Realistic masks made in Japan

Super-realistic face masks made by a tiny company in rural Japan are in demand from the domestic tech and entertainment industries and from countries as far away as Saudi Arabia.

The 300,000-yen ($2,650) masks, made of resin and plastic by five employees at REAL-f Co., attempt to accurately duplicate an individual’s face down to fine wrinkles and skin texture.

Company founder Osamu Kitagawa came up with the idea while working at a printing machine manufacturer.

But it took him two years of experimentation before he found a way to use three-dimensional facial data from high quality photographs to make the masks, and started selling them in 2011.

The company, based in the western prefecture of Shiga, receives about 100 orders every year from entertainment, automobile, technology and security companies, mainly in Japan.

For example, a Japanese car company ordered a mask of a sleeping face to improve its facial recognition technology to detect if a driver had dozed off, Kitagawa said.

“I am proud that my product is helping further development of facial recognition technology,” he added.

“I hope that the developers would enhance face identification accuracy using these realistic masks.”

Kitagawa, 60, said he had also received orders from organizations linked to the Saudi government to create masks for the king and princes.

“I was told the masks were for portraits to be displayed in public areas,” he said.

Kitagawa said he works with clients carefully to ensure his products will not be used for illicit purposes and cause security risks, but added he could not rule out such threats.

He said his goal was to create 100 percent realistic masks, and he hoped to use softer materials, such as silicon, in future.

“I would like these masks to be used for medical purposes, which is possible once they can be made using soft materials,” he said.“And as humanoid robots are being developed, I hope this will help developers to create (more realistic robots) at a low cost.” Source: https://www.daily-bangladesh.com

Read More........→December 18, 2020

Warehouse robot kills 90% of viruses

Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), in collaboration with Ava Robotics and the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), have designed a new robotic system that kills microorganisms in its proximity, using ultraviolet light.

During tests at GBFB, the robot drove by pallets and storage aisles at 0.22 miles per hour. At this speed, the robot could cover a 4,000-square-foot warehouse space in just half an hour. Ultraviolet C (UV-C) is a subtype of ultraviolet light that is short-wavelength (100–280 nm) and germicidal. Its light can kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting DNA or RNA. The dosage emitted by the robot seen here neutralised 90% of coronaviruses (and other organisms) on the warehouse surfaces. The results are encouraging enough that the approach could be useful for autonomous UV disinfection in other environments – such as airplanes, factories, restaurants, schools, and supermarkets, according to the researchers. Since UV-C is dangerous for all living organisms, however, it can only operate when nobody is around. MIT designed the UV-C light fixture, which then became integrated with Ava Robotics' mobile robot base. The complete system can map a space and navigate between waypoints and other pre-specified areas. While most effective in the direct "line of sight," the machine can get to nooks and crannies as the light bounces off surfaces. "Our 10-year-old warehouse is a relatively new food distribution facility with AIB-certified, state-of-the-art cleanliness and food safety standards," explained Catherine D'Amato, President of the Greater Boston Food Bank. "COVID-19 is a new pathogen that GBFB, and the rest of the world, was not designed to handle. We are pleased to have this opportunity to work with MIT CSAIL and Ava Robotics to innovate and advance our sanitation techniques to defeat this menace." Food banks are facing a particular demand due to the stress of COVID-19. The United Nations estimates that, because of the virus, the number of people facing severe food insecurity worldwide could double to 265 million. In the U.S. alone, the five-week total of job losses has risen to 26 million, potentially pushing millions more into food insecurity. "Food banks provide an essential service to our communities, so it is critical to help keep these operations running," said Alyssa Pierson, CSAIL research scientist and technical lead of the UV-C lamp assembly. "Here, there was a unique opportunity to provide additional disinfecting power to their current workflow and help reduce the risks of COVID-19

exposure."A shipping area can change overnight, so the team is now researching how to use onboard sensors to adapt to new environments – teaching the robot to differentiate between occupied and unoccupied aisles, for example, so it can switch its path accordingly; and altering its speed to ensure the optimal UV dosage is applied to different objects and surfaces. Comments »Source: https://www.futuretimeline.net

Read More........→July 06, 2020