The future happens at
SPIE Optics + Photonics
What will the future look like? For technologists, policy makers, and venture
capitalists alike this is the million-dollar — really billion-dollar — question.
For scientists and engineers working on the technology that
will fuel this future, the question is more about where to secure funding,
where to publish, and where to present their research. SPIE’s Optics + Photonics symposium in San
Diego this August is the choice of many of these top researchers to present
their latest iterations on future-impacting technology.
The future of medicine
Technology will most certainly play a large role in the
future of healthcare, from innovative imaging techniques and personalized
medicine to further understanding of the brain and how it functions and
malfunctions. While not a major focus of
the symposium, many healthcare-enabling technologies will be presented.
A group of Italian researchers will be presenting their work
utilizing machine learning to analyze MRI brain scans for detecting
Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and MS respectively, all in hopes of earlier
diagnosis and treatment.
UC Berkeley’s Laura Waller will be showcasing her lab’s work
with compressive sampling and imaging to visualize brain activity at the neuron
level, work that could help researchers understand the basic function of
neurons and perhaps unlock a key in neurological disorders.
The Mind Research Network’s work on developing tools for
studying brain disorders will showcase research on how to better analyze brain
imaging data.
Each of these presentations, like the hundreds of others
with healthcare implications, are a small glimpse into the future of medicine
and the impact optics and photonics has in healthcare technologies.
Among the papers:
- A multilayer description of Parkinson's disease (10396-44)
- Machine learning for the assessment of Alzheimer's disease through DTI (10396-45)
- Association between MRI structural features and cognitive measures in multiple sclerosis (10396-46)
- Adaptive windowing and windowless approaches to estimate dynamic functional brain connectivity (10394-34)
- Simultaneous two-photon photoactivation and readout of brain activity in 3D with single neuronresolution; Invited Paper (10380-27)
The future of the
internet
When looking to the future it’s important to first look at
the present and past and what technologies were key innovations in our
transformations. In that light, it would be hard to find a bigger driver for
change than the internet and mobile phones.
The future will be no different. Building the internet of
tomorrow will take innovations in security, data compression, image processing,
and display technologies among others.
All of these will be on display in San Diego with entire
multiday conferences filled with presentations on quantum, image processing,
and OLED technologies. Industry leaders Qualcomm,
Samsung, GoPro, IBM, and HP are all presenting their latest research for
tomorrow’s innovations.
A roadmap for the quantum internet of the future will be
presented by QuTech’s Stephanie Wehner.
Mobile chip manufacturer Qualcomm will be presenting on
compression techniques for mobile applications.
A poster presentation on detecting text in natural scenes
will showcase technology that's needed for translating signs in real time among
other potential applications.
Among the papers:
The future of video
and distribution
Before we were all binge-watching Netflix, researchers were
developing codecs for compressing and sending video over fiber. Similarly,
before the next paradigm shift in video and immersive technologies take over,
science needs to happen.
Technicolor, yes, that Technicolor, will be presenting a
paper on the key factors in VR experiences.
Google will discuss the latest work on the newly released video codec AV1 which promises to be the next step in distributing 4K content across the web.
GoPro has four presentations all focused on 360 or
omnidirectional video, giving us insight on where the future of video lies.
Optics has always been at the core of imaging and the
breadth of video, imaging, and distribution content at Optics + Photonics
shows this won't change in the future.
Among the papers:
- Key factors for a highquality VR experience (10396-34)
- Novel inter and intraprediction tools under consideration for the emerging AV1 video codec(10396-15)
- Performance analysis of theAV1 video codec on 360 video coding (10396-9)
- Viewport analysis foromnidirectional videos (10396-10)
- Wider angle viewports for omnidirectional video (10396-35)
The future
of space exploration
Space has long been the final frontier and its exploration the epitome of future-thinking.
From the democratization of
space through CubeSats to the exploration of deep space through space
telescopes and planetary missions, SPIE Optics + Photonics will have the future
of space exploration on display.
Using CubeSats for
distributing quantum keys will be presented in a talk that combines the future
of the internet with the future of space exploration.
Two presentations will
discuss the feasibility of sending wafer sized “nanocrafts” deep into space
using lasers to propel them at one-fifth the speed of light. The project is
part of the ”star shot“ funded by billionaires Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg
and supported by Steven Hawking.
In addition to these exciting presentations NASA, JPL, ESA, Ball
Aerospace, and others will present the future of telescopes in hundreds of
presentations on the optics and optical engineering needed to see into the
cosmos.
Among the papers:
The future
The science of today and most certainly of the
future will be interdisciplinary, employing multiple innovations and
technologies from disciplines including physics, biology, chemistry, computer
science, materials science, and engineering in applications such as the DragonflEYE: A backpack of sensors, powered by a solar
cell, that is attached to the brain of a living dragon fly to create a living
drone.
At SPIE Optics + Photonics, see:
The future is unknowable and certain to be full of surprises. While we may not know what it holds, we
do know the future is starting in optics labs around the world and many of
those labs will be presenting their visions for the future in San Diego.
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