This week’s list of top data news highlights covers June 29, 2024 to July 5, 2024 and includes articles on an augmented reality app that allows users to view a Nazi concentration camp and a new interactive tool that shows underwater visibility levels on the British coast.
Researchers from Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom have developed a machine learning model that can improve the ability to diagnose heart tumors from ultrasounds. Researchers used data from ultrasound images to develop the model, which they tested on a dataset of roughly 400 patients. The model achieved 94 percent accuracy at identifying tumor types and determining malignancy in a real-world clinical application.
Zeta Global, a New York-based technology company that creates data-driven marketing tools, has created an index to measure economic growth and stability using generative AI. The index includes information on eight categories of consumer activity by tracking trillions of signals on things like credit line expansion and retail sales to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the U.S. economy than using traditional economic indicators like inflation and GDP alone.
3. Empowering Smart Investments
Investment platform Robinhood is integrating AI into its app for smart portfolio management, such as more accurate and faster identification of market trends and real-time insights regarding the stock market. One new feature provides personalized investment strategies by analyzing individual factors such as risk tolerance, investment goals, and historical behavior.
4. Tracking Regulatory Changes
Police in India’s capital Delhi are developing a new app called Sanchiptt to instantly cross-reference newly adopted regulations to existing statutes, helping officers understand changes in legal procedures. Delhi’s police department will start by training 30,000 officers to use Sanchiptt.
5. Educating About the Holocaust
Holocaust Museum Los Angeles has partnered with Hollywood visual artists to create an augmented reality app that allows users to see what Sobibor, one of the deadliest Nazi concentration camps, looked like. The museum used a map that Holocaust survivor Thomas Blatt drew to develop a 3D model of Sobibor, aiming to make history more accessible and educate young people about the horrors of the Holocaust at a time of rising antisemitism.
NASA and U.S. sensor manufacturer Interdisciplinary Consulting Corporation (IC2) have developed new wireless microphones that offer a cheaper alternati`ve to traditional wired arrays for noise tests to ensure aircrafts aren’t louder than regulations allow for. This system uses self-powered, weather-proof sensors to detect and analyze sounds. The technology is versatile and can also be used in agriculture to locate pests by listening to their sounds.
7. Building Quantum Wi-Fi Networks
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed a new system called the quantum phased array (QPA), which integrates quantum physics into traditional wireless networks. QPA uses a silicon chip with 32 antennas that can transmit and receive quantum signals through open air or space. QPA allows for highly secure, quantum-encrypted wireless communication and could help secure wireless devices and power sensors, particularly for the Internet of Things.
Researchers at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland have created a deep learning model called SuperAnimal that can accurately detect and analyze animal motion. SuperAnimal uses a pre-trained foundation model to efficiently identify movements and analyze behavior in over 45 animal species, with potential applications ranging from veterinary medicine and conservation to neuroscience and agricultural monitoring.
9. Forecasting Underwater Visibility
A U.K.-based startup called Marla has launched a new tool that uses satellite data, weather forecasts, and diver reports to create an interactive map forecasting underwater visibility levels around the British coast. Swimmers, divers, and spearfishers can use the tool to get predictions of underwater visibility for the next 24 hours.
Researchers at Tampere University in Finland have developed a new algorithm that identifies cardiac rhythms associated with imminent heart failure. In a study tracking almost 3,000 adults over a span of eight years, the algorithm found a particular metric that helps predict the risk of sudden cardiac death more accurately than conventional methods of studying heart rate variability.
Image credit: Marcin Czerniawski