Gigaom AI Minute – May 28

Transcript

• Supercomputers are helping researchers classify patients' immune response, design clinical trials and analyze immune repertoire data. Researchers at Zhejiang University in China are using advanced computing resources to determine which immune treatments may be most effective for which patients and allowing them to design new and improved immunotherapies.

• Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a process for 3D printing stretchable electronic sensory devices that could give robots the ability to feel their environment. Real-world applications include putting the 'bionic skin' on surgical robots to give surgeons the ability to feel during minimally invasion surgery in addition to using cameras as they do now.

• At its Google I/O developers conference, Google announced a new technology called Visual Positioning Service (VPS), a Tango-enabled mapping system that uses augmented reality on phones and tablets to help navigate indoor locations. In one application the system could offer retail customers turn-by-turn directions to find a desired item. The technology also has promise to assist the visually impaired navigate their surroundings.

• In a recent poll of 1,302 scholars, technology experts, government leaders, and corporate practitioners, the Pew Research Center and Elon University, found that 38 percent of respondents predicted that the benefits of algorithms will outweigh the detriments, while 37 percent felt the opposite way, and 25 percent thought it would be a draw.

• Abundant Robotics in California has built an automated apple picker that uses a vacuum system to suck the fruit straight off of the trees. Between 315,000 and 320,000 acres of apples are grown in the US each year with the labor demand per year ranging from 250 to 350 man-hours per acre. Robots could significantly help with harvest during labor shortages.