ETRI sets global standard for NFC-based internet communication

Passes ETSI operational testing for international short-range device communication standard. Gains foothold for new market creation through standard patents and international standards

Business Announcement

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: ETRI SETS GLOBAL STANDARD FOR NFC-BASED INTERNET COMMUNICATION view more 

CREDIT: ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE(ETRI)

South Korean researchers have achieved a landmark feat by setting international standards for short-range wireless communication technology, commonly used within a 10 cm range, to enable internet communication.

ETRI(Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) announced on the 21st July that the international standard “IETF RFC 9428(Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Near Field Communication)” was formally adopted by the Internet Engineering Task Force(IETF), a semi-private international standardization organization under the Internet Architecture Board(IAB).

Near Field Communication(NFC), a low-power, two-way wireless communication technology, traditionally facilitates data exchange within a range of approximately 10 cm. It has generally been employed in applications that require short-range communication, such as contactless payments, smartphone file-sharing, and NFC tag information access. However, it had not been extensively used for broader internet communication. With the implementation of ETRI's ‘RFC 9428’ standard, internet usage within short-range wireless communication environments is now possible.

By utilizing NFC-based internet communication, payment environments between NFC devices can also leverage internet-based communication. As a result, offline merchants can use their existing NFC payment services without the need for installing separate dedicated payment terminals.

While commonly used wireless technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enable communication over relatively broader areas—with Wi-Fi covering up to 40m and Bluetooth up to 10m—the newly standardized technology communicates within an average range of 10 cm.

This makes it less susceptible to hacking risks compared to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, thereby offering a secure channel for data transmission in wireless communication environments.

Furthermore, this technology represents a unique achievement held exclusively by ETRI's Standard Research Division. In tandem with its international standardization efforts, ETRI has secured two international(U.S.) patents registered in the ETRI RFC9428 standard. This accomplishment is expected to serve as a cornerstone for generating high-value outcomes in the future domestic and international markets for IoT-related payment and authentication services.

During the development of RFC 9428, the research team participated in interoperability testing organized by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute(ETSI), specifically the 6lo-6tisch plugtest in the IoT domain(IETF 6lo WG and 6tisch WG). Eminent international experts in low-power Internet communication technology conducted technical tests and demonstrations, achieving high scores. This validation of technical prowess garnered international recognition and ETRI's technology was introduced as a superior achievement in the Asia-Pacific Network Information Center(APNIC) under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) sector.

1ETRI's Standard Research Division Director, Kang Shin-gak, emphasized the significance of this international standardization, stating, “The development of this international standard and the acquisition of standard patents hold great meaning. It represents a valuable achievement that can lead innovation in the IoT field and pave the way for future market dominance.”

Additionally, this technology is envisioned by the research team to find extensive utility in diverse IoT environments, including smart homes, smart buildings, and smart factories, where various forms of payments and communication environments utilizing contactless short-range wireless communication are required.

The regular IETF meetings, held four times a year, see participation from over 50 countries, featuring the involvement of experts from global corporations, research institutions, and academia, including Cisco and Ericsson, with a total of more than 1,500 specialists.

ETRI has a storied history of continuous standardization activities and research in prominent international organizations, including IETF, where it has contributed to the development of over 15 international standards, including next-generation Internet protocols (IPv6), mobile technologies, and IoT technologies.

  

ETRI Sets Global Standard for NFC-Based Internet Communication

CREDIT

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute(ETRI)

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ETRI is actively engaged in standardization activities within international standardization bodies such as IETF and ITU-T with the aim of establishing international standards in the field of IoT. This effort is facilitated through the support of the Ministry of Science and ICT's Information and Communication Broadcasting Standardization Support Project.

 

NTU Singapore scientists find new evidence to explain how we pay attention

A team of researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has uncovered new clues about how chemicals released by brain cells regulate our attention span

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

A team of researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has uncovered new clues about how chemicals released by brain cells regulate our attention span.  

