OpenAI's GPT-4V is being hailed as the next big thing in AI: a "multimodal" model that can understand both text and images. This has obvious utility, which is why a pair of open source projects have released similar models — but there's also a dark side that they may have more trouble handling.

Meet two open source challengers to OpenAI's 'multimodal' GPT-4V

Artificial intelligence (AI) induced digital revolution seems to be ascertaining how futuristic global technological progress will happen. With machine learning (ML) models considered important for it,

How can Multimodal Machine Learning ensure positive digital yield extraction

After searching extensively for annotation software that would simplify my workflow, I discovered Roboflow. Much to my delight, Roboflow had a feature that exactly matched my requirements – the ...

Build a custom dataset using ROBOFLOW - custom dataset creation made easy

Change path/to/image to a real path of an image, then build this demo with OpenCV package and run it #include #include using namespace cv; int main() { std::string ...

Get Started

A diagnostic study on the detection of occlusal caries from a clinical photograph using a deep learning algorithm will be presented at the 101st General Session of the IADR, which will be held in conjunction with the 9th Meeting of the Latin American Region and the 12th World Congress on Preventive Dentistry on June 21-24,

Using deep learning algorithm for automated detection of occlusal caries

Study explores the use of deep learning algorithm to detect occlusal caries

The new YOLO-NAS has better object detection capabilities and enhanced accuracy, outperforming competing notable models such as YOLOv6, v7 & v8.

YOLO-NAS Sets a New Standard for Object Detection

In this article, I will be comparing the performance of two models - one that was trained on synthetic data from AILiveSim and another that was trained on real data obtained from Roboflow.

Synthetic data for object detection

Roboflow

roboflow

How to Build and Deploy a Real-time Traffic Monitoring App Using Quix's Computer Vision Template

কুইক্সের কম্পিউটার ভিশন টেমপ্লেট ব্যবহার করে কীভাবে একটি রিয়েল-টাইম ট্র্যাফিক মনিটরিং অ্যাপ তৈরি এবং স্থাপন করবেন

So erstellen und implementieren Sie eine Echtzeit-Verkehrsüberwachungs-App mithilfe der Computer Vision-Vorlage von Quix

Cómo crear e implementar una aplicación de monitoreo de tráfico en tiempo real utilizando la plantilla de visión por computadora de Quix

Comment créer et déployer une application de surveillance du trafic en temps réel à l'aide du modèle de vision par ordinateur de Quix

क्विक्स के कंप्यूटर विज़न टेम्पलेट का उपयोग करके रीयल-टाइम ट्रैफ़िक मॉनिटरिंग ऐप कैसे बनाएं और तैनात करें

Quix の Computer Vision テンプレートを使用してリアルタイム トラフィック監視アプリを構築および展開する方法

Quix의 컴퓨터 비전 템플릿을 사용하여 실시간 교통 모니터링 앱을 구축하고 배포하는 방법

Como construir e implantar um aplicativo de monitoramento de tráfego em tempo real usando o modelo de visão computacional do Quix

Как создать и развернуть приложение для мониторинга трафика в реальном времени с использованием шаблона компьютерного зрения Quix

Quix'in Görüntü İşleme Şablonunu Kullanarak Gerçek Zamanlı Trafik İzleme Uygulaması Nasıl Oluşturulur ve Dağıtılır

Cách xây dựng và triển khai ứng dụng giám sát lưu lượng truy cập thời gian thực bằng mẫu thị giác máy tính của Quix

如何使用 Quix 的计算机视觉模板构建和部署实时流量监控应用程序

Introduction I started seeing early in 2023, and my first thought was that it might be an attractive fit in the ecosystem or as a general replacement for the columnar file format. I was thinking too small, though. LanceDB Apache Iceberg Parquet It is an in-process multi-model serverless vector database written in Rust that is cloud-native and open-source. It’s not to be confused with the Lance columnar format (which I was doing), which is also written in Rust and a more appropriate comparison to Parquet but is fundamental to LanceDB. It is also compatible. Apache Arrow So, what we have is a SQL-compatible vector database that supports vectors, images, text, and videos with full-text search. It is also said to be very fast, but you’ll need to do your own tests to see how it does on your own stack. Why a Vector Database? Two letters, AI. A vector database is at the core of the data repository used to train Large Language Models (LLM). LanceDB has gone the extra mile to provide a GitHub repository with a few vector recipes that you can find . here So, you should store embeddings from a machine learning model, for example, to search for images using written descriptions. The challenge here is the “ ”; you can be fast or accurate but can’t be both; you have to pick one. LanceDB first went for speed, then did a lot of tuning to improve accuracy. Curse of dimensionality This leads to “Embeddings,” which are high-dimensional floating-point vector representations of a query or the data. You can embed anything using an appropriate embedding model or function. The position of the embedding in a vector space has semantic significance depending on the type of modal and training you are using. LanceDB supports “explicit” and “implicit” data vectorization methods. At this stage, we’re getting into some deep water concerning how this all works, and it is beyond the scope of what I’m trying to convey in this blog. I’ll share an image from the LanceDB docs that illustrates how similar entries cluster within a vector system. The LanceDB ecosystem provides all the latest and most commonly used tools for this space to make it as convenient as possible to get started. You can use Python and Javascript to process your data into LanceDB, using popular Python machine learning and columnar data packages. A native Typescript SDK is available to allow for vectorless search as part of serverless functions. What isn’t listed here is the new integrations, making that LLM work even easier. LangChain That’s not all though, so to put it in a list, we also see: Duckdb LangChain JS/TS LlamaIndex Voxel51 There is a great, recent blog, “ ” by Ayush Chaurasia, that I highly recommend. He gives a quick walkthrough using Nextjs, LanceDB, and Roboflow’s CLIP inference API. If you'd like to dive a little deeper, it’s a specific deep dive with example code. Serverless Multi-Modal search application Summary Obviously, LanceDB isn’t a general-purpose database, it has a very specific use case, and from what I can tell, it’s a solid solution for that use case. It is an extremely fast vector database that can be used specifically in AI applications. I can envision some really useful scenarios for building up your own LLM around product blogs and documentation with this, to enable users to write specific questions and get more tailored responses than trying to read through tons of blogs and docs. This could be the beginning of a tide shift in how we provide information to the public. Finally, a LanceDB Cloud is coming, and at the time of this writing, in October 2023, you can sign up to be notified about it at this . I’m excited to give that a try and run some tests on ideas that have been bouncing around in my head since ChatGPT started grabbing everyone's attention. link You can read the other “What the heck” articles at these links: (I was pretty out front on this one.) What The Heck Is DuckDB? (I was out front on this one, too.) What the Heck Is Malloy? (slower, but also growing) What the Heck is PRQL? (growing quickly) What the Heck is GlareDB? (interest is hot) What the Heck is SeaTunnel?

