole Kobie — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 18:00:00 +0000

The long history of robotics should teach us to be more sceptical when it comes to autonomous humanoid robots, says Nicole Kobie

Voice assistants seem to be worse at understanding commands from women

Nicole Kobie — Thu, 09 May 2019 11:00:04 +0000

More women report being misunderstood by voice assistants than men, adding to growing evidence that speech recognition is better with some groups over others

Ovarian cancer AI can tell how aggressive a woman’s tumour is

Nicole Kobie — Sat, 12 Jan 2019 00:01:04 +0000

Artificial intelligence is helping researchers spot aggressive forms of ovarian cancer.

Yinyin Yuan and colleagues at the Institute of Cancer Research in London built an AI to look for differences in tumour cell shape. It analysed tissue sample images from 514 women with ovarian cancer and found that misshapen nuclei correspond to a more aggressive form of the disease with a survival rate of 15 per cent over five years. That compares with 53 per cent for the standard form.

Human researchers are very good at looking at cells, but it is hard to quantify differences and the process takes a lot of time – hence the use of AI, says Yuan.

However, the test so far is of limited use, says Kevin Elias at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “It is one thing to tell me a patient is likely to have a poor outcome, but if you are unable to suggest an alternative treatment, it is not that useful,” he says.

AI is increasingly used in cancer research to sift data for patterns that can help us in various ways, like tracking tumour evolution and improving diagnosis.

Yuan and her team will next use AI to look at cancer that resists chemotherapy, to try to develop more targeted treatments.

arXiv

How you and your friends can fight back against online trolls

Nicole Kobie — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 12:00:08 +0000

Squadbox lets people team up with their friends to fight back against trolls, so that together they can filter out abusive messages online

Chit-chat makes humans and robots work together better

Nicole Kobie — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 15:52:27 +0000

Introducing some chatter between humans and artificial intelligence improved the amount of collaboration – and results – across hundreds of games

Human or robot? Google’s speech generator makes it hard to tell

Nicole Kobie — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 11:00:10 +0000

Instead of stitching together short human sound bites to create words and sentences, Google’s latest system generates vocals from the text alone

App can tell you if a mosquito is about to give you malaria

Nicole Kobie — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 15:34:45 +0000

AI trained to differentiate the whines of 3500 species of mosquitoes can use your cheap smartphone to tell you if that nearby mosquito will put you at risk of Zika, malaria and dengue fever

Siri and Alexa can be turned against you by ultrasound whispers

Nicole Kobie — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 11:54:36 +0000

Hackers can make calls, download malware and post on social media

Stephen Barnes/Technology / Alamy Stock Photo

Did you hear that? You might not have, but Alexa did. Voice assistants have been successfully hijacked using sounds above the range of human hearing. Once in, hackers were able to make phone calls, post on social media and disconnect wireless services, among other things. Assistants falling for the ploy included Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Now, Samsung S Voice, Microsoft Cortana and Huawei HiVoice, as well as some voice control systems used in cars. The hack was created by Guoming Zhang, Chen Yan and their team at Zhejiang University in China. Using ultrasound, an inaudible command can be used to wake the assistant, giving the attacker control of the speaker, smartphone or other device, as well as access to any connected systems. “If all a voice assistant could do was set an alarm, play some music or tell jokes then, there wouldn’t be much of a security issue,” says , of Georgetown University in Washington DC. But voice assistants are connected to an increasing number of services, ranging from smart thermostats to internet banking, so any security breaches are pretty serious.

How does sound affect us?

The attack works by converting the usual wake-up commands – “OK Google” or “Hey Siri” – into high-pitch analogues. When a voice assistant hears these sounds, they still recognise them as legitimate commands, even though they are imperceptible to the human ear. The team was then able to open a malicious website to download malware and start a video or voice call to spy on its surroundings. Additionally, they could send text messages and publish posts online. The attacker would need to be near the target device to hack it – but it may be possible to play the commands via a hidden speaker as they walk past. How close they would need to be varies from 2cm to 175cm, depending on the strength of the microphone and background noise levels. Not all devices were so easily hacked. Taking control of Siri, for example, required an extra step. The owner’s voice had to be surreptitiously recorded for playback as Apple’s system recognises the speaker. “There are a lot of variables for the attack to succeed outside of a controlled environment,” says Vaidya. To secure voice assistants in the future, sounds outside the human voice range could be suppressed or machine learning algorithms could listen out for similar style attacks, Vaidya says. We should focus on protecting against unauthorised commands rather than limiting what assistants can do, he adds. Journal reference: Cryptography and Security, https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.09537

Robot physical therapist helps people walk again after a stroke

Nicole Kobie — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 18:00:40 +0000

Smart harness

Jean-Baptiste Mignardot

Artificial intelligence is helping people regain their mobility after certain neurological injuries. A robotic harness controlled by a neural network offers tailored treatment that has immediately improved their ability to walk normally.