Findings from the study could pave the way for new therapies to treat neurological conditions associated with concentration difficulties, such as depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

To communicate with one another, neurons in the brain and nervous system release chemicals called neurotransmitters that relay messages from one cell to another. Neurotransmitters are crucial for brain function and regulating all bodily functions, ranging from breathing and heart rate to reproduction.

These chemicals also coordinate cognitive processes that enable us to focus on important information within the constant barrage of stimuli the brain receives from the external environment, otherwise known as our attention span.

Researchers have long thought that our attention span was directed by only one neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, which excites neurons and causes them to fire electrical signals. However, recent work suggests that attention could require another neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which inhibits neurons from receiving and sending messages.

In their study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the team demonstrated for the first time that GABA works together with acetylcholine in a precise sequence to regulate the transmission of signals from a part of the brain’s information processing network, called the claustrum.

Hidden deep in the brain, the claustrum is a thin sheet-like structure that receives and processes information from different parts of it. The claustrum helps to regulate concentration, but its exact role remains unknown.

 

Neurotransmitters toggle ‘like a switch’ to relay information

In lab experiments, the NTU scientists investigated how neurons in the claustrum in mice respond to acetylcholine and GABA produced by a part of the brain called the forebrain, that plays a central role in several brain functions.

The key technological advance that allowed the researchers to make this discovery is called optogenetics. Optogenetics uses light-sensitive proteins to selectively control the activity of specific types of neurons within the brain. In this case, the neurons within the forebrain that release acetylcholine and GABA were activated by light, allowing the team to measure the response of the claustrum to such a stimulus.

They discovered that two types of neurons in the claustrum, which send output signals to different parts of the brain, respond in opposing ways to acetylcholine and GABA. Neurons that extend to structures deep in the brain were excited by acetylcholine while neurons that extend to structures on the surface of the brain were inhibited by GABA.

Through this coordinated sequence of opposing actions, the two neurotransmitters toggle the transfer of information between the claustrum and the rest of the brain, like a switch. The study provides evidence that the neurotransmitters regulate a “microcircuit” in the brain, that allows the organ to differentiate important information from noise, helping a person pay attention.

The opposing actions of the neurotransmitters (acetylcholine and GABA) on neurons in the claustrum enable brain signals to be encoded efficiently, allowing the brain to pay attention and ignore noise.

First author Mr Aditya Nair, former researcher at LKCMedicine and a current Ph.D. student at Caltech, said, “Our study advances our understanding of the claustrum’s role in directing attention span. Understanding how the claustrum regulates attention span at the cellular level also provides a window into other areas regulated by similar signalling pathways, such as arousal and learning.”

Lead investigator and neuroscientist Professor George Augustine from NTU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) said, “By understanding how acetylcholine and GABA work together to direct our attention, new and more effective therapies may be developed in the future to improve the attention span of patients with conditions such as ADHD and depression.”

Commenting as an independent expert, Dr Geoffrey Tan, Consultant (Psychiatry) Clinician-Scientist at the Institute of Mental Health Singapore, said, “Directing attention and multi-tasking are crucial cognitive processes for everyday functioning that require toggling between networks or circuits in the brain. This study identifies a 'switch' in the claustrum that provides a mechanism by which acetylcholine may drive computations such as these. It is timely as we increasingly incorporate brain networks into how we think about cognition, psychiatric conditions and even interventions like mindfulness.”

The next steps for this project will be to determine how altering the dual-transmitter switch alters attention and brain disorders that affect attention, such as ADHD. It will also be important to determine whether the switch mechanism applies to other brain processes, such as arousal and learning.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2218830120 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

A functional logic for neurotransmitter corelease in the cholinergic forebrain pathway

 

Visual psychological phenomenon may have stimulated early humans to make cave art

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DURHAM UNIVERSITY

-With pictures and video- 

New research has found that Ice Age cave art made as early as 40,000 years ago could have been influenced in part by a visual psychological phenomenon that humans still experience today.  
The research team, led by Dr Izzy Wisher, then a PhD student at Durham University’s Department of Archaeology, tested the theory that cave artists may have experienced pareidolia – a psychological phenomenon where people see meaningful forms in random patterns, such as seeing faces in clouds.

