TLDR 2021-03-15

Super Resolution is a new feature in Adobe Camera Raw that uses machine learning to upsize images to four times their original size. It works better with higher resolution images, but it still does an amazing job on smaller files. Anyone with lower resolution cameras can now output large image files for prints. Examples of Super Resolution-enhanced images are available in the article.

Learning from Videos is a project from Facebook that uses AI to automatically learn audio, textual, and visual representations from videos. The project has led to improvements in Facebook's core AI systems and will enable entirely new experiences. This article explores some of Facebook's AI systems, including Generalized Data Transformations, wav2vec 2.0, Audio Visual Textual, TimeSformer, and speech recognition.

Researchers from MIT have developed a way to produce holograms nearly instantly using a deep-learning based method. Holograms require an extraordinary amount of data to create the illusion of depth in an image. The new convolutional neural network learns shortcuts to generating holograms, which reduces total operations by orders of magnitude. It can produce new holograms from images with depth information, which can be provided from a multi-camera setup or with lidar sensors. The system uses less than 620 kilobytes of memory. It can generate 60 1920x1080 color holograms per second on a single consumer-grade GPU. The system can run on an iPhone 11 Pro at the rate of 1.1 holograms per second.

A new AI tool developed by computer scientists from the University of Buffalo can spot Deepfake images by looking at the light reflected in the eyes. It was 94% effective at detecting Deepfake images in tests on portrait-style photos. The corneas of the eyes reflect patterns when illuminated by light. Deepfake generators typically fail to capture this reflection accurately. The method only works on clear portrait images with a good source of lighting.

This blog post teaches you how to build a dynamic spinner using only CSS. It breaks down each step of the animation to demonstrate how to put together a complex animation. The complete code is provided.

Text Blaze is a Chrome extension that helps boost productivity and consistency with text snippets. Users can save any snippet of text as a shortcut and Text Blaze will replace the snippet text any time it is used in Chrome. Snippets can be shared with anyone.

Apple's 8-core M1 chips came out late last year and outperformed all other Macs in single-core tests. The upcoming M1x chip that will be used in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros has a 12 core CPU and a 16 core GPU. It will use the same core architecture, but the increase in the number of cores makes the laptop chip perform at the same level as a multi-core high-end desktop. Benchmarking results are available in the article.

A new finding suggests that the Ebola viruses behind a new outbreak in Guinea may have originated from a survivor who carried the virus for at least five years. The Ebola virus can persist in some survivors by hiding from the immune system in places like the testicles or eyeballs. It can then be passed on to other people via sexual transmission. Samples of the virus from the current outbreak had evolved less than expected, which indicated that it originated from a persistent infection.