A classic speech recognition problem is how the computer can determine whether the user is talking to the computer, or to someone else. Intel researchers have developed an innovative solution with face-tracking software that processes video from a camera above the PC screen to determine whether the user is facing the PC or looking away. When the user is facing the PC, audio input and speech recognition is enabled; when the user is looking away, it’s muted. This application utilizes two compute-intensive and highly-parallelizable workloads: image processing and speech recognition, and is currently most feasible on multi-core PCs. For more information, see video from Research@Intel Day 2009.
Posts Tagged ‘innovationintel’
Innovation@Intel: Face Tracking Enhances Speech Recognition
August 17th, 2009 |
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Innovation@Intel: Next Stop – Intel® Atomâ„¢ Processor Innovation on the Railroad
August 10th, 2009 |
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The great American railroad system has come a long way since the steam engine. Taking railroad technological innovation a step further, Intel, UC Berkeley and Intel Capital company Arch Rock are in the testing phase for Intel® Atom™ processor-based wireless sensor system that would allow train operators to monitor the railroad system in real-time. The tiny sensors, which are partially powered by the vibration of the car itself, communicate via Wi-Fi-enabled handheld devices, enabling personnel to monitor the location of each railcar, its operating condition and parameters affecting the cargo. This is one more example of how the 15 billion devices expected to be connected to the Internet by 2015 are enhancing our lives now.
Innovation@Intel: Saber Fencing with Parallel Computing
August 3rd, 2009 |
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Last year, Intel and Microsoft funded the establishment of a Universal Parallel Computing Research Center (UPCRC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with the goal of bringing parallel computing applications to the mainstream. At Research@Intel Day 2009, researchers demonstrated an application that the UPCRC is working on to parallelize attendees to participate in a tele-immersive 3D environment. Participants in two separate spaces engage and interact in a 3D virtual environment to complete tasks or play games such as Tele-Immersive Saber Fencing or Tele-Immersive Jump Rope. For more information, see video from Research@Intel Day 2009.
Innovation@Intel: Real-time Ray Tracing – 3D Water and 3D Display
August 3rd, 2009 |
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Last year, Intel and Microsoft funded the establishment of a Universal Parallel Computing Research Center (UPCRC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with the goal of bringing parallel computing applications to the mainstream. At Research@Intel Day 2009, researchers demonstrated an application that the UPCRC is working on to parallelize attendees to participate in a tele-immersive 3D environment. Participants in two separate spaces engage and interact in a 3D virtual environment to complete tasks or play games such as Tele-Immersive Saber Fencing or Tele-Immersive Jump Rope. For more information, see video from Research@Intel Day 2009.
Innovation@Intel: Real-time Ray Tracing: 3D Water and 3D Display
July 27th, 2009 |
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With the power of upcoming many-core architectures Intel is developing, real-time ray tracing (using the physics of light to realistically render an interactive 3D scene) comes closer and closer to the desktop. At Research@Intel Day 2009, Intel researchers showcased the latest innovations from our Real-time Ray Tracing project, including more realistic 3D water and the ability to render more than 500 animated characters at once, and showed a version rendering multiple camera views on a stereoscopic display, in which viewers can see the 3D depth of the scene without the need for special glasses. See video from Research@Intel Day 2009 for more info.
Innovation@Intel: Massive Cache for 8-core Xeon Processor
July 20th, 2009 |
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Intel recently presented details at the 2009 VLSI Circuits Symposium in Kyoto, Japan about an innovative 24MB cache for an upcoming 8-core Xeon® processor for servers. The design features that enable this cache will in turn enable a very high performance Xeon processor, which is at the same time extremely energy-efficient. See blog: “Massive cache for 8-core processor designed for high performance, low power, high yield” for more of the details behind how Intel is making this happen to bring you tomorrow’s low power microprocessors!
Innovation@Intel: Pimp My Tractor – Farm Equipment gets an Intelligent Overhaul
July 13th, 2009 |
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Hungry for innovation, future tractors will be equipped with technology based on Intel Atom processors. Intel Atom processors are ideal for embedded computers, such as those in tractors, which need to withstand dust, heat, humidity and vibration. Tractors using Intel Atom processors also benefit from Intel Atom processor’s energy-efficient performance and low thermal characteristics that enable small-footprint onboard automation and computers. These tractors could feature GPS navigation and sensors to analyze soil conditions, as well as automated computers to control plowing, harvesting and maintenance alerts. In addition, this technology allows farmers to monitor tractors from remote locations. This is one example of the 15 billion devices expected to be connected to the Internet by 2015. Learn more: Embedded Internet.