What the Heck Is LanceDB?

174 AI Tools To Try

70-Page Report on the COCO Dataset and Object Detection [Part 2]

Take a look at the to quickly find common resources and/or assets for a given dataset and a specific task, in this case dataset=COCO, task=object detection. We are building a dataset-first marketplace focusing on the end-to-end machine learning pipeline, one where data and assets can be shared and traded. The marketplace will contain all that the contains (and much more for a lot more datasets) report report I’m open to suggestions, questions, and criticism — let’s start a conversation. I have broken up the report into the following blogs: Part 1 (this one): COCO Summary Card. Each link will take you to the longer report where you can learn more. The next 3 parts represent a specific section in the report. Part 2: This part is about COCO and examples and tutorials of tools and platforms used to work with COCO (or object detection tasks). Part 3: Process: This part is about the tools and platforms that can be used for different phases of data preparate or data processing involved in vision, object detection, and specifically COCO-related tasks. It will also discuss synthetic data and data quality. Part 4: Models: This part is about a quick introduction to some pre-trained models and some corresponding readings. COCO Summary Card (Common Objects in Context) COCO COCO is a large-scale object detection, segmentation, and captioning dataset. The dataset classes include 80 pre-trained objects. Website: https://cocodataset.org/ Github: GitHub — cocodataset/cocodataset.github.io Paper: Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Context dataset with evaluation metric Average Precision (AP) Benchmark : Object Detection, Panoptic Semantic Segmentation, Keypoint Detection, DensePose Tasks Tools and platforms used to work with COCO (or object detection tasks) : Explore with tutorials FiftyOne, DataTorch, Know Your Data (KYD), OpenCV, OpenVINO, CVAT, Roboflow, SuperAnnotate, OpenMMLab, Coral, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Weights and Biases. Open-source tools and Paid platforms to perform the following steps. : Processing Data collection : CVAT, LabelImg, Label Studio, Makesense.AI, OpenLabeling, Dataloop, Hive Data, Labelbox, Scale AI, SuperAnnotate, V7, Ximilar Data labeling and annotation Data cleaning : Albumentations, AugLy, Augmentor, autoalbument, DALI, Data Augmentation for Object Detection, Imgaug, Kornia, MXNet, Tensorflow, Transforms (PyTorch) Data transformations Data visualization : Cvedia, Neurolabs, Synthesis AI, Unity, UnrealROX Synthetic data Data quality To answer what objects are in image X and where are they? (You’ll find a brief summary and readings.) : Models RCNN SPPNet Fast RCNN and Faster RCNN Pyramid Networks / FPN Mask RCNN YOLOv1 SSD RetinaNet YOLOv3 YOLOv4 YOLOv5 DINO (and DETR) Swin Transformer V2 Vision Transformer Adapter YOLOR If you have feedback please review this link ( ) and email me at samin@reasonets.com. Looking forward to starting a conversation. Marketplace — Coming Soon | ReasoNets Next, Part 2

70-Page Report on the COCO Dataset and Object Detection [Part 1]

