Kozminski Techblog

According to Marxent, “Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment”. It may seem like VR is only good for gaming as it has been mostly used for that purpose. However, it turns out that it can be very convenient in an operating room.

As stated on BBC News, “virtual reality headsets are being offered during regional anaesthetic surgeries at a south London hospital to try and reduce stress among patients”. The technology is being tried out by Orthopaedic surgeons in St George’s Hospital in London. As stated on BBC News, “the technique [is being tested] with patients undergoing upper limb surgery, as a way of helping them to relax and reduce any anxiety they may be feeling”.

Patients during upper limb surgery are given regional anesthetic which makes them not feel the pain in the area where they are operated. Unfortunately, they are awake and conscious which makes some people very anxious as they can hear the procedure and doctors’ conversations. It was stated in BBC News, that in the past patients would get sedation which made them calmer but nowadays, thanks to VR, they do not need to do that as patients are given VR headsets as well as headphones so they are unable to see or hear anything that is going on in the room. Instead, they are “transported” to some picturesque locations where they can relax.

Moreover, it has been proved by PubMed that “virtual reality patients felt the experience helped them to relax, and they would recommend virtual reality-assisted wide-awake local anesthesia no tourniquet surgery”. It was also stated that “among patients with self-reported preexisting anxiety, virtual reality patients had lower pain and anxiety scores during injection of local anesthesia compared with non-virtual reality patients”.

To sum up, so far VR is only used in upper limb surgery but the results are great. Therefore, it might have broader use in the future.

References:

https://www.marxentlabs.com/what-is-virtual-reality/

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-london-50925033/virtual-reality-takes-the-stress-out-of-surgery?intlink_from_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Ftechnology&link_location=live-reporting-map

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31348351

Orba – something unique on the market

Currently, the music industry is becoming more and more popular. Taking into consideration the production of modern music, it does not require any special musical education. Knowing just basic knowledge about musical composition, anyone can make his personally made musical tracks and melodies. There is a lot of software that is used for this purpose today. For example, FL Studio, Ableton Live, Apple Logic Pro X, Avid Pro Tools, etc. Moreover, a variety of additional musical devices are developed. For instance, synthesizers, MIDI controllers, loopers, drum pads, etc.

Artiphon is a brave company, which designs musical devices. It was founded in 2011 and based in Nashville. They presented a new device, which is designed in a quite interesting way. They wanted to design a new device, which contains a synthesizer, looper and MIDI controller at the same time. Furthermore, this device lets anyone make music immediately whenever they are, and this device was called Orba.

Orba has a minimalistic design. Developers said that they had been inspired by simple geometry objects, like a half of a grapefruit, that fits in almost everyone’s hand. Although this is a small all-in-one musical instrument, Orba has many sensors that read users’ taps, pressure, radial slides, bumps, shakes, tilts, spins, swipes, etc.

Obra has:
• eight capacitive-sensing pads for feather-touch control.
• accelerometer and gyroscope are installed to capture a range of gestures
• center menu button accesses four presets, the looper, and other functions
• onboard synthesizer and built-in speaker installed to offer an immediate playing experience

Moreover, the creators have developed an app, which can be synchronized with the Orba device, and it provides more sounds, songs, and settings. The visual part of this device was also developed quite satisfying. Multicolor LEDs respond the way you play, and of course, Vibro-feedback is provided. For example, while shaking or tilting. This device has a 3.5mm minijack to be able to connect it to headphones, speakers, and amps.

Creators said that using this device was so simplified that even a beginner could feel like a professional.

In my opinion, this is a great device to have fun, enjoy your free time and relax at brakes between working hours. Moreover, this device will help people, who have just started their careers as a music producer, to develop their skills. It must be mentioned that there is not any similar device on the market, which is as professional, as user-friendly and as affordable as Orba. I think this device can be one of the worthy competitors in the global market.

What do you think, was it a good idea to create such a small all-in-one instrument for everyone?

