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Instagram posts can hint at depression
Ryan Truby, Michael Wehner, and Lori Sanders, Harvard University
Technology Instagram posts can hint at depression
Carsten Dinnesen/EyeEm/Getty
FEELING blue? A new algorithm can predict depression from photos people post on Instagram and may in future prompt a visit to the doctor. Andrew Reece at Harvard University and Chris Danforth at the University of Vermont in Burlington surveyed the mental health of 166 people, then set an algorithm to comb through 43,950 photos posted by them on social media, looking for features correlating with depression. Depressed people, it turned out, tended to post blue-toned or dim photos, or use black-and-white filters. They were also more likely to post photos with faces, but with fewer faces per photo. Danforth says this might mean lots of selfies, part of the focus on self that occurs in depression, or it may mean the person is spending less time with friends or family (arxiv. org/abs/1608.03282). The algorithm used these features to predict depression 70 per cent of the time – better than the 42 per cent average accuracy of human doctors. “It’s very inexpensive – it’s something that could be an app on someone’s phone,” says Danforth. However, it could be tricky for doctors to access this data. “Most physicians are reluctant to view social media profiles of patients due to worries about confidentiality,” says Megan Moreno at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Conor Gearin n
–Off to a glowing start –
Rise of robo-octopus Soft robots are about to fulfil their destiny, finds Paul Marks
IN A dish of water in Cambridge, closely alongside us in industry. Massachusetts, a new kind of Soft bots will squeeze into places robot stirs, its tentacles twitching. no rigid machine can and play Squashy and soft, this robot is more kindly and safely with different from its technological children. ancestors – Octobot runs without “The military, and search-anda power cable or rigid electronics, rescue entities, are interested in moving autonomously, small, soft robots that can go if still clumsily. through small holes, cracks, Soft robots have long been and other tight places like debris heralded as a new class of “Search and rescue need machine. But tethers, and the electronics needed to control their soft robots that can go movements, have held them back. through small holes, cracks and tight places” Not so Octobot. Developed by Michael Wehner and colleagues at the Wyss Institute for and rubble,” says Christopher Biologically Inspired Engineering, Atkeson, a roboticist at Carnegie Harvard University, it’s a big step Mellon University in Pittsburgh, towards fulfilling the potential Pennsylvania. of soft robots. Octobot harnesses an on-board Standard robots are made of chemical reaction to generate carbon fibre, with plastic and power. Control circuits made of metal circuit boards, copper tiny channels of fluid, known as wiring, high-power rechargeable microfluidics, dictate how the batteries and electric motors. All tentacles move ( Nature, doi.org/ this rigidity makes them fit poorly bpqh). into the human world where our The Wyss team created a soft fragile bodies prevail. elastomer body first, using a Highly supple soft robots, mould. They then 3D-printed the minus today’s unforgiving hard fuel store, the control network of –Can’t face the future– edges, should be safer working tiny pipes and valves, and the
22 | NewScientist | 3 September 2016
inflatable bladders which move the tentacles. The whole bot is around 10 centimetres across. It uses two fuels – hydrogen peroxide and a solution containing a platinum catalyst. When mixed, the H2O2 decomposes, releasing oxygen to inflate the bladders and twitch the tentacles. The microfluidic valve circuits are designed in such a way that they shunt oxygen around the limbs to move each limb in turn, Wehner says. The fuel lasts about 8 minutes before it needs topping up via syringe, though the team hopes to extend the time with better microfluidics. They also plan to add soft microfluidic sensors which they hope will let Octobot respond to its environment. More fluid-related tricks are on the horizon. The Wyss team operate the bot in water because it helps remove exhausted fuel. But, each time oxygen is generated, Octobot becomes momentarily buoyant. Wehner hopes they can work out how to harness this alternating buoyancy to propel the soft bot along in the water. n
Technology Instagram posts can hint at depression
Carsten Dinnesen/EyeEm/Getty
FEELING blue? A new algorithm can predict depression from photos people post on Instagram and may in future prompt a visit to the doctor. Andrew Reece at Harvard University and Chris Danforth at the University of Vermont in Burlington surveyed the mental health of 166 people, then set an algorithm to comb through 43,950 photos posted by them on social media, looking for features correlating with depression. Depressed people, it turned out, tended to post blue-toned or dim photos, or use black-and-white filters. They were also more likely to post photos with faces, but with fewer faces per photo. Danforth says this might mean lots of selfies, part of the focus on self that occurs in depression, or it may mean the person is spending less time with friends or family (arxiv. org/abs/1608.03282). The algorithm used these features to predict depression 70 per cent of the time – better than the 42 per cent average accuracy of human doctors. “It’s very inexpensive – it’s something that could be an app on someone’s phone,” says Danforth. However, it could be tricky for doctors to access this data. “Most physicians are reluctant to view social media profiles of patients due to worries about confidentiality,” says Megan Moreno at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Conor Gearin n
–Off to a glowing start –
Rise of robo-octopus Soft robots are about to fulfil their destiny, finds Paul Marks
IN A dish of water in Cambridge, closely alongside us in industry. Massachusetts, a new kind of Soft bots will squeeze into places robot stirs, its tentacles twitching. no rigid machine can and play Squashy and soft, this robot is more kindly and safely with different from its technological children. ancestors – Octobot runs without “The military, and search-anda power cable or rigid electronics, rescue entities, are interested in moving autonomously, small, soft robots that can go if still clumsily. through small holes, cracks, Soft robots have long been and other tight places like debris heralded as a new class of “Search and rescue need machine. But tethers, and the electronics needed to control their soft robots that can go movements, have held them back. through small holes, cracks and tight places” Not so Octobot. Developed by Michael Wehner and colleagues at the Wyss Institute for and rubble,” says Christopher Biologically Inspired Engineering, Atkeson, a roboticist at Carnegie Harvard University, it’s a big step Mellon University in Pittsburgh, towards fulfilling the potential Pennsylvania. of soft robots. Octobot harnesses an on-board Standard robots are made of chemical reaction to generate carbon fibre, with plastic and power. Control circuits made of metal circuit boards, copper tiny channels of fluid, known as wiring, high-power rechargeable microfluidics, dictate how the batteries and electric motors. All tentacles move ( Nature, doi.org/ this rigidity makes them fit poorly bpqh). into the human world where our The Wyss team created a soft fragile bodies prevail. elastomer body first, using a Highly supple soft robots, mould. They then 3D-printed the minus today’s unforgiving hard fuel store, the control network of –Can’t face the future– edges, should be safer working tiny pipes and valves, and the
22 | NewScientist | 3 September 2016
inflatable bladders which move the tentacles. The whole bot is around 10 centimetres across. It uses two fuels – hydrogen peroxide and a solution containing a platinum catalyst. When mixed, the H2O2 decomposes, releasing oxygen to inflate the bladders and twitch the tentacles. The microfluidic valve circuits are designed in such a way that they shunt oxygen around the limbs to move each limb in turn, Wehner says. The fuel lasts about 8 minutes before it needs topping up via syringe, though the team hopes to extend the time with better microfluidics. They also plan to add soft microfluidic sensors which they hope will let Octobot respond to its environment. More fluid-related tricks are on the horizon. The Wyss team operate the bot in water because it helps remove exhausted fuel. But, each time oxygen is generated, Octobot becomes momentarily buoyant. Wehner hopes they can work out how to harness this alternating buoyancy to propel the soft bot along in the water. n