Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) computer scientists have developed V3D, a software suite that features tools for visualizing, analyzing, and measuring complex, three-dimensional (3D) biological and biomedical images. The free software promises to greatly accelerate scientists’ ability to assemble and manipulate extremely detailed images. The digital reconstruction tools are 17 times more reliable than those created using commercially available software, according to HHMI computer scientist Hanchuan Peng. The HHMI team wrote algorithms to accelerate the rendering of the images on the screen. V3D allows the user to drag and drop the images to be analyzed, and to pinpoint a location in a 3D image with a mouse click. “Since we have a very fast renderer for 3D images, we were able to design new approaches to manipulate very large images freely in real time,” Peng says.
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Robotics researchers recently have focused on multiple-robot systems that work together and react to each other, with the goal of one day performing dangerous or menial tasks that machines, in combination, might do better than humans. One way researchers are getting robots to work together is by designing all-robotic soccer teams. “When we started this, the main research question was … how do you get multiple robots to coordinate?” says Carnegie Mellon University professor Manuela Veloso. Researchers also are studying insects, such as ants, bees, and termites, that work together to accomplish complex goals such as building an intricate nest. “These collective behaviors are very powerful and arise from very simple individuals,” says Harvard University professor Radhika Nagpal. Nagpal is part of a project to create robotic bees that mimic those in nature. Rice University’s James McLurkin is developing a swarm of robots that can seek out the boundaries of an area, which could be useful in exploration.
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Frank Moss, head of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says there are real opportunities in developing technology for disabled or disadvantaged people, and believes they will translate into great commercial hits. For example, MIT’s Rosalind Picard is creating a system for people with autism that can tell from a person’s head movements and facial expressions if they are confused, interested, or disagreeing. The system then feeds the information to a display in the corner of a pair of glasses. “The idea is to supply autistic people with the cues they would otherwise miss,” says Moss. Meanwhile, MIT’s Hugh Herr has designed a supportive exoskeleton that enables a person to run with the same energy they would normally use to walk. And MIT research assistant John Moore has built an artificial intelligence system that collects information from a patient and creates a report for the doctor. The patient talks to an avatar, which uses natural language processing to interpret what the patient says.
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