DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF by Maryanne Kane, Journalist

 

DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF

                                                                      

                 By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane

MCMURTRY'S SPECTACULAR NEW E-FAN CAR

                                 Source:  McMurtry Automotive

• Iconic British automaker McMurtry has unveiled a customer version of its record setting, electric fan race car, Speirling Pure
• That race car set the hill climb record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK at 39.08 seconds last year
• The consumer version is designed for the track and is said to be more powerful than the official race car
• Key details:

1. 2 electric motors on rear axle
2. HP:  1,000 hp
3. Top Speed:  190 mph
4. 3 G-force cornering
5. Price:  $1.08 million
6. Designed with Batman-like cabin with one seat
7. Deliveries in 2025
8. Street legal version is also on the way.

ROBOTS LEARNING NEW TASKS FROM VIDEOS

                                       

                                        Source:  CMU

• Researchers at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute have taught robots to learn new tasks - like opening a kitchen drawer - by watching Youtube videos of humans doing the task
• This is a significant breakthrough in robotics as 2 robots learned via videos 12 different household chores, including opening oven doors, lids, drawers and picking up phones, veggies and cans of soup
• The researchers say the sky is the limit for this form of robotic learning as YouTube videos and the internet can be used as educational tools and the robots can expand their scope of doing valuable household chores
• The technology is called WHIRL (in the wild human imitation robot learning), which is a CMU-developed algorithm that trains robots by having them watch a video of a human doing a task
• Example:  robot learns to open a drawer by watching a human do it on a video
• The robot has been taught to focus on several key pieces of information - the contact point & trajectory
• Robot recognizes the handle as the contact point & the drawer moving out
• With just a couple of views within 25 minutes, the robot learns what to do and can duplicate the task in any location
• The key to robotics is expanding robots capabilities and this new learning method appears to have tremendous potential.

GOOGLE'S NEW AI TOOLS FOR SUMMER FUN

                                                        Source:  Cape Cod stock

• Google is rolling out a number of new AI search tools specifically catering to summertime needs like vacation planning, selecting summer clothing and more, including:

1. An expanded Google Maps feature that uses AI to create an immersive look at potential vacation destinations
2. AI tool that displays clothing on a variety of models to help the potential buyer determine if it's the right look for them
3. AI powered conversational tool for shopping and travel
4. Computer vision powered lens tool that can help identify a summer skin rash such as poison ivy

• Google is smartly building into its search engine experiences the latest advances in AI to enrich the users' encounter and cater to their top summertime needs.

For more news stories like this,  LATEST INNOVATIONS FOR TOMORROW

• "Daily Innovation Brief" © By Edward Kane