Facebook Programs Computers to Describe Photos for The Blind

acebook is training its computers to become seeing-eye guides for blind and visually impaired people as they scroll through the pictures posted on the world's largest online social network.

The feature rolling out Tuesday on Facebook's iPhone and iPad apps interprets what's in a picture using a form of artificial intelligence that recognizes faces and objects. VoiceOver, a screen reader built into the software powering the iPhone and iPad, must be turned on for Facebook's photo descriptions to be read. For now, the feature will only be available in English.


Until now, people relying on screen readers on Facebook would only hear that a person had shared a photo without any elaboration.
The photo descriptions initially will be confined to a vocabulary of 100 words in a restriction that will prevent the computer from providing a lot of details. For instance, the automated voice may only tell a user that a photo features three people smiling outdoors without adding that the trio also has drinks in their hands. Or it may say the photo is of pizza without adding that there's pepperoni and olives on top of it.

Facebook is being careful with the technology, called "automatic alternative text," in an attempt to avoid making a mistake that offends its audience. Google learned the risks of automation last year when an image recognition feature in its Photos app labeled a black couple as gorillas, prompting the company to issue an apology.

Eventually, though, Facebook hopes to refine the technology so it provides more precise descriptions and even answers questions that a user might pose about a picture.

The vocabulary of Facebook's photo-recognition program includes "car," ''sky," ''dessert," ''baby," ''shoes," and, of course, "selfie."

Facebook also plans to turn on the technology for its Android app and make it available through Web browsers visiting its site.

The Menlo Park, California, company is trying to ensure the world's nearly 300 million blind and visually impaired people remain interested in its social network as a steadily increasing number of photos appear on its service. On an average day, Facebook said more than 2 billion photos are posted on its social network and other apps that it owns, a list that includes Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

In a Tuesday post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hailed the photo description tool as "an important step towards making sure everyone has equal access to information and is included in the conversation."

Long-Term Drug Release

Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have designed a new type of pill that, once swallowed, can attach to the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and slowly release its contents. The tablet is engineered so that one side adheres to tissue, while the other repels food and liquids that would otherwise pull it away from the attachment site.

Such extended-release pills could be used to reduce the dosage frequency of some drugs, the researchers say. For example, antibiotics that normally have to be taken two or three times a day could be given just once, making it easier for patients to stick to their dosing schedule.



“This could be adapted to many drugs. Any drug that is dosed frequently could be amenable to this kind of system,” says Giovanni Traverso, a research affiliate at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and one of the senior authors of a paper describing the device in the April 6 issue of the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.

Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor and a member of the Koch Institute, is also a senior author of the paper. The paper’s lead author is Young-Ah Lucy Lee, a technical assistant at the Koch Institute.

Two faces


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Over the past several decades, Langer’s lab has developed many types of materials that can be implanted in the body or attached to the skin for long-term drug release. To achieve similar, long-term drug release in the gastrointestinal tract, the researchers focused on a type of material known as mucoadhesives, which can stick to the mucosal linings of organs such as the stomach.

Scientists have previously explored using this kind of material for drug delivery to the GI tract, but it has proven difficult because food and liquid in the stomach become stuck to the tablet, pulling it away from the tissue before it can deliver its entire drug payload.

“The challenge with mucoadhesives is that the GI tract is a very rough and abrasive environment,” says Lee, a 2014 Wellesley College graduate who began this project as her senior thesis.

To overcome this challenge, the researchers decided to create a dual-sided device, also called a Janus device after the two-faced Roman god. One side sticks to mucosal surfaces, while the other is omniphobic, meaning that it repels everything it encounters.

For the mucoadhesive side, the researchers used a commercially available polymer known as Carbopol, which is often used industrially as a stabilizing or thickening agent. The omniphobic side consists of cellulose acetate that the researchers textured so that its surface would mimic that of a lotus leaf, which has micro and nanoscale protrusions that make it extremely hydrophobic. They then fluorinated and lubricated the surface, making it repel nearly any material.

