news 2018

EPFL researchers have developed a virtual-reality program that examines how users - equipped with a headset and sensors - react to a vertiginous stroll. The system will be presented at the Geneva International Film Festival on 5-10 November. Why do some people react more strongly than others when faced with the unknown? Researchers at EPFL's Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics, headed by Professor Carmen Sandi, have set out to learn more with a new virtual reality program.

Researchers have carried out a study using smartphone data from young Swiss people to better understand the circumstances in which they are most likely to drink. A computer model developed from the data can estimate, with over 75% accuracy, whether alcohol was consumed on a given weekend night. Do young people drink more out on the town or at a friend's place?

Scientists from EPFL and ETH Zurich have developed an ultra-light glove - weighing less than 8 grams per finger- that enables users to feel and manipulate virtual objects. Their system provides extremely realistic haptic feedback and could run on a battery, allowing for unparalleled freedom of movement.

By using artificial intelligence to comb through the vast array of published research and detect the findings most relevant for invention, engineers can magnify their creative ability and invent faster and more disruptively than has been previously possible. This is the approach that Ana Manasovska helped develop as a Master's student at EPFL, and the one used by creative Artificial Intelligence firm Iprova, based at EPFL's Innovation Park, to come up with a wide range of inventions.

Welding, printing, crushing concrete - an Empa team monitors noisy processes with the help of artificial intelligence. This way you can literally hear production errors and imminent accidents. Kilian Wasmer from the Empa lab for Advanced Materials Processing in Thun keeps shaking his head while speaking, as if he can't believe the success story himself.

By applying a computer program that mimics the way the human brain learns to identify objects, EPFL scientists are now able to reconstruct images that have been degraded by passing through an optical fiber. EPFL researchers have taught a type of machine learning algorithm to reconstruct images that became blurred while being transmitted through an optical fiber.

EPFL researchers have developed an optical fiber capable of detecting what sort of material or liquid they have come into contact with. Their research has been published. In recent years optical fibers have served as sensors to detect changes in temperature, like a thermometer, and pressure, like an artificial nerve.

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields may have adverse effects on the development of memory performance of specific brain regions exposed during mobile phone use. These are the findings of a study involving nearly 700 adolescents in Switzerland. The investigation, led by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), will be published on Monday, 23 July 2018 in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Your torso is more intuitive - and more precise - than joysticks for piloting drones, both simulated and real, according to a recent study by EPFL scientists. Work is already underway to implement this new body-machine-interface technology for search and rescue with drones. Imagine piloting a drone using the movements of your torso only and leaving your head free to look around, much like a bird.

The CrowdWater project, developed by doctoral candidates from the Department of Geography of the University of Zurich, is a citizen science project in the area of hydrology, the science of water. The project collects hydrological data on water levels, streamflows and soil moisture from all over the world.

People using brain-computer interface are more efficient when both human and machine are allowed to learn. EPFL researchers trained two tetraplegic users to compete in the international Cybathlon BCI race. Both incrementally learned how to control the BCI, and obtained the best performances at the competition, confirming researchers' hypothesis that mutual learning plays a fundamental role in BCI training.

FocalView is a new app developped by Novartis and designed to help ophthalmic clinical trials, making them more accessible and flexible. Using patients' self-recorded measurements, FocalView aims to enable more sensitive trial endpoints and more accurate patient-reported outcomes. The app is freely available to the scientific community.

Pollen season: The new app called Ally Science has been designed for the two million or so allergy sufferers in Switzerland Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) and University Hospital Zurich (USZ) are launching the free smartphone app Ally Science on the 24th of April 2018.

Algorithms are used to personalize our newsfeed on social media. But the risk is that the points of view we are presented with become increasingly limited and extreme. EPFL researchers have developed a solution that would make users' personalized content more balanced, and their project has already generated interest among human rights campaigners.

The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), an international committee headed by an EPFL professor, has just unveiled JPEG XS. With this new format, the image-compression process uses less energy, and higher-quality images can be sent with low latency over broadband networks like 5G. JPEG XS will have applications in areas such as virtual reality, augmented reality, space imagery, self-driving cars and professional movie editing.

Researchers from ETH Zurich are using a new method for digital timber construction in a real-world project for the first time.

Researchers from ETH Zurich are using a new method for digital timber construction in a real-world project for the first time. The load-bearing timber modules, which are prefabricated by robots, will be assembled in the "DFAB HOUSE" unit at Empa and Eawag's NEST research and innovation building, thus combining architecture with robotics and craftsmanship.

It's a safe bet that some of the websites and apps you use collect and subsequently sell your personal data.

All today's commercial drones use GPS, which works fine above building roofs and in high altitudes. But what, when the drones have to navigate autonomously at low altitude among tall buildings or in the dense, unstructured city streets with cars, cyclists or pedestrians suddenly crossing their way?

25 spin-offs were founded at ETH Zurich last year. This equals the previous year's record level for new ETH spin-offs.