AI SPECIAL .....New AI device can identify objects at the speed of light

New AI device can identify objects at the speed of light

The artificial neural network have applications in medicine, robotics and security

Scientists have created a 3D printed artificial neural network — a device modelled on how the human brain works — which can analyse large volumes of data and identify objects at the speed of light.

Several devices in everyday life use computerised cameras to identify objects, such as internet search engines that can quickly match photos to other similar images, says researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles.

However, those systems rely on a piece of equipment to image the object, first by ‘seeing’ it with a camera or optical sensor, then processing what it sees into data, and finally using computing programmes to figure out what it is.

Identifying object in no time

The new device, called a ‘diffractive deep neural network’, uses the light bouncing from the object itself to identify that object in as little time as it would take for a computer to simply ‘see’ the object.

The device, described in the journal Science, does not need advanced computing programmes to process an image of the object and decide what the object is after its optical sensors pick it up. No energy is consumed to run the device because it only uses diffraction of light, researchers says.

Speed up data-intensive tasks

New technologies based on the device could be used to speed up dataintensive tasks that involve sorting and identifying objects. For example, a driverless car using the technology could react instantaneously — even faster than it does using current technology — to a stop sign.

With a device based on the system, the car would ‘read’ the sign as soon as the light from the sign hits it, as opposed to having to ‘wait’ for the car’s camera to image the object and then use its computers to figure out what the object is.

Technology based on the invention could also be used in microscopic imaging and medicine, for example, to sort through millions of cells for signs of disease, researchers say.

— PTI