Sources:

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/artiphon/created

Top 10 Best Music Production Software – Digital Audio Workstations

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and is responsible for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. Globally, about 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer. To fight it, the key is detecting it early on. The task is extremely difficult, as cancer in the early stage of growth is extraordinarily difficult to detect. Standard screening methods such as radiological imaging can miss signs of cancer or return a false negative (as it does in 20-30% of cases). Hereditary testing is another detection method that determines genetic predisposition to cancer, but this does not provide much detail and cannot reveal if a person has cancer now. It takes a lot of time and resources to find developing cancer cells. But there might be a solution.

In recent study, researchers trained an algorithm to detect early signs of cancer cells forming. AI can not only greatly improve the accuracy of image detection for cancer, but could also open up entirely new fields between genomics and cancer screening.

Founded by six deep-learning experts from KAIST University in South Korea in 2013, Lunit trained their INSIGHT algorithm on chest x-rays and mammography images to detect lung and breast cancer. Boasting a 97% detection rate for lung and breast cancer, Lunit put their success down to training: “rather than guiding our algorithm to a specific location, we provided a region and said “there is a nodule there, try to find it,” and let the algorithm learn by itself,” says Brandon Suh, Lunit’s CEO.  “It is difficult for doctors to find small nodules hidden behind ribs or organs in chest x-rays” says Suh, but their algorithm searches for cancer patterns to dramatically reduce the chance of a false negative or missed case of cancer.

This unique approach to accurately detect and treat cancer is part of a wave of AI implementation in healthcare that does not look likely to stop. Wide-scale implementation of AI could lead to a fully proactive healthcare system, that responds to diseases preemptively istead of being focused on treating sick people. Unfortunately, there are some obstacles. Aside from a lack of data, mindset and professional changes are major obstacles for AI in healthcare. But if applications like Lunit can make themselves known, and more importantly understood by the healthcare community, then AI will be a powerful weapon in the fight against cancer.

Sources:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestowersclark/2019/04/30/the-cutting-edge-of-ai-cancer-detection/#2582c7e27336

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer

https://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2019-12-artificial-intelligence-previously-unknown-features.html

You may have heard the term “digital twins” before, but you probably don’t realize that this 10-year concept is finally ready for use in industry programs. For those unfamiliar with the idea, the digital twin is a truly computer-simulated version of a real-world object that uses real-world data to understand the state of the object now and in the future. Imagine, for example, a computer model of a car and test how that car will change in age.

Digital-twin use cases

• Manufacturing is the area where the release of digital twins is perhaps the most remote, and factories are already using digital twins to mimic their processes, as is the Deloitte study.
• Car or automotive digital twins are made possible by the fact that cars are already equipped with telemetry sensors, but technology improvements will become more important when more autonomous vehicles hit the road.
• Healthcare is a sector that produces digital twins of the people we mentioned above. Assisted-size sensors return health information to a digital twin that is used to monitor and predict a patient’s well-being.

How does a digital twin work?

The twin is built so that it can receive input from sensors that collect data from a real partner. This allows the twin to simulate a physical object in real time, in a process that offers an understanding of performance and potential problems. The twin can also be designed based on a prototype of its physical counterpart; in this case, the twin can provide feedback as the product improves; the twin can even serve as the prototype before any physical version is built.

4 amazing examples of digital twin technology

• At the Spring Gala Gala, which aired on China’s Central Television, four human hosts joined in on a copy of themselves of AI, ObEN’s own digital twin. They are more than avatars created by computers because they used machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision to create virtual copies of hosts. Future programs for this technology include plans to create teachers, nurses, and doctors.
• Digital twin technology has even been deployed to improve Formula 1 racing. In sports, where every second counts, simulation can help the driver and the car team know what adjustments can improve performance.
• NASA has used mating technology, the precursor to digital twin technologies, from the early days of space exploration to solve the problem of operating, maintaining, and repairing systems when you are physically not near them. This is how the engineers and astronauts on Earth determined how to save the Apollo 13 mission. Today, digital twins are used by NASA to investigate next-generation vehicles and aircraft.
• There is even a digital twin Singapore! Imagine all the variables that go into managing a city. Digital twin technology helps urban planners understand and improve energy efficiency, as well as many applications that can improve the lives of their citizens.