From self-driving cars and facial recognition to AI surveillance and GANs, computer vision tech has been the poster child of the AI industry in recent years. With such a collaborative global data science community, the advancements have come both from research teams, big tech, and computer vision startups alike. For all startups, Product Hunt has been a great platform to help get the word out there about your projects and get feedback from the online community. In this article, we’ll cover some of the most-upvoted startups on Product Hunt that have created computer vision software. Most-Upvoted Computer Vision Startups on Product Hunt We looked at the pages on Product Hunt and have compiled a list of the products that have historically received the most upvotes. Many of these products have been featured on large publications and some of these apps have received upwards of 50,000  downloads. computer vision You can check out the list of the following companies Product hunt pages . here 1. Vay Vay is a fitness coach app that uses human motion analysis to track overall physical performance. With the app, users can receive real-time feedback on their exercises, as if they had their own personal trainer. Vay uses computer vision algorithms to track and digitize human movements, transforming movement patterns into data that can be analyzed in a variety of ways. The product has received 80 upvotes on Product Hunt and you can read more about it on . Vay’s website 2. Origin From Shaper Tools, Origin is a computer-vision-powered woodworking tool that was named one of the top tools in 2020 by Popular Woodworking Magazine. Origin gives craftsmen AI-powered automatic cut correction and precise depth control with the help of a specialized ShaperTape that you apply to your workstation. Image via shapertools.com The ShaperTape is used to help the computer vision model detect your workstation and track your movement around it. has received 130 upvotes on Product Hunt. Origin 3. Camma.ai Camma.ai is a computer vision startup that has created an augmented reality note-taking software that allows you to place notes on real objects through your iPhone’s camera. Users take a photo of an object and type a note in their iPhone. When the Camma app sees the object, your note will pop up. Unfortunately for Android users, this app is only available on iOS. Camma.ai has received 143 upvotes and can be downloaded via the . App Store 4. Roboflow Organize Roboflow is a machine learning platform that aims to streamline data preprocessing and the training of computer vision models. With a multitude of annotation formats and file types, it can take an exorbitant amount of time to get images ready for training. Roboflow aims to be the essential architecture between the annotation and training phases that computer vision startups desperately need to improve the and lessen the time spent writing boilerplate code. data annotation process Roboflow has received 215 upvotes and is available for a . free trial 5. Logo Crunch From brandmark.io, Logo Crunch is a computer vision tool that optimizes logos to make them clear and legible at lower resolutions. The tool is suitable for those with no graphic design experience and is completely free to use. Logo Crunch has received 283 upvotes on Product Hunt. You can try it for free here. 6. Nanit For parents everywhere, Nanit has become an essential part of their daily lives. Nanit is a computer vision startup that produces advanced baby monitor cameras which you can view via a mobile app. Nanit’s AI camera can track your baby’s sleeping patterns and records them via the app. The app can give you live alerts telling you when your baby has woken up and if they were able to go back to sleep on their own. has received 362 upvotes on Product Hunt. Nanit 7. MDacne MDacne is a godsend for those prone to acne. With the help of professional dermatologists, MD acne created a computer vision model to scan images of the user’s face to provide a full analysis of their acne and skin condition within just a few seconds. This step is completely free of charge. The computer vision model powering the app has been trained on around 1 million photos and analyzes skin color around the affected area, as well as the size and number of pimples. Next, if users wish, they can order an acne treatment kit from the same company, which is customized to suit their skin condition determined by the app. is FDA approved and has received 428 upvotes on Product Hunt. MDacne 8. Automatic GIF Creator – gifs.com From gifs.com, Automatic GIF Creator is a GIF generator that uses AI to help users make memes. The company also used computer vision models to . You can use the tool completely for free. programmatically generate over 1 million GIFs has received 490 upvotes on Product Hunt. Automatic GIF Creator 9. Supersense Supersense has been developed by alumni from the at MIT. It is a mobile scanner app made for the blind or the visually-impaired. It is powered by AI technology that can scan your surroundings, text, and documents. Using object detection and recognition algorithms, Supersense uses the mobile phone’s camera to identify what the user is pointing at and dictates what it is. In the video review below, you can see how the app works on textbooks, US currency, food products, and even objects in the user’s immediate surroundings. Media Lab The app works as the user’s personal dictation assistant, saying aloud everything the user points the camera at. has received 768 upvotes on Product Hunt and is available on Android and iOS devices. Supersense 10. Facebook Computer Vision Tags While this isn’t exactly a computer vision startup, we wanted to include it in this list because it is one of Product Hunt’s most-upvoted computer vision software of all time. It won the badge for #1 Product of the Day when it was first posted in 2017. Facebook Computer Vision Tags is an that shows how Facebook’s AI models have annotated your images. Many people aren’t aware that Facebook uses computer vision models to automatically add labels to images uploaded on their platform. By using this plugin, can see the specific tags added to your photos. See an example of this below: open-source Google Chrome plugin Image via Github The original creator said their goal for this project was to make people more aware of the information that is constantly being extracted from the images we post on Facebook every day. has received 805 upvotes. Facebook Computer Vision Tags This list gives us a glimpse into the world of possibilities for computer vision startups. We hope that one of these products inspires you, maybe even to start building a new product yourself. Also published on: https://lionbridge.ai/articles/10-most-upvoted-computer-vision-startups-on-producthunt/

