113. Neural Sleeve for Mobility Issues, Micro Teeth Cleaning Robots, Supercharger Open to Non-Teslas

Summary: News: This new neural sleeve helps people overcome mobility challenges | ZDNet (01:08) A new mobility sleeve under development and out of stealth promises a compelling solution for those suffering a variety of mobility issues.Monitor and stimulate the neuromuscular system Lightweight next-gen mobility devices The technology was invented by Jeremiah Robison, a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, following his daughter's cerebral palsy diagnosis.Inspired by two of his daughter's clinical experiences. The first inspiration was a complex data capture session at a gait lab using optical and EMG sensors, which recorded precise information about her walk.Electromyography sensors, also known as EMG sensors, measure small electromyographic signals generated by your muscles as you move them.  The second inspiration was functional electrical stimulation as part of her physical therapy.Electrode pads were placed on individual muscle groups, which a therapist stimulated during walking sessions to stimulate and strengthen the muscles. The device & company that was created is called CIONICThe device is a wearable for people with mobility issues that doesn't just monitor leg movements but actually helps activate the person's muscles. CIONIC partnered with the Laboratory for Engineering of the Neuromuscular System (LISiN) at The Polytechnic University of Turin. Robison talked on the device:“We set out to create a product that combined the diagnostic power of a multi-million dollar gait lab with the therapeutic power of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) … We were confident we could leverage the recent technological advances enabling innovative products like self-driving cars and apply it to the human body to solve an enormous problem: 14% of adults in the US experience mobility impairment, a number expected to balloon to 20% by 2050."  The resulting sensor array successfully combines electromyography (EMG) and functional electrical stimulation (FES).LISiN Lab helped develop a comprehensive risk assessment strategy to ensure that the product was effective and safe Meta open sources early-stage AI translation tool that works across 200 languages | The Verge (08:37)  Social media conglomerate Meta has created a single AI model capable of translating across 200 different languagesThe company is open-sourcing the project in the hopes that others will build on its work. The AI model is part of an ambitious R&D project by Meta to create a so-called “universal speech translator,” which the company sees as important for growth across its many platforms Machine translation allows Meta to better understand its users (and so improve the advertising systems that generate 97 percent of its revenue)Could also be the foundation of a killer app for future projects like its augmented reality glasses. While most machine translation models handle only a handful of languages, Meta’s model is all-encapsulating: it’s a single system able to translate in more than 40,000 different directions between 200 different languages. Meta AI research scientist Angela Fan, who worked on the project, says the model, described in a research paper here, is already being tested to support a project that helps Wikipedia editors translate articles into other languages. Additionally, Fan stated that an important decision was to open-source as many elements of the project as possible — from the model to the evaluation dataset and training code. Meta also offers grants to researchers who want to contribute to such translation projects but are unable to finance their own projects We are going to end off with a quote from Fan:“I think that’s really, really important, because it’s not like one company will be able to holistically solve the problem of machine translation … It’s everyone — globally — and so we’re really interested in supporting these types of community efforts.”   Tiny shapeshifting robots brush and floss your teeth, kill bacteria | New Atlas (14