THE TIMES OF INDIA, BENGALURU
SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 2017
SHORT CUTS
Robot Sophia makes case
for artificial intelligence Reuters
WE CAN BE YOUR FRIENDS, HELPERS
S ophia smiles mischievously, bats her eyelids
and tells a joke. Without the mess of cables
that make up the back of her head, you could
almost mistake her for a human. The humanoid
robot, created by Hanson robotics, is the main
attraction at a UN-hosted conference in Geneva
this week on how artificial intelligence can be
used to benefit humanity. The event comes as
concerns grow that rapid advances in such
technologies could spin out of human control
and become detrimental to society. AI is good
for the world, helping people in various ways,
Sophia told reporters, tilting her head and
furrowing her brow convincingly. Work is under-
way to make artificial intelligence emotionally
smart, to care about people, she said, insisting
that we will never replace people, but we can
be your friends and helpers.
Now, a biosensor for cheap & quick
dengue diagnosis: Brazilian scientists
have developed a biosensor that can quickly
detect dengue and could help create a cheap
tool to diagnose the painful mosquito-borne
virus that infects millions each year. They are
looking to produce a testing kit that would cost
clinics and hospitals around $30 (approx. Rs
2,000) and take about 15 minutes to analyse
blood samples for a key dengue protein, said
Cleverton Luiz Pirich, a researcher at the Feder-
al University of Paran. A biosensor is an analyt-
ical device that converts a biological respons
into an electrical signal.
Nasas new rover is a cool Batmobile Intimate grooming for men on the rise
I
Nasa
f youre going to go to Mars,
you might as well do it in
I
style. And it doesnt get
more stylish than the Batmo-
bile, which, coincidentally, is
exactly what Nasas new rover
looks like. The Dark Knight-
style rover operates on an elec-
tric motor and was unveiled
this week at a special event at
the Kennedy Space Centre .
It separates in the middle,
with the front area designed
for scouting and equipped
with a radio and navigation The rover (above), unveiled at at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex,
provided by GPS. The back is a concept vehicle built to get people interested in space exploration
FB tech can make webcam spy on you
Patent Application Shows How Firm Can Monitor Your Emotions
Aatif Sulleyman
F
acebook possesses technolo-
gy that can let it secret watch
and record users through
their webcams and smartphone
cameras while on the website, a
newly discovered patent sug-
gests. The document explains
how the company would use
technology to see how your facial
expressions change when you
came across different types of PRIVACY CONCERNS
content. It would analyse those
images to work out how you feel, display more pictures of that
and use the information to keep friend in your news feed.
you on the site for longer.
If you smiled as you looked at the patent application explains
pictures of one of your friends, that if you looked away from
for instance, Facebooks algo- your screen when a video of a kit-
rithm could take note of that and ten played, Facebook could stop
Artificial tongue can
tell Scotch from hooch
Berlin: Scientists have developed an artifi-
cial tongue which can help novice drinkers
determine the difference between a Scot-
tish malt whisky and an Irish blend.
The synthetic tongue can pick out differ-
ent qualities in whiskies, such as their
brand, age and country of origin using fluo-
rescent dyes.
The process is quicker and cheaper than
many of the existing methods, researchers
said. We can use this to detect fake whis-
kies. If you buy a crate of expensive whis-
kies, you can test if they are actually what
you think they are, said Uwe Bunz at Hei-
delberg University in Germany.
By building up an overall flavour profile
in much the same way as our tongues do, the
approach is good at telling if two bottles of
whisky are the same. PTI
TIMES TRENDS
Reuters
showing similar type of videos
in your feed.
In another case, the docu-
ment says, if you happened to
watch an advert for scotch, Face-
book could choose to target you
with more adverts for the drink.
The patent application was
submitted in February 2014 and
published in August 2015, but
was only recently spotted, by
CBInsights. covers his webcam and mic with
The site isnt believed to have
put its plans into action yet, and
theres no guarantee that it ever
will. We often seek patents for
Another example included in technology we never implement,
and patents should not be taken
as an indication of future plans,
a Facebook spokesperson said.