10 Computer Vision Startups on Product Hunt with the Most Upvotes

How to Stay Safe When Browsing Online or Viewing Emails at Home or Work

All websites are prone to cyber-attacks from hackers attempting to control website resources and users' data. The reason for most attacks is financial gains where hackers either attempt to gain access to people's banking details or make website owners pay for ransomware. This underlying cyber security threat calls for drastic measures to protect websites and their users from unscrupulous web users. One of the most attacked web resources is WordPress. WordPress is an open-source content management system –CMS– suitable for hosting and building websites. It is a free CMS written in PHP combined with MySQL or MariaDB that supports HTTPS. According to HubSpot, WordPress accounts for 43.2% of all websites on the internet. This marks an increase from the over 455 million websites reportedly using WordPress in 2021 at 39.5%. In 2021, Wordfence blocked billions of password attacks and reported hundreds of weaknesses. These attacks and weaknesses don't mean WordPress is becoming less secure; it simply gave an insight into how some users are negligent and not security conscious in their usage. A hacked WordPress website enables hackers to steal users' log-in IDs and passwords and causes significant damage to businesses and their reputations. Aside from human error, WordPress has always been a target for a series of exploits like the attack involving GoDaddy-managed WordPress users, where the attacker was able to remain operational for two months undetected. There are various security measures to safeguard a WordPress site; below are a few tips that could protect your WordPress website: Use Reliable, Safe, and Quality Hosting Most people think their hosting is reliable until proven otherwise; you don't have to wait for a security breach before hosting your websites on reliable hosting companies. Hosting companies do not offer equal services regarding hosting qualities like reliability, speed, security, etc.
Some hosts don't offer much when it comes to security, and this could ease cyber-attacks, resulting in poor performance and perpetual downtime. Since you can't rectify your host to offer quality service, your safest option is to move to a more secure host. Good hosting usually comes at a higher cost with ranges that are pocket-friendly. Restrict all Hotlinking Hotlinking means linking a file hosted on another website instead of downloading and hosting it on your website with proper reference. Images are usually hotlinked, but other digital files like animations, audios, and so on can also be hotlinked. This is done using the file's URL to host the digital file on your website. In such a case, you're displaying the file on your site while it is hosted on another website's server. This scenario could play out on your website too. The problem is that hotlinking digital files from your website steals your server's bandwidth, resulting in sluggish loading speed and possibly expensive server costs. So, to safeguard your WordPress website, consider restricting or preventing all forms of hotlinking. Secure your wp-config.php File Your wp-config.php file stores essential information about your WordPress installation; this is why it is the most critical file in your web's root directory. So, securing it entails safeguarding your WordPress web basis and makes it difficult for hackers to breach your website's security since they can't access the file. To secure this file, you can move it to a more secure higher level than just your root directory, where WordPress will still see it. This is possible with the current WordPress framework, where the configuration file settings top the priority list. Block File Editing Any user with admin access to your WordPress dashboard can edit all files associated with your WordPress installation. But if you block or disallow file editing, including plugins and themes, no one will be able to change or edit any file on your dashboard. Not even a hacker.
To do this, include the following at the end of the wp-config.php file: define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); Carefully configure your directory permissions When using a shared hosting environment, poor directory permissions can be disastrous. To secure your website at the hosting level in such a situation, adjusting your files and directory permissions is a wise approach. The entire file system, including directories, subdirectories, and individual files, is protected by configuring the directory permissions to "755" and the file permissions to "644". This can either be configured via the terminal using the " " command (connected through SSH) or manually using the File Manager in your hosting control panel. chmod Use to disable directory listing.
Suppose you create a new directory on your website without putting the index.html file. In that case, you might be stunned to discover that your visitors can see a complete directory listing everything in the newly created directory. .htaccess To see everything in a directory named "statistics," your visitors can enter the address: into their browser. No password is required for this. This can be forestalled by including the following code in your file: http://www.instance.com/statistics/ .htaccess Options All -Indexes Recognize DDoS attacks and take precautions against them A DDoS –Distributed denial-of-service– attack is a malicious attack used to interrupt the regular traffic of a network resource or machine by making it unavailable to users or intended users. It is usually done by flooding the target with internet traffic. In order to compromise your website, a DDoS attack employs numerous programs and systems to attack your server bandwidth. Although it poses no threat to your website's file but it can crash your website if not taken care of. DDoS attacks are not limited to large companies alone; they threaten the entire web space. Meanwhile, there are web applications that repel such attacks if you can subscribe to their premium plans for maximum security against DDoS. Use 2FA for your WordPress security A 2FA –two-factor authentication– on your log-in page helps protect your website. 2FA allows you to provide your log-in password via two options you can define. Your 2FA might be an average password couple with a secret code or question, set of characters, or the Google authentication app. Use your email address to log in instead of your username Since a WordPress user account is created with an email address, using your email address to log into your WordPress account is more secure than using a username. This is because usernames can be predicted easily by attackers, unlike emails. Rename your Log-in URL to safeguard your website Now that you've switched your log-in username to email to forestall log-in attempts with Guess Work Database–GWDb– you can also change your log-in URL to lessen the susceptibility of brute force attacks. WordPress log-in pages are easily accessed by adding wp-login.php or wp-admin to the site's main URL. This can also make cybercriminals to brute force. Only you or whoever has the correct URL can access your log-in page if you change your URL. You can change your URL with reliable plugins by installing, activating, and configuring your choice of plugins. The iThemes Security Pro and WPS Hide Login are notable, among others. Change your password at random intervals and use a password manager Another way of safeguarding your WordPress website is to change your password at random intervals. As you're doing so, endeavor to improve their strength by adding more words, numbers, or characters to increase the password length. This will increase your password sample space and widen your password entropy by making it harder and taking longer to crack. Changing passwords randomly and remembering the genuine one out of the pool of old or used passwords can be arduous; using reliable password managers will come in handy in this case. Password managers can generate safe passwords for you and also secure them in their vault to save you from the trouble of remembering the correct password. Examples of reliable password managers are RoboForm, 1password, LastPass, Keeper, Bitwarden, NordPass, Dashlane, and so on. Create a lockdown for failed log-in attempts and ban users Persistent brute force attempts can be repelled with a lockdown feature for failed log-in attempts from attackers. So, whenever they attempt to log in with the wrong passwords consistently, they'll be locked out, and you'll be alerted of such activity. iThemes Security offers this feature, allowing you to configure a particular number of failed attempts before the attacker's IP address is banned. Log out idle users from your website automatically A considerable threat to the security of WordPress can come from users who leave the wp-admin page of your website open on their devices. Any passers-by can modify user accounts, alter information on your website, or even crash your website. This can be forestalled by ensuring that your site locks users out after a specified time of being idle. This can be achieved with the Bulletproof Security plugin, which enables you to configure a time limit after which idle users will be promptly logged out. Conclusion Safeguarding your WordPress website shouldn't be underestimated. No proactive measure is too much when keeping your web safe. Aside from the above-highlighted standards, there are other ways you can safeguard your website via your admin dashboard, which attackers always seek after. Examples of such measures include: Safeguard the wp-admin directory with two passwords; one for the log-in page and the other for the WordPress admin section. Use a secure socket layer –SSL– to encrypt your data during data transfer between a user browser and the server. Back up your website regularly. Update your WordPress with the latest version. Scrutinize your audit logs for changes without approval. Use a strong password to secure your database. Change your WordPress database prefix to something unique from the usual . wp-