References:

https://eleks.com/blog/3-things-businesses-need-to-know-about-digital-twins/      https://www.networkworld.com/article/3280225/what-is-digital-twin-technology-and-why-it-matters.html    https://www.challenge.org/insights/what-is-digital-twin/                                                            https://developer.ibm.com/articles/what-are-digital-twins/

For more info you can watch a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVS-AuSjpOQ

Every day our world becomes more and more technologically developed and equipped. Robots, gadgets, apps, some kinds of things, we could have never even imagined. Nowadays, the world has almost every «unreal» technological thing, we could only observe in movies earlier. It is common and usual now. Except one. Human Microchips.

«Human microchipping is a way of implanting an integrated circuit device or RFID transponder encased inside a silicate glass and implanted inside the human body.» Speaking easier, it is a small detail, with short-range radio frequency identification. It is located under your skin and gather all unique information about you: location, health state and medical history, payment history, etc.

First microchips were invented in 1998 by K. Warnick. However, their only task was to open the doors and switch on the light in the room. They were called out after a week, because they were limited in power and, obviously, scientist didn’t want to make troubles to his health.

So, let’s discuss whether humanity should provide every person with microchips or not. I will provide you with some advantages and disadvantages of microchipping and below, in comments, you’ll share your opinion.

ADVANTAGES

1)All packed up here

You may use microchip instead of taking wallet every time you get out of home. You can pay for public transport, buy different stuff in stores, gain access to enter some buildings( for example if you work in a private company), to borrow books in libraries, etc. It is much easier than every day remind yourself not to forget to take money and cards. Moreover, you will never be afraid of your money being lost or stolen).

2)Identification of personality

There is no need to bring your ID when you go to take up your package from the post office, or to bring your passport when you travel abroad. Nobody will ask you again to show your ticket for the train, student ID card or , for example, VIP card. You are not going to prove your identity, because it is written on database of your microchip.

3) Security and safety

Now, you will be easily tracked by your family or friends. Most of all it is important and helpful when you get lost. It is a very common situation, especially for small kids. Well, the percentage of kidnapping will be significantly lower.

DISADVANTAGES

1)Viruses 

In 2009, the computer virus affected the microchip, implanted into Mark Gasson’s hand. The following question is — how often will this problem appear and how to solve it without removal?

2)Health problems

There are some medical risks of having an implant under your skin. It can easily move to a different location. Later on, it is harder to find them. There are also some risks of electrical hazards, adverse tissue reactions and even cancer. Researches from 2007 helped to find out that microchips cause cancer in between one and ten percent of lab animals, who have microchips.

3) Threat of prosecution and leak of personal information

Technologies are developing and hackers do not stay on the one place, too. Some people with bad intensions may hack your microchip and use your personal information against you, prosecute you and even steal your money( that proves, that «wallet» under your skin can be stolen too))

Nowadays, chips are widely used. Especially it concerns to animal tracking, tracking of packages, products and inventory. Talking about humans, it is still a big question whether it is a good idea to implement microchipping into our every day life. 

What do you think about it? Do you consider microchipping as a beneficial move or a dangerous one?

References:

http://www.hi-wave.com/2019/07/should-people-get-identity-chips-implanted-under-their-skin/

http://www.justscience.in/articles/humans-get-identity-chips-implanted-skin/2018/01/16

https://richardvanhooijdonk.com/blog/en/human-microchipping-the-benefits-and-downsides/

http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9901/14/chipman.idg/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchip_implant_(human)

On the internet, most of us are required to prove that we are real humans rather than robots from time to time. Sometimes it is just about solving a simple math problem, sometimes we have to choose a few photos, etc. Those little and little bit annoying tests are called CAPTCHAs. Their job is to prevent bots from doing specific things, for example, creating fake accounts buying a tone of limited stuff at retail price to sell it for a higher price afterward. CAPTCHA’s are also designed to be ridiculously simple for humans yet difficult for machines.