They investigated whether pareidolia may have influenced the artists who painted depictions of animals in the Las Monedas and La Pasiega caves, in Northern Spain. 
If so, then the majority of drawings would be expected to be depictions of animals that included features of the cave walls within them and take relatively simple forms (pareidolic images tend to be simple and lack detail). 

Their study, published today in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, found that pareidolia could be responsible for the production of some cave images, suggesting that the cave artists were experiencing the same psychological influences on perception when viewing the natural features of cave walls that humans still experience today.  

While the researchers found evidence that pareidolia played a part in the production of some cave images, their research also found the cave painters were influenced by their own experiences and creativity. 

Dr Izzy Wisher, now based at Aarhus University, Denmark, said: “It is exciting to see that cave artists in the Upper Palaeolithic era were also experiencing pareidolia, just like many of us do today, and that this influenced their art.  

“Much like a modern artist might take inspiration from a basic form or shape, like a crack in a material or a smudge of paint on a canvas, and build their art around this, we can see that cave artists worked in similar ways.  

“However, whilst our study showed that pareidolia did have some influence on the cave artists, this was not always the case, giving us fascinating insight into the work of these early painters. 
"It seems to us that their art may have been part of a ‘creative conversation’ with the cave walls, where they both took inspiration from what they saw in the cracks and shapes of the cave wall, but also used their own creativity.”  

The research found that as many as 71 per cent of images studied in the Las Monedas caves, and 55 per cent in the La Pasiega caves, showed a strong relationship to the natural features of the cave wall, suggesting pareidolia may have been a partial influence on the artists.  

Examples included where the curved edges of the cave wall were used to represent the backs of animals such as wild horses, or where natural cracks were used as bison’s horns.  
The study also found that of those drawings with a strong relationship to natural features on the cave wall, the majority (80 per cent in Las Monedas and 83 per cent in La Pasiega) lacked additional details such as eyes or hair, which correlates with the simplistic nature of imagery influenced by pareidolia.  

The research team, which included Professor Paul Pettitt, Department of Archaeology and Professor Robert Kentridge, Department of Psychology, both Durham University, also investigated whether lighting conditions in the caves at the time the artwork was created might have contributed to the potential influence of pareidolia.   

To do this Dr Wisher used a virtual reality gaming software called Unity to model the cave walls and replicate the light sources used by the cave artists, which would have consisted of flickering firelight produced by small torches or lamps, to understand the visual effects across the cave wall.  

The results showed that low and unstable lighting conditions did not have a strong correlation to cave art that uses natural features.  

Dr Wisher argues that this, coupled with the conclusion that the influence of pareidolia was evident in some, but not all, of the artwork, suggests that cave artists may also have been actively looking for shapes that reminded them of animals within the caves to incorporate into their drawings, as part of a nuanced dialogue between the artist’s personal creativity and the forms seen in the cave walls.  

Whilst the theory that pareidolia may have influenced cave artists has long been discussed, the team believes their study offers the first systematic testing of this theory, and is the first to utilise simulated lighting conditions in virtual reality to achieve this.  

It provides further detail in the understanding of the experiences, desires, imagination and influences of Upper Palaeolithic cave artists and how cave art may have been made. It also advances Durham University’s research into visual palaeopsychology. 

Pareidolia may have first evolved to help humans evade predators by providing a heightened sense of visual interpretation for potential risks, such as helping humans see predators hiding behind bushes. It is a fundamental part of the human visual system, and was probably triggered within dark cave environments. 