The researchers used a pill presser to combine the polymers into two-sided tablets, which can be formed in many shape and sizes. Drugs can be either embedded within the cellulose acetate layer or placed between the two layers.

Long-term attachment

Using intestinal tissue from pigs, the researchers tested three versions of the tablet — a dual-sided mucoadhesive tablet, a dual-sided omniphobic tablet, and the Janus version, with one mucoadhesive side and one omniphobic side.

To simulate the tumultuous environment of the GI tract, the researchers flowed a mix of food including liquids and small pieces of bread and rice along the tissue and then added the tablets. The dual-sided omniphobic tablet took less than 1 second to travel along the tissue, and the dual-sided mucoadhesive stuck to the tissue for only 7 seconds before being pulled off. The Janus version stayed attached for the length of the experiment, about 10 minutes.

Tejal Desai, a professor of bioengineering and therapeutic sciences at the University of California at San Francisco, says this approach could make it possible to deliver larger quantities of drugs through the GI tract.

“The ability to precisely engineer the adhesiveness of a particle opens up possibilities of designing particles to selectively adhere to specific regions of the GI tract, which in turn can increase the local or systemic concentrations of a particular drug,” says Desai, who was not involved in the work.

The researchers now plan to do further tests in animals to help them tune how long the tablets can stay attached, the rate at which drugs are released from the material, and the ability to target the material to specific sections of the GI tract.

In addition to delivering antibiotics, the two-sided material may help to simplify drug regimens for malaria or tuberculosis, among other diseases, Traverso says. The researchers may also further pursue the development of tablets with omniphobic coatings on both sides, which they believe could help patients who have trouble swallowing pills.

“There are certain medications that are known to get stuck, particularly in the esophagus. It causes this massive amount of inflammation because it gets stuck and it causes irritation,” Traverso says. “Texturing the surfaces really opens up a new way of thinking about controlling and tuning how these drug formulations travel.”

Hannibal's Route through the Alps Found via Ancient Dung?

Located 3,000 meters above sea level, Col de la Traversette pass is located in the Cottian Alps, near the French-Italian border. The terrain is treacherous and poses a challenge to any intrepid adventurer.

But imagine leading 30,000 men, 37 elephants, and more than 15,000 horses and mules on such a trek. With so many factors warranting consideration, the challenge only multiplies.

A team of international researchers believe storied Carthagininan general Hannibal utilized the pass on his journey to conquer the Romans—a task at which he ultimately failed.

The clues lie in the dirt and were left by the animals Hannibal brought on his journey.  




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“Controversy over the alpine route that Hannibal of Carthage followed from the Rhone Basin into Italia has raged amongst classicists and ancient historians for over two millennia,” the researchers wrote in their study published in Archaeometry. “The motivation for identifying the route taken by the Punic Army through the Alps lies in its potential for identifying sites of historical archaeological significance and for the resolution of one of history’s more enduring quandaries.”

Col de la Traversette was first proposed as a viable invasion route for Hannibal by Sir Gavin de Beer in 1974. However, the theory didn’t get much traction in academic circles, according to Queen’s University Belfast.

Using a variety of geophysical techniques, including microbial metagenome analysis and environmental chemistry, the team identified what they term as a “mass animal deposition” event, which disturbed the bedding and increased organic carbon. The occurrence can be dated to around 218 B.C.

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“The deposition lies within a churned-up mass from a 1-meter-thick alluvial mire, produced by the constant movement of thousands of animals and humans,” said Chris Allen, of the Queen’s University Belfast’s Institute for Global Food Security, in a statement. “Over 70 per cent of the microbes in horse manure are from a group known as the Clostridia … We found scientifically significant evidence of these same bugs in a genetic microbial signature precisely dating to the time of the Punic invasion.”

The research team included members from Ireland, Canada, France, the U.S., and Estonia.