CSAIL
Unlocking The Potential Of Blockchain Technology
The Republic of the Marshall Islands is a country of around 50,000 people spread across more than 1,000 islands in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. The country relies heavily on cross-border finance and trade, and the complexities of that system can make it difficult for citizens to get certain goods and financial services …
Intelligent Carpet Gives Insight Into Human Poses
The sentient Magic Carpet from Aladdin might have a new competitor. While it can’t fly or speak, a new tactile sensing carpet from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) can estimate human poses without using cameras, in a step towards improving self-powered personalized healthcare, smart homes, and gaming. Many of our daily activities involve physical …
Slender Robotic Finger Senses Buried Items
MIT researchers developed a “Digger Finger” robot that digs through granular material, like sand and gravel, and senses the shapes of buried objects.Image courtesy of the researchers Over the years, robots have gotten quite good at identifying objects — as long as they’re out in the open. Discerning buried items in granular material like sand …
New System Cleans Messy Data Tables Automatically
MIT researchers have created a new system that automatically cleans “dirty data” — the typos, duplicates, missing values, misspellings, and inconsistencies dreaded by data analysts, data engineers, and data scientists. MIT researchers have created a new system that automatically cleans “dirty data” — the typos, duplicates, missing values, misspellings, and inconsistencies dreaded by data analysts, …
Untangle Your Hair With Help From Robots
With rapidly growing demands on health care systems, nurses typically spend 18 to 40 percent of their time performing direct patient care tasks, oftentimes for many patients and with little time to spare. Personal care robots that brush your hair could provide substantial help and relief. This may seem like a truly radical form of …
A Tool For Navigating Complex Computer Instructions
We’ve come a long way since Intel introduced the first microprocessor in 1971. Their 4004 held 2,300 transistors, with today’s best chips exceeding billions, harnessing more and more power since their birth. But every time Intel releases a new computer chip, it’s a costly investment, as they need to add new instructions of computer programs …
An Artificial Intelligence Tool That Can Help Detect Melanoma
Melanoma is a type of malignant tumor responsible for more than 70 percent of all skin cancer-related deaths worldwide. For years, physicians have relied on visual inspection to identify suspicious pigmented lesions (SPLs), which can be an indication of skin cancer. Such early-stage identification of SPLs in primary care settings can improve melanoma prognosis and …
Auto-Updating Websites When Facts Change
Many companies put millions of dollars towards content moderation and curbing fake news. But what about the *old* news and misinformation that is still out there? One fundamental truth about the internet is that it has lots of outdated information. Just think about the many news articles written in the early weeks of the COVID-19 …
More Transparency And Understanding Into Machine Behaviors
Explaining, interpreting, and understanding the human mind presents a unique set of challenges. Doing the same for the behaviors of machines, meanwhile, is a whole other story. As artificial intelligence (AI) models are increasingly used in complex situations — approving or denying loans, helping doctors with medical diagnoses, assisting drivers on the road, or even …
Researchers’ Algorithm Designs Soft Robots That Sense
There are some tasks that traditional robots — the rigid and metallic kind — simply aren’t cut out for. Soft-bodied robots, on the other hand, may be able to interact with people more safely or slip into tight spaces with ease. But for robots to reliably complete their programmed duties, they need to know the …