ENDS 

Pictures 
A selection of images and a video are available here: https://bit.ly/3PisVOu 
Captions and copyright information are as follows: 
File name: Depiction 5.jpg  
Top image: Upper Palaeolithic drawing of a bison in vertical orientation, which uses the edge of the cave wall surface to represent the back.  
Bottom image: The same bison drawing under the simulated VR light conditions.  
Copyright: Izzy Wisher, courtesy of the Gobierno de Cantabria 
File name: Depiction 30.jpg 
Top image: Upper Palaeolithic drawing of the partial outline of a horse that uses the natural edge of the cave wall to represent the back and head of the horse.  
Bottom image: The same horse drawing under the simulated VR light conditions.  
Copyright: Izzy Wisher, courtesy of the Gobierno de Cantabria 
File name: La Pasiega horse.jpeg 
Caption: A Palaeolithic painting of a horse from the cave of La Pasiega, where the artist used a natural crack to represent the head and ear of the horse.  
Copyright: Izzy Wisher, courtesy of the Gobierno de Cantabria 
File name: La Pasiega hind.jpeg.  
Caption: A Palaeolithic painting of a hind (female deer) from the cave of La Pasiega. The Palaeolithic artist that made this depiction followed the natural shape of the cave wall and traced cracks to produce the image.  
Copyright: Izzy Wisher, courtesy of the Gobierno de Cantabria 
File name: La Pasiega aurochs.jpeg 
Caption: A Palaeolithic painting of an aurochs from the cave of La Pasiega. The Palaeolithic artist traced the natural cracks in the cave wall when painting the head, horns, and back leg of the animal. 
Copyright: Izzy Wisher, courtesy of the Gobierno de Cantabria 
File name: Depiction 5.mp4 
Caption: Video of a depiction of a bison in VR, simulating the visual effects of flickering firelight.  
Copyright: Izzy Wisher. Video produced in Unity.  

Source information  
“Conversations with Caves: The Role of Pareidolia in the Upper Palaeolithic 
Figurative Art of Las Monedas and La Pasiega (Cantabria, Spain)” (2023)  
Izzy Wisher, Paul Pettitt & Robert Kentridge, Cambridge Archaeological Journal.  
An embargoed copy of the paper is available via the Durham University Communications office. Please email communications.team@durham.ac.uk   

The full paper can be accessed here  https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774323000288 

Acknowledgements 
This research was financially supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership, as part of Dr Wisher’s PhD. Permissions for this research were approved by the Gobierno de Cantabria.

 
About Durham University 

Durham University is a globally outstanding centre of teaching and research based in historic Durham City in the UK. 

We are a collegiate university committed to inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham and in the world. 

We conduct research that improves lives globally and we are ranked as a world top 100 university with an international reputation in research and education (QS World University Rankings 2024). 

We are a member of the Russell Group of leading research-intensive UK universities and we are consistently ranked as a top 10 university in national league tables (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, Guardian University Guide and The Complete University Guide). 

For more information about Durham University visit: www.durham.ac.uk/about/ 

END OF MEDIA RELEASE – issued by Durham University Communications Office. 
 

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JOURNAL

Cambridge Archaeological Journal

DOI

10.1017/S0959774323000288 

 

Study suggests the ritual use of human remains dating from the Neolithic

The University of Cordoba has participated in an international study documenting post-mortem bone modifications not linked to consumption

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CÓRDOBA

 

IMAGE: ENTRANCE TO THE CAVE. JUAN CARLOS VERA RODRÍGUEZ view more 

CREDIT: JUAN CARLOS VERA RODRÍGUEZ

Many bone remains deposited in prehistoric caves feature cuts and marks, with the scientific communityat timesattributing to their usage for human consumption. A study presented by University of Cordoba researcher Rafael Martínez Sánchez, and led by Zita Laffranchi and Marco Milella at the University of Bern (Switzerland), together with other researchers from different research centers, has just been published in the journal PLoS one. The work advances our knowledge of the funerary rites that took place as of the Neolithic by documenting how prehistoric societies modified human bones to make use of them.

To this end, more than 400 remains were analyzed. Corresponding to both adults and preadults, they were found in  the Cueva de los Mármoles (cave) in Priego de Córdoba, and are preserved in the town's Archaeological Museum. Thanks to high-resolution molds that were studied with an electron microscope, the research team  observed that many of the marks on some bones are compatible with a cleaning process carriedout in order to use the bone remains as tools and not (at least, in principle) for consumption.

