MAROKO133 Breaking ai: Chinese university startup’s new AI platform translates text to sig

📌 MAROKO133 Update ai: Chinese university startup’s new AI platform translates tex

While China’s AI sector continues to accelerate, driving economic growth and reshaping entire industries, a growing number of researchers are turning their focus toward using AI for social good. 

Among them is Su Jionglong, deputy dean of the School of AI and Advanced Computing at Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, who studies how the technology can help reduce discrimination, provide emotional support, and enable faster medical diagnoses. 

Together with his students, Su is building a startup called Limitless Mind, which has developed an AI-powered platform that translates written text to and from sign language – a tool designed to bridge communication gaps and promote inclusion for people with hearing impairments.

Smart glasses and AI avatars bring sign language to life

Su explained that the team’s lightweight, proprietary AI model can run on mobile devices or be integrated into smart glasses, where virtual avatars translate speech into sign language or display real-time text for easier communication. 

Discussions are already underway, with local governments and industrial parks eager to back the project and bring it to market. Su said their goal goes beyond innovation for its own sake – they aim to create technologies that meet tangible social needs. With tools like these, he added, students with disabilities could learn more effectively, patients could communicate more clearly with doctors, and workplace discrimination could be significantly reduced.

Su and his students are now exploring a new generation of assistive technologies, including platforms that can translate lip movements into text and brain–computer interfaces capable of turning brainwaves into written language – innovations that could one day help control driverless vehicles or enhance accessibility for people with disabilities, the South China Morning Post reported.

The urgency behind such research is growing – a study published in the Chinese Medical Journal in January projected that by 2060, more than 240 million people in China will experience moderate to complete hearing loss, which is nearly twice the number recorded in 2015. Su noted that his background in mathematics, statistics, and engineering has given him the foundation to tackle the complex challenges of AI, from data analytics to pattern recognition and modeling.

Using big data to train AI for empathy and healthcare

One major advantage of developing artificial intelligence in China lies in the availability of large, high-quality datasets, particularly coming from hospitals that are often willing to share medical information for research purposes. Such access, Su explained, accelerates the development of AI tools in areas like healthcare and emotional support.

Su’s team is collaborating with Shenzhen-based Mind with Heart Robotics, a company creating electronic pets and humanoid robots designed to act as emotional companions and psychological support systems. These robots could assist autistic children who struggle to express emotions. Through machine learning, they can analyze facial expressions and classify emotional states in real time, helping caregivers respond more effectively.

The Chinese scientist added that his research also extends to medical imaging, where AI models are trained on vast datasets to identify subtle symptoms such as facial puffiness, swelling, or discoloration that may signal disease.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 MAROKO133 Eksklusif ai: Canada Considering Doing Something Unforgivable to its B

There’s a hostage crisis underway in Ontario, involving victims you might not expect: 30 innocent beluga whales.

Reporting by The Guardian this week revealed that Marineland of Canada Inc, a for-profit aquatic theme park, is threatening to euthanize one of the largest captive whale populations in the world. Unless, that is, the Canadian government steps in to save the park from financial ruin with taxpayer dollars.

Marineland has been plagued with financial woes over the past few years, including quite a bit of debt. Instead of opening its doors to visitors this year, it was revealed that the company would begin rehoming its critters in preparation to sell the park.

For years, conservationists have watched in horror as Marineland’s animals suffer in captivity. According to the Associated Press, some twenty whales have died under the company’s watch over the last six years alone — nineteen belugas and one killer whale, Kiska, described as the “world’s loneliest Orca” before her death in 2023.

However revolting Marineland’s track record might be, the fate of the remaining 30 belugas may not be entirely its fault. The company’s rehoming efforts began in earnest in 2023, with the park lobbying the government of Ontario for help.

When Marineland found a suitable home for the captive belugas on their own — the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China — Canada’s fisheries minister Joanne Thompson stepped in to deny the transfer. As the AP reported, Thompson cited a 2019 marine captivity law in her denial, saying the transfer would “perpetuate the treatment these belugas have endured.”

While the continued captivity of the 30 belugas may not be ideal, the die has unfortunately been cast, largely by a Canadian government which allowed Marineland to grandfather its critters in, avoiding the 2019 law prohibiting exploitation of whales and dolphins.

The fisheries minister also has yet to explain what criteria it uses to judge what’s in the “best interest” of the belugas, and how life in the crumbling Marineland park would be preferable to transfer to an accredited facility abroad.

As far as Chimelong goes, there’s plenty of reason to believe it would be a suitable location. For one thing, Marineland’s managers cite it as the only facility in the world with the capacity to house 30 beluga whales — a Canadian effort to build a $20 million whale sanctuary in Nova Scotia has been sputtering since 2020.

Meanwhile in China, Chimelong has a reputation for breeding and conserving critically endangered aquatic species, such as the West African manatee, as well as the threatened arctic breed of beluga whale. It maintains a three-part research hospital in keeping with Chinese wildlife protection laws, consisting of a veterinary facility, marine rehabilitation lab, and an aquatic life-support system.

At the time of writing, the whales are still alive and well — though for how long remains unknown.

More on ocean life: Experts Alarmed as Jellyfish Spawn in Freshwater Lakes

The post Canada Considering Doing Something Unforgivable to its Beluga Whales appeared first on Futurism.

🔗 Sumber: futurism.com