Welcome to this week’s 920 Weekly Roundup! Let’s see what’s been in the news this week..
AUT University’s Professor Nik Kasabov has recently opened the NeuLab. This lab is to be used alongside neuro-computing. Neuro-computing is using machines that have the potential to process information in the same way that our brains do. This could allow new discoveries in our knowledge of the brain including the ability to predict strokes. Kasabov says we need computers that are more intelligent and analytical. He believes that this technology can be used with physics, neuroscience, climatology, robotics or seismology to produce breakthroughs within these fields. “We would like to show, with small pilot experiments, that this technology can be taken further and developed for real-world solutions to complex problems.”
Unsure of what to get your loved ones this Christmas? The NZ Herald has Noel Leeming’s list of expected top 10 gadgets for this Christmas!
1. Remote controlled helicopters and drones
2. Smoothie blenders i.e. Nutrin Ninja blenders
3. Nespresso coffee machines
4. Fitbit
5. UE Boom
6. Consoles
7. Mini Selfie Camera
8. HP Star Wars Laptop
9. Samsung Galaxy J Series
10. Sony 55″ Ultra High Definition 3D Smart LED with Android TV plus free PlayStation
Hopefully this list has given you some hints to make the dreaded Christmas shopping easier!
Have you been seeing images of dinosaur’s standing next to chocolate cakes? Or rainbow coloured African safari animals? No you haven’t gone crazy… these images have been created by the new web app ‘WordsEye’. This app translates lines of user text into an image using artificial intelligence. For example, if a user types in ‘It was a sunny day. The rabbit was laying on the one cloud in the sky.’ The app would understand the words ‘sunny’, ‘rabbit’, ‘cloud’ from its concept library and then create an artistic representation of how these concepts could fit together in one scene. Going from word to image relies on a specific type of artificial intelligence called natural language processing. This involves extracting meaning from words and using mathematics, probability, and statistics to find the relationship between the words. WordsEye believes that it is “a new social network for creative expression and visual banter”. I think it sounds like the perfect app for the imaginative people amongst us!
Enjoy the weekend!
The Ninetwenty Team