As Martínez Sánchez explains, establishing that the marks of the bones correspond to one use (tools) or another (food) is difficult, especially because these remains were deposited on the surface of the cave, rather than being buried, such that they may have undergone other types of taphonomic modifications (by animals, trampling...) over the years. The study, however, does not see the marks of the bones as suggesting that they were used to obtain soft parts from them, for consumption.Rather, they are seen as evidencing a more careful cleaning process consistent withtheir instrumental use.Found were a fibula with a pointed end, a modified tibia, and a skull.

In addition, carbon-14 dating of twelve remains has indicated three periods of funerary use in the cave: in 3800 BC, in 2500 BC. C. and around 1,300 or 1,400 BC. The first of these periods, which corresponds to the Neolithic, coincides with a spread in the use of dolmens designed for collective burials. Therefore, it was a time characterized by a great concernwith ancestors. This overlap between the first period of burials in the cave and the beginning of Megalithism, together with the fact that the marks on the bones do not seem compatible with consumption, reinforces the research group's idea that the human remains were fashionedto be used as instruments at a given time. As Martínez Sánchez argues, "it seems that there was the idea of grouping the dead in the same place, cleaning the remains, and using the bones as instruments, perhaps related to some type of ritual performed inside the cavity."

With this study the team has managed to substantiate a treatment of skeletal remains most likely not linked to consumption, but rather to more complex factors. Thus, it seems that the bones were used for ritual and cultural aspects after their depositing. Moreover, these ways of thinking apparently spanned a great period of time, from the end of the Neolithic to the Bronze Age, a time "in which we did not expect to find that bodies were still deposited in this cavity," says Martínez Sánchez.

Reference:

Laffranchi Z, Milella M, Vera Rodríguez JC, Martínez Fernández MJ, Bretones García MD, Jiménez Brobeil SA, et al. (2023) As above, so below: Deposition, modification, and reutilization of human remains at Marmoles cave (Cueva de losMarmoles: Southern Spain, 4000–1000 cal. BCE). PLoS ONE 18(9): e0291152. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.029115.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.029115 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

ARTICLE TITLE

As above, so below: Deposition, modification, and reutilization of human remains at Marmoles cave (Cueva de los Marmoles: Southern Spain, 4000–1000 cal. BCE)

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Sep-2023

ARACHNOLOGY

Jewel of the forest: New electric blue tarantula species discovered in Thailand

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

IMAGE: CHILOBRACHYS NATANICHARUM . view more 

CREDIT: YURANAN NANTHAISONG

In an exciting discovery, a new species of tarantula with electric blue coloration was found in Thailand.

“In 2022, the bamboo culm tarantula was discovered, marking the first known instance of a tarantula species living inside bamboo stalks. Thanks to this discovery, we were inspired to rejoin the team for a fantastic expedition, during which we encountered a captivating new species of electric blue tarantula,” researcher Dr. Narin Chomphuphuang said.

After the announcement of Taksinus bambus in Thailand, he and his research team, along with local wildlife YouTuber JoCho Sippawat, embarked on a survey expedition in the Phang-Nga province. There, they identified the new tarantula species by its distinctive electric-blue coloration. This is the first tarantula species ever found in a Thai mangrove forest.

"The first specimen we found was on a tree in the mangrove forest. These tarantulas inhabit hollow trees, and the difficulty of catching an electric-blue tarantula lies in the need to climb a tree and lure it out of a complex of hollows amid humid and slippery conditions. During our expedition, we walked in the evening and at night during low tide, managing to collect only two of them," Narin said.

“The secret behind the vivid blue coloration of our tarantula lies not in the presence of blue pigments, but rather in the unique structure of their hair, which incorporates nanostructures that manipulate light to create this striking blue appearance.”

Blue is one of the rarest colors to appear in nature, which makes blue coloration in animals particularly fascinating. To appear blue, an object needs to absorb very small amounts of energy while reflecting high-energy blue light. Generating molecules capable of absorbing this energy is complex, making blue in nature relatively rare. What’s even more fascinating is its ability to not only display blue but also a beautiful violet hue, creating a remarkable iridescent effect.

“This species was previously found on the commercial tarantula market. There, it was known as the "Chilobrachys sp. Electric Blue Tarantula" but no documentation existed describing its distinctive features or natural habitat,” Narin said.