However, the document raises
Reuters
GETTING HUNGOVER ON FOOD
section serves as a laboratory Rachel Hosie
that can disconnect for auton-
omous research. Unfortunate- t may sound like a strange
ly, this exact rover will not be concept, but there are al-
making the trip to Mars on Na- ready an array of compa-
sas mission to visit the planet nies with products on the
in the 2020s. However, ele- market designed to keep
ments from it could be adapted mens private parts smelling
into future rovers that will be like a field of daisies or a
used to help explore the rocky chocolate mousse.
planet. Nasas concept vehi- Comfy Boys, Fresh Balls,
cle will be displayed at sever- Dry Goods, DZ Nuts, Driball,
al locations in the US. Before ToppCock, Blla for Men and
presumably going back to Man Powder are just some of
keeping the streets of Goth- the creatively named compa-
am safe at night. DAILY MIRROR nies offering products de-
yet more concern about a compa-
ny that, in 2014, was found to have
secretly manipulated hundreds of
thousands of users feeds as part
of an experiment to work out
whether it could affect peoples
emotions. The company later ad-
mitted that it failed to communi-
cate clearly why we did it.
Last year, a picture posted by
Mark Zuckerberg showed that he
tape. The public rater predict-
ably made a big deal out of it, and
the discovery of Facebooks pat-
ent will only fuel speculation.
The patent also details a new text
platform that can detect how
hard you type, and use that infor-
mation to attempt to work out how
you feel. THE INDEPENDENT
Guests enjoy a Dinner in the Sky
on a platform suspended from a
crane at a height of 40 metres in
front of the Arcades du
Cinquantenaire in Brussels,
Belgium, on Thursday
signed to ensure your testicles
smell fresh. According to cre-
ator and co-founder of Blla
for Men, their target custom-
er is an athlete, couch-potato
or somewhere in between. So
basically all men.
The brands claim that bad-
smelling testicles could be tar-
nishing peoples impression
of you, whether youre on a
date or at a business meeting.
But experts arent con-
vinced. Sweat specialist Ge-
orge Preti, who has been in-
vestigating body odour for 40
17
Scientists regrow
skin thats burnt
Natalie Grover PolarityTEs founder and
CEO Denver Lough said.
A
small US biotech has PolarityTE conducted its
successfully regener- study on wounded pigs at an
ated skin and stimulat-
ed hair growth in pigs with
animal facility in Utah. The
use of therapy resulted in
burns and abrasions, paving scar-less healing, growth of
the way for a scientific
breakthrough that could
hair follicles, complete
wound coverage and the pro-
lead to the regeneration of gressive regeneration of all
fully functional human skin.
Salt Lake City-based Po-
larityTE Incs patented ap-
BREAKTHROUGH
proach to tissue engineering skin layers, the company
is designed to use a patients said. As pig skin is more com-
own healthy tissue to re-grow plex and robust than human
human skin for the treat- skin, successful swine data
ment of burns and wounds. is seen as a precursor to ef-
Despite recent advances in fectiveness in human trials.
reconstructive surgery, plas- PolarityTE expects to be-
tic surgeons cannot give gin a human trial later this
burn victims what they re- year and the cell therapy
quire the most their skin. could hit the market 12 to 18
Current approaches to months thereafter, said
treat serious burns are se- Lough, who served as senior
verely limited in their ef- plastic surgery resident at
fectiveness and in some Johns Hopkins Hospital be-
cases, are rather expensive, fore creating the firm. REUTERS
Thinkstock
years, has called the claims by
the brands ridiculous.
He says scrotal sweat
doesnt smell like underarm
sweat does: As far as I know,
nobody ever complains about
scrotum odours at social dis-
tances. And if they do, take a
shower. Soap and water does a
lot of good. The only thing
they really offer is psychoso-
matic relief, says Brian
Steixner, director of the Insti-
tute of Mens Health at Jersey
Urology Group in Atlantic
City, US. THE INDEPENDENT SOMETHING SMELLS OFF