To avoid persistent difficulties walking after a stroke or spinal injury, walking assistance is crucial. But this is a slow process that, if done wrong, can lead to a permanently impaired gait.

In the past, several physiotherapists were needed to physically support and guide each person through the process of learning to walk again. But staff are expensive, so robotic harnesses have recently been introduced.

While such harnesses can be personalised at the start of a treadmill walking session, they don’t adjust dynamically to correct a person’s particular gait in real time – which can actually hinder improvement. So for example, unlike a physiotherapist, a harness can’t spot if someone is moving unnaturally and correct them. And if a person keeps repeating abnormal movements, these risk becoming a permanent part of their gait.

The new smart harness, developed by researchers from at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne and the Lausanne University Hospital, prevents this from happening. Rather than simply supporting a person’s weight, as existing harnesses do, it can also correct their gait by pushing them forward or back, or side to side.

It does this after collecting information on leg movement, stride and muscle activity from body sensors and feeding it into an algorithm. The harness then provides support tailored to the way the person walks, deciding how much force to apply to their trunk to produce a natural gait.

Delicate balance

“The algorithm evaluates the optimal amount of body weight support for each patient,” says , one of the study authors at EPFL’s . This helps them rebuild lost muscle mass and relearn posture and movement, while also retraining their brains to handle the delicate balance between gravity and forward motion that walking requires.

The new system improved the in-harness gait of people following a stroke or a spinal injury. And after a single, 1-hour training session with the smart harness, people with spinal cord injury showed immediate improvement in their gait out of the harness over those given no physio session at all, the authors report today.

Artificial intelligence is widely used in rehabilitation, says at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. “We have multiple products in the market where robots help individuals recover from stroke,” he says. These include that exercise the hand and wrist, and a that encourages and aids repetitive exercises at home.

For walking assistance, even robotic harnesses that operate without algorithms have become smarter at load balancing and understanding how far to push people, using readings on muscle activity and brain scans, says Amirabdollahian. “As the systems become more clever, the results of the rehabilitation become much better,” he says.

The next goal is to commercialise the smart harness, dubbed RYSEN, alongside further clinical trials, says Courtine.

Science Translational Medicine

Start-up uses biometrics to tailor music for good night’s sleep

Nicole Kobie — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 13:00:00 +0000

Concertgoers come to rest

Stefan Hoederath/Redferns/Getty

A baby falling back to sleep at 2 am to a gentle lullaby may convince its parents that music can induce sleep, but new compositions designed to help listeners relax sound rather different to Rock-a-bye Baby. Boston-based start-up uses biometrics to tailor music to your mood. Its app measures your heart beat via your smartphone’s accelerometer and uses these readings to tweak a relaxing ambient track by UK band Marconi Union. After listening, you take a brief survey. How relaxed do you feel? “Music can be used for everyday wellness as well as for clinical applications,” says Sync Project co-founder Ketki Karanam. Relaxation and sleep was an obvious place to start. “We decided to start by focusing on relaxation as we felt that was one area where people were using music to calm themselves down or relax,” she says. And people with sleep conditions are often looking for drug-free ways to sleep better. As well as the Unwind app, the company plans to collect biometric data from attendees at an overnight performance of neoclassical composer Max Richter’s eight-hour album Sleep – designed to help people nod off – at the next month. Concertgoers will be invited to wear activity-tracking , which also monitor heart rate and body temperature. In addition, the volunteers will wear the rings while going to sleep at home, with and without the aid of Richter’s composition.

AI music treatment

The Sync Project team will then analyse the readings for insights into how the music might affect sleep and relaxation. Participants will also report back on their stress and relaxation levels before and after listening to the music. Ultimately, Sync Project aims to develop its own AI-based music treatment tools for different situations, from everyday wellness to clinical applications. Karanam even points to studies examining music’s impact on people affected by conditions such as , and . But neuroscientist at Stanford University in California, who was an adviser to Richter on the Sleep album, is sceptical. Repetitive, unsurprising music helps the brain go into a relaxed state – but does little more, he says. “Music has certain obvious ways it can excite or relax us, but there are limits and it certainly can’t replace real treatments,” he says. In the �ʲ��쾱�Բ��ǲ�’s research, music could help people keep their muscles moving better and stop them “freezing” while walking, he says – but clapping works just as well. Music can be a useful distraction, which can help with insomnia or pain relief, says , director of the Clinical Sleep Research Unit at Loughborough University, UK. “That said, if the presenting insomnia is so ‘mild’ it can be effectively managed with Spotify, it’s unlikely to have been a major clinical issue in the first place,” he says. Controlled, academic tests of Sync Project’s tools remain necessary, as people who opt in to use them are already likely to be music fans, Morgan says. “Keep in mind that those who like listening to music as a lifestyle choice do so because it delivers emotional/psychological benefits,” he says. “That it also delivers these benefits to the same people when they’re sick would be unsurprising.”

Nicole Kobie, Author at ��è����Ƶ