Watch Fitbit’s Super Bowl ad for their upcoming Blaze wearable

In case you missed it during the game, Fitbit aired its first ever Super Bowl commercial to show off the Fitbit Blaze. The smartwatch doesn’t actually ship until March, but it’s not going to stop Fitbit from drumming up some anticipation for the device ahead of time.

The commercial shows off the stylish side of the Blaze alongside its highly-touted functionality. There are tons of other fitness trackers, but they tend to suffer from being a little too utilitarian which can put people off from actually wearing them. Fitbit knows that, and they’re working on fixing it.

You can watch the video below. Anybody planning on preordering a Fitbit Blaze?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Come comment on this article: Watch Fitbit’s Super Bowl ad for their upcoming Blaze wearable

Chip promises brain-like AI in your mobile devices

There’s one big, glaring reason why you don’t see neural networks in mobile devices right now: power. Many of these brain-like artificial intelligence systems depend on large, many-core graphics processors to work, which just isn’t practical for a device meant for your hand or wrist. MIT has a solution in hand, though. It recently revealed Eyeriss, a chip that promises neural networks in very low-power devices. Although it has 168 cores, it consumes 10 times less power than the graphics processors you find in phones — you could stuff one into a phone without worrying that it will kill your battery.

Eyeriss’ trick is to avoid swapping data when possible. Each of the cores (which effectively serves as a neuron) has its own memory, and compresses data whenever it leaves. It also keeps the amount of work to a minimum. Nearby cores can talk directly to each other, so they don’t need to talk to a central source (say, main memory) if what they need is close at hand. On top of that, a special delegation circuit gives cores as much work as they can handle without going back to fetch data.

There’s no mention of how soon you could expect Eyeriss’ technology in something you can buy, but the impact for machine learning could easily be huge. You could have your smartphone (or any other low-power device) handle AI-based processing locally, rather than farming it out to an internet server where delays and security are problems. Many of the devices you own would be better at adapting to new situations or learning about their environments. And it’s important to note that one of NVIDIA’s senior researchers helped make the chip — this tech could easily become a practical reality before long.

Via: EurekAlert

Source: MIT News

Smallest-ever optical switch revolves around one atom

We’ve seen some ridiculously tiny electronics in our day, but this might take the cake. Swiss researchers have built an optical networking switch so small that it’s measured on the atomic scale — in fact, it’s smaller than the wavelength of light it needs to transmit data. The system can use just one silver atom to transmit an electrical current between silver and platinum pads. Apply enough voltage and the atom moves into place; stop and the atom shies away. Surprisingly simple, isn’t it?

Any real-world uses will take a while. The current technique only builds a usable switch one in every six tries, and it’s currently very slow — it can only handle megahertz-class frequencies at best. It should be worth the “few years” of refinement need to make something practical, though. Besides dramatically shrinking the size of an optical switch (what you find in a data center is typically inches wide), it’d create a truly digital signal — you can’t get more binary than the presence or absence of a lone atom. You could one day see switches that behave just like transistors, opening up possibilities that were closed until now.

Via: Gizmag, Slashdot

Source: ETH Zurich

Scientists decode the bedbug’s genes to help kill it

Just the very thought of bedbugs probably makes your skin crawl, and that’s made all the worse by their ability to adapt to new threats. Like it or not, that pesticide you used years ago probably doesn’t work any more. What to do? Genetics might just come to the rescue. Scientists have created the first full genome sequence for the bedbug in hopes of defeating its resistance to sprays and other attempts at extermination. You’d think this would have been easy (humans can sequence woolly mammoths, for goodness’ sake), but it wasn’t — the team had to compare bedbug genes from 1973 with present-day samples, and even the differences before and after the bugs had their blood meals.

The results might surprise you. Certain genes only manifest themselves after a meal, and they can vary not just from place to place, but between material types. Did you know that bedbugs found on benches have different genes than those on subway turnstiles? Critters within a given neighborhood will tend to share traits, but you could see significant changes as you go from district to district in a given city.

The discoveries might change pest control for good. Observers could better map infestations and find a way to cut off migrations before they create problems in other neighborhoods. Also, antibiotics that kill bedbug-friendly bacteria could be useful complements to pesticides. While it’s doubtful that you’ll ever be completely safe from bedbugs in urban environments, they might not be quite as much of a persistent nuisance as they are today.

Via: Gizmag

Source: AMNH, Nature