How people who can’t speak can sound like…themselves Building Max a personalized voice is not only a technical issue; it also involves questions about his identity. What sounds might capture the different aspects of Max’s personality? Moreover, if Max is to have a synthesized voice, should it sound like a 16-year-old speaking, or should it sound more like who Max might become later? […]
WCVB TV Floating tables made in Mass. help doctors save lives Who would need such a table? Researchers at Northeastern University use a Kinetic table to examine proteins through powerful microscopes. When trying to look at something magnified at a molecular level, even the slightest movement would make it almost impossible. Top hospitals throughout Boston and the world have also called upon the local company to […]
WGBH Assessing Antonin Scalia’s legacy In his legal philosophy, the late Justice Antonin Scalia was a rigid “textualist” who believed in judicial restraint. He purported to rely on the plain meaning of statutes and often construed laws narrowly to the detriment of deserving litigants. In his personal life, he loved great opera, food, and friends, among them, Justice Ruth Bader […]
Hawaiian coral evolution sparks worldwide debate Some of the reservations others raise about Gates’s work is purely because of the science. Large-scale transplantation is not economically feasible, Miller and others say, and as with other species, breeding coral to be resistant to the effects of global warming may narrow the genetic base and make it vulnerable to other things. It also […]
Inside OkCupid: Co-founder Christian Rudder throws back the curtain Have you ever tried to explain the world of modern dating to your grandparents? Your parents? Courtship is no longer about wearing somebody’s pin or having your family present you with acceptable suitors, so dating apps are like foreign languages to them. But how well do you really understand what dating is like today? Even […]
The Street There’s a 25% chance of a recession A recession is not likely to transpire, because the strength in the U.S. economy is being balanced by weakness in Europe, China and in the oil patch, said Harlan Platt, a finance professor at the D’Amore McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in Boston. Instead of panicking, investors should look for strong companies whose […]
A couple at home and the office? It can work In honor of Valentine’s Day, the Globe tracked down happily co-employed couples to talk about intertwining their personal and professional lives. Ryan and Abigail Koppes have been inseparable since they were 15-year-olds in Western Massachusetts. They were on the ski team at a private high school in Gill, went to college and grad school together […]
Where do all the single people live? Len Albright, an assistant professor of sociology and public policy at Northeastern University, said the phenomenon is what academics are calling “The Great Inversion,” a phrase that comes from the title of Alan Ehrenhalt’s 2012 book about the evolution of American cities and suburbs. Albright said that from the 1940s through the 1960s, there was […]
Bloomberg Businessweek VocaliD: Custom-made voices for people unable to speak For people rendered unable to speak by cerebral palsy, stroke, or traumatic brain injury, VocaliD’s software creates custom speech patterns that sound like the original person’s voice. Patel, a speech pathology and computer science professor at Northeastern, began developing her software after meeting a little girl and a grown man who spoke in the same […]
Consumer Affairs Are you addicted to your smartphone? While these phone-staring sessions are usually nothing more than a time waster, they can easily turn into something more harmful if left unchecked. As technology sinks its roots deeper into our daily lives, digital dependency is becoming more common. For many, device use can spiral into compulsion territory. So how can you tell if you’re […]
International Journalists' Network Storybench and Northeastern announce Ochre, a new site to showcase and study visual storytelling Storybench and Northeastern University’s Media Innovation program yesterday announced the launch of Ochre, a site dedicated exclusively to showcasing longform visual storytelling. Ochre’s first story edited by the Media Innovation program centers around “The Boat,” an interactive graphic novel published by SBS Australia. Ochre’s piece dissects the digital techniques and aesthetics used while creating “The […]
Yahoo! Low B12 seen in aging, autism and schizophrenia For the elderly, this decline might not be a bad thing. Lower levels at advanced ages may offer some degree of brain protection by slowing cellular reactions and the production of DNA-damaging chemicals called free radicals, Deth said. In previous work with his colleague Yiting Zhang of Northeastern University in Boston, Deth found that the […]