Awesome Research

What you’re looking at is the world’s smallest violin. Not to be confused with the tiny violin sim, this microscopic musical instrument measures just 35 microns long and 13 microns wide and is made from platinum. It was created by Dr. Kelly Morrison and physicists from Loughborough University using nanolithography tech. Sadly, it’s not playable.

Engineers from Microsoft Research Asia are showing off VASA-1 an AI technology that can take a single photo and text input and produces a photorealistic talking head animation. Controls allow the user to adjust things like emotion, gaze direction, and head size. The intent is to generate lifelike virtual avatars, and not for impersonating real people.

After a failed attempt to do a backflip in real life, animator Nikita Diakur thought it would be safer to have a digital stand-in perform the maneuver. With the help of engineer Maximilian Schneider and machine learning tech based on the paper Deep Mimic, he attempted to nudge his avatar in the right direction to achieve his gymnastic goal.

VFX artists have been making actors look younger or older for a while, but the effect is costly and labor-intensive. Researchers from Disney, ETH Zurich, and UW-Madison are showing off an AI tech called Face Re-aging Network (FRAN), which can perform the feat in five seconds per frame. It seems better at aging than de-aging, though.

There’s software out there that can stylize images, but this technology makes images from real wood. Its algorithms compare greyscale levels between images and patterns in wood veneer, then instructs a CNC machine to cut out pieces that can be assembled to form a complete portrait. Two Minute Papers explains.

Engineer Allison Murray from the Purdue University Mechanical Engineering department shows us how their team used a customized inkjet printer to lay down a thin sheet of thermite, resulting in designs which explode into shapes when ignited. Learn more here.