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Never mind swiping through endless filters trying to find the perfect Instagram effect on your latest photo: Google and MIT want to build that right into the viewfinder. Teams from the search giant and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been collaborating on a system that promises automatic retouching of images in real-time, giving pro-photographer style results before you've even hit the capture button. It's the latest example of how machine learning can not only improve everyday tasks but cut our current reliance on the cloud.

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We have become an "instant" culture, that is, a culture of instant gratification. We expect what we want, from an Internet connection to a reply to a message to that viral cat video, to be there at a push of a button. And it bugs us to no end when they don't. But instead of losing our cool, researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory or CSAIL suggest a better use of those precious moments. Meet WaitSuite, a group of micro-learning apps that can teach you language, math, or even medicine while waiting for an elevator or waiting for your device to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot.

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Researchers with MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, more commonly called CSAIL, and Boston University have jointly created a robot that can read a human’s thoughts. Thanks to this ability, the robot doesn’t need to learn complex human languages or other ways to get orders from humans — those humans can instead command the robots using nothing more than thoughts and a special electrode cap.

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Researchers at MIT have created a new robot using hydrogel that, when placed underwater, is nearly invisible to the naked eye. Despite being made of transparent gel and powered by water, the robot is capable of reasonably fast movements, including grabbing a live fish, holding on to it, and then releasing it safely back into the water. Such a precise but gentle touch could one day have many applications, including surgical assistance.

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As robotics matures many of the components that go into making a functional bot are shrinking in size and that allows the robots themselves to get smaller as well. The catch is that depending on what the robot needs to do, you may not want the bot to be particularly small. MIT is working on a mobile robotic platform that takes lots of little modules and those modules can be configured on the fly to create a robot of the size you need and the capability you need when you need it. The bot using this modular approach is called the ChainFORM

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Scientists have been trying to create fibers that could flex like human muscles for a long time with varying degrees of success. MIT scientists have created materials that are able to contract and expand in a manner similar to human muscle fibers that have many potential applications. These nylon fibers could find use in robotics, automotive, and aviation industries. The MIT breakthrough is on of the simplest and cheapest systems developed so far.

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Google used algorithms to create trippy, dreamy images, and now MIT has done something similar...only with a horror slant to keep in theme with Halloween. Called the Nightmare Machine, this deep learning algorithm takes an image and rewrites it to look as if it were plucked from a horror movie. The resulting images are dark, creepy, and in some cases somewhat gory looking and certainly disturbing.

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Imagine a robot or a drone that is made with a 'skin' of sorts capable of precise amounts of shock absorption, something tailored to meet the precise needs of the device. That's exactly what MIT researchers have made possible via a new shock-absorbing 3D material for robots that offers all sorts of interesting properties, not the least of which is less bouncy, more precise and controlled landings after a blow.

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Researchers at MIT and DARPA have created a tiny Lidar sensor that is packed onto a single chip. As you can see in the image, the Lidar sensor is so small that you could pack many of them onto the surface of a dime. Lidar, or light detection and ranging, sensors are a technology that uses laser light and is similar to radar. The big benefit of Lidar over radar is that Lidar can have a higher resolution.

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MIT researchers from the Computer Science and AI Laboratory are performing research into a new imaging technique called Interactive Dynamic Video or IDV. IDV allows users to reach in and touch objects that they are seeing in a video and could hold great promise for improving augmented reality. IDV uses traditional cameras and algorithms and looks at the tiny, nearly invisible vibrations that an object produces to build video simulations that users can interact with in a virtual environment.

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Ford has teamed up with MIT on a project that will, among other things, help electric shuttles determine current levels of demand among pedestrians, as well as determine which locations have the highest demand in any given moment. The electric vehicles are equipped with both LiDAR and what Ford calls inexpensive cameras; the EVs will eventually operate on both MIT’s Cambridge campus and on public city roads.

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In many parts of the world, the best you can hope for when it comes to a home or apartment is a very small space that can be challenging to furnish. The catch is that if you need things like a desk, bed, entertainment center, and sitting areas but you are in a tiny space normal furniture won't cut it. This is where the Ori robotic homeware and furniture created at the MIT media lab comes in.

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