Tips for Safeguarding Your WordPress Website

Humanoid Natasha, Amy, and Katarina (from the future) say that the robots are taking over This Week On Planet Internet! These days, if you think about anything too hard, you might just explode. But fret not, one day we will all live in robot bodies and no one will be able to touch us. 🦾 Listen to The HackerNoon Podcast on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or wherever you listen to your podcasts . 🌎 THIS WEEK ON PLANET INTERNET: What's the latest with the tech behind the pandemic? 🦠 (00:42) TL;DR: Robots are coming 🤖 (07:44) Will Elon Musk's robots make our beds for us? 🛏 (11:38) What's up with the love-hate relationship that we have with working? 👩‍❤️‍👨 (16:16) 🗒️ SHOW NOTES: "Tiny, Fast, & Strong: An Insect-sized Robot that Mimics Cheetah" by on HackerNoon: ROBOfluence https://hackernoon.com/tiny-fast-and-strong-an-insect-sized-robot-that-mimics-cheetah Elon Musk is planning to build humanoid robots: https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/19/22633514/tesla-robot-prototype-elon-musk-humanoid-ai-day We referred to a Black Mirror episode: it's Black Mirror episode (season 4, episode 5) called "Metalhead". You're welcome. COMPUTER-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT: [00:00:00] Natasha: Welcome to this week on planet incidents. I'm your host Natasha Nell. And I'm joined this week by Amy, Tom. You're your regular podcast, host and Catarina editor at hacker noon. Welcome to the vodcasts, everybody. Yay. So this week I have just returned from a holiday in Italy, and I have no idea what is going on in the world. I'm going to rely on the two of you to catch me up. I do have one anecdote to share from traveling around Europe. During these crazy panini times, it has been such a trip. After getting double vaccinated, you get this little QR code, and everywhere you go, you're asked in Italian, which makes it confusing. But you're asked for a green pass and you have to open this little app and show your green POS. And if you don't have a green pause, if, for example, you've decided not to get vaccinated or if you've never had coronavirus before. And you don't have an antibody proof. Within the last 10 months, then you're not allowed to go into any restaurants. You can't sit down inside. You assumed might not be able to use public transport at all. And they've actually been a couple of protests around this, which is interesting. Of course, people are not taking kindly to being told that they have to get vaccinated. See some of these public services. So it was a curious thing to debates with our friends over there. And I wonder what you think about that. What's your sort of first response to the idea of this enforced vaccination in exchange for public goods and services. [00:01:43] Amy: Oh, that's so interesting. That's also very topical on my mind because Vancouver just announced that they are going to launch that starting September 15th. So in two weeks from now about, and yeah, honestly, I am. Pro-vaccine all the way. Everybody should get it. Everybody needs to get it. I don't know what you're doing. Have you done it? Whatever. We don't have to get into it, but I also am like uncomfortable with the vaccine password because it's as much as I don't agree with the people that are not getting vaccinated, I think that everyone should have. A choice and theoretically, you still do have a choice, but then you're like really limiting, like what you can and can't do. And that kind of governmental crack down or whatever is I'm not super opposed to it, but I'm just like, Ooh, that's a little uncomfortable. And I think that the people that they're trying to target for these kinds of things, like the extreme anti-vaxxers like, would they not be also like antigovernment? So it'd be like even more of a big F you, I don't know, what's this. Where are you are a Catarina? [00:02:54] Katarina: Tears were no, that's exactly what I know for a healthcare system. So it was already pretty much doing before COVID so now it's absolutely disastrous. So I'm all for it. If it ever tries to being forced there, I am vaccinated, but it's very, it's a big issue, especially among younger people. And it's mostly between related to education related to. How epidemics works and how it was dealt in the past and what can be done now. And the concept of vaccination passports is not really that foreign for many areas globally. So for me, it's not a big deal. I just want to be over finally. [00:03:35] Amy: Yeah, me too. I'm tired. Yeah, I'm pandemic tired. [00:03:41] Natasha: Teague is a real thing. I feel that a lot. I think if we have to. Honestly, look at the last year in order, we've all injured, psychologically. It just low key it's reason for a sabbatical. We all need to take a sabbatical lots of weeks, episode of this week on planet, internet, by the way, for those of you who haven't heard it, it's such a great episode. It was hosted by Lange and I think it's called the future. What is the future of remote work? It's. Such a great episode. And I think my favorite moment from that episode, by the way, is Amy just flat out saying that if she could stop working tomorrow, she 100% word and does not feel any desire to work ever. Yeah. I never [00:04:26] Amy: want to work. [00:04:27] Natasha: That was brilliant. I would actually, I would be curious to hear more about that from you a little later on in this episode, actually, I have some follow up questions about that. All right. Great. If you, yeah, anyway, back to vaccine passport, let's wrap that up because I think that's a really important really important topic in terms of Your initial response and then questioning your initial response, which Catarina. That was such a good example of, because my initial response was exactly the same. I thought, how far does it then go? What are they going to tell me to do with my body? And we weren't talking about what's happening in Texas right now. That's a whole different podcast, but I think that if. You think about things just one step further in order to go to Brazil from South Africa, you have to have a yellow fever vaccination. It's been that way for 20 years. It just is what it is. It's wise to take malaria tablets. If you visit Mozambique, if you think about it, I [00:05:24] Amy: feel like that makes sense. Cause you're traveling borders though, but like what do you think about what happens when you're within your own border? [00:05:32] Natasha: That's true. That is difference. It absolutely is a. The nature of this pandemic and it's contagious across borders and not just endemic