“The electric blue tarantula demonstrates remarkable adaptability. These tarantulas can thrive in arboreal as well as terrestrial burrows in evergreen forests. However, when it comes to mangrove forests, their habitat is restricted to residing inside tree hollows due to the influence of tides,” Narin also said.

The scientific name of Chilobrachys natanicharum was chosen after an auction campaign for naming the new species. The winner of the auction campaign was Nichada Properties Co., Ltd., Thailand, which suggested a combination of the names of company executives Mr. Natakorn Changrew and Ms. Nichada Changrew.

All proceeds from the auction were donated to support the education of Lahu children in Thailand and poor cancer patients.

“The Lahu people are an indigenous hill tribe in northern Thailand (Musoe) and are known for their vibrant culture and traditional way of life. Unfortunately, many Lahu children are denied access to education due to poverty, leaving them with limited opportunities for their future. Additionally, cancer remains a significant public health issue globally, affecting millions of people each year. Many cancer patients struggle with financial hardship, which can make accessing quality care even more difficult. We believe that everyone deserves access to quality healthcare, regardless of their financial situation,” the researchers write in their paper, which was just published in the journal ZooKeys.

“It's essential for the general public to understand the significance of taxonomy as a fundamental aspect of research. Taxonomy serves a vital role, ranging from the basic, such as when people inquire on social media about the name of a spider, to conducting crucial research aimed at preserving these species from extinction.” Narin said.

Mangrove forests face the looming threat of deforestation. The electric blue tarantula is also one of the world's rarest tarantulas. “This raises a critical question: Are we unintentionally contributing to the destruction of their natural habitats, pushing these unique creatures out of their homes?” the researchers say in conclusion.

Chilobrachys natanicharum

CREDIT

Narin Chomphuphuang

Narin Chomphuphuang

Chilobrachys natanicharum.

CREDIT

Yuranan Nanthaisong

Chilobrachys natanicharum

Chilobrachys natanicharum

The discovery of Chilobrachys [VIDEO] | 

Original source:

Chomphuphuang N, Sippawat Z, Sriranan P, Piyatrakulchai P, Songsangchote C (2023) A new electric-blue tarantula species of the genus Chilobrachys Karsh, 1892 from Thailand (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae). ZooKeys 1180: 105-128. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1180.106278

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JOURNAL

ZooKeys

DOI

10.3897/zookeys.1180.106278 

ARTICLE TITLE

A new electric-blue tarantula species of the genus Chilobrachys Karsh, 1892 from Thailand (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae)

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Sep-2023

 

UW team’s shape-changing smart speaker lets users mute different areas of a room

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

 

IMAGE: A TEAM LED BY RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON HAS DEVELOPED A SHAPE-CHANGING SMART SPEAKER, WHICH USES SELF-DEPLOYING MICROPHONES TO DIVIDE ROOMS INTO SPEECH ZONES AND TRACK THE POSITIONS OF INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS. HERE ALLEN SCHOOL DOCTORAL STUDENTS TUOCHAO CHEN (FOREGROUND), MENGYI SHAN, MALEK ITANI, AND BANDHAV VELURI DEMONSTRATE THE SYSTEM IN A MEETING ROOM. view more 

CREDIT: APRIL HONG/UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

In virtual meetings, it’s easy to keep people from talking over each other. Someone just hits mute. But for the most part, this ability doesn’t translate easily to recording in-person gatherings. In a bustling cafe, there are no buttons to silence the table beside you.

The ability to locate and control sound — isolating one person talking from a specific location in a crowded room, for instance — has challenged researchers, especially without visual cues from cameras.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has developed a shape-changing smart speaker, which uses self-deploying microphones to divide rooms into speech zones and track the positions of individual speakers. With the help of the team’s deep-learning algorithms, the system lets users mute certain areas or separate simultaneous conversations, even if two adjacent people have similar voices. Like a fleet of Roombas, each about an inch in diameter, the microphones automatically deploy from, and then return to, a charging station. This allows the system to be moved between environments and set up automatically. In a conference room meeting, for instance, such a system might be deployed instead of a central microphone, allowing better control of in-room audio.