Innovation@Intel: Identifying Insecure Applications to Keep Private Data Private
July 7th, 2009 |
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Users expect networked applications (such as on-line shopping sites) to treat their private data responsibly and to protect it, but the truth is that many applications actually have leaks that allow private data to escape. To address this concern, and give end-users some control, researchers at Intel Research Seattle are developing a tool, “Privacy Scope,” which runs along with a browser, detecting leaky systems and warning the user before they actually submit their private information. For more information see Intel Seattle Research Trustworthy Wireless research project and Trustworthy Wireless blog.
Innovation@Intel: Communicating During a Disaster – Making the Impossible Possible
June 30th, 2009 |
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Significant infrastructure is required to enable uninterrupted communication during periods of high demand after major disasters. People need to locate their loved ones as well as critical resources such as food and water. They also need to obtain official instructions and basic survival information. The current communication infrastructure (cellular networks, broadband) may not sufficiently meet these needs. For example, a cellular base station may have only 8 to 24 hours of backup power and today’s cell phone batteries tend to drain in a day or two. Intel is researching three technologies to help solve this problem: handheld devices capable of ad-hoc peer-to-peer communications, a collection of automobile-based store-carry-forward gateways capable of relaying messages between vehicles, handhelds and the available infrastructure, and a Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking architecture capable of tolerating significant connection disruption while also providing necessary privacy and security. See Disaster Response Communications and Intel Research Berkeley research projects and Disaster Response Communications video for more information.
Innovation@Intel: Intel Researcher Wins Industry Award for Improving Chip Reliability
June 23rd, 2009 |
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Intel researcher Shubu Mukherjee is being recognized for his contributions to the reliability of microprocessors and other silicon chips by the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture (SIGARCH). Mukherjee will receive the group’s 2009 Maurice Wilkes Award for the techniques and methodologies he’s developed that have laid the foundation for cost-effective solutions that can balance a processor’s soft error rate (SER) with performance, power, and area. The award is being presented on June 23rd at the International Symposium on Computer Architecture in Austin, TX. Mukherjee is a principal engineer at Intel and the author of a highly acclaimed book titled “Architecture Design for Soft Errors,” published in 2008.
Innovation@Intel: Confrontational Computing
June 18th, 2009 |
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As if your spouse or colleagues arguing with you isn’t enough, now your web browser can argue with you too (or…argue for you!) Much of the information on the Internet consists of opinions, arguments, and beliefs. Not everything on the web is accurate, and extracting useful and reliable information can be challenging. At the Intel Research Berkeley Lab, researchers have built “Dispute Finder,” a tool that augments existing web browsers and shows you when claims you’re reading are in disagreement with claims elsewhere on the web, overlaying a network of factual claims on top of the existing web. For more information, read about Confrontational Computing on the Intel Research Berkeley Lab web page.
Innovation@Intel: Expanding Long-Term Memory for Chips
June 16th, 2009 |
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While performance-improving cache memory gets a lot of attention, there is an increasing need on today’s chips for programmable read-only memory (PROM) as well. This is used to permanently store information for such user-visible features as code storage and on-chip encryption keys, as well as yield-enhancing functions such as cache repair and post-silicon circuit tuning. PROMs rely on electrical fuses for in-factory programming. Salicided polysilicon has traditionally served as a fuse element in several generations of CMOS technologies, but Intel’s recent transition to high-k metal-gate technology requires a significant shift in fuse design to metal fuses. Intel has developed a new metal fuse-based 3-D high-density PROM technology that is fully compatible with high-k metal gate. The new technology has been developed for Intel’s 32nm process, on which it has a 1.37 square micron cell. It is readily scalable for future logic technologies. Details are being described this week at the 2009 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits in Kyoto, Japan.
Innovation@Intel: Air Quality Measuring & Reporting
June 8th, 2009 |
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When sailors aboard the Hapag-Lloyd Bangkok Express container ship want to phone a friend, they use a satellite phone – which is standard, but the costs of $2.25 per-minute are hard to swallow. To ease the burden on their pocketbooks, the ship will soon have an Intel Atom Z5xx-based communications system makeover. Mounted on the outside of the ship, and designed to withstand extreme temperatures, the Atom system will connect with the best available and most cost-effective network – such as 3G, satellite or Wi-Fi – to enable the crew to more easily communicate with people on shore. This is one example of the 15 billion devices expected to be connected to the Internet by 2015. Learn more: Embedded Internet.