to certain areas is maybe what makes it different. What do you think Katrina? [00:05:46] Katarina: I think now more than ever the fact that we're traveling so much, it's so crucial to the fact that it's spreading so quickly. It's never been in history this way before. So in terms of that, I don't know. We, as I mentioned here, we the healthcare system really did suffer and many non COVID patients suffered because there's just not enough space in hospitals to be admitted for any other reasons. So it's no longer a COVID issue. It's a general population issue. So if vaccinations are the only way to stop it. My aunt is a nurse, so yeah. I was very frustrated. [00:06:22] Natasha: Yeah. That's common. I, we have friends who also work in the healthcare industry who are not so much in agreement with anybody being able to travel if they're unvaccinated or so feel very strongly about just getting it done. So yeah, it's interesting to hear from people on the front lines the strength of their response is passionate. For sure. Onto slightly lighter topics, amy says that the robots are taking over. I haven't yet caught up on this news or there has been coming for awhile. Amy, do you want to give us the T TLDR on the robots coming for all of us? [00:07:04] Amy: Yeah. Is it a good thing? I don't know, maybe [00:07:07] Natasha: you'll never have to work again. Isn't that your job? [00:07:10] Amy: And I maybe I won't have to worry about COVID anymore. Cause I'll just live in a robot body or something. Won't be great. I'm immune to everything. So I read this article yesterday on hacker noon called tiny, fast, and strong and insect size robot that mimics cheetahs. And I was like why that's a wild wait side note before I even started, did you see that black mirror episode with the bugs that like, that's what this reminds me of. Very exciting, scary, perhaps, but these people are from the university of California in Berkeley and they are creating these micro robots and they are like insect size, so super tiny, but they have the endurance and strength of a cheetah. So they've tested the movements of the robot in and slowed it down. One six level speed so that you can see like how the bot moves in relation to also how the cheetah moves. And they have like similar movements and speeds and things. So they made the robot to mimic the movements of the cheetah, but be so small that it's the size of an insect and it just. Yeah, it seems very black mirror. I don't know how I feel about this. Have you ever encountered such a tiny robot, Natasha? [00:08:37] Natasha: So I've been following the, what is it? The Boston dogs. And those, I think actually inspired that black mirror episode. What a great episode. If I remember correctly, it was all in like gray scale, black and whites. Super-intense not much dialogue. It was so great. And kept me on the edge of my chair and the movement of those. Dogs. And the realization as I was watching the episode was that all of this robotic technology, what is going to be the first application, of course, war. That's what it's going to be used for. I don't need a tiny robot dog. I can get a real dog. But however, these robot dogs could be very useful to some governments in certain locations. Yeah. For me, this is a really freaky, totally black mirror development. And then the fact that things in this episode, for those of you who haven't seen it, they gain their own intelligence. That's the thing is that the dogs then just start to take over and earth is no longer inhabitable because these dogs are just lurking around every corner and trying to attack anything that moves. So it turns into this like zombie apocalypse scenario, which is just. Probably what's going to happen in the end anyway. [00:09:49] Amy: Deadly about the reason for developing the robots conveniently. Who knows what they're about. I also was like, I don't know what this is for [00:09:59] Natasha: you. Call who funded this startup always follow the money. Who's funding. [00:10:04] Amy: It always follow the money. Yes. And in other big robot news, you have missed like the biggest stuff in your Italian vacation. But Elon Musk has announced the Tesla bot, which is going to be like a humanoid robot of sorts that will autopilot. The mundane tasks of your life or something. He's trying to get away with tasks that are quote unquote unsafe, repetitive, or boring, which like, I don't know, what's a boring task. I making your bed, the robot's going to make my bed me scared black mirror, real life. Yeah, it's very interesting. Catarina, have you heard about this? [00:10:51] Katarina: Yeah. And that was, of course the Twitter went rampant on the memes related to it, but I think it's just an ans related response to Boston dynamics tool. She just. Hasn't dipped his fingers so far in it. And then you wanted to something to do. It will be interesting to see if he follows up on it even, [00:11:11] Amy: but yeah. Yes, it does say the releases quote unquote sometime next year. So I don't know. [00:11:18] Natasha: Not, yeah. Sorry. Katrina. [00:11:22] Katarina: I think was just something he was wanting to try out. And that's something that he, [00:11:28] Amy: you mean he's just bored and he has a lot of money, so he's I'm just gonna make a robot. [00:11:32] Katarina: The other people are doing it and they didn't do it. So let's see if we can pull it [00:11:37] Amy: off. He is doing it, then I'm doing it too. [00:11:40] Katarina: It sounded like we'll have to walk the Boston dynamics dogs, and it will be Elon Musks [00:11:45] Amy: and it will be then humanoid robots. Oh my God. Amazing. [00:11:48] Natasha: What's pretty meta about this whole conversation. Is that on the Hakkinen story, Amy? I don't know if you want to share your screen for our YouTube feelers, but on the tiny, fast and strong insects that MIG mimics mimic cheetahs. There is a new feature on hacker noon. Very exciting. A little TL Dr. Button at the top of the story. That you can click on and receive a summary of the article that was made by an AI which you know, is a job that used to belong to editors summarizing articles and catchy little. Paragraphs. So that's a new feature bought by our mastermind developer. I believe it was Jefferson who just quietly installed this the other day. I spotted it. After Lee mark told me about it and. Can I just say what a great addition really cool. If you have time to read stories, go to hacker noon, just kick TLD, all buttons everywhere. Get the summaries. It's pretty rad also for tweeting. Yeah, it just helps with so many things. I think it's. Can I just say [00:12:56] Amy: that, like my new favorite thing is when a developer just like randomly drops a feature and doesn't tell anyone. And I was like, oh my God, Jefferson, what is that? Woke up on a Tuesday morning and was like, here we go, TLDR. I love it. [00:13:11] Natasha: I really think that's a common traits of developers is not spouting about their work. And David said something really cool to our blocking fellows in the presentation the kickoff presentation. So how can you in blogging fellowship? Just the thing we're doing on the side. It's a really cool thing. But David gave some great advice in there about why people. Documents their, where their work or the kinds of people that document their work and saying that care writing requires and proves kids thinking and it validates your expertise and those who document. Yeah. Their work have done work that is worth documenting, right? So it's all in all, just a really good practice to document your work. And it's called me out actually as a when's the last time that I wrote about work, that I've done for hacker noon and actually shouted about it and says, this is what I've learned or put out documentation that might help somebody else do it. So yeah, that's something we're thinking about. Which is a very smooth segue to the topic of work. And we go back to what you said on last week's podcast about not wanting to work. I thought that was awesome because it was so real and so true. If we're all honest with ourselves, we don't want to work necessarily even when your job is super cool. Maybe it's unconventional. Maybe you actually get glimmers of joy in the day, even though it's still work. My mom, for example, could hurt day job to become a caterer because she loves food and like it's, she loves it. Sure. But now she's turned her passion into her work and it's still work. [00:14:50] Amy: Yes, exactly. Even if you love what you do, you're still working. And then Marcos comes in and he's I just love to learn. And I'm like, okay, Marcos, that's [00:15:01] Natasha: fine. He's near. Yeah. He knows this. [00:15:04] Amy: We all have different interests. [00:15:06] Natasha: How do we know how you feel about work? Of course, your general relationship with work [00:15:11] Katarina: depends on the type of work. My focus is very on again, the whole thing. But if the task I'm working on is like something that I'm interested in or that I really want to see a single life. Then I have no time. Pushing through whatever that line is. And if it's something repetitive or too boring or something that I see no point in, I'd rather just do whatever else. [00:15:37] Amy: Okay. Maybe I should clarify. I can work. I am capable of working. I do work. I like it. If you ask me what I want to do. It's not working [00:15:48] Katarina: interesting for a while. I took a, like, when I left the previous startup, I worked in, I took like a self-proclaimed sabbatical that turned into something much longer because Corona started and then the like first six weeks, maybe two months, it's very refreshing and it's very, it's nice. So you need to put the collapse, your brain to, to recharge it's necessary, but in the long run, it's not fun, especially when you top it with the stress of generating income. Okay. So here's the thing. [00:16:24] Amy: Imagine you have unlimited money. Okay. You don't need to work because you have unlimited money. You do whatever you want and that's fun. Even you don't get bored because you do whatever you want to. Oh, I'll be like, oh my God, I'm going to start a podcast today on this. Just because I feel like it, or, today, I think I'm going to. Paint a picture. I don't know whatever you want to do. Actually on a side note, my dream job, if money was not an object and I had to work, I would be a barber or a barista because you get to talk to people all day and either make beautiful latte art or touch people's hair, which like is really weird. But I'm really into that. Nightmare. So that's what I talk to people all day long. [00:17:16] Natasha: And this is the thing, right? It's all about your personal style and what you like and trying to find work that aligns with that. It has to be otherwise you really can't do it. I wouldn't be able to work at all. If I hadn't found a job that aligned. What I like to do all day, which is just like mess around on the internet. Know what's going on in the world, have unsolicited opinions about things and also writes copy, because I find that severe really fun. And I find a lot of people to do that really badly. So it's nice to be like, I can do that better. I think I'm driven a lot by. The desire to do things better and perfectionist, great way to call me out. Yes. [00:18:04] Amy: Yes. And that's also why I feel like this is the perfect job for me, because I just want to talk all day. Just set me up with a little black box and we're good to go the other day, Natasha, you, maybe you miss this in the mail. That's all. It was like Amy, I really have to get used to your energy in the meetings. I'm like a top. You think this ends after the call ends, this is my life. This doesn't finish like it's 24 7. [00:18:32] Natasha: That is too funny. That's a cute, I didn't know that about him. That's adorable. What a sweetie. All right. I'm glad to catch up. I think that's is is what we've got in us today for this week on planet internet. That's about as much as I know our what's going on, we have some very exciting projects on the go obligatory shout out to startups. How is that going? Go and check in on your favorite startups by location. And vote for your favorite startups by location. Do all of those good things. We've got a, another campaign that our regular audience might be familiar with it rhymes with Moonies. And that's all I'm going to say about that. That's upcoming very exciting. Other than that, not much to report from my side, any closing words of wisdom from the two. [00:19:25] Amy: Yes, it is the last week for startup nomination. So if you have a startup to nominate, you can go do that at startups dot hacker, noon.com. I also made a beautiful little startup tutorial video. That's on our YouTube channel on how to do that. So you can check that. And by, okay, hold on. And by me made it, I've voiced it over and he had made it. I'm not taking credit for this. Hold on. Let me backtrack. [00:19:47] Natasha: It was a team efforts. Ken's videos are fires, so do check that out. That's great advice. All right. Thanks everybody for joining us this week on planet, internet and see you. Same time, same place next week. [00:20:02] Amy: That's right. Goodbye. [00:20:04] Natasha: Bye.