The team published its findings Sept. 21 in Nature Communications.

“If I close my eyes and there are 10 people talking in a room, I have no idea who’s saying what and where they are in the room exactly. That’s extremely hard for the human brain to process. Until now, it’s also been difficult for technology,” said co-lead author Malek Itani, a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. “For the first time, using what we’re calling a robotic ‘acoustic swarm,’ we’re able to track the positions of multiple people talking in a room and separate their speech.”

Previous research on robot swarms has required using overhead or on-device cameras, projectors or special surfaces. The UW team’s system is the first to accurately distribute a robot swarm using only sound.

The team’s prototype consists of seven small robots that spread themselves across tables of various sizes. As they move from their charger, each robot emits a high frequency sound, like a bat navigating, using this frequency and other sensors to avoid obstacles and move around without falling off the table. The automatic deployment allows the robots to place themselves for maximum accuracy, permitting greater sound control than if a person set them. The robots disperse as far from each other as possible since greater distances make differentiating and locating people speaking easier. Today’s consumer smart speakers have multiple microphones, but clustered on the same device, they’re too close to allow for this system’s mute and active zones.

“If I have one microphone a foot away from me, and another microphone two feet away, my voice will arrive at the microphone that’s a foot away first. If someone else is closer to the microphone that’s two feet away, their voice will arrive there first,” said co-lead author Tuochao Chen, a UW doctoral student in the Allen School. “We developed neural networks that use these time-delayed signals to separate what each person is saying and track their positions in a space. So you can have four people having two conversations and isolate any of the four voices and locate each of the voices in a room.”

The team tested the robots in offices, living rooms and kitchens with groups of three to five people speaking. Across all these environments, the system could discern different voices within 1.6 feet (50 centimeters) of each other 90% of the time, without prior information about the number of speakers. The system was able to process three seconds of audio in 1.82 seconds on average — fast enough for live streaming, though a bit too long for real-time communications such as video calls.

As the technology progresses, researchers say, acoustic swarms might be deployed in smart homes to better differentiate people talking with smart speakers. That could potentially allow only people sitting on a couch, in an “active zone,” to vocally control a TV, for example.

Researchers plan to eventually make microphone robots that can move around rooms, instead of being limited to tables. The team is also investigating whether the speakers can emit sounds that allow for real-world mute and active zones, so people in different parts of a room can hear different audio. The current study is another step toward science fiction technologies, such as the “cone of silence” in “Get Smart” and “Dune,” the authors write.

Of course, any technology that evokes comparison to fictional spy tools will raise questions of privacy. Researchers acknowledge the potential for misuse, so they have included guards against this: The microphones navigate with sound, not an onboard camera like other similar systems. The robots are easily visible and their lights blink when they’re active. Instead of processing the audio in the cloud, as most smart speakers do, the acoustic swarms process all the audio locally, as a privacy constraint. And even though some people’s first thoughts may be about surveillance, the system can be used for the opposite, the team says.

“It has the potential to actually benefit privacy, beyond what current smart speakers allow,” Itani said. “I can say, ‘Don’t record anything around my desk,’ and our system will create a bubble 3 feet around me. Nothing in this bubble would be recorded. Or if two groups are speaking beside each other and one group is having a private conversation, while the other group is recording, one conversation can be in a mute zone, and it will remain private.”

Takuya Yoshioka, a principal research manager at Microsoft, is a co-author on this paper, and Shyam Gollakota, a professor in the Allen School, is a senior author. The research was funded by a Moore Inventor Fellow award.

For more information, contact acousticswarm@cs.washington.edu.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has developed a shape-changing smart speaker, which uses self-deploying microphones to divide rooms into speech zones and track the position of individual speakers. Here, the swarm of robots is shown in its charging station, which the robots can return to automatically.

CREDIT

April Hong/University of Washington

JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-40869-8 

ARTICLE TITLE

Creating Speech Zones Using Self-distributing Acoustic Swarms

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Sep-2023