However, it seems like bots are getting better and better at solving them!  There is a Californian AI firm, Vicarious – it has been significantly funded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Vicarious managed to crack the basic CAPTCHA already in 2013. It had 90% accuracy then! Although CAPTCHA designers weren’t sleeping either, over the years CAPTCHAs have been getting more difficult to outsmart smarter bots. However, they also had to keep being trivial for humans.

Google’s reCAPTCHA test seems like the best type of CAPTCHA right now, as it can only be solved by humans 87% of the time. I’m pretty sure you have all come across it in the past as it is being used very frequently. How it works then? Well, it asks users to choose the photos/blocks which include specific features like buses or traffic lights.

Vicarious has been working on enabling their bots to overcome reCAPTCHA. According to the paper, their AI now beats Google’s test 66.6 percent of the time! But how Vicarious accomplished that? How their bots actually work? Vicarious based their AI on something they call „Recursive Cortical Network”. It is designed to mimic thought processes that typically occur in human brains. At the same time, those processes require less computing power than a full neural network. This results in AI being able to identify objects even if they are shaded or obscured just like on reCAPTCHA.

On the other hand, we have to remember that not many people have access to this powerful CAPTCHA-cracking AI. Most people still do not possess any useful and relevant bots in this area. Thanks to that, I think that CAPTCHAs are not entirely useless for now. However, CAPTCHA designers should work on improving them however, it seems like AI can come to the point where fooling automated bots will be impossible.

Sources:

www.artificialintelligence-news.com

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6368/eaag2612.full

Mini officially presented its electric MINI Cooper SE in Poland. The British-German 3-door hatchback consumes approximately 15 kWh/100 km on average and according to the manufacturer can travel over 230 kilometers on a single charge in “mixed mode”.

The car uses the same drive system as BMW i3s and is equipped with a high-voltage battery with a capacity of 32.6 kWh. The battery is located in the center of the vehicle, between the front and rear rows rows of seats, thanks to which the car’s center of gravity is very low what helps to maintain the driving characteristics that MINI’s are known for.

The electric engine allows this hatchback to accelerate in 7.3 seconds to 100km/h. From the outside the vehicle looks like a classic MINI with exception of the full, aerodynamic front, characteristic nowodays for many electric cars, yellow markings and rims with an asymmetrical pattern created especially for this model. The rear LED lights with a fragment of the British Union Jack flag pattern optically widen the car, while front adaptive headlights can adapt to the current traffic situation.

The interior still stands out in its class and can be equipped with many different accessories to suit your personal taste. The Polish representative office valued them at 193,200 PLN but they are still working on matching the price to new regulations related to payments for the purchase of electric cars. It takes 15 hours to fully charge the vehicle. The car is sold with a standard AC charging cable, while the quick charging cable is an additional paid option. What is more, on the official MINI website there is a bookmark in which you can check how often you need to charge your car during the week. 

And what do you think about the new all-electric version of Mini Cooper? Do you like it?

Sources:

https://www.motortrend.com/news/2020-mini-cooper-se-a-subcompact-tesla-model-3-alternative/

https://businessinsider.com.pl/motoryzacja/mini-cooper-se-premiera-samochodu-recenzja/vks3gwp

We all love chocolate. Or at least most of us do. The texture, the taste – everything about it makes it the perfect snack. Unfortunately, as you may know, it is not the healthiest of foods as it contains a lot of sugar and fat. However, it looks like scientists came up with an idea of how to make chocolate better for us.