The Robots Are Taking Over

Taking an example from the specialized footpads of insects, engineers from the University of California, Berkeley, used this principle to develop specialized robots that resemble insects. The principle of the footpads, which is known as electrostatic adhesion, was used to come up with an insect-sized robot that can move like insects. Moreover, the agile dynamics of a cheetah is a unique feature that is included in the robot. This tiny insect-sized robot, with the strength and endurance of a cheetah, automatically makes itself adaptable in complex environments like unstable terrains and obstacle courses. Features of the MicroBot The robot is created using material that contracts easily with the application of electric current. In the year 2019, a research team explained in a paper that this specific design can be used to construct an insect robot that can slither across a distance with a speed of about 1.5 miles/hour. This was also determined as a speed similar to that of cockroaches and also the fastest as an insect robot. With the help of electrostatic footpads, an application of electric current can increase the force and make the robot glide through a surface in no time. It also makes the surface of the footpad sticky enough to stick to the ground while the rest of the robot can be rotated. Hence, these footpads allow the operators to fully control the movements of the robot, which have a more advanced acceleration as compared to live insects. Taking inspiration from nature The insect robot that was designed at UC Berkeley has taken inspiration from the sticky footpads of insects, the build of a cockroach, as well as the agility of a cheetah. They managed to replicate multiple aspects of nature into one tiny robot. Similarly, Ollie, a mini-bot that does backflips, was developed by Tencent Robotics. It has parallel legs and also a functional tail that helps the robot stand erect. Electrostatic footpads When it comes to robots, the two most important things that one can look for is the feature of agility and control over its path. In a microrobot specifically, the lack of structural rigidity may hinder its characteristics in certain aspects. This, in turn, would lead to a lower performance overall. Electrostatic footpads work wonders for the maintenance of microbot rigidity and structural integrity. The use of a piezoelectric film directed based on the structural resonance frequency of the robot, along with two electrostatic footpads, helps with swift movements during rotations. A two-wire connection of both these features helps with the simultaneous functioning of these aspects in a microrobot. With the help of these footpads, a centripetal acceleration of over 28 body lengths per square second was determined in an insect-sized robot, which is far better than that of a live insect like a cockroach. This was determined by directing the robot through a track that was 120 centimeters in length, which it crossed within only 5.6 seconds. You can’t squash this Robot If you are squirmy at the sight of bugs, insects, and other crawlers, you will probably squish them on the spot. But what do you do when an insect-sized robot materializes before your eyes? Chances are, you will try to squish that too. But guess what? This insect robot probably won’t get affected by this and will continue to endure through its path. The functioning of the robots may not stop despite the weight on them. A microrobot is highly useful when it comes to navigating through certain terrains for search and rescue missions. These are especially notable when it comes to fitting into places that no human or mammal can fit through. The small size of this robot does not hinder its strength which makes it a very suitable device for search operations and other accidents. What went wrong with the first model? The university engineers had designed a similar micro robot a while earlier, but it had a couple of issues. The current insect robot has most of these issues resolved which made the issues with the previous robot a learning opportunity for the newer, better version. According to Liwei Lin, the original robot was initially expected to be very efficient. With swift mobility, it could navigate through paths at a fast pace. However, the main issue with this was that controlling the robot was hard. They found it hard to maintain the direction of the robot which made it move towards a random direction at any given point. This could have risen through manufacturing discrepancies which may have made the robot asymmetrical. The lack of symmetry, thereby, made it favor one side more than the other. Recent challenges The construction of a microbot, like a miniature device with the full potential of insects and cheetahs, is a challenging task in itself. However, the engineers’ team at UC Berkeley did face other challenges during the process of building the robot. One of the biggest challenges for them was to build a robot that was so small, but efficient, strong, and agile. This small-scale robot had to be constructed in such a way that it would not let its size affect its power itself. They needed to design it considering the amount of power that it can hold at any particular time. While constructing larger robots you do not need to worry about the maintenance of power. This is because you can include large power systems like batteries in the robot itself. Smaller robots cannot do this, and so, the researchers had to work on many ways to enable the robots to incorporate sensors and other electronic equipment with little power. Final Thoughts As we dive into the , we witness several innovations which were once thought impossible for the human species. Natural as a sole inspirational source has worked wonders in helping researchers in devising unique robots. The field has a lot of scopes to make human life easier and also to explore surfaces that have not been met with the human eye. world of robotics Moreover, developers are quite inspired by what nature has to offer and try to incorporate it in their developments as much as possible. These include robots imitating the characteristics of bi-pedals along with a tail and incorporating features to help employ the robot as a tool for soil sampling, underground installations, erosion control mechanisms, and other similar tasks. Robots now have the tolerance to operate in unfamiliar environments as well which suggests their endurance and animal-like resistance. They also possess potential uses in space as extraterrestrial robots in low gravity environments. Also published on . https://robofluence.com/tiny-robot-mimics-cheetah/

Stories, News & Mentions about ROBOFLOW

Roboflow’s Stories on HackerNoon

Roboflow's News & Mentions