The fact that chocolate is unhealthy is common knowledge but do you know exactly how unhealthy it can be? As stated in Everyday Health “according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 25 grams (g) of white chocolate has 146 calories and 10 g of fat”. Moreover, it is said that “the USDA estimates that 38 g (about three squares) of milk chocolate contains 220 calories and 13 g of fat”. Additionally, as claimed by Everyday Health “it’s estimated that a 1 ounce (oz) serving (28 g) of 85 percent dark chocolate has 136 calories, 14 g of fat”. Knowing those statistics it is obvious why chocolate is not the healthiest.

It seems like there might be a way to make chocolate better for us but first, we need to understand why there is so much fat in this delicious snack. According to Science Mag, “manufacturers have traditionally struggled to make low-fat chocolates because reducing the fat level of liquid chocolate below 36% by using less cocoa butter makes it extremely thick and likely to clog machinery”.

However, it looks like scientists discovered a way to reduce fat in chocolate using electric fields. According to Science Alert “the physicists involved in the research, from Temple University in Philadelphia, found that by applying an electric field in the same direction as the flow of the liquid chocolate, they could reduce its viscosity in that direction – and only that direction”. It is said that “what happens during the new process is that the cocoa particles get aggregated into small chains as the electric field is applied, which means they’re more highly organised inside the sticky chocolate, and flow in a certain direction more readily”. In agreement with the Science Mag, the results are incredible as “this allows confectioners to use less fatty cocoa butter while not risking clogging their machinery”.

This discovery could potentially revolutionize the chocolate industry although as stated in Los Angeles Times “the research was funded in part by Mars, though a company spokeswoman declined to say whether the company planned to use the electric-field technology”.

References:

https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/diet/chocolate-dark-chocolate-nutrition-facts-health-benefits-caffeine-recipes/

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/healthier-chocolate-thanks-electric-fields

https://www.sciencealert.com/how-electrical-fields-can-be-used-to-create-low-fat-chocolate

https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-chocolate-electric-beam-20160620-snap-story.html

For a couple of days , is warning you when you are about to post a “potentially offensive” caption for a photo or video.

It works like that: Your caption gets compared to other captions that previously got reported by other users.

If your caption is not similar, you will not get any notification. However, if you are about to post an offensive caption, Instagram encourages you to change it. You are not getting forced to change anything. This is just an encouragement to rethink maybe if you really want to proceed.

The same concept exists since July already with comments.

Another feature they implemented already a while ago was the so-called “shadow ban,” making the comments under somebodies post only visible for the person who wrote the comment, but nobody else. This is basically the strategy of simply ignoring your bully till this mean person is getting simply too tired and stops.

As you can see Instagram is trying to create a bully and hate-free zone which I believe is extremely good since Instagram is not just used by adults but in fact, 72% of 13-17-year-olds use it (sproutsocial) and if we are completely honest with ourselves then wether it was ourselves or other people, teenagers can be really mean and rude sometimes.

However, even adults in a professional environment are writing something which another person might find offensive. For example, when you browse through Linkedin, a social network to find jobs, and you scroll through the comments you can here and there find heated discussions, which are maybe on a different level language-wise, but that doesn’t make a comment itself less offensive or inappropriate. Does the person mean it? Some probably, but I believe that it is also connected with being on the internet. Instead of reading the post or comment, we are publishing to millions of people again and respond in a calm and well-overthought manner; we click the button.

Therefore a small reminder that this comment might insult a different person might help to sit back for just one second to rethink whether you mean it or your emotions take over.

What do you think about the new way Instagram is going?

–

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/16/21024051/instagram-captions-potentially-offensive-ai-moderation-bullying-edit

Jakie są największe trendy na Instagramie w 2018 roku?

https://www.engadget.com/2019/12/16/instagram-warns-about-bullying-captions/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKEBD9C8AzR6tdtfOZDioY2rKo-6VLJ3ImAp6Bjb2dwXzua4gXdRq5kJxBQF7Yqxi1_AYITY_WySvCAwCBeRLkazVwpazaqWGv_W8aFzWDpJUOX4Ht-2CgbHvOkY1miCDhhL2u0Kbqkh0M4VLiuZ8N3XU3C1P2eCVeI08s